Somehow Things Got Away

     Today is Tuesday; the next day is Saturday. The Moon comes up in the daytime, and the Sun rises in the west.  The waters of the Chesapeake Bay flow south to north.  Everything is transformed,  fundamentally; life as we know it has been changed.  God is no longer in charge! 

      "Don't be silly, all this crazy talk; you're living in a fantasy world".

    Two problems here:  1.  The previous statements are preposterous.  2.  As preposterous as the previous statements are, say something long enough, with enough fervor, and many people will believe it - no matter how actually absurd.  Absurdity, though, is increasingly the norm in too much of 21st century America.  In the culture writ large almost everything has become more complicated; things are ever more opaque and, sadly, for more and more of us, more confusing.  Many folks aren't handling just ordinary things very well.  The daily mathematics of American society has started to outrun many of us, like an algebra problem we have no clue about  the answer to.  Our younger folks, especially, they don't seem equipped to handle things - ordinary things:  school, personal hygiene, social interactions .  It's an AI world now, yet you'd thing too many Americans are still counting on our fingers.  Some ultra-social- change advocates, however, care not that their ideas and utterances are preposterous, they just keep on repeating them, over and over and over again.   

     They, no matter who, can blab all day long; yet, no matter how long these 'transformers' might continue their onslaughts on one and one is two, a boy will still be a boy, a girl a girl. up still up, and non-sense still non-sense.  Over the last few years a whole industry designed to  transform America has sprung up; a lot of it around the Washington, DC government-corporate-non-profit complex.  The motivations driving many of these social reformers are as numerous as the individuals or groups doing the advocating.  Some of it is truly sincere:  people who genuinely believe the human experiment in America has gone all wrong.  Too  much of the energy driving many of the reformers, though, is simply pure hatred of anything they see as, white people continuing their control over much of the world, period. 

     One thing is for sure, there is big money and associated power in directing change, in creating social upheaval.  Oddly, though, many of the changes so many change advocates would have you and me follow, are things they would never trumpet for their own family and friends.  Beyond money, true believers shout from the heart.  They really believe what they're advocating - who cares that centuries-old facts no longer hold, that biological sex is just a social construct, that same sex marriage is fine (it's all about who you love, you know), even that it ain't no God, no more.

     The most insidious thread of all, in this tapestry to re-do America, are popular figures who use their favor to advocate for the destruction of what is perhaps the most successful social/human experiment in the long history of civilization - this United States of America.  Say what you will, this is the worse country in the world; except all the others.  Yet, there are those who hate what is America, for all kinds of personal reasons; some as flimsy as their belief that America 'wronged' some member of their blood  family - their mother, or a 'crazy uncle'. 

    This is the Chesapeake Bay region.   Along the shores of the Bay there's still generally a good feeling about the country.  This, still, as many elites want to fundamentally transform our nation, our entire way of life.  These ultra sophisticated policy mavens aren't normally much seen or heard on the shore, although they still like to travel down to the country (where the 'plain folk' live) on weekends, from their liberal/progressive perches in and around Washington, and its surrounding left leaning Maryland and Virginia counties.  Us shore folk, nonetheless, welcome them all (and their dollars), most of the time.

     What is usually not being addressed is the wholesale largely open question:  transform America to what?  For answers, we've only gotten platitudes and word salads.  If the answers that do eventually come are the progressive prescriptions being so widely advertised - same sex this or that, bathroom escapades, children making life or death decisions before they learn to clean-up their rooms, people running uncontrolled across our borders - than these are dangerously bad answers.  They are answers that rip apart and strip away the common glues that bind American culture,  and day-to-day being, together.

      So much of the transformation talk would be completely outlandish in a more grounded culture.  Yet, our TicTok culture is not friendly to being grounded to much of anything except, perhaps, the world of Xs and Os.  Repeat anything long enough, and enough people will, sadly, attach themselves to it, just as they attach to their smart phones. The newest things come at people so fast, almost everyday, there's no time for grounded thought and reflection.  People never have the chance to take hold of much of anything, and certainly not any re-establishment of old common sense.  It's the newest thing we're program to want, that is until the next newest thing appears; prescribe by the algorithms assigned to us.

     I'm not a prude, far from one.  Neither are most of the people living around the Bay, as changing norms will attest.  Some things, though, simply make no sense.  I'm not out to trample on anyone's freedoms and ranges of being.  Still, some things make no sense, never have -  really never can be.  The loud voices, with their sophisticated campaigns wanting us to fundamentally rip apart our albeit not perfect American culture, would, over time, certainly tear apart the culture and the country; eventually eroding the building blocks of our collective societal sanity, one block, one person, at a time. In time most of us would  certainly be transformed; but, I'm still asking; to what?

     Some things are, truly, just what they are.  He made it that way.  Thank God.

               

              

     

     

     

        

     

     

     

  

Losing The Lord's Luster

Like The Luster Has Gone hit (not often, but) they fall down, and need to be rebuilt.  Government largess is often, hopefully, available for capital projects, roads, buildings etc.  Yet, not much new thinking is required for either - a replacement bridge is still a bridge; a new government building, just one more address on a block.  Maryland's future requires more imagination and sophisticated vision than either..      

'Labeled Justice'

 

That one's a Trump judge.  Another was appointed by President Clinton.  A third was an appointee of  Bush, the older. The first leans to the political right; the second federal judge has shown a decidedly progressive reading of the law, in most of his judicial rulings.  The third judge has issued rulings spanning much the entire scope of the political landscape. 

These days, it seems we measure who a judge is, their judicial temperament, how he/she will rule, first, by mentioning which President appointed them. The connection invariably seems to slap on a 'brand-for-life' - with all that follows being predetermined by the political leanings of the appointing President.  Identify the legal issue, then show me the judge in the case. Knowing both, I can almost pre-scribe the verdict, often one verdict reeking far more  the 'smell' of subjectivity, than any fragrance of the letter and spirit of the law.  

Our ideally 'blind', innocent until proven guilty, judicial system is being seriously threatened.  If what amounts to a debauchery of justice isn't curtailed, we soon won't be able to recognize our American system of justice - a system, despite its shortcomings, is still the envy of much of the civilized world.     

We're starting to have justice-by-popularity rating, by the sway of the mob.  Special interests groups with large budgets, and others, private and corporate, with siren sounding public relations messaging are too often defeating simple justice.  An almost obsessive, devotion to partisanship (and political party) is starting to sound like Communist China or Russia. "Party, party, party; agenda, agenda, agenda".  The only difference is China's legal system makes no pretense to offering justice in the first place. 

Our Lady Justice is no longer blind. Now she peeks through red or blue hues, depending on who's in favor on any given day.  Equal justice, it's going the way of gender certainty, low gas prices, mother, apple pie and the flag.  

Judges have too often become little more than politicians in black robes. These politically motivated, dangerously shortsighted actors are placing all Americans in real danger.  No better example of these politically motivated practices exist than watching judges (and prosecutors) in some of the cases  being brought against former President, Donald Trump.   

I'm not an lawyer, but I know you're not supposed to be able to predict judicial outcomes merely be checking the political party of the judge in the case.  The facts and the applicable law should be the only issue(s) in a courtroom.  True justice is, ultimately, about what not who.  When the 'who', becomes the salient issue, then the prettiest girl, the richest guy, the favorite topic of the day, begins to control outcomes in legal cases. 

Human nature is fickle.  One day you're in favor, the next day no one wants to see you coming.  A legal system left to the whims of political belief or personal caprice will soon cease to be systematic at all - to say nothing of being 'blind', or fair.  Even ancient cultures knew that person-centered, subjective justice, would ultimately lead to no justice at all. As far back as 1755 BC, the Babylonians, under Hammurabi, recognized the need for some kind of objective code.  Otherwise, what would be used to constrain the errant actions of men? 

In Hammurabi's Babylon everyone had to play by the same set of rules - regardless.  A harsh system for sure (they'd cut off and out fingers, hands, arms, tongues), the Hammurabi Code was, nonetheless, based on  the understanding that every man was innocent until proven guilty.  Sound familiar?  The tyrant might not like you, but he wouldn't skin you alive just because he didn't.  

Our founding fathers got a lot right when they designed our form of republican government.  The first and best understanding of the 'American Vision' was and is that our freedoms (and those of all peoples) are derived from God, not from men.  Who else but God?  What mere human (although God's most wonderful creation) could be trusted with the final verdict, over the freedom of the human family? Man is free, because God willed it so.  He did not give powers of appeal to any, merely, man made government.  His will: that is the source of all justice. 

Making justice a matter of political preference is wrong. Relegating justice to the vagaries of human passions, or political appointments strips away all godly protections.  Adherence to a 'Trump judge', or a Biden appointee, or one appointed by any man, replaces the role of our Lord with at least partisan mischief, and at worse, ungodliness.  'Labeled justice' is, too often, no justice at all.    

Men, and the governments they devise, like to have things their way.  The lust for power and contol can be addictive.  If we're going to have anything better than an 'eye for an eye, tooth for tooth' justice (like they did in ancient Babylon), we had better not allow our judicial system to become ruled by 'labeled justice', meted out by sycophantic judges.  The Bible is full of stories about justice and about mankind's sufferings at the hands of injustice. 

 Witness:  The escape from Egypt, ending only with God's mercy, and the parting of the Red Sea.  Think, too, of the ultimate injustice:  nailing our savior to the cross. Think if God was just some 'labeled justice', ruled by anything but perfect love?  'Lo and behold', we suffering humans -without His justice, His mercy.

The Chesapeake Bay is not the Red Sea, no one is 'escaping' across the Bay (except, perhaps, on hot August days, to get to the beach).  Yet, everyday we have to escape the fickle changing verdicts of men.  

I say:  'escape with Him across the waters of this life's injustices' - but it won't be done with labeled justice.  

                                                         _______________________

Postscript:  I've been away for sometime - illness.  Thank God I'm back to, 'Bible By The Bay' and you.

Talk with all of you again, soon. 

  

       

   

     

Adonis and Other Beautiful People

Sometime it's fun to go back to reread tales of Greek mythology, with all those gods and goddesses, and all their shenanigans. Before Jesus arrived, it seemed almost everybody and most cultures all over the, then, known world had their own roster of gods and goddesses - like a vending machine, you could pick your choice.  One of the more popular myths was the one about Adonis and Aphrodite; he that beautiful man, and she, the world's most beautiful woman - the Roman's Venus. 

It seems Adonis had caught the eye of the ravishing Greek goddess, herself the queen of love.  Whether boon, and happy-ever-after, or bust, and heartbreak, mythical lyrics would tell. 

One day Adonis went out hunting and, sadly, was killed by a wild boar.  When Aphrodite received the news of Adonis' death she went crazy, becoming consumed in overwhelming grief.  Lamentations, wailing, cursing, stomping, pulling hairs, total disarray followed.  Aphrodite did what any wounded heart would do; she called on her benefactor.  Aphrodite called on Zeus!  

 Zeus, the chief god of all the ancient Greek gods and goddesses, sat high on Mt. Olympus.   Aphrodite was a  Zeus favorite, pampered among all the lesser deities. Now her mournful cries pierced his ears like bolts of lightning. "O great one my heart is dying; for my lover, Adonis, is dead".  "Please, great one, do something; please return my love to me".   

Zeus could be a fickle fellow, a changing god.  One day he'd favor you, another day he'd will some terrible calamity to befall you.  Aphrodite's entreaties found him in a good mood.  Yes he would hear her cries, he would salve her broken heart. 

Zeus would allow Adonis to return to Earth from Hades, the underworld - but only on something akin to an installment plan.  Adonis could spend six month back on Earth, romping and cavorting, with Aphrodite or anybody else, goddess or mortal.  The other half year he would have to stay put - in Greek hell. 

Now for the flowery part.

Aphrodite and Adonis, like so many star-crossed, literary lovers of old (can you say, Troilus and Criseyde; Romeo and Juliet), did have moments of bliss, before their love affair(s) would die one sad death or other.  Our lovers, Aphrodite and Adonis, would die together; their blood, by the will of Zeus, would blend together.  From their sorry would spring, 'daughter of the wind', the lovely whitish blossom, of the Anemone plant.  

Greek gods and goddesses are fun to read about; some of their stories ring apocalyptic.  None of these tales, however, all conjured by men, come even close to the truest love story:  the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. The Son of Man, our savior, on the Chesapeake Bay, all over the world.  He is anything but fickle. 

As I sit here beside the calm waters of the Bay, my thoughts turn to His undying, unchanging, love and mercy.  My eyes scan the shoreline, his countless creations. His  Anemones and more, blooming around me.  My certainty comes in knowing, just as this warm Summer followed the rebirth of Spring, His promises will follow forever - one after another.  From Earthly birth and death, to eternal life with Him.  No changing gods and goddesses here, no clouding the way to salvation.  My God. His Word. The Bible.  Each is true, all the time.  

I like nice stories, Greek myths and all; they can help pass long Summer days.  Along the Bay, however, it's the beauty of God's unchanging wonders and glory, that is the real story.  The story is everywhere for all to have and hold; turning placid days to starry nights - heartbreak to happiness.

 All of God's, stories are true.  If Adonis and Aphrodite could have only known Him.  

Come to Him. Come to the Bay.  Bring your Bible.

 'Bible By the Bay'.  Get back to us.                   

               

The Great and Small - God and Mosquitoes

Ah, the (Asian) tiger mosquito, or forest mosquito, Aedes albopictus, one of 3600 species of the family Culicidae - the mosquitos, houseflies, and gnats, don't you know.   Tiger mosquitoes by the millions breed in the marshes, streams, and rivers along the Chesapeake Bay.  This tiger is especially pesky, because unlike other mosquitoes who like wetlands, this mosquito prefers close association with humans.  Tigers terrorized 24/7, feeding in the daytime in addition to at dusk and dawn.   Summers on the Chesapeake Bay meant you consciously tried to avoid mosquitoes, but against your best efforts the mosquitoes still hunted you - relentlessly.

Many-a-young girl and boy spent long days in June, July, and August shooing and swatting mosquitos.  Girls especially suffered Summer's torment, unsuccessfully trying to devise all manner of ways to remain cool in the Bay's often hot, humid, damp weather.  Against everyone, mothers, sons and daughters, the dreaded winged creators just kept on biting. Especially after a quick Summertime downpour, the tiger mosquito could be merciless, swarming overhead like gray clouds. DDT, the 'miracle insecticide', invented during WWII, promised some relief, but the reality was more in the promise than in the relief. Frustratingly, no amount of spraying could rid the Bay area of it, the 'tiger' - that God forsaking insect.

 Not only did they bite but mosquitoes added insult to abrupt reaction by leaving behind itchy little bumps - and that's not all.  As if adolescent acne were not enough, being a young girl on the Eastern Shore meant you probably got little black bumps all over your legs and arms.  Against all warnings, the poor tormented victim would scratch the little bumps, in a vain effort at relief.  Adding scars to vanity, the little bumps often become dark permanent spots.  Credit Bible admonitions and the threat of momma's switch - for keeping many-a-kid from cursing the very Summer that brought the striped menace.   

 Sometime, especially after a downpour, the damned things would swarm so thickly you'd think they were a storm cloud hovering overhead, they brought to mind something one might witness in the tropics. This wasn't the jungles of Central or South America, not even a Summer in Florida.  This was the Chesapeake Bay. 

 Summertime on the Chesapeake Bay meant mosquitoes for everyone.  City folks just visiting the Bay in Summer could be heard wondering, 'what in the world ever made me want to come to this weed infested buggy place'.  The Bay, though, was and remains God's country.  The place defines all that is renewing. It is calming, soothing, but also warning.   

 For years the mosquito (more, perhaps, than any other pest - insect or not) posed major problems on the Shore.  They impacted everything, the personal health, population growth, economic development and general wellbeing of the entire region.

 Around the 50's and early 60's Maryland got serious about insect abatement, beginning serious efforts to reduce mosquito counts along the Bay.  Before then, shore residents joked that many political leaders, especially those from the Western shore, didn't even know where the Eastern Shore was.  It was business interest, especially those promoting Ocean City's beaches, and the Bay's avid fishermen, who've long seen the area as heaven (mosquito or not), who started the push to get Maryland politicians to take Bay area concerns, especially mosquito control, seriously. 

  

 After landlubbers from the Western shore 'discovered' the Eastern Shore, many of those westerners rediscovered their Bibles.  There is something about the Chesapeake Bay that has the 'pull' to bring those who've strayed away, back to the Lord. 

With the dreaded sheeters still causing little girls to scratch, curse, then scratch some more, the Chesapeake Bay still remains God's country.

God loves all of His creation; yes, even the tiger mosquito.  How much more, then, must He love you.?  

Come on down to the Bay.  Bring your Bible.  'Bible by the Bay'.

 Let us hear from you.