Another Plan?

Many years ago I was active in a group in Houston that was concerned about the flooding of the streets and often the flooding of the homes along those streets. Houston had decided to use their streets as drainage ditches. One of the consistent discoveries was that the engineers and the public works departments in both the county and the city were aware of the problems. They also had on their shelves a number of studies and plans that had been developed to deal with the problems. The plans were on the shelves and never got used.

I thought of that today when I read where the Economic Development Commission of Vance County was working on another plan for our area. The problem is not the lack of plans. Since I have been in this community, there have been three very expensive and well developed plans for our community. These plans have all said very much the same thing. The problems have not changed and the possible solutions have not changed. The problem continues to be that once the plan has been presented none of the authorities have had the courage and the will to follow the plans. We do not continue in our difficulties because we do not have a plan. We continue in our struggles because we do not have the will and the discipline to follow the plan.

The same lack of will, discipline, courage and determination are missing in our own lives as well. I do not need more lists of how to live healthier. I have seen more of those lists than I can remember. I just do not have the discipline nor will to follow them. Exercise more, eat less, eat better. It is not a complicated plan. But I can not keep to it.

Certainly in terms of religious and moral activities the same is true. There is no shortage of plans and guidelines to better living. There the Ten Commandments or The eight steps to Nirvana, or the Beatitudes, or the different ways of Yoga or the teaching of Confucius. There are lots of "plans" but we lack the ability to follow the plans very well. For some of us that is why the religious narrative that has a big section on forgiveness and mercy to those of us who fail is so important.