The Chosen

Jacob, as the son of Abram, wrestled in the night with his God, coming out of this with a lifelong affliction that is never specifically described.  And as a grandson of Abraham, he was symbolic of the plight of all men and women thereafter.  Jacob as much as had an effect on modern man as Adam or Eve, exiled from the garden.  The tension in the world, Jacob’s, mine, was about my wrestling match with God in my life.  The tension between ideals and real humans, the tension applied individually and communally. Jacob, as the grandson of Abram, wrestled dealing with all that he had inherited, rightfully or wrongfully?  The Chosen People with lifelong afflictions in everyday wrestling matches of current events.                

Should Christians refrain from alcohol and cigarettes and caffeine?  Should Buddhists pray 5 times a day facing east?  Should Protestants pray together once a week?  Who should be circumcised for religious reasons?  Should agnostics refrain from birth control?  How about for Protestants?  What if birth control pills were affecting the water supply and fertility?  Should Jews refrain from meat on Fridays in Lent?  Why just in Lent, Catholics?  Who was really Jewish anyway?  Who was really Catholic?  And why not join refraining from pork forever as a show of solidarity with Judaism?  If these practices are good enough for followers, are they for everyone?  Is abortion wrong only for Catholics?  How does the free exercise of religion in this fragmented world apply?  How is such a fragmented world united?  And if it is by law, how is public policy determined?  Church authorities have attempted to influence public policy by threatening excommunication, threatening even a more fragmented society.  Punish the believers?  How are religious laws different from civil law?  How does a society remain civil?  What are the influence of religion and the identity of a believer on a society? 

Spending or Saving?

Money: Saving or spending. 

How do you spend money and time?  You start by putting a measure on time:  clocks, calendars, dates.   Then you put a measure on wealth: money.  Many then combine the means of measure in a way that seems fair.  

After all, you only had so much in a lifetime.  It was a form of human creation to try to measure time and money.  Was first-come, first-serve another form of primogenitur?  

Time and money –Addictions:  squandering time when time seemed in abundance.  Since humanity is God-like, since there is seemingly no such things as time in heaven and  since eternity is God-like, was there a connection of abundance on earth to the issue of abundance and time and addiction?    

Time: Saving or spending.

Was your spending   a holy pursuit?  Was your life a holy pursuit?  If  life really was about the pursuit of happiness, how could happiness ever be confused with financial success? 

asylum

The view from Mexico was that the United State “currently has a very strong and anti-humane immigration program.” 

So was protected liberty limited by borders to people born between certain latitudes and longitudes.  What were protected rights, if all men and all women really were created equal? 

In a land where regard for liberty seemed more and more limited to pursuits of happiness,  why was one land able to offer requested political asylum, but limited to the “political?”  Were we crazy?  Was asylum just for politicians? 

Seeking asylum.  Was it not for the crazy?