My Questions for Self-Reflection

 

My Questions for Self-Reflection

Below are some questions (and thoughts) that I’ve needed to work through over the last several years, weeks, months, and days. Sure, I have an agenda in posting them, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t legitimately needed to answer them for myself. I really have wrestled with the issues each question raises. Read on if you dare.

Which is better? To feed the poor or to cry about handouts?

Does Bruce Hornsby’s song, The Way It Is still move me? (For others, have you heard it? Here’s a YouTube link: The Way It Is )

If someone needs a hand up, shouldn’t I give it? What if that person has a different skin color? What if they’re an indigenous person living on a reservation? What if that person has a different faith?...a different orientation?...a different political stance? What are the limits of my willingness to help others?

Does my definition of “neighbor” match Jesus’ definition?

Which is more beneficial? To scatter the homeless like cockroaches or to address the issues that have made them homeless? To push them here and there or to help them recover a sense of self-worth and self-esteem? To help them get up or to shove them down and hide them away? Is there another way?

Which is more compassionate? To leave those with mental health issues to fend for themselves or to ensure they have the care they need?

Which is better for our society? To leave the addicted to wallow in their addictions or to take proactive action to give them the healing they can’t get for themselves?

Which constitutional amendment is more important? The 1^st? The 2^nd? The 5^th? The 14^th? The 22^rd? Which guarantee of freedom am I willing to sacrifice for everyone else so that I can get my own way?

What if all the billionaires took some time away from piling up their wealth long enough to pool their resources and fund solutions for the weakest and most vulnerable among us?

I’m not a billionaire, but am I willing to have some skin in the solutions game?

Which do I value more? Power or compassion?

What good is it to gain the wealth and power of the whole world only to lose the very essence of being a human being?

Why does our society let insurance companies dictate medical care?

Even if that guy holding the sign at the intersection is running a hand-out scam, how low does a person have to fall in order to think that begging in traffic is the best use of their talents?...the best way to make a living? Can I still find some compassion in my heart for them despite their deception?

Maybe I should send a supply of WWJD bracelets to the President, to the congressional leaders, to the ICE agents, and to each of the various federal departmental secretaries. Would Jesus cut medical funding for the elderly, the poor, the struggling? Would Jesus send those people back to Haiti to be killed by the ruthless gangs that have overrun the country? To Mexico to be beheaded by the local drug cartel? Would Jesus burn the food supplies that were halted when USAID was shuttered instead of sending it on to the starving children in Africa? Would Jesus have nothing to say about the starving people of Gaza? What would Jesus do? What should I do at this point?

How could I claim to be a Christian if my political ideals were more important to me than loving my neighbor, feeding the hungry, clothing those who need clothes, and caring for the sick? Isn’t that a functional oxymoron?

How corrupt would my favorite politician need to be before I stopped believing everything he or she said? How many pardoned fraudsters? How many conflicts of interest? How many lies?

At what point does it become okay for me to turn a blind eye to human suffering?

What would it take for me to harden my heart to the pain being inflicted on people who are just trying to find a better life for themselves and their families?

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.” –The Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America – Am I still committed to this? (Are you?)

For all of you who’ve read through my questions of self-reflection...

Which of the above questions gave you pause?

Which one is your favorite?

Which made you mad?

Are you mad at me for asking the questions, or are you mad because they made you uncomfortable?

My reflections are ongoing and I’m still in a state of transformation. Are you willing to do some self-reflection of your own, do you have the guts? Or are you going to harden your heart?

Did you even read this far? Let me know if you did.

The Tender Kiss of Hope (A Poem)

 

The Tender Kiss of Hope

By Michael DeCamp

 

Hope is…

the dawn sun peeking into the eastern sky,

the view from a rocky mountain ridge,

an ocean breeze on a moonlit night,

and ears to hear.

Hope is…

crocuses appearing in the springtime,

sunflowers waving in the wind,

wildflowers in a meadow,

and a shoulder for tears.

Hope is...

fresh apple pie á la mode,

iced tea on a hot afternoon,

a glass of wine with soft music,

and a warm, lingering embrace.

Hope is…

fallen leaves swirling in the street,

the wee hours of Christmas morning,

icicles dripping in the sun,

and my lover’s tender kiss.

Pop the Delusional Bubble

 Pop the Delusional Bubble

I have a great niece that I often frustrate with one simple question. “When does two plus two equal two?” These days, we’ve been through it so many times that she just looks at me with a sneer, but in the earlier days, she’d fight me. “It can’t,” she’d say. “Two plus two equals four!” Then I’d point out that if I have two brown socks and two blue socks, I have both four socks and two pair of socks. Two plus two can equal two. Both can be true at the same time.

Then there’s the old white/gold or blue/black dress thing. Some people perceive it one way and others perceive it another depending on lighting and how your brain interprets the information it receives from the light receptors in your eyes. People will almost go to blows over which perception is correct, which one is true.

Truth has become a touchy concept. Sometimes we can even convince ourselves of the truthfulness of something we know is a lie. I remember once being so adamant in telling someone that I didn’t do something they said I did that I had to remind myself later that I had actually done it. My denial was a lie, but I’d even convinced my own 8^th grade brain, briefly, that I was telling the truth. (I’ll admit it today. Yes, Irene, I did leave the necklace as a Christmas gift for your granddaughter on your porch.)

These days, we all find ourselves in an age where the truth as a concept is on the endangered species list. AI, deep fakes, political spinning, conspiracy theories, and plain old lying is everywhere. It seems prevalent in the world of internet media that if the facts don’t fit the narrative they prefer, it’s perfectly fine for them to make up a new set of facts to present instead, passing them off as reality with such vigor that they even begin to believe their own lies.

To say that I never lie would be a lie in and of itself. That said, I don’t make it a habit. I’m not very good at it anyway. I have just enough obsessive compulsiveness in me that being untruthful will eat at my mind. In general, I tell the truth, or I just don’t say anything at all. But that doesn’t always work, because I’m not great at keeping my failures to myself either. To illustrate this, I’ll use the restaurant “Hooters” as an example. Obviously, the name carries a double meaning, so my wife gave me a strong message that I didn’t need to be frequenting a restaurant that projects that image. So I don’t go there. If I went, my conscience would make me fess up later, so I don’t go. If I stay out of that establishment, I don’t have to lie and I don’t have to worry about fessing up. My conscience stays clear.

“You can’t handle the truth!” This is the iconic line delivered by Jack Nickolson’s character in the movie A Few Good Men. As I look around at the world today, I think we better reflect something like “you can’t decipher the truth!” The right wing says they have it. The left wing says they’re lying. Back and forth it goes. Who’s telling the truth about anything? How do you figure it out? Am I in an echo chamber or are you in an echo chamber? Are we both in different echo chambers and the truth is something else entirely?

Which group is not telling the truth? The Republicans or the Democrats? I’ll go back to my opening paragraph. The answer is yes, both. The truth is that both parties have guilty hands (or tongues) when it comes to operating apart from honesty on any number of issues. I wish I could say with a clear conscience that the Democrats were the bastions of verifiable truth, but I’d have to admit my lie, and as I explained, I’d rather avoid needing to admit that failure on my part.

However, the Republicans are the party in power right now. And they are not the same party as the one who elected the Bushes or Ronald Reagan, whether you like those guys or not. This new Republican party seems to have completely unhinged itself from the fidelity of even a hint of honesty. The lies flow daily, constantly. From excuses for unfair firings to cover-ups for deals made behind closed doors; from reasons for pardoning fraudulent felons, to blame games for the consequences of bungled decisions. I turn on the news in the evening to catch this administration’s current list of lies.

And people buy into the lies. That’s the truly frustrating part.

They hear what they want to hear, so they fall in line with the deceptive narrative.

I watched with my own two eyes on live TV as hundreds of people waving various flags and wearing MAGA hats (and some wearing combat gear) overran the capitol police and stormed the capitol building on January 6^th, 2021. Yet, others will tell you that it was just a peaceful protest. Nothing to see. No one was doing anything wrong. Those people breaking windows and beating cops are actually the victims.

President Trump and his team claimed (and still claim) that despite the Republicans being the party in power, and despite the government not being able to even deliver the mail efficiently anymore, somehow the party out-of-power, the Democrats, orchestrated (across party lines, mind you) the largest and most widespread conspiracy ever successfully carried out in order to steal the 2020 election. Say it long enough, say it loud enough, and people will believe anything. I’m pretty sure that space aliens and some sasquatches were also in on it.

All that said, I think the thing that gets me the most are the people who should know better. People who should be anchored to honesty. People for whom lying is a sin. Or people who work in industries that rely on the integrity of systems, both private and public. People who have bought into the deceptions despite a previous dedication to truth. People who have convinced themselves of the truthfulness of the lies. I just don’t understand it.

Maybe it comes down to whether people actually love the truth.

They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹ For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie ¹² and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

2 Thessalonians 2:10b-12

This bible passage is referring to something occurring in the early church, not specifically today’s scenario. However, I think the concept is the same. I think many in our nation have fallen under a powerful delusion. Unless we can reawaken a love for truth, I think our future as a nation is in question. This delusion is putting us all in jeopardy.

Still, maybe I’m the one in the echo chamber. Maybe I’m the one under the delusion. If you strongly disagree with my last few paragraphs, I’m sure that’s what you think. So, let’s all check ourselves. Let’s all take a hard inward look. Do I love the truth? Am I willing to check sources? Am I willing to dig a little deeper before I believe and repost that politically-charged meme? Am I willing to listen to a variety of news sources? Do I examine the journalistic guardrails that any of my new sources have in place? Do the words of the Secretary of You-Name-It match what he or she said previously? How about the President? Do his current explanations match his previous statements?

We can still sort this all out. All is not yet lost. But, I think we all need to make a commitment to the truth. No more spins. No more slants. No more deep fakes. It’s not just about politics anymore. It’s about whether we genuinely care about truth enough to pop the bubble of the delusion enveloping our country.

My thoughts for the day.