Seventy
About five weeks ago, when it became clear that Donald Trump will be elected president next Monday, a lot of my friends freaked. I didn't see it on Facebook, because I was already gone, but I got more phone calls than is usual for an autistic geezer like me, and I read some blog posts, and I'm aware that folks fear what's coming and despair of countermeasures.
Today was my seventieth birthday. I spent about two hours of it buying shrouds, pine boxes, and cemetery plots for _wind_spirit_ and me. Buying the rest of the paraphernalia and ritual seems a bit premature, but I've substantially prepared for the worst: If things go as badly as my friends fear, but our kids can still somehow find our remains, they can wrap us, crate us, and bury us; and the basic hardware and land are already paid.
I don't expect the worst. Those phone calls I mentioned? It wasn't until I was halfway through the second one that I realized that, "since Tuesday," meant, "because of the election." I'm with Max Ehrmann, maker of the notorious Desiderata, in which he pointed out that "whether or not it is clear to you, …the universe is unfolding as it should."
Whatever is happening is necessary. Part of God's plan. That doesn't mean I like it. Nor even that I'm willing to defend my assertion that it's necessary. People tend to disapprove of God's sense of proportion (the old hydrogen-bomb-to-sink-a-rowboat criticism). I'm okay with God's sense of proportion. God is God. I'm also okay with the criticism. It has nothing to do with me: My acceptance of God's will doesn't oblige me to defend it, only to do my own part in Her plan.
For what it's worth to my friends (all of whom already know this, despite my failure to display the requisite level of moral outrage), my role in God's plan is very different from Mr. Trump's. He has his missions to carry out, and I have mine, and I doubt that we'll get in one another's way. I'm certainly not going to be distracted from my own missions (whatever they be) by someone else's demand that I oppose Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump's opposition is already fully staffed and will remain so, and my missions (whatever they be) almost certainly require my unique talents, temperament or credentials, so I mustn't shirk them.
For the most part, I'll do good. That's my nature - what I was built for. There's people who do evil for the same reason. Both are part of God's plan. The interaction between good and evil advances the works, as does the interaction between male and female and the interaction between or among any other set of polarities. I won't fight evil. The call to fight evil is one of the devil's most effective tools of recruitment, and it works! We become what we resist! It's a basic law of karma, and I've never seen anyone beat it, though I've seen a lot of people delude themselves. Even me, a time or two when I was younger. Could happen again, but I'm vigilant, and I've got Mother Mary backing me up. She should catch any mistakes I might miss.
I won't register voters for the next election. I won't help feed the homeless. The old Dungeons-and-Dragons orientation called lawful good is an oxymoron. At best, it means, "good, but only to the extent permitted by law." Good must be chaotic to be effective or even to survive. And that suits my nature too!
I know God has a mission for me, however trivial it may turn out to be, and I know it'll be one for which I'm well-prepared. I don't need an opinion, because God. And if it turns out we need burying, the basics are waiting.
Today was my seventieth birthday. I spent about two hours of it buying shrouds, pine boxes, and cemetery plots for _wind_spirit_ and me. Buying the rest of the paraphernalia and ritual seems a bit premature, but I've substantially prepared for the worst: If things go as badly as my friends fear, but our kids can still somehow find our remains, they can wrap us, crate us, and bury us; and the basic hardware and land are already paid.
I don't expect the worst. Those phone calls I mentioned? It wasn't until I was halfway through the second one that I realized that, "since Tuesday," meant, "because of the election." I'm with Max Ehrmann, maker of the notorious Desiderata, in which he pointed out that "whether or not it is clear to you, …the universe is unfolding as it should."
Whatever is happening is necessary. Part of God's plan. That doesn't mean I like it. Nor even that I'm willing to defend my assertion that it's necessary. People tend to disapprove of God's sense of proportion (the old hydrogen-bomb-to-sink-a-rowboat criticism). I'm okay with God's sense of proportion. God is God. I'm also okay with the criticism. It has nothing to do with me: My acceptance of God's will doesn't oblige me to defend it, only to do my own part in Her plan.
For what it's worth to my friends (all of whom already know this, despite my failure to display the requisite level of moral outrage), my role in God's plan is very different from Mr. Trump's. He has his missions to carry out, and I have mine, and I doubt that we'll get in one another's way. I'm certainly not going to be distracted from my own missions (whatever they be) by someone else's demand that I oppose Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump's opposition is already fully staffed and will remain so, and my missions (whatever they be) almost certainly require my unique talents, temperament or credentials, so I mustn't shirk them.
For the most part, I'll do good. That's my nature - what I was built for. There's people who do evil for the same reason. Both are part of God's plan. The interaction between good and evil advances the works, as does the interaction between male and female and the interaction between or among any other set of polarities. I won't fight evil. The call to fight evil is one of the devil's most effective tools of recruitment, and it works! We become what we resist! It's a basic law of karma, and I've never seen anyone beat it, though I've seen a lot of people delude themselves. Even me, a time or two when I was younger. Could happen again, but I'm vigilant, and I've got Mother Mary backing me up. She should catch any mistakes I might miss.
I won't register voters for the next election. I won't help feed the homeless. The old Dungeons-and-Dragons orientation called lawful good is an oxymoron. At best, it means, "good, but only to the extent permitted by law." Good must be chaotic to be effective or even to survive. And that suits my nature too!
I know God has a mission for me, however trivial it may turn out to be, and I know it'll be one for which I'm well-prepared. I don't need an opinion, because God. And if it turns out we need burying, the basics are waiting.