c. 2008 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) I asked my 8-year-old granddaughter what she likes most about living in California after moving to Burbank eight months ago. “My friend Kelly is a really good researcher,” she told me, “and she thinks Hannah Montana is moving to Burbank.”
I fear she has already succumbed to the celebrity culture of LALA land.
Her 6-year-old brother, Eli, waxed more philosophical. He could not think of anything he liked in California but explicitly stated his dislike _ cactus, which poses a threat to his unrestricted play in the back yard.
Asking what you like about your life is an important exercise these days because there is obviously so much to dislike.
I awakened to the headlines that Iran test-fired several long- and medium-range missiles this week during war games. Air Force Cmdr. Gen. Hossein Salami said the exercise would “demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies,” adding, “our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch.”
Then I read that Osama bin Laden has 16 sons, all of them eager to follow in their father’s footsteps. Given our inability to find the dad despite seven years of intense seeking, it seems the nettlesome bin Ladens could be harassing us for a very long time.
Osama’s heir-apparent, 16-year-old baby-faced Hamza bin Laden, has already been dubbed the “Crown Prince of Terror.” He just released his first media rant on the third anniversary of the London suicide bombings that killed 52 innocent people.
The poem urged: “Grant victory to the Taliban over the gangs of infidels. Accelerate the destruction of America, Britain, France and Denmark. Oh God, reward the fighters hitting the infidels and defectors. Oh God, guide the youth of the Islamic nation and let them assist with the fighters’ plans. God, be pleased with those who want to go for jihad _ and blind those who are watching and want to capture them.”
So much for William Wordsworth’s observation that “We poets in our youth begin in gladness; But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.” Apparently Hamza has decided to move straight to madness.
In news from Minnesota, wrestler-turned-former Gov. Jesse Ventura announced he may run for the Senate against Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. Are Minnesotans content with a wrestler, a lifelong bureaucrat or a comedian being their voice on national security issues? Whatever happened to Garrison Keillor’s Minnesota, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average”?
Of course, the craziness of Minnesota politics can’t compete with the news from France, where the Elysee Palace has been working closely with Naive Records to assure a successful launch of love songs by first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. They include “Ma Came” (My junk), in which she sings of an amorous high achieved through the use of Colombian cocaine, and “Ta Tienne” (Yours), which declares her passion for her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, whom she calls her “orgy” and her “prince charming.”
Like I said, asking what you like about your life is an important exercise these days because there is obviously so much to dislike.
A line from Psalm 23 comes to mind. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
One of my elitist seminary friends once quipped that Psalm 23 was nothing but a bunch of pious platitudes. Is there goodness in every day? Is chasing and finding daily goodness an escapist exercise? Is it not good to know that at the end of this life there is a better one where we will dwell in the house of the lord forever?
“Grandpa, you want to know what my favorite day in my whole life was?” Eli asked me.
“Yes,” I say.
“The day I was born.”
“And why are you glad you were born?” I responded.
“Because it means I’m alive every day.”
“And why are you glad you are alive every day?”
His face turned serious. “That is a complicated question.”
And so it is. But daily life is better, and the planet would be a better place, if we celebrated the good in our every day.
(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com)
KRE/LF END STAUB750 words
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