One of the things that I think most of us try to do is make sense out of the senseless. To do this, we apply various types of reasoning. From economic to political to psychological explanations, we attempt to fashion a purpose or logic for the senseless that helps us to see some logic to seemingly random and violent actions. Religious people use the term sin to cover many such acts. Some say it is the work of the devil. Psychologists use terms like paranoid schizophrenic or sociopath to convey some idea as to motive and underlying rationale. More practical minded people look to motives like revenge, money, jealousy etc.
I have heard that Bertrand Russell said that fear was the main motive for all evil that is done. This has a great deal of merit to it as an 
underlying or foundation problem to explain many senseless acts of violence and mayhem. We can see pictures today of people screaming at immigrants to go home and realize that many of these raging mobs are driven by fear. Fear of job loss, fear of economic uncertainty, fear of being displaced and fear of strangers.
“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” — Bertrand Russell
Another expla
nation I have heard deals with greed. It has been said that “Greed is not the worst of all sins, but it is the gateway to all others.” Reflecting on this comment provides some very interesting insights. For instance, why does anyone steal? They want more than they have, ergo greed. Why does anyone kill? Typical answers would include: To get more land, ergo greed; to get more money, ergo greed; to get something they want, ergo greed. The more I thought about greed as an explanation, the more I could see it being a key cornerstone to almost all acts of violence and terror. I was content to accept this underlying explanation until a few weeks ago when I attended my annual retreat.
This year at my retreat, it was noted that Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits had said that “Ingratitude” was the basis of all sin.
“Ignatius thought that a particular type of ignorance was at the root of sin. The deadliest sin, he said, is ingratitude. It is “the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils and sins.” If you asked a hundred people to name the sin that’s the origin of all evils, I’ll bet none of them would say ingratitude. They would say pride or disobedience or greed or anger. The idea that we sin because we’re not sufficiently aware of God’s goodness probably wouldn’t occur to too many people.” — Jim Manney
I have to agree with Mr. Manney. I had never thought of ingratitude as being a sin never mind the root of all evil. I decided that this would be a good thing to reflect on. Thus, for several weeks now I have been turning this idea over in my mind. The more I think about it, the more I can see the validity in its premise. Even more basic than fear or greed is the underlying ingratitude that starts the whole ball rolling.
We wake up feeling inadequate because we don’t have enough. We look at our neighbor’s house and we become dissatisfied with our house. We look at clothes that are in the malls and are not satisfied with our own clothes. We look at cars, other people, other things like position, attention, status, respect and we grow more and more dissatisfied with what we have. The TV ads surround us with our worthlessness unless we get more and more and more stuff. Wants become needs. We are smitten with greed and lust for these other things that we need and now must have. We think that somehow we will be the person we want to be if we can only have more. Our ingratitude for what we have now becomes greediness. We become consumed by a desire to get these things we think will complete our lives.
As time goes by, the greed turns to fear. What if someone else gets them first? What if these new immigrants get the job that I wanted? What if there is not enough to go around? The fear drives an endless series of what ifs that can and eventually does turn to hate and violence. Look at the crowds on the border screaming “go home” to the refugees looking for asylum and sanctuary. These are people for whom ingratitude has turned to greed and greed has turned to fear and now fear has become hate.
“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
I began to think about what I most wanted when I was a child. It was mainly simple things. I wanted freedom from fear. I wanted to be liked and admired by others. I wanted someone who cared about me. I wanted to see hummingbirds in a garden each day. I wanted to see Morning Glories blooming with their wonderful blue petals. I left home at 18 to join the military. Back then, I did not know what I wanted. I thought getting out of my house would help me find the freedom I needed to complete myself. I felt inadequate but I did not know why or how or what would make me feel better. Thus, began a lifelong search for myself.
Like many other
s before me, I thought getting success would be the key to feeling complete. Success meant fame, fortune and admiration from the masses. I would have money to roll in. I would have girlfriends too numerous and beautiful to count. I would have crowds thronging to hear my every utterance. The path to success was uncertain but the laurels and rewards were assured if only I could find the right stair way. I looked everywhere. I read everything. I talked to everyone. Success would come with hard work. Success took risks. Success was not an overnight phenomenon. I needed to get an education first. I needed to save my money. I needed to invest. Everything I did was still not enough. I was not a success.
Yesterday morning, I walked outside and saw a beautiful blue Morning Glory on my back fence. As I walked around the back of our house, I saw a small little hummingbird that was drinking at one of our feeders. I watched him for about five minutes and took the pictures you see here of the flower and small little hummingbird. Inside my house, my wife Karen was still soundly asleep. A better person and wife I could not want. I have food in the refrigerator and a warm comfortable bed in a nice house to rest and sleep in. My last medical report states that my cancer has been completely removed and there were no signs that it had spread. Today, when I went out, I had two Morning Glories blooming.
I have disagreements with many people. I disagree with those who are prejudiced and racist. I disagree with those who think we cannot help others from other countries. I disagree with those who think that military action is the best response to world problems. I disagree with those who think that we should not share and help others who are less fortunate in this country. I disagree with those who are so certain that there is only one viewpoint and credo for existence. I disagree with those who think that compromise is a sign of weakness. I disagree with those who think that success is the secret to happiness. (Please take a minute to listen to the Gratitude Song by Nichole Nordeman, it will bring joy to your heart)
I have finally realized that Loyola was right. If I am not happy, if I am not successful, if I am not wealthy, it is because I am not grateful 
for what I have. I have what I need. I may not have what I want, but what I want will never make me happy or give true meaning to my life. Perhaps my life is best defined by the Morning Glories and hummingbirds. It has only taken me 60 or so years to see that I am surrounded by the things and people that I truly need in my life. I spent years looking everywhere for success and happiness and they were right in my own backyard.
One further confession I need to make. I backslide quite often. I still have pangs of worthlessness and inadequacy. If I were younger, I might succumb to these feelings and go skydiving, mountain climbing or some other form of glory seeking. Maybe that is the good thing about age. It no longer seems worth the effort to pursue glory. Time to go visit the Morning Glories and maybe see a hummingbird.
If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there….then I never really lost it to begin with. –– Dorothy Gale, The Wizard of Oz
Time for Questions:
What are you most grateful for today? When was the last time you expressed your gratitude to someone you care about? How often do you stop to think about how much you have to be grateful for? Are you grateful for the things that really matter in your life? What if you took time each day to be more grateful for your life? What are you most ungrateful for? How can you get rid of your ingratitude?
Life is just beginning.
The abyss It is so big that there is no bridging it. None of the sides can see the other side. None of the sides has any common ground with the other side. None of the sides understands the language that the other side speaks. We might as well be earthlings talking to Martians. There is no lingua franca. Many of the “well-meaning” experts exhort both sides to try harder to bridge the gap or to work more diligently to listen to the other side. It seems to be assumed that all it will take to jump the gulf is good intentions. I cry bullshit on this. As the old aphorism goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It will take more than good intentions to heal the wound that infests our country.
The wants advertised on the TV and in the media are never fulfilling. We have a nation of brainwashed consumers who mistakenly think that more toys, bigger houses, more guns, and luxury cars will make them happy. We are a nation on a never-ending treadmill of consumer materialism where like rats we keep spinning the wheel and hoping to find happiness, but happiness never comes, and drugs take its place. 
As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, the tensions in society grow ever more divisive. We see more road rage, more senseless shootings, more violence between men and women, less loyalty between employers and employees. The underpinning of society that should be based on human integrity and morality is replaced with an opportunism based on an amoral value system. Whatever we can get as long as we break no laws is considered to be moral. We see most politicians that have no commitment to anything except to collect more money so that they can stay in office. Their highest goal is to help the rich get richer, which of course includes themselves. 
I am not talking about the devil here or about spirituality. I am talking about a kind of insidious propaganda that has been spread by many groups and individuals. In this propaganda, one side of America is labeled as moral, ethical, righteous, and just. The other side is the opposite. The other side is everything negative. The other side is a composite of all the demons and evils that Americans believe in. The other side are communists, fascists, atheists, anti-democratic, anti-patriotic and un-American. One side is good. The other side is evil incarnate. You cannot talk to evil. You cannot discuss with the devil why he wants your soul. You cannot debate with Satan over the values that he has. Heaven and hell do not have weekly discussion groups. The language heard today, and what the media publishes drips with hate, innuendo, and disdain. The language fosters violence. I doubt the Founding Fathers ever conceived that the First Amendment would protect such speech. There are three elements that contribute to a hate speech culture that demonizes the other side: 
Malicious labeling is the name calling that goes on between both sides today wherein each side is labeled. You can hear it on almost every talk show program in America today. Name calling and name labeling. Commie pinko leftists! Intellectual elites! Radical socialists! Racist rednecks! Fascist dictators! Politicians, commentators, newscasters, and radio talk show hosts all use malicious labels to insult and demean those they disagree with. What have we let this country become when we allow such name calling? This kind of hyperbole demonizes the other side and creates a divide that cannot be overcome by rational conversation.
I do not think that the Founding Fathers of our nation believed that Government was evil. Certainly, they felt that there could be too much government intrusion on the rights of the populace. They invoked certain safeguards to protect both human rights and states rights. Nevertheless, they did not demonize government and not a single one of the Fathers ever referred to government as evil. Edmund Burke, the famous English conservative said, “The government that governs best is the government that governs least.” He never said, “government was evil.” It has become common place to hear refrains denigrating the role and necessity of government. This steady drumbeat of antigovernmental rhetoric has created a group of people that have no value for government and who support the idea that government should be abolished.
A few years ago I began to wonder why groups like the KKK, Aryan Brotherhood, Antifa, The Proud Boys and many other such groups advocating violence against the government were not labeled as Terrorist Organizations. I asked a lawyer this question and he replied, “it is all politics.” I found that almost all the groups listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “hate groups” were designated as “extremist groups.” This means that they are not illegal, and they have the right to organize, march, rally and basically spread their hate across America. In 2019, The SPLC listed 940 hate groups across the USA. If any of these groups was labeled as a “Terrorist Group,” they would be on the same list as the Taliban, Boko Haram, The Mafia, Mexican Cartels and Al Qaeda. What is the difference between an extremist group and a terrorist group? It might surprise you to learn that a terrorist organization is defined as follows:
If this definition does not apply to the groups that tried to storm the US Capital on January 6th, 2021, I do not know what does. Just yesterday the Canadian government labeled the Proud Boys as a Terrorist Organization. This delegitimizes the group and takes their rights away. For Canada, it is a start. I am wondering when we are going to get started in the USA on such an effort. The First Amendment was never construed to allow hate speech and the advocating of violent actions to overthrow the government. Why do we not have the political will to outlaw these groups? We seem to have little compunction in penalizing Black groups like the Black Lives Matter Movement or the Black Panthers. We have a different standard when it comes to White Supremacy groups. 
The newspapers, TV and the Internet are today the major carriers for the hate and vituperation that has spread across America. On one side of the divide, we find the NY Times, the Washington Post and CNN News. On the other side, we find the NY Post, the Washington Examiner and Fox News. There are countless other purveyors of extreme and fanatical views. Each side reeks of headlines supporting nonobjective views and biased reporting. If objective reporting ever existed in the USA, it has been murdered and buried by the most pervasive media to ever exist. The media carries the hate and violence that is created by politicians, pundits, radio commentators and hate groups and ensures that it gets widely disseminated. Without the media, much of the divide would never have occurred. Hate needs a platform to be spread and the media is more than happy to host anything that it believes will sell itself and its advertising. 
There is a war on sex by politicians. There has always been a war on sex by politicians. It is the longest running war in the history of the world. It is not a gender war but a political war. The goal of political warfare is to alter an opponent’s opinions and actions in favor of the state’s interests without utilizing military power. Such warfare has been waged by the state against sex since the dawn of humanity.
Men want to control the reproductive rights of women. It has taken the #metoomovement to start some noticeable changes in attitudes towards the rape and sexual harassment of women. Politicians are the most notable hypocrites when it comes to the rights of women to determine what is rape and what is not rape. Ministers do not lag far behind in this hypocrisy. I could list hundreds of cases of politicians and ministers being outed for sexual harassment of women. I am sure that you have seen enough of these cases in the news recently. Nevertheless, male politicians occupy a special zone when it come to their belief that they have an unrequited right to a woman’s body. Control is power and power is politics. Sex is war. Women who want the right to determine how their bodies are used are combatants in this war of sex.
The battleground against mixed marriages and sex between opposing races and ethnic groups has now shifted to the issue of Gay sexuality. I think the issues surrounding Gay rights clearly support the thesis that power is at the heart of many laws respecting sexuality rather than economics. (Economics does play a role and we will look at this role soon.) At the present time, there are no explicit statewide laws in 27 states to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations. — 
Sex and Economics:
I read Reich’s book “The Function of the Orgasm” while in graduate school. I was struck by his ideas and the realization of how suppressed sexuality is in our society. We do not treat it as we would any other normal human need. Instead, we pass many laws governing what is right and what is not right, and we allow Madison Avenue to shanghai sexuality for the use of manipulating the rest of the country into buying junk and stuff that we do not need.
Aging Capriciously 