Lord's will be done

Sabbath eve, March 6, 2009

Today I drove a highway between Seguin and Lockhart. The scenery resembled moonscape. Cattle stand on barren fields waiting for someone to feed them. The radio speaks of financial disaster—people around the land lose jobs in record numbers. The stock market falls in stair step fashion—any temporary gain is followed by losses that not only wipe out gains but further propel the market downward. Businesses fold one after another after another; seemingly everyone waits for a government bailout.

I hear of people gathering on courthouse steps to pray for rain. Others pray that they get to keep their job or that somehow they won’t lose their house.

My first impulse is to join those prayers.

But who benefits if the system in place survives?

I think back to the story of Moses—how he warned the Egyptian pharaoh again and again about mistreatment of his people. And I wonder, are we the new Egypt—a stiff-necked hard-hearted people, worried only about our own plight in the world yet oblivious of the cost the rest of the world must pay to bear our weight?

Do we consider the plight of a third world worker and the conditions in which he or she works to make the clothes we wear? Or that 70% of the oil we consume comes from foreign lands and the people that live atop those lands rarely benefit from the sale of their own natural resources?

Do we consider that our own government spies on us, tortures and kills people around the world on our behalf? That this same government implements rules that favor the few and oppress the many all in the name of a free market not only in other lands but here as well?

I sold my corn today for $4.25 a bushel. Anyone here have the balls to tell me that’s fair? How much money you think a poor Iraqi or Ecuadorian got for the tank of gas I bought made from oil under his land? How much do you think some Chinese worker earned for what he or she did today?

Forgive me if I fail to make your prayer ritual.

About the best I can do at the moment is to pray, Lord’s will be done.

And then wait in fear for what that may entail.

As rain falls on the just and the unjust, so shall the fire.

note: I don't blame the people that paid me $4.25 a bushel for the corn. That's actually higher than the current spot price and they paid me above market price voluntarily. The price they're receiving for beef cattle has fallen as well.

Don March 6, 2009 - 8:04pm

Don's diary | printer friendly version |

( categories: Miscellany )

Better to pray late than never

When and what. Time for communal prayer is long overdue. By years. Decades even. Tipping points matter, the when and what, but the bottom line is there they are...

Zuma March 7, 2009 - 2:43am

I think wishful thinking...

Of which prayer is just an instance, is what got us here. Just keep ignoring reality, things will work out, 'cuz god takes care of things. Religion is a disease; we need a permanent quarantine for those affected by it. Sounds extreme? :)

creativelcro March 7, 2009 - 11:01am

I think wishful thinking...

is all have left at this point, regardless of Gods and FSM's :)

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 7, 2009 - 11:14am

FSM?

what's an FSM?

***

re: prayer and needs, the word Providence comes to mind.

***

i remember the many times when doing without wishing that there were places i could simply go and and pedal to make electricity and get a few coins. that idea never left me. i think of people paying gyms to have a place to go and exert themselves when that work could of been utlized and they be paid instead of paying. and so on.

i remember the hare krishna temples and their rice. as a young hungry hippie, they were the first suggestion anyone had for the hungry.

***

there are two books out on marital relations called The Praying Husband and The Praying Wife. buying such books alone says much about the hearts and minds and intents. Intent.

prayer is a major tool in focusing Intent.

deep, serious prayer is an art of a sort.

my father-in-law is an elder at his church. takes his religion most deeply and seriously. he's in deep crisis these days; cortical atrophy. he and his wife now pray together instead of separately. when they do, they pray for each and every family member by name. he's a sweet and gentle and thoughtful man. my father, whom wasn't religious but was likewise sweet and gentle and thoughtful, would have liked him. (they were similar in other ways as well.) he might well have injected some religiosity into my dad by influence. my dad already was the sort to have a great spiritual view though he thought himself rather pragmaticism-based. the thing my dad said often that i quote the most is: "We never know how it is for the other fellow. We just never know." my dad had no notion of how to pray. couldn't approach it.

Zuma March 7, 2009 - 2:28pm

Flying spaghetti monster

Warvigilent March 7, 2009 - 3:23pm

spaghetti???

flying. spaghetti. monster. i've never heard the phrase before. but i think i know what she means. maybe. kinda like terence mckenna said, 'The Galactic Federation won't save us.'

but then there are indeed the others. they may fly but no way do they look like spaghetti, that's for sure. more like melting ice cream cones without the cones.

they won't save us either. something about self-determination and the power to save can also potentially dominate. dang philosophers...

Zuma March 7, 2009 - 3:42pm

FSM spotted in MN!

I am shocked Zuma that you have not heard of the holy noodle appendage :D

_{"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau}

Tina March 7, 2009 - 6:59pm

ah yes

actually, i had heard a bit of this before, but failed to delve into it at all. my very very bad. i should have, obviously. -it's extremely pertinent and important information! i need to stay more current on these matters; my own suspicion is that these are the guys the others are hiding from...

Zuma March 7, 2009 - 9:28pm

roflmao over and over!

I needed a big deep belly laugh, and you gave it to me, thanks Zuma!

graham March 8, 2009 - 9:56am

Government is all that stands between us and anarchy

Government is all that stands between us and anarchy; by definition, of course. So our goal is to get to having a government that protects us from excessive concentrations of power that arise under anarchy, on the one hand, versus one that protects those concentrations of power on the other. Either way we need a government of, by and for us, at least until the promised land of libertarian/socialist idealist anarchy where concentrations of power do not choose to exist or exist at the will of their clients and workers and communities, with communities including eco-systems and at least one planet.

(ummm, something like that anyway.)

Jeff Wegerson March 7, 2009 - 2:18pm

this brings to mind...

...a comment i read on alternet yesterday:

the_case_for_giving_eli_lilly_the_corporate_death_penalty/

Fascism Took This Right Away Long Ago
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Jeffersonista on Mar 5, 2009 5:14 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While the founding fathers revolted against crazy king george AND corporate monsters like the East India Company, they wrote it into our precepts that corporations should not have the same rights as individuals and could have thier charter revoked at any time. Thanks to Abe Lincoln, the first corporate puppet president, that was written out, and instead corporations were given more rights than the individual.

Try reading some history other than the corporate sponsored whitewash found in public schools.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Fascism Took This Right Away Long Ago .. It Wasn't Abe Lincoln Posted by: mmckinl
» RE: Fascism Took This Right Away Long Ago Posted by: ergo3
» Your right, he also said...... Posted by: Prophit

the whole topic of corporations and other such 'concentrations of power', and their relationship to our gubmint is something i want to study up on: was it lincoln? do they have some changed status, and if so, what? personhood of any sort? or what? i'd love to see an article on this.

regarding anarchy. we ain't in it now?

Zuma March 7, 2009 - 2:40pm

the lord hardened Pharaoh's

the lord hardened Pharaoh's heart

Warvigilent March 7, 2009 - 3:31pm

Standing O for that

It should be a post of its own...with the minor correction of Iran to Iraq, not that we aren't trying.

Lex March 7, 2009 - 10:03pm

Break the Back of the Financial Elites

Simon Johnson, former economist for the IMF, has commented that the first thing that had to happen for a financially trashed second or third world country was "to break the back" of the economic elites of those countries. If that didn't happen, all reforms are pointless.
And guess what, on paper, the good ole USA, is one of those countries the IMF has been called in to rescue through the years.
While the rubes were freaking out about abortion and gay marriage, the cons, the economic elites were looting.
Google "con artist" and there is a lot of info on how it works.
Here is a good link informed by the views of hte pro choice movement.
It's actually quite interesting, the Art of the Con.
http://www.pro-truth.net/62-con-artist-tricks.html
Of course, they would call this "class warfare", "socialism", etc. Heard any of that lately?

JT March 7, 2009 - 8:41pm

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