A Day in the Life

This is a conversation, albeit brief, that I had with my mother today. On the phone. It originated with me discussing our Christmas plans. Hopefully you will appreciate it.

Me: "Well, we definitely will not come down there next year because then he [my infant son] will be fully aware of Christmas, too, and also, because we are going to Disney next December. So, we won't want to fly down there, too."

Mom: "How are you able to do that? Oh, because she's [my preschool daughter] not in school yet."

Me: "Yeah. And, you know, you can just take kids out of school, too."

Mom: "Err... umm... well, they don't really like you doing that."

Me: "Well, we're the parents."

Mom: "Well, they don't like you doing that and a lot of times they'll lower your grades because of it."

Me: "I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty confident that if you miss a few days of school in the third grade you might, just might, still be able to get into college."

Mom: "I don't know..."

The end.

Death and Life

I have an old iPod Nano and a new iPod Classic, if that's the name. My husband has an old Shuffle and a new Classic and just got an iPhone a few weeks ago. We're contemplating an iPad. The fact that we have those and aren't considered Apple junkies says how pervasive Apple products are in our American lives; really the entire civilized world. (But a junkie would never be typing this on a PC. It was cheaper, what can I say?)

I admire intelligence. I admire invention. Probably because while I don't count myself as dumb, the skill sets that I lack are definitely captured in inventors and innovators. I can talk well, I can write well, I can analyze well and I can be creative in certain arts but I cannot grasp technological innovation. Just last week, while in the air, I turned to my husband and said, "I still cannot believe that airplanes can fly. I simply do not understand it." Thinking up inventions and machines not yet existing, I don't understand. Who thinks of it? Who knows how to do it? (One time, I did come up with the idea for a crib-wedge for babies with reflux or congestion. I was sure it was my golden ticket until I looked it up and there it was, already available for purchase.) The creation of technology is amazing to me. And, frankly, a huge indicator of a Creator God in who's image all men are created. Because intellectual gifts like that are not totally random from spontaneous combustion.

I am sombered by the news of Steve Jobs's death. What a great American innovator of my time. He changed the technological landscape of the world. Of course he had a team of genius with him, but he was the face and he was among them. America just lost a champion.

Once I learned of his death, I was struck by a very small reminder about his life posted on National Review Online - that he was adopted. The author thanked his birth mother and his adoptive parents by name. What a great reminder that every life is valuable and who are we to judge who is worthy of life? I posted as my Facebook status that "I am glad that Steve Jobs was adopted and not aborted. 56 years of genius is better than none. You'll be missed." My how much we would have missed if Jobs's birth mother had chosen to end her pregnancy rather than allow life to live and find wanting parents to parent him? She had no idea then but she found out and I'm sure that information blessed her. It would have blessed me if I were her.

How much have we missed by the others' who were never given such an opportunity? We will never know what society lost or what individual blessings women and families lost. It's just loss.

If you believe the Bible, which I do, technically Jesus was an unplanned and probably at some point, to some extent, an unwanted pregnancy from Mary's perspective. Immaculate conception to a betrothed woman. Totally not cool. But it ended up very, very cool. And what an eternal blessing ensued! Obviously, that's a bit different from the situation that you or I, or the girl next door would find ourselves in, but it is an example to show that there is value in life and there is a Creator of life, and it's not just the girl and the boy in the bedroom.

When you think about Steve Jobs's death; when you praise his life and call him a "visionary," as the President just did in a statement; think about your position on life, too. Whether you belive the Bible or not.

Occupy Hypocrisy

Just returning from vacation, I haven't paid much, OK, any, attention to the "Occupy Wall Street" protests that are occurring in New York. So, I give it about five minutes of my time today and I'm already irritated.

According to the organized protest's website, this is purportedly a protest against corporate greed and corruption. Apparently Wall Street needs a salary cap and should redistribute some of its income. Usually that's called an investment return, but whatever. I guess people want to sit outside, troll the Internet, and demand money for doing nothing from the people inside the building that are actually working and making money. Sounds fair.

Then I looked at the group's schedule, as posted on their website. So, they're rallying with the Teamsters and some other unions. Why would a group that wants to rage against corruption and greed team up with the Teamsters? A union that forces their tradesmen/women to join the union, to give their dues, to pay for political campaigns that, in turn, line the pockets of the union leader? That union, along with SEIU, is highly politicized. Can we rally against that greed and corruption, too? Or any other union that bankrupts private and public sectors alike? Where's the call for a salary cap on plumbers that make more than attorneys? What about electricians that make more than doctors that deliver babies during residency? What about a cap for the unionized workers that put American car companies out of business, 'til they got bought and paid for by the US Government (GM)? My tax dollars are paying for you to break the back of not just a private company but now the federal government.

I don't mind people speaking out against greed and corruption; go for it, both are horrible things. It's just that I can't stand blatant hypocrisy. And the idiocy, frankly, of those that are so self-righteous that they fail to see it. I'm really fed up with the arguments and they don't even directly effect me. What gives anyone the right to equate wealth with greed? That wealth creates things like charitable foundations, whole hospital wings, school auditoriums, libraries, museum exhibits, you know, things that we plain folk can enjoy. Why is it greedy to succeed in a material sense? Is it greedy to work hard, get into top schools, and earn an income that enables you to actually pay off $100,000 of debt and feed your family, too? Is it greedy to be an entrepreneur and take a big risk and have it pay off, morphing into a successful company that employs many people and provides goods or services to people who want it? Is it greedy to work your way up or do you just need to stay mediocre to ensure that greed doesn't creep into your conscience?

Or is it greedy to do nothing and demand something for it just because you have less? I have more than some and less than some. Who cares? I don't have designer bags. I don't have designer clothes. I have a free "dumb" phone. I don't get manicures. I dye my own hair. If I desired more of those things than my desire to stay home with my children, then off to work I go. I am not less because I have less. I am not more because I have more.

There's no righteousness that automatically comes from being poor just like there's no righteousness that automatically comes from being wealthy or like most of us poor schlubs, middle class. And some of "the wealthy" in this country, aren't so wealthy after you consider college debt and children's college savings, because the "wealthy" are too rich to qualify for scholarships but too poor to easily carry the financial load (obviously the super rich are not in this category). And to pretend that the "working class" of modern American unions qualifies as underprivileged is absolutely outrageous. Some of us that earn what you earn or pennies more but actually have to fund our own retirement. Or, actually, we have to fund your retirement, as well. So next time you complain about earning a few thousands less or a tens of thousands less, think about that. Think about greed. Think about that the next time you want taxpayers, at any income level, to pay more taxes simply to line your pockets. Sounds a bit like stealing. Or worse, greed. And before you know, you may be considered one of the evil wealthy.

The difference between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives want everyone to succeed; liberals want those that do to then fail. I choose to be conservative and I wish you well.

Justice is Good

"Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil." Romans 14:16

On September 11th, I was on an elliptical machine at the gym when I watched the first plane hit the first tower on television. I thought it was an accident. After visiting the locker room, I left the gym to go into work, late... because my boss always arrived even later. In the two seconds it took to get from gym door to subway stairs, I remember seeing the most beautiful blue sky - looking up to see if it was possible to see smoke from this horrible accident that had occurred. Just 23 years old with a nice life and kind history, the type of evil that showed itself that day was never on my radar. Didn't prime evil die with Hitler? I had never heard of Osama bin Laden.

I walked into the office and people were in the conference room watching the coverage. I went to my desk (I was late, afterall). Unbeknownst to me, the second tower had been hit. I next remember Lou frantically announcing that the pentagon had been hit and that we were under attack. Back to the conference room. We watched the towers fall. We rushed to our phones. My boss called, his wife safely evacuated down the staircase of tower 2, stairs that were violently swaying under the pressure of how many tons of jet fuel fire that was melting the steel structure.

I cried that day, at my desk, out of pure unbridled emotion before walking home, uptown, strong, with the rest of midtown. Then I cleaned my apartment. Maybe I just needed something to be neat and clean; or, heaven forbid the terror attacks continued, I died and my mother walked into my messy apartment to gather my things... Quick! Clean! Somethings don't change, even in crisis. And I listened to the radio because television signals were out. I waited to hear what was coming next.

For months, I passed street posts with "have you seen this person?" signs. Young men, old men, young women, grandmothers. Mothers. Fathers. Children. Fiancees. Subway stations and bus stops were littered with them. What started out as hopeful fliers became sober paper memorials - miniature essays about missing loved ones. Missing. Missing. Missing. Everything and everyone missing because the towers were raging infernos. Missing because the raging inferno collapsed steel and became an avalanche of death and destruction. There was physically nothing left to find.

On May 1, 2011, when the news networks unofficially confirmed that the President's obscure late-Sunday night address would be to announce that US troops killed Osama bin Laden just that afternoon, our time, I couldn't contain my tears. I can't aptly articulate why I the tears came. I think it was another moment of pure emotion, ten years in the making. And thankfulness. My immediate reaction, which I shared with Facebook, was "Praise the Lord, Osama bin Laden is dead!" I wholly believe that it was the Lord who delivered him into the hands of our wonderfully brave, skilled and disciplined Navy Seals. Thank you, Jesus. It was an American victory. It was a victory for justice. It was a victory for good triumphing over evil.

This is a man who has orchestrated the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, let alone our service men and women. This is a man who has inspired the deaths of, truly, countless more. He was expert at killing before I even knew his name and others will kill in his name before I learn theirs. He wasn't just picking fights, he was picking wars. Wars that he and those that share his beliefs, alone, asked for. His death, after refusing surrender, is just. I celebrate justice. His death removes a piece of palpable evil in this world. I celebrate the elimination of any amount of evil from this world. What he espoused was evil and what he did was criminal.

Not everyone shares my point of view. Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers tweeted, "What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side..." And then, "I believe in God. I believe we are ALL his children. And I believe HE is the ONE and ONLY judge. 'Those who judge others will also be judged themselves.'"

I have heard this sentiment more than from Mendenhall. By friends. And acquaintances. In fact, I found out about these Mendenhall tweets (and Mendenhall, period) after I was already head scratching and irritated by this sentiment that, frankly, is dangerously misguided and especially troubling when espoused by professing Christians. Let's break this down, from my point of view. After all, this is my blog - however sparse it may be. I'll speak to to the football player.

Let's talk about "celebrating death." Mr. Mendenhall, you want to know what kind of a person celebrates death? It's not a secret. Are you familiar with the quote "We love death more than you love life"? It's a famously familiar jihadist quote. In fact, it was quoted by the Fort Hood killer. Murder is unjustified killing. There is a difference. Unjustified killing happened on 9/11. And on the USS Cole. And in Bali. Should we go on? Taking to the streets, waiving machine guns in the air, cheering, as what happened in Arab countries after the towers fell was celebrating death. Celebrating the murder of innocents. When a mass murderer, an enemy of war, is captured, refuses surrender and is taken out - that is just. That is not murder. Death is not what is celebrated. Justice is what is celebrated. I don't celebrate death, it's not my thing. I do celebrate justice. In big ways and in little ways. In world events and local stories. I don't really care if he's alive or dead, he just needed to be stopped and the reality is that killing him is probably the only way that happens. He chose not to surrender. I also rejoice in the lives that will be spared as a result.

Mr. Mendenhall, I agree with you: God is the only one who may judge. Souls. The judgment of souls is different than judging actions. Necessary judgments, yes, of people, are made every day. You judge someone every time you decide whether or not to leave your child with them. You judge someone every time you decide whether to enter their home. We literally have "judges" to determine the fitness and guilt or innocence of various people in our justice system. I suppose we should do away with that because judgment is for God alone. Of course not. Judging souls, possibly to the point of eternal damnation, is for God to do - to every man, myself included. No one will escape eternal judgment. It is different than judging a man's words and deed. And when someone murders tens of thousands of people and calls for more, take him at his word and deed. So, you are free to "judge" his words when he says that all will fall by the sword that do not convert to his radical Islamic bent. When he says he wants you dead, he means it. And, you can even judge that it's bad. You're not playing God when you do.

As a Christian, I understand that love and forgiveness are not exclusive to justice and even anger. God exhibits all of those characteristics and is wholly good and unable to contradict himself. He is altogether loving yet speaks of his wrath. He is both "lion and lamb." Accordingly, we, while not God, can discern good and evil. We are to love sincerely, to hate what (not who) is evil and cling to what is good. Romans 12:9. "Hate evil; love good. Maintain justice in the courts." Amos 5:15. Evil exists in this world; Satan, works in this world. Denying its presence isn't loving or humble, it's unbiblical. "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him." Matthew 12:35.

We are not just to hate evil and do good, but we are to speak out against evil. And not just speaking out against evil - but we are to defend that which is good. Hence, my opening quote. A mass murderer, intent on spreading destruction even further, was stopped. That is good. Those who rejoice that he was thwarted - yes, even by his own death - are not the ones "celebrating death." We are not to be scolded.

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Isaiah 5:20.