Loading...
HOME2017-06-30T23:24:08+00:00

The Power of Sorrow

There is much sadness in the world today. Sometimes I wonder if God isn’t sad, too. Although, if He actually exists, and is as He has always been purported to be, I doubt He regards us as much more than the latest iteration of the fallen. We are certainly not the first bunch to disappoint. The great religious texts of all flavors are loaded with the lamentations of man before his many gods. The entire idea of salvation is predicated upon screwing up. There can be no rebirth without first falling apart. Sin, redemption, and salvation. Order, disorder, and reorder. Thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Triptychs dominate our mythologies and lore of renewal.

This is, of course, the promise of devotion: that out of suffering and sorrow hope emerges. That beliefs and behaviors change. That the good rises up to conquer evil. That the weak become powerful. That humanity finds itself again. That out of our suffering—to which we finally and sincerely surrender—we are reborn.

Embracing suffering is much more difficult, however, in our modern era of abundance. The last generation that truly suffered was my parents’ so-called Greatest Generation. Since the last crisis—the Great Depression and World War II—our collective sense of entitlement has made our society weaker in each decade and generation that followed. Today, the only strength entitlement provides is a strength of defiant stubbornness. We easily default into our claims of victimhood when events don’t favor us, while we fervently deny our own culpability. “Woe is me” has weirdly become an American refrain of patriotism. Do we need any further evidence of a sick society? Of one that is on the edge of collapse?

Anger, fear, deceit, blame, and shame are the coin of the realm in today’s America. They are nourished in the peat of hate, minted and fomented within our failing character. The rest of the world—both allies and adversaries—look on confused and bemused. Contempt is fast becoming their common bond. Neighbor-allies like Canada and historical adversaries like Russia have found contempt for America as common ground. However, this too shall pass. Eventually, their contempt will give way to pity. The failure of empires is seldom graceful and never pretty. The blaze of glory that defined the greatest superpower in the history of the world will not be extinguished with a whimper; it will drown in tears before it can be resurrected into a far more humble shell of its former grandeur. While deeply disappointing (okay, depressing), this process is both inevitable and natural.

The path forward toward renewal will not begin until we shift away from the hate-based emotions of anger, fear, deceit, blame, and shame. Look no further for proof of this claim than the modern movements in America. They all incorporate hate-based emotions and have largely failed, or are failing. Occupy Wall Street! Me Too! Black Lives Matter! Reparations! Deport Immigrants! And, yes: Make America Great Again! There is not a shred of love in any of them. No compassion. No empathy. No embrace of shared […]

By |June 1st, 2025|Categories: Current, General, Recent, Spiritual, The New Realities|Tags: |

Becoming

In my last post, “Believing and Belonging,” it begins with a narrative about another “B”: Becoming. I explained that becoming is that moment, somewhere splashed in our formative years, that “is as if a new sun has risen that reveals something we have never seen before. It is our whole self, mind and body and spirit as one unique offering—as a fully differentiated being. A self that is just us.” Further, becoming can either […]

By |May 18th, 2025|Categories: General, Recent|Tags: |

Believing & Belonging

There is a moment in time in each of our lives when our oneness is realized. For most, it arrives in our late teens or early twenties. It is that moment when you realize that no one knows where you are or what you are doing; not your parents, or teachers, or siblings, or anyone. You are not just alone; you are on your own—at least in that moment. We spend our young life being […]

By |May 11th, 2025|Categories: General, Recent|Tags: , , |

Stop the Stupid

“Never again” happens over and over, again.

That is the sad state of humanity. We learn, then we forget.  We are painfully reminded, then we forget once again. Meanwhile, we admonish each other for bringing history to today’s table when we draw historical comparisons. How dare we compare what is happening today to Nazi Germany?! Those were different times! Indeed, they were. But were they different enough?

We are intoxicated by our specialness, of our arrogance that […]

By |April 27th, 2025|Categories: General, Recent|Tags: , |

Riding the Rainbow

Last summer, I shared two posts on resilience and reverence. The first, “Three Steps to Resilience” was a how-to narrative. Then, I re-wrote that piece as a poem in “Reverence for Me.” Over the last few years, I have used this technique as a challenge to improve my writing; prose to poem, or poem to prose. Unlike analytical narrative, which does not encourage interpretation, poetry demands it. This is poetry’s power: interpretation prompts […]

By |April 13th, 2025|Categories: General, Recent, Spiritual|Tags: , |

Fear is NOT Us

The America I grew up in was strong, confident, and open-minded. Every new generation expected their lives would be better than the ones their parents had. It was what we set out to accomplish every day. Yes, we were far from perfect and committed our own range of transgressions, but at our core we believed in our country and ourselves. We were unafraid.

America today is afraid of the world, its neighbors, and each other. Fear […]

By |April 6th, 2025|Categories: American Identity, General, Recent|Tags: |

The Sanctity of Dignity

The amniotic sac that protects a fetus in its most vulnerable state of being is very similar to dignity. Once we are born, dignity’s job is to provide a protective barrier that surrounds our character where the good stuff—our virtues and values—reside. Dignity is the guardian of the soul; it keeps us whole and uncompromised. It reminds us as often as necessary that we are worthy while communicating a sense of resilience to those who […]

By |March 23rd, 2025|Categories: General, Recent|Tags: |
Go to Top