The Bus Is Headed Off the Cliff! How I stay sane. Then, how do you?

I woke up this morning depressed from my dreams, something about being so enveloped by our exploitative and consuming and bigoted culture, a culture that feigns as healthy and sound but is in reality corrupt and corrosive. My friend Gary’s recent Facebook post comments on a political cartoon were good: the drawing had a bomber dropping bombs, four different graphic frames, but each with the same bomber and bombs, the only difference being the name on the side of the plane: Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden. In other words, the real driving force is not a political party or person, but a military and industrial “complex” (cf. Eisenhower’s speech). We are not driving the bus. The bus is driving us. Nevertheless (as noted by Gary): this November’s election still provides a stark choice and President Biden certainly sides with the biblical values of caring for “orphans and widows” (notwithstanding the criticism of his Gaza pressures on the humanitarian disaster there) whereas Donald Trump is beyond the pale corrupt (and now criminally convicted as felonious 34 times) and vacuous of concern for anybody’s growth and prosperity but his own.

Yesterday evening as my wife and I walked away from dinner out with friends we passed a familiar “Christian Home Goods and Décor” store with the window shelves filled with artistic designs of quotations from Scripture that one can purchase and hang decoratively in home or office. You know, “Be Still and Know That I am God,” and all the rest. It’s as if our culture has hijacked the Bible so boldly and brazenly in broad daylight that we won’t see it anymore, and haven’t for a long time. Jesus, in this American version of him (don’t be fooled, it happens globally, internationally) of religion (where God is invoked to support our concerns and values and to intervene on behalf of our interests rather than our concerns, values and interests being critiqued, not to say judged by, and driven by God’s vision and agenda) is invoked via placard and poster. And all this displayed for all of us to acknowledge and appreciate. But because we have sloganized Scripture, and in particular Jesus’ parables, teachings and conversations, we rarely allow God to really call into question who we are, where we belong, what is the meaning of our life or what is to become of us. The divine “Word of God” only goes as deep as to support or reflect our latest and greatest personal plan or professional endeavor.

How can we who have prospered so enormously from this cultural approach to growth and development via a consumerism empire defended across the globe by the strongest military in the world and dedicated to protect America’s “national interests”….how can we possibly allow the likes of Old Testament prophets like Amos, Micah, and Hosea, to say nothing of Jesus himself, call into question what we actually stand for and what we are actually doing? What complicates all of this, of course, is that what President Biden spoke so eloquently about this week on D-Day’s 80th Anniversary, the business (!) about sacrificing self for freedom and democracy actually happened on June 6, 1944 at Normandy, as well as April 19, 1775 and June 17, 1775 and July 1-3, 1863 and November 20 – December 7, 1917 and September 1950 and January 30 – March 28, 1968 and October 19, 2001 and more. What do we do with the fix we are in? Well, we certainly do not close our eyes, or our hearts, or our minds. Or our mouths. We speak and we act.

So, how do I do things these days?

I daily drench myself in Scripture, taking deep and long dives. Don’t fool yourself. We can all do this. We have time. I’m retired, yes, so I have more time, but I did this before too when working for years and years when I barely had time for anything.

And because I cannot stand by and watch, I offered myself up to our Orange County (Florida) Democratic Party to run for Office. When that did not fit our Party’s local landscape for races I ran for and was elected our Party’s Precinct Person (yes, that’s actually a technical position title!) for Precinct 240 and now am contacting all the registered-to-vote Democrats in my Precinct to encourage them to vote (and right now focusing the communication on making sure that if folks want to Vote-By-Mail they know our Florida Legislature, under Gov. DeSantis and a Republican legislative majority, passed a law that requires renewal of Vote-By-Mail requests to be made after every general election. This was something, to be sure, intended to suppress Democratic Party voting since its commonly known the “Dems” use Vote-By-Mail widely and legally and without consequent fraud!). We absolutely must re-elect President Biden and defeat and voting booth ostracize, if not exorcise, Donald Trump from elected office!

So, Prayer and Action.

Before he was executed by direct order of Hitler in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s prison writings that searched for the way forward for an authentic church to be church called for two fundamentals: Prayer and Action.

Then too, my soul needs to sing, so I am two years into learning the Cello, and am privileged to play in a wonderful non-audition orchestra (Central Florida Community Arts Symphony Orchestra! Check it out!).

Then too, my body needs wellness and the outdoors, so I work out, bike and play ball and my wife and I are privileged to be able to travel to places we have never been and travel to be with grandchildren where we love to be.

Then too, my heart needs friends, so I cultivate and reach out and believe it or not, actually have friends!

What else? Well, there is my wife and family and though here mentioned last it is because they are the foundation and are actually livingly first.

Friends, the bus is heading for the cliff, not only politically, but environmentally. I haven’t even mentioned until now the foundational threat to the planet’s life: climate change!

We need to grab the wheel and steer to safety.

Liz Cheney, former U.S. Congresswoman, when interviewed recently by historian Jon Meacham and asked what she tells her fellow Republicans who are not enamored with Donald Trump but cannot see themselves clear to vote for a Democrat, or to personify it, Joe Biden, in November, they need to switch gears and vote for Biden, not because they like him but because if they vote for Trump and he wins they will never have the chance again to vote for a Republican down the road that they do prefer.

We all need to come to our senses and vote for democracy and freedom, not retribution and authoritarian rule. Vote for Biden, not Trump. And then we go from there to figure out our future.

So, I pray and act and play and travel and get together with friends. And mow the lawn and water the new Viburnum hedge and await my HOA approval of a landscape plan to install Florida native flora, reduce turf and water useage and increase biodiversity.

What do you do? I would like to know. And what motivates you to work for change?

At the very least, please vote! In every election, local and national. And come November, you know who I will say deserves your vote. President Biden. Please!

Ok, all this started coming out of the haze of a depressing dream! Thanks for letting me blow off some steam, clear out some cobwebs, and share. Thanks for listening.

Now, let’s get to work.