The Meaning of Life

I assume that almost everyone has one or two memorable cemetery experiences. When we are little we get taken to cemeteries at times of sadness or solemnity and, while it looks like a park it obviously isn’t a fun place. I recall going to a cemetery as a child for the burial of one of my dad’s uncles – somebody I never knew existed until we got that late night phone call from Ste. Genevieve. We very rarely got a happy phone call from Ste. Genevieve. She was usually the bearer of bad news.

Cemeteries are places where people create monuments or markers representing how they want to be remembered after they are gone or, more often, how others want them to be remembered. This is an intentional relic of a person’s existence. The ruins at Pompeii or Tikal or Mesa Verde are unintentional relics of someone’s existence. I find them both to be interesting. But what about those folks in unmarked graves? My Irish immigrant ancestors are buried two to a hole in unmarked graves in the same cemetery that holds Tennessee Williams, William Tecumseh Sherman, Dred Scott, Kate Chopin and Father De Smet.  My ancestors left behind lots of grieving relatives but none of them had the resources to mark the graves.

I went to college in a very old town with a very old cemetery on a hill overlooking the Mississippi River. There were French folks buried there – the ones that settled the place. There were rows of unmarked graves identifiable only as a faint dimple in the grass. I recall one section of about forty unmarked graves that were known to be the victims of a horrific steamboat wreck. Only their date of death was known.

As college students with time on our hands and looking for something to do we would make our way to the cemetery and just ponder the meaning of life. We usually did this at night and with a few six-packs. One can come close to discovering the meaning of life at night in a spooky cemetery with a few six-packs. We were not disrespectful or up to mischief, we were just under age. We had to be careful where we stepped. The cemetery was riddled with large holes where the earth had subsided or local ground hogs had burrowed into some of the graves. The tree roots would reach out and grab your feet if you weren’t careful.

On one of these excursions we came across a woman’s headstone that made us stop in our tracks. The stone was by itself – not in a family group. It gave her name followed by the word “Spinster” and her date of birth: October 31, 1815 (yes, Halloween), and her date of death: December 31, 1899. The poor woman lived 85 years and almost made it to 1900 but instead, somebody decided to label her as “Spinster” and leave her there by herself. That's how they wanted her to be remembered.  She was certainly on our minds when we pondered the meaning of life that night. The next day, probably a Saturday or Sunday, we went back and made a charcoal rubbing of her headstone and another headstone we found of a Revolutionary War soldier. We taped the headstone rubbings up on the dorm room wall…for some reason. Not as a trophy but sort of a remembrance.

After a while, things started happening (of course). One of the guys was awakened during the night when he felt someone sit on his bed…there was no one there. Things moved around from place to place when no one was in the room. Other things that were hanging on the wall fell on the floor but not the headstone rubbings. Finally somebody saw the figure of a young woman come out of the dorm room closet and walk across the room and disappear. That was enough. She came down off the wall and the old soldier did too, just to be on the safe side. Was it just the power of suggestion? Once one odd thing happened, did we imagine the other occurrences? When the old woman’s headstone rubbing came down the strange occurrences stopped. This was followed by a self-imposed silence on the entire topic. I don’t recall it being discussed or mutually agreed to…just that none of us felt comfortable talking about it. We stopped going to the cemetery after that. We found other ways to explore the meaning of life

Experiment with sound

hmmm. didn't get close enough to pick up the sound -- whoosh...whoosh...whoosh
The sound is my shoes on the gravel but it came through loud and clear.

An Odd Post About Faith

Sometimes events or discussions take place that cause me to re-examine my beliefs and how I live my faith -- or what passes for my faith. Sometimes I'll find myself in a casual discussion on religion and realize that I hold more traditional Christian beliefs than many of my peers. I find this odd because I don't consider myself to be deeply religious. I do consider myself to be part of an organized religious church body...although I do not support or proclaim all that this church body adheres to. I go to church very rarely but primarily due to inertia and that I don't like going alone, not because I've fallen away or reject religion.

The news for today includes a headline that there is a rapid decline in the number of Americans who count themselves as "Protestant" Christians. I'm not at all surprised. The actual story is that Protestants no longer are in the majority. The news outlets are getting it confused either due to ignorance of intentionally to stir up controversy. This is really more about statistics than about religion. What is a Protestant? Perhaps the statisticians have a working definition but the respondents probably are not so sure. Some Baptists do not consider themselves to be Protestants. Are Mormons Protestants? How about self-proclaimed "Evangelicals"? If respondents are self defining their religious status, my guess is that there are not sufficient categories on a survey form to capture a meaningful aggregate response. The survey definitions are very likely out of date.

There is also the issue of non-Christians living permanently or temporarily residing in the US. There have been increases in Bosnians, South Asians, Muslims, Chinese, or other ethnic groups who would not consider themselves to be Protestants. Mexican or other Central American or Caribbean immigrants would probably consider themselves to be Roman Catholic rather than Protestant.  I'm not too worried about the survey headlines.

I am regularly asked to fill out survey for a national polling organization because I signed up to be part of their polling universe when they pulled a survey sample. All of these surveys have various political questions or policy questions (Who did you vote for? Are you a Liberal? What do you think about __whatever__ policy?). They frequently have questions about commercial products...like those pod coffee makers or some other product. They always ask about religious affiliation, whether I consider myself to be an "Evangelical", and how often I attend church. They ask other questions about income and location. These are used to sub-analyze the responses. Are Evangelicals more likely to be gun owners than Muslims? Are low income people more likely to want coffee pod machines?

I must admit that the whole label of "Evangelicals" irritates me and I never consider myself to be an Evangelical. My perception of Evangelicals is negative on several levels even though my church could be considered to be Evangelical. Evangelicals -- as popularly and commonly defined and recognized -- can't keep their nose out of other people's business or private life or personal decisions. I'm sure there is a spectrum or degree of Evangelical-ness and not all Evangelicals behave the same way but those who act out or profess the loudest seem to be the most extreme and most obnoxious.

I tend to favor tolerance and inclusivity more than one would think considering my church's position on some issues. I noticed an article in my monthly church magazine that cautioned against attending church services in other denominations or going to Bible study groups outside of our church. Our church practices "closed communion" meaning that only church members, or members of a very few other churches who meet certain criteria of belief or practices, may take communion in our church services. There are more conservative churches than mine but we are pretty far away from most Christian denominations. I can remember when women were first given the right to vote in church affairs.

Instead of being an Evangelical, I like the idea of being a "carrier for Christ". I use the term "carrier" almost the same way as if someone was a carrier of typhoid or polio but in a positive rather than a negative way. I think it is better, generally, to profess your faith in the way you live, act, behave, carry on business, raise your children and love your spouse and family. If Christians would be "carriers for Christ" we wouldn't need Evangelicals poking around in other peoples' lives. We would also be in conflict with others less often. The "Culture Wars" that Evangelicals seem eager to wage are often conflicts of their own making.

When you look at the basics, Jesus says we should love God and love our neighbor. The Ten Commandments say we should love and honor God, watch what we say and keep our hands to ourselves.  I don't see anything there that says we should maim, murder, persecute or hate people who have different beliefs, look different or live different lives. I don't see any admonition or encouragement for us to righteously poke our nose into other peoples' lives. Do you?

Officially, It's Fall

Nothing profound...I just feel like chatting tonight. We officially crossed over that celestial line and entered fall...or autumn, if you prefer (being in the northern hemisphere). Why does this season have two names??? Other seasons seem more steadfast in their identification. I'll check it out and get back to you on that later.   Anyway...we are about to close the book on September and go into October. This is one of my favorite times of the year.

 

 

Major league baseball is entering that frantic period where every team with a pulse is trying hard to make it into the playoffs and maybe get into more post-season play and, perhaps, win the whole thing. The St. Louis Cardinals surprised everyone, including themselves, last year by staggering into the playoffs and then winning it all. They are trying again this year as defending champs...I wish them well but it's not the same team. Looks like they might get in as a wild card team.

NFL football has been a comedy of errors...literally, but no one is laughing. The referees were locked out by the owners due to a labor dispute so NFL hired substitute refs. I don't thing you can call them "scabs" since there wasn't a strike but they were truly unqualified to officiate a professional football game. It was awful and it went on far too long. Finally, the NFL owners relented and negotiated with the "real" refs and they are now back on the job this weekend. The substitutes get to slink back to wherever they came from...


Missouri University couldn't wait to join the SEC (Southeast Conference) and leave the Big 12 in their dust...but they haven't made a good first impression. They can manage to put up a fight but have been steamrolled  in the later part of the game. They played South Carolina last week and it was bad but they managed to get a touchdown in the closing minutes so that the game doesn't look that bad on paper. I don't give a diddly-squat but I think the SEC is a class act when compared to the Big 12 and hope MU can salvage a few games. People tell me we will blow them out of the water in basketball.  Okiedoke.

Of course, the presidential election is going on...almost in the last few weeks. Also congressional elections. President Obama is a consistent leader in the polls and it looks like he has the electoral votes to win. Mitt Romney looks dumber and dumber as time goes on. He picked Paul Ryan as his VP running mate but Ryan decided to still also run for his congress seat...how's that for confidence? I'm an Obama man so I'm biased but Romney is really making a fool of himself. Either he has no decent advisers or he ignores his advisers and just runs his mouth.

 

 

Missouri has a senate race that is getting lots of attention because Todd Akin, GOP candidate, is a buffoon. Senator McCaskill is nothing special but Akin is sub-human in comparison. Akin has run out of appendages to stick in his mouth and it is hard anyway because his head is so far up his ass. Even Romney asked him to drop out of the race. But, he has support in rural Missouri and could even win if the city voters stay at home.  I admit that I crossed over and voted for Akin in the primary because I figured he would be so bad that sane people wouldn't vote for him. I knew he would self-destruct but not as soon as he did. Now, in the late weeks before the election, some Republicans are slinking back to give him support...Newt Gingrich, Huckabee and Santorum, three GOP guys not running for anything, have soiled themselves by coming to support Akin. Today Akin complained that Claire McCaskill was not "Ladylike" in her behavior during their recent debate...Ladylike?

Missouri voters are an odd group and hard to predict how they will go. We elected Mel Carnahan to the senate even though he was dead in order to keep John Ashcroft from retaining his senate seat....that's right, we elected a dead guy to keep Ashcroft out. So what happens?  Dubya appointed Ashcroft as Attorney General...where he makes a fool of himself.  Ashcroft was my boss for a while so I speak with some knowledge...he is a bible-thumping, gospel-singing, two-faced, ill-informed, self-righteous idiot. But I digress. Missouri used to be known as a bellwether state, one that could be relied upon to vote as the nation would vote as a whole. Not so anymore. We have cornered the market on wingnuts and religious bigots so anything is possible.


The drought is over but Mother Nature is very confused. My lilacs are blooming. They went dormant during the drought and now think it's spring. I suppose they won't bloom next year. Much of my grass is dead. I thought it was only dormant but it is still brown in spite of the several rainy days we've had. The trees began to turn colors way back in early August but there are more now that are showing fall colors even though it is early. There were some major forest fires in the Ozarks...worse than what we have seen in the past. Apparently, the forest ids trying to recover and some plants have sprung up that we have never seen in Missouri. They were just laying dormant in the soil waiting for a forest fire. Some of them are native to the Gulf Coast while others live in Arkansas or in pine forests in other states.