Children

I’m the kind of guy that loves children, all children. I think they should be celebrated for all the good they bring us! I feel joy in their presence and in their laughter. I think that a smile or a hug from a child is a gift. Unfortunately, the way the world is these days, I have to hold back my natural impulses. Because of a very small number of sick, predatory adults children can’t just be themselves anymore. The adults that love them can’t either.

Most of us have learned to trust so little that we surround ourselves not only with barriers and defense mechanisms but we even have elaborate rituals that we construct and play with each other to ‘test’ each other. The problem with that is when the other person doesn’t know the game or the rules, the games too, can have the opposite effect and actually drive others away. Funny thing, this human condition…

One area where most of us are programmed to drop all our barriers is with little children. We have no defenses with them because we know we don’t need any. One look, one smile, one hug from a child can pass through even the toughest barriers we construct and go straight to our hearts. God made it that way. Perhaps it’s a mechanism to prompt us to protect and care for them. Or perhaps He wanted to remind us of the innocence and the openness we’ve lost as adults.

Little children haven’t become jaded by the world yet. Their hearts are completely open to it. They look to the adults in their lives for everything. They are completely dependent on adults for food and shelter, for the education they need to survive and thrive in the world…and for love and encouragement. They openly trust without hesitation. They still see the world as a place full of wonder. They still experience awe…something many adults have forgotten.

The sad fact of life on earth is that many adults prey on children. In many countries, and in many homes, children are treated like property. There are still places where they are sold into slavery. There are adults that use them and then throw them away like garbage. There are countries where orphaned children wander the streets hungry and alone… Too often children encounter the worst that adults have to offer. They not only learn from the poor examples of the adults in their lives, but they often encounter the most evil predators among us. To harm a child is to harm the best in us. To take advantage of their innocence and trust is a betrayal of everything that is good and decent. To harm a child is to destroy the future. That’s a violation of universal law!

I, for one, feel no mercy for someone who would use or harm a child. I believe children should be taken away from homes where they are abused and placed in homes where they will be loved. The law should deal the most severely with anyone who would harm those the least capable of defending themselves. Anyone known to be a predator should not be allowed to walk freely among us. I believe child molesters should be put to death…period!

The way we treat children is a reflection of what’s really in our hearts. A society that values children loves them and nurtures them. A society that values them spends liberally on educating them. A society that values its children protects them with the law of the land and punishes those who would do them harm. A society that values children makes sure that none are hungry or homeless. That there are hungry and homeless children among us speaks to our shame!! The way we treat children, perhaps more than any other aspect of human culture, will stand as a witness against us before the Most High God.

If we cherish and nurture our children and allow them their innocence as long as possible, there remains hope for the world…hope in the next generation. The possibility remains that their potentials will be fully realized even though most of us know ours haven’t been. We need them as much as they need us because a part of us needs to believe living up to our potential as human beings is possible.

Children are not a commodity to be used and traded…they are a Gift from God for us to love and cherish. They can teach us to open our hearts. They can restore something that life has broken in us and open us to love again. Children reveal our hearts. They're a reflection of our hearts. They're our future and our hope. If even one falls through the cracks…that’s too many.

Let's bring back thinking!

I caught part of Oprah recently. One of her guests was ‘Puff Daddy Master X Doggie’ or something like that… Mr. Doggie has recently become aware of the power and importance of voting! He sees himself as a role model for youth, minorities and women…if I interpreted his Ebonics correctly. He likened listening to American political debate to listening to a Spanish TV network when one’s only language is English. Now he actually claimed to be speaking English!

His complaint was that youth didn’t pay much attention to politics because politicians don’t speak their language. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of ‘BS’ passes for intelligent political debate…but they do speak English. The problem, or so it seems to me, is not in the speaking but in the hearing!

I don’t intend for this to sound racist at all… I agree completely with Dr. Martin Luther King…people should be judged not on the color of their skin…but on the content of their hearts. (I would only add ‘by the use of their brains’ as well! ) It just seems to me that human beings have spent thousands of years painstakingly increasing the sphere of knowledge for the betterment of the race. Just think of all of the great philosophers, explorers, scientists, inventors and educators who have worked to contribute to the great fund of human knowledge. And in THIS generation wherein we have unprecedented access to that fund...many can’t even speak the language of the land!

I don’t care what state public schools are in…there is no excuse in this day and time to not be able to read, write and speak English! In addition I believe that people, especially voters, should be aware of the issues of the day! Is that too much to ask?

Unfortunately Mr. Doggie probably is a ‘role model’ for modern youth… So much for Homer, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Shakespeare, Bacon, Thomas Jefferson and all those who spent their lives to uplift our race out of the darkness of ignorance….

Tests of Character

I remember a few years ago in California the hot button issue of the day was whether or not illegal aliens should have access to the states services.

Those against allowing them services made a very good point...one that appealed to my conservative nature...The state can't afford to just do everything for everyone... the state's services should be for the legal residents of the state. After all, there is only so much money to go around. And 'illegal' means 'illegal' after all!

The other side of me said: “I'm a Christian and I should be guided by the principles found in scripture”. And the scriptures are plain about aliens among us... They should be treated like we would like to be treated. We are not to oppress strangers among us.

The conundrum to me was that both positions are right...

I think there are many things in life that come down to similar choices. I don't know how I would have voted if I had lived in California during that debate. I honestly don't know.

I suspect that sometimes there isn't ONE right answer. I suspect that our answer is a test of our character.

It is funny to me that so many television shows are about real people being filmed in real life these days. Studies have been done about how they act and react differently knowing that a camera is watching. Eventually they tend to forget that cameras are watching.

I sometimes forget that God is always watching me...and I wonder how I fare in the everyday tests of my character...when I'm driving, when I'm dealing with people on the phone, when I deal with the garbage man, the service station attendant, the waitress bringing my food, the counter person at the store...

Am I a light to the world in the little things? God is watching...

Women!

Women… Talk to a man going through a breakup or a divorce and the very word can sound evil. Chances are, the man who reflects that attitude has himself to blame and it’s just easier for him to pass the buck. I think women are the greatest things God ever created! I love their warmth with each other; their natural nurturing and their inner strength. They can put men to shame! Women will hug each other without any self-consciousness at all. They’ll go straight to the heart when they talk about their problems with each other. Men just can’t do that with each other very easily. And I can just imagine telling one of my hunting buddies that his shirt really brings out the color of his eyes or that his jeans make him look more slender!

We men need to be strong. It’s in our genes. (The kind that really make us look slender...or not!) We strengthen each other by setting the bar higher for each other. That’s a good thing! The wisest men among us will open their hearts to the women in their lives though. Women are the keepers of hearth and home but they're also blacksmiths and police officers and Marines... Women are why we fight wars and build skyscrapers. Their very presence around us makes us behave differently. They can make us want to be better than we are. They can trigger a testosterone rush that makes us plain stupid sometimes! They can be the voice of reason when a T-rush gets out of hand too. They see things men don’t because they look at the world with different eyes than men do. The wisest men among us listen to the women in their lives. The fools among us dismiss them.

I had the wife of a minister ask me once if all men wanted a shrinking wallflower for a wife. It seems she had a distorted view of all men from the choice she'd made. I told her she was asking the wrong man…I like strong women! Far from feeling threatened by them somehow, I admire them most of all. Any man that feels threatened by a strong woman doesn’t know what being a Real man is all about. More is the pity… Men and women aren't in competition!

I met a woman blacksmith recently that surprised me when she talked about the art the way I think about it. She wore no makeup and still matched any model I’ve ever seen. This is the kind of woman that radiates femininity. She didn’t try to fit some magazines image of what it means to be a woman…she’s her own woman. It just so happens that she has the figure of a model and the face of an angel to boot! This is the kind of woman that can stop a train with just her smile... and still use a hammer on an anvil! Now 'that' is sexy! She made me glad to be a man and glad there are women like that out there. I wish more men and women would be true to themselves instead of trying to be what someone else tells them they ‘should’ be.

Some men spend their time on trying to understand everything about women…not me. I don’t need to understand how the earth revolves around the sun to appreciate a beautiful sunset and I don’t need to understand everything about women to appreciate them. Some men spend their time trying to be like women…that’s even worse! We were meant to be different!!! We were also meant to get along with each other and to learn from each other. I may not be a wise man yet…but I’m learning…largely from listening to women.

It seems to me that God gave us two eyes to be able to differentiate depth. He gave us two ears to differentiate sounds. He even gave us two brains to process information differently. Well, if we are as smart as we like to think we are, we’d realize that He also gave us two sexes that see the world differently to give us a clearer picture of it. We can be equal without having to be the same! It seems a shame to me that we end up fighting with each other so much of the time when we could be complementing each other. One thing I think the French got right was their view of men and women…”Vive la Difference!”