Up to us

So anyway, I’m out at one of the churches last night and some of the guys and I are spreading gravel on the ground under the new pavilion the Women’s Group built for picnics and such. One of the guys brought his big orange Kubota front loader to help out, and it was great to have it there. I couldn’t help but think, though, as I was shoveling gravel out of the bucket of this monster, and spreading it on the ground, that over 40 years ago my father kept harping at me about "This is what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life if you don’t get a high school education." It dawned on me that I now have a doctorate and I’m doing it anyway. Go figure.

So anyway, the other day the Supreme Court decided on a technicality not to rule on whether the pledge should have "under God" in it or not. I was around (third grade) when it was put in, and now things have come full circle. We put it in to separate us from the "Godless Communists" and now we want it out because "we don’t want our kids raised thinking there’s a God," or some such. My how things come around.

So anyway, the Institute for Religion and Democracy apparently is funding the AAC and its plan to infiltrate and destroy the Episcopal Church because the AAC, after all, is the one, true, Church and they know best. The fundamentalists in the world are wreaking havoc just so they can get their way. The Middle East is blowing up and all these folks can do is worry about who’s sleeping with whom.

So anyway, Bush and Co. are up to their usual stuff.

So anyway, I’m having a hard time getting worked up over all this political intrigue, questing for power, etc. On our cruise through the Panama Canal last month, I was intrigued by the fact that after the engineering miracle that went in to building the canal in the first place, and all the high-tech equipment and coordination it takes to move a 965 foot ship through the locks, the success of the whole operation comes down to two guys in a rowboat. That’s right, kids. Two guys in a rowboat have to row out to the ship as it approaches the locks, gather up the lines dropped from the ship, and row them back to the lock so they can be tethered to the mule which keeps the ship moving and centered in the lock. With all the engineering, high tech stuff, and having tried all sorts of ways to get the lines over to the mules, the whole thing falls to two guys in a row boat. It’s the only way it works. Even if the world were to blow up and we had to move our carriers through the canal to go rescue yet another third world country from itself, it wouldn’t happen unless two guys in a row boat came out to get the lines. Two guys in a rowboat have the power to control the flow of commerce from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two guys in a rowboat have the power to control the movement of insane, nuclear might. The whole world might not come to a stop if they didn't do their work. But it sure would be mightily inconvenienced. And when inconvenience strikes, there’s an opportunity to think and consider another way.

So perhaps, with all the posturing and ego bruising that’s going on today, with people thinking they’re more important than they really are, instead of getting all worked up about it, letting blood pressures boil over at the stupidity we see every day, we should remember that in the face of it all, no matter how big, or how powerful, if we look hard enough, the success or failure of some monumental movement usually comes down to a couple of guys in a row boat, or something, doing something to make the connections so that the movement can take place.

We need to think about that.

The guys in the rowboats are us!! We don’t have worry about whether we have the power to change the course of the ship because we're not at the helm. All we have to do is decide whether or not to connect the lines to the mule. That means, for the most of us, that we just keep working throughout the day, pondering what will do the most good to bring peace and an end to suffering. Bring hope and inclusivity. Bring love and healing to a broken world. Grandiose programs, political posturing, bullying, self-righteous preaching, won’t do it. A couple of guys in a row boat under the shadow of some great imposing vessel will. Perhaps it’s time we ask ourselves if we’re pulling on our oar hard enough. It is, after all, up to us, partnered with one or two others in a little boat, to keep the world on an even keel.

8:22:00 AM   Lay some on me []