Blog 1872 – 11.08.2020

On Naming A Son

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18BIXfxPBiZuBz3E7-8xkVCSF95vdtNJA/view?usp=drivesdk

On Naming A Son

Today’s One Minute Bedtime Story is so spot on for this moment in history in several ways. First it points out how very small and silly our disagreements really are. And secondly how important that we appoint qualified and thinking judges to help us settle our disagreements not just to perpetuate one political, religious, or philosophical view over others, but in order to create a more perfect union for the greater good of all. As tempting as those two very important points in the story are I choose to follow another thought that I see in the judges remarks to the parents.

Though as a young man I was an ardent believer in the inspiration and inerrancy of the Holy Bible some years ago I changed my mind and have since believed that there is way more of man’s opinion and maybe wishful thinking in the Bible than clear words from the Divine. So many things just cannot be reconciled with clear and compassionate thinking and are really just indefensible. This is most always the case with things written by men even the best minds of the time. Why even the U.S. Constitution had to have ten amendments attached to it before it could be ratified by enough states to be law. And even after that still was flawed by just wrong headed and wrong thinking men. It allowed slavery yet to placate the slave owners allowed them to count their slaves as two thirds of a person to count for representation in Congress purposes. Women also had no vote, no say, in any of it. It was really a Frat House, Boys Club thing. Where only white land owners got to decide it all. Yeah, we no longer had a king to bow down to but as revolutionary as this democratic experiment was even the framers knew there was still a lot of room for improvement and progress in this very imperfect union.

The true American dream has been mistaken by too many. It is not and never was just amount getting rich and lording it over others. The civilization of kings and queens, lords and ladies, cavalier knights and their ladies fair was one the founders hoped would one day. be Gone With The Wind and stay gone. They sought to design a country with opportunity for all to rise and be better off, a perpetual ever perfecting union of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

A clear majority of voters in last week’s election believe that as a country we needed a course correction, a return to civil discourse and more inclusive policies. I digress a bit from the judges point that the parents should let the child decide by his behavior which Grandpa Joe he was really named after. Contrary to a verse in the Bible that some think teaches that parents by the choice of what they teach their children can determine how they turn out, i.e. “Rear up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Those teaching will ever be apart of the child but do not be deceived, children get to choose their own path as we did ours.

As a nation we chose the Grandpa Joe that loves his family and this country. As I saw him run out on that stage last night, offer positive words of unity, saying no red or blue states just unified states, say he was especially proud to have a woman as his Vice President, and then afterwards hug his family and all of us, well I teared up a bit and in my heart said, “It’s about time we got back on track being a country of hope again.” We should everyone of us be more concerned with being better than being great, not better than anyone else just the best self we can be not just for us but for everyone else too. Let division cease and let love abound.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5UGucaz8iwNQTB3eHNieEJTbHM/view?usp=drivesdk

Hallelujah