opposing

Sitting on the front porch this evening I observed a strange truck park just ahead of my van on the street.  A minute later a strange new Camry pulled up behind it.  A mid-forties man got out of the truck, walked to the Camry, and entered on the passenger side.  A young man who appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties was in the driver's seat.  I thought to myself, "This is very strange."  So, I approached the Camry and said to the two in the car, "What is going on here?  Do you realize this looks like a drug deal?  Are you dealing drugs in my front yard?"  I pulled my phone out and called the cops, gave them the license numbers and vehicle descriptions, and watched as the two bolted like scared rabbits.

I walked inside and turned on the T.V.  The Royal Wedding was on PBS.  I watched the end of the ceremony that segwayed into a carriage ride through the streets of Windsor with two million adoring Britains cheering and offering their ascent along the way.  It was a magnificent spectacle to behold, this modern day Royal wedding with magnanimous pomp and circumstance, like out of a fairy tale of old.  This vision portrayed everything that was right in the world: the union of a man and woman in holy matrimony, the patriotism of a nation proud and celebratory, the magnificence of an actual "Camelot."  And in my mind I couldn't recall observing two more opposing scenes that close together.

Two opposing visions:  the first of a diabolical and lawless existence leaching the life and hope out of people, the other of beauty, magnificence, and hope of a bright future. The first, a vision of the hard and ugly reality-the twisting and perverting of freedom. The second, a bonafide real life fairy tale.

These visions, so antithetical to each other, evoked the need in me to express the angst, sadness, disappointment, and hope that rises up in me from all I observe around me these days.  The cynicism that pervades our thinking today is because we have taught ourselves societally and institutionally to keep our heads and eyes down in order to not see the brutal injustice that surrounds us.  We have become comfortable with evil living across the street or even right in front of our own dwellings.  "As long as it doesn't knock on my door, it doesn't exist," we convince ourselves.  Then some kid jacked up on hurt and hate lets loose inside his school, and we're forced to raise our head and eyes and see what is trying to master us-what is mastering us.  One of my neighbors told me I should keep my head down because I or one of my family members might be harmed by these bottom-dwellers because of my boldness.  This is true, future conflict may result.  But if I allow this blatant malevolence to take place in my front yard for fear, then I have become a slave to it.  Damn that!!!

What vision do you live for?  What moves you to rejoice and celebrate?  What urges you to draw a line in the sand and say, like Gandolf the Grey, "You shall not pass!!"  We cannot trust our leaders as the embodiment of righteousness and justice as the picture of Prince Harry and Princess Megan conveys.  But you can be part of the process and hold your representatives accountable.  And you can stare wickedness right down when you see it taking place in close proximity and tell it to get the hell out of your neighborhood.  If you do not, the fairy-tale will always be a myth, and you will have been mastered.  Its a scary thing to do what is right in our day.  You almost have to be like one of those knights on horseback riding in front and behind the Royal couple...  its exactly like that.  Its foolish to think doing nothing and playing deaf, dumb, and blind will keep you safe.

"Arise, for this matter is your responsibility.  We also are with you.  Be of good courage and do it."  -Ezra 10.4