The Sound of Silence

"There is more silence in one person than can be used in a single human life"-Max Picard.  I have been wrestling for some time about the countless words I have said and written.  I have felt a growing need to 'shut up'.  We are bombarded with "noise, noise, noise" (apologies to Dr. Seuss).  I have decided to take a sabbatical from contributing to the noise.  I need to use some of that silence I have kept stored up in me all these years.  I want to thank all of you who have been my caring critics and the compliments you have offered to my writing and speaking.  It is time for me to listen and to walk in the stillness of life.

"Gunfight at the Not OK Corral"

One of my all time favorite western movies is "Tombstone", released in 1993.  Set in Tombstone, Arizona the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday have a shootout at the OK Corral with some members of the Clanton Gang.  In the movie there is no doubt about who the good guys and the bad guys are.  In a dusty, tension filled scene they face each other, hands resting on their guns.  Doc winks at one of the bad guys and, in reaction, the shooting fills the air.  Nothing is really settled that day but conflict fills the rest of the film.  The good news is the bad guys lose.

As the primary presidential political dust seems to be settling I wonder if we are headed for a "gunfight at the Not OK Corral."  The 'war chests' are well stocked with cash, the ads will run over and over and over again, and the 'shooting' at the character of the opposing party candidate will be mean.  And I do not think it is going to take a wink to start the fight.

The dilemma I have is-who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?  While I have a definite political perspective and will work to have one of them win I am disappointed at the way both sides will portray the other candidate as 'the bad guy.'  Is either candidate really a bad person?  We may disagree with their political perspective but I will not call either of them evil or criticize their person.  Yet that is likely to happen in the media coverage, in the 'talking heads' television and radio shows, and too often in our own conversations.

I am concerned that, beginning in May, our political landscape will take us to the Not OK Corral where winning is everything.  Ads will fly like bullets and shooting will continue until November.  Half-truths, edited quotes taken out of context, and often frightening talk about will happen to America if the other guy wins will be the weapons this time.  When the dust clears and the voting polls close will the good guys or the bad guys win?  And how will I know?

"Tombstone" is one of the few films I will watch again and again.  "Campaign 2012-Gunfight at the Not OK Corral" is a film I will be glad is over and gone from the screen of American life.  The meanness of the current political environment will likely produce a film few will enjoy.

Of Mallards and Easter Eve

I could not believe my eyes.  Glancing out a back window I saw them strolling through the grass-the male with his glistening green head and the female a few steps away blending into the grass with her mottled light brown feathers.  Why would a pair of mallards be in my backyard?  Cautiously, under the watchful eye of her mate, the female moved beneath my bird feeders and began to eat the seed on the ground.

Days later it was all my two grandsons could do to sit still on the swing as the female landed in the grass by the lilac bushes.  When she felt safe, she began to feed.  We watched in wonder as her beak gobbled up the seed and slight shivers in her neck sent the food down to her stomach.

This Saturday morning, the day before Easter Sunday, I spotted her as I picked up the morning paper.  She was sitting on the peak of a neighbor's house-a living weather vane.  I gave her little thought until the afternoon when I saw the empty feeders.  Scooping out the seed from the quickly emptying 40 pound bag in the garage I filled them.  It costs a lot to feed birds, let alone a mallard duck!  It wasn't long before the picky birds were back, searching for seed they liked and flicking the rejected seed to the ground.

It was then that she silently swooped in, her shadow brushing over my face.  Her eyes, black pinpoints in a feathery brown body, watched me.  Looking at her left me wondering what she was thinking.  I did not pick her, she picked me.  Uninvited she doesn't sing in the morning or at dusk.  But she needs to eat too.

On this Easter Eve, in the first moments of Easter Day, my thoughts are drawn to Jesus who was a 'God-bearer' who came to feed all people with the promise of love, life, and community.  Jesus didn't sort out who got to eat with him or listen to him or walk with him or even die with him.  He simply put love out there, even on a cross.  I did not pick him, he picked me.  It occurs to me the Church (myself included) is often more like me than Jesus.  I want to decide who can feed in my yard.  What do we do with the uninvited?

Easter is about what to do with the uninvited, the ones we do not pick to love but who still need to be fed.  On this Easter Eve I hope I am helping a pair of mallards watch over eggs bearing the promise of new life.  On this Easter Eve I pray I am helping the too often uninvited to be loved that new life might stir for them.