FOOLISH BLINDNESS

“O, cease to heed the glamour that blinds your foolish eyes, look upward to the glitter of stars in God’s clear skies. Their ways are pure and harmless and will not lead astray,”

Robert Frost

What is this glamour that blinds so many Americans? I believe, as do many people like Frost and Thomas Moore that it is consumerism and materialism. Americans in general have a love affair for possessions, like cars, boats, jewelry, flat-screen televisions, stereos, and sports and entertainment. These items have taken a priority over spirituality, morality, honesty, and looking out for the common good of all humans on earth.

We have become a secularist nation, who have split common sense and morality apart from life. We have attempted to make morality a personal quest, rather than a communal quest for all working together; business, political and spiritual. This separation of morality and spirituality from our daily lives has led us to a foolish blindness. We continue to consume at an alarmingly destructive rate that is murdering people around the globe, and suffocating the environmental earth. Everything is headed down a path towards destruction, because we have allowed our unbridled greed for money, power, and wealth to blind our moral obligation to God and one another.

We have allowed our nation to go astray from the ways of pure and harmless. Our founding fathers were of holy strands, with spirituality and morality at the forefront of all their decisions. The separation of Church and State was put in place, not to eliminate spirituality and morality from politics. On the contrary, it was put forward to protect churches from the potential secularist evils of our society. True democracy and freedom is not secularist, it is full of creative wisdom, knowledge, spirituality, morality, and honesty. True democracy and freedom will forever be lost to a foolishly blinded people, who think capitalism and greed is the answer to end all questions. Even our religious institutions too have become void of morality in America!

For far too long our churches ministerial staff have boasted of the “great” nation of America in return for the profit of the bottom line. Money has become an idol in the churches to worship. They have looked the other way when one of their flock, who happens to hold a position of political power has supported death in other parts of the world, through a myriad of immoral foreign policies and actions. If you claim to be a Catholic, then be it 24/7. If you claim to be a Methodist, then actively live it out daily. If you claim to be a Jew, then follow tikkun. Whatever your faith, live out your spirituality and morality at work and at play, no matter how high the personal sacrifice. Let’s get back to the roots of our faith and nation. Our political policies in Washington must be in sync with our spiritual and moral policies. We must stop being blinded fools, like President George W. Bush, whom has led this nation to the brink of immoral evils never seen before on earth.

“We need in our hearts and souls to be spiritual and moral – to honor the sacredness of all human life, to speak and act honestly, to embrace a philosophy of unsentimental love, to protect children at all costs, and to live on this earth with reverence and transcendent vision. This is religion of the soul,” Thomas Moore.

This reverence for God’s created world can be viewed and learned by the daily encounters of our lives. Realizing the holy sacredness of all life can be found no further than right before your eyes. If you are a Christian, then you should believe that Jesus is found in all humans. Better yet, God is found in all living matter and energy throughout the universe. Yet, another way to discover what Thomas Moore speaks of is through the natural, biological environment.

For me to make sense of it all, I find myself hiking new trails out in wilderness where our soul finds comfort and solace. I found myself in Jamaica, Vermont.

It was there with the pleasant smell of Hemlock and pines in the air that life takes on a more meaningful way. Deer, beaver and grouse are among the many animals attracted to Jamaica's abundant waters and diverse woods. Within this glorious area is a breathtaking geological feature known as Hamilton Falls. The Falls are a 125 foot cascade onto a unique series of potholes. Hamilton Falls Trail is a three mile one way serene walk along the West River and into the Shatterack Mountains.

It was here at Hamilton Falls, where the Emmaus story from Christian Scriptures of Luke chapter 24, verses 13-32 came to life for me. This is the story where travelers were walking along a path after the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. They were talking to this stranger, whom was not revealed to them until the end – it was Jesus! While I was walking back on the trail, this stranger of a woman came up alongside of me and began talking. At first the conversation began with simple mundane information about the Falls. As the conversation deepened, we began to talk about politics, and it evolved into spirituality and morality. At the end of the three miles, which seemed like only ten minutes, the revelation struck me – I had met God along the way!

She was a retired teacher living in Norwich, Vermont. She spoke with such authority about the decay of our nation. That Democrats and Republicans alike have forsaken our dreams and nation. That we have lost all spirituality and morality in our decisions, policies and actions. That our environment was rapidly being destroyed for the sake of greed by corporate America. She proclaimed that the earth would eventually reclaim a balanced order through some catastrophic event. Millions upon millions would needlessly have to die in order to bring about the natural balance of the earth once again, to bring harmony and the pure glitter of the stars to gaze upon our blinded, foolish ways. She was a woman of strength, gentleness, and kindness; full of the love for all people on earth. God, she was, with a tear shed for peace on earth. For it was a miracle, a gift to me to be shared with thee.

Remember, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is good people doing nothing, and remaining silent.

God Bless the World!