“This Country and that other Country.

H,                                                              

I remember that seminal moment when we stood on bare feet on a patch
of our present part of earth and swore allegiance to bring the light to our darkened
shores. We were young and mostly ignorant but our interest in our fellow man,
woman and citizen thriving was there in the high-minded things we said and did.
There is no shame in growing from a pure point in time into whatever we are
now. In the now, I think of then and what, from that, speaks to us still.

As we approach another election, I am thinking of this country and
several other countries: the one we have in our minds, the one we think we can
change, the one we believe Elyon wants to take into the light and that vast and
full place called the other country, where all concepts of eternity come from. The
more ethereal focus is scant and real consolation, all at once, when things in
sand and brick fail us, and they often do. Yet, we are only truly present in
this one. We can only truly affect or effect this one. We are bound or trapped
in this present to be who we are and do what good we can.

I think of it as the parable or story or fable of the good Samaritan. Everyone
passed by because they had such high-minded tasks to accomplish. The religious
man passed by because he had his duty to God and not to individual bodies.
Souls were/are perishing so why meander with one solitary body in peril. The
pragmatic man thought it was all a trap. It was a highway for robbers, so his
eye-level assessment rang true in his rational mind. The one who ignored both
responses was the one who had the worst reputation but the heart closest to
God. And here we are, citizens of both this country and that other country. We pray every day to be more like the founder of the universe. In front of us, in our
way, on a dangerous highway called a country, full of more robbers than saints,
we have a fire to stop and work for the poor, the broken, the oppressed, the orphan,
the widow and all the vulnerable people that make up almost 100% of our country
now. This is where this country and that other country intersect for us. I hope
we go and do likewise.