Month: June 2020

The experience begins with the amazing texture as your teeth glide through layer after layer of delicately crisp pastry.  The sweetness of honey enhanced by nuts and spices spins up your taste buds and your entire mouth begins to fill with wonder.

The majesty of Baklava does not end with its amazing taste and texture, nor even in the full sweet, yet savory, experience rewarded to the consumer of the dainty bouffage.  So awesome is this rich, delicate delight that two cultures vehemently claim it as their own, cultures who both have contributed in great ways to civilization, the Turks and the Greeks.

There is, however, a third culture that arguably deserves a high degree of consideration for blessing the word with such a wonder, The Byzantine Empire.  Support of this claim may be found in the book “Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization” by Lars Brownworth.  The book does not speak of Baklava, per se, however, once you discover this rich culture and civilization, which is rarely taught about in schools, you will better understand.

“I am a star at rest, my daughter,” answered Ramandu …
“In our world,” said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas”
“Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of”
C.S.Lewis The Voyage of the Dawn Trader

America is made of weak and sinning humans, as have been all societies throughout history.

But that is just what we are made of.

What we are is that of your own making.  You can be filled with hate or filled with love, accepting of character or prejudiced based on the color of skin or ideology, a seeker of unity or a divider, a seeker of peace, or purveyor of violence.  You decide.

Our hope for a better future does not lie in:
shaming others because they are different
squelching dissenting opinions
denying facts that do not fit the defined narrative
denying history that does not fit the defined narrative
twisting the meaning of words
destroying our neighbors’ property
burning down our neighbors’ homes
judging people based on the pigmentation of their skin

The teacher said:
“Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these.”

It is clear that these are anathema to the defined narrative that is guiding the loudest elements of our society today.

A careful perusal of the news, all the news, not just the opinion filled and filtered news we’ve all become so distrustful of, warns of storm clouds rising.  There are wars and rumors of wars too numerous to catalog here.  Locusts, failed crops, and pig flu threatening future famine at levels the world has rarely if ever seen.

And we have allowed ourselves to be divided and stirred into raging hate, ridiculing any thought that is not aligned with a defined narrative, burning books before they are even written if the author is not perfectly aligned with that same narrative. Twisting the meaning of words so that up is down and bad is good.

This is not a “New Normal” we have chosen to enter, it is a “New Abnormal”.  A world of violence and hatred.  Where being mean is justified and encouraged.  If you did not believe in the total depravity of man before, have a careful look at the news.

There is, however, hope.

The elite establishment in our country has been under increasing pressure to release the reins of power. As a result, and they have been using fear and hate at higher and higher levels in order to divide and subdue the populous. Recently it seems they are losing control because the violence is moving toward reaching a tipping point. Something that no human with any concern for their fellows wants to see.

We have seen this play out before.

In 1994 the elite establishment in Rwanda was losing their chokehold on power.  As a result, they unleashed the fear and hate which they had been fomenting for years in the form of violence.  They utilized the media to great effect in justifying the violence, sighting past wrongs of the others, and dehumanizing them as “inyenzi”, cockroaches.  The result was a tragedy that ranks high among the annals of man’s inhumanity to man.

Fear and hate is an easy thing to foment, but not such an easy thing to control.  In the end, the elite establishment of Rwanda failed, but not before almost a million people were bludgeoned and hacked to death. They failed because their violence reached a tipping point of horror that stirred a mighty backlash.  Had it not been for wise counsel, that evoked teachings of forgiveness and reconciliation, the horrors of the escalating retaliation would have been far worse than the original horrors.

In both cases, there are wrongs in the past.  In both cases, forgiveness and reconciliation is the answer not further division and certainly not fear and hate.

The elite establishment in our country has been under increasing pressure to release the reins of power.  As a result, and they have been using fear and hate at higher and higher levels in order to divide and subdue the populous.  Recently it seems they have lost control because the violence is very close to reaching a tipping point.  Something that no human with any concern for their fellows wants to see.

We have seen this play out before.

In 1994 the elite establishment in Rwanda was losing their chokehold on power.  As a result, they unleashed the fear and hate which they had been fomenting for years in the form of violence.  They utilized the media to great effect in justifying the violence, sighting past wrongs of the others, and dehumanizing them as “inyenzi”, cockroaches.  The result was a tragedy that ranks high among the annals of man’s inhumanity to man.

Fear and hate is an easy things to foment, but not such an easy thing to control.  In the end the elite establishment of Rwanda failed, but not before almost a million people were bludgeoned and hacked to death. They failed because their violence reached a tipping point of horror that stirred a mighty backlash.  Had it not been for wise counsel, that evoked teachings of forgiveness and reconciliation, the horrors of the escalating retaliations would have been far worse than the original horrors.

In both cases there are wrongs in the past.  In both cases forgiveness and reconciliation is the answer not further division and certainly not fear and hate.

After throwing off the horrors of genocide the people of Rwanda reached into their precolonial past in search of structures and practices to rebuild their society.  Before their world was interfered with by outsiders from another continent, Rwanda had a geopolitical element called the Umudugudu.  Being the “Land of a Thousand Hills” it usually consisted of all of the families on a hill.  It was their concept of neighborhood.  Also, Rwanda had a practice called Umuganda whereby, on predefined days, all of the people of the Umudugudu gathered to perform work that improved the Umudugudu and to discuss issues important to the families of the Umudugudu.

Part of the rebuilding of Rwanda included reinstituting the Umudugudu and Umuganda.  If you happened to be in Rwanda on the last Saturday of any month you will see the people gathered to work and meet together.  It’s very inspiring.

Our neighborhood had a workday yesterday to clean up some common areas and to chat about things in the neighborhood.  It was wonderful.  We are blessed to have so many good neighbors who really do care about one another and show that care with actions.  We shared tools and water, and after the work was done some wine.  But mostly we shared time together.

Thank you Rocky Creek Ranch neighbors.

It has now become an element of our society that expressing truth which is outside the narrative defined by the elite establishment will result in censorship, ridicule, and banishment. That, combined with the fact that there is very little truth in the narrative defined by the elite establishment, has left truth lying desperately wounded, outside the field of discourse.

Our interactions with one other are guided by presuppositions, formulated by the experiences and prior learnings of the parties involved.  This adds a level of challenge to communications, only partially helped by non-verbal clues.  A micro expression here an eyebrow movement there, unnoticed by the more cerebral processes of the observer but recorded by the precognitive and communicated internally.

But to truly understand what someone is attempting to convey often requires deeper knowledge about the other person.  This is why developing relationship is so important in the quest for civil discourse.  Too often we hear or read something, apply our own presuppositions, and proclaim judgment without seeking to understand what is really being said.

“I am so glad that the whole video was made public and has been viewed by so many people”

The reference was to the video of the horrid taking of a life by an authority whose mission is supposed to be to protect and serve.  The speaker was someone with very different experiences dealing such authorities than the listener.

The listener has a choice.  Focus on the statement and spin into a fact-finding mission to uncover the sordid details leading up to brutal event.  Or, see the pain of the past, mixed with the relief of the possibility that maybe now that pain will finally be believed.

In this case, the listener knew the speaker and was heartbroken for having not seen the pain before.  The speaker wasn’t asking for favors, platitudes, or special treatment, simply to be believed.

Dad was not tall, but he was dark and handsome.  He was also very charming and had a natural care for, and interest in other people.  Born in Mexico, Spanish was his primary language a fact that was evident when he spoke.  His accent was exotic, and his speech flowed with a light and rich air.  It was very pleasant to just sit and listen to him talk.  It helped that there was always a smile in his talking, just below the surface.  And, he told stories, wonderful stories, made more wonderful by his telling, always with laughter along the way.  Dad was easy going, very bright and an artist – he designed buildings and homes and furniture and who knows what else.

Regretfully he was not in my life much of the time.  Marriage had become less permanent by the time of my birth and Mom and Dad went separate ways when I was young.  An occasional trip and one long stay are all the time I had with him.  But that was enough to know how special he was, and to miss him, and to be grateful.