The intent
of Decoration Day, Memorial Day, was to honor and remember those who lost their
lives in military service to our country. However, the memorial focus has changed
into sprucing up and putting flowers on every family member’s grave. I suspect,
without knowing for certain, that somewhere along the line people felt guilty for
honoring only a military grave and not paying homage to their parents or grandparents
graves. Meaning no disrespect to those who honor loved ones with flowers
adorning grave and manicured cemeteries I find the imagery of Jesus’
illustration to be thought provoking, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful
on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything
unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to
people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness”
(Matt 23:27-28 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I’ve always lamented our loss of the bigger picture. I’ve always considered the kids of the ‘60s, who kicked that loss into play, as spoiled, self-centered brats. And for the most part they led self-centered egoism into the heart of American culture while accusing “the establishment” of the same thing they were doing. Funny how the spirit of Satan works.
-----Actually, they could accuse the establishment of the same thing they were doing because egoism became the heart of the human soul at the fall. It is a component of the death mankind surely died that day Eve and Adam ate the apple. Ever since then, individuals have had a basic tendency to balk at becoming a part of the bigger picture as if holding out could somehow provide them with a route to becoming the bigger picture themselves. Self attention is part of the human experience.
-----But self-control is not so natural a part of human nature. It is not the self that most individuals really desire to control. Most desire to control the circumstances of their situations, including any people coming close enough to be a circumstance. One does not need any special scientific gadgets or procedures to notice this general human tendency. Two lenses are available for anyone desiring to honestly study the possibility: 1) your own ambitions, and 2) any position of power.
-----The evidence of the human desire for controlling everything is quite apparent through the actions of supreme leaders. Power is a space in which the essence of a soul can freely blossom into what it is. By several multiples there have been more cruel rulers and leaders than there have been benevolent ones. And these cruel types sparked a remarkably new line of thought half a millennia ago.
-----America grew out of the oppression of European cruelty. For a place to worship freely, people who took God seriously ventured to this land. And eventually they developed a culture in which an individual could be free and secure as long as respect and honor were paid to the core concept of respecting and honoring others, let‘s say kind of a bigger picture.
-----Respect and honor for what has been and for what is forms the basic premise of traditionalism. And the practice of honoring key traditions is to conserve culture. What has come to now be called American Progressivism has no mind for conserving those traditions the ‘60s brats impugned. The overarching respect and honor for not only the fellow man, but also for how fellow men associate and relate to a bigger picture of a reasonably well defined social order no longer exists as it did fifty years ago. The bigger picture has now become political correctness. And political correctness squeezes everyone to pay homage to the complainers and crybabies and whiners of life who thrust out the demanding hand of self-centeredness. The intent is for everyone to join the whining for empowering the “leaders” to “fix” what is broken. The effect is multiplication of egoism in places of power. It’s a pretty messy picture anymore.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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