Celebrating the ordinary

     Not many of us who were around at the time will not remember the shock, the confusion, the horror, the stunned reaction to the events of 9/11.  Some have criticized President Bush for the way he sat and continued to read at the day care, but most of us did not know what to do or what to make of it or how to react to the news either.
     Now we mark the day by pausing and remembering the victims, the first responders, and the families of the victims.  We are still suffering the consequences of that attack with two wars in the Middle East that have become longer and more costly than Vietnam.  There is another crisis in the Middle East that is pretty much the same struggle all over again.
     But some of us mark this day by a celebration of the little ordinary things.  The ordinary normal things that are the context of our lives. The silly little things that those who were killed in the attacks will never be able to share again.   The early morning cup of coffee with the newspaper in hand. The comics and the sport page. The sport page filled with young people working hard and trying to become the best they can become.  Celebrating the constant flow of competition.  To watch the birds at the feed, to see the young off to school, to get the "Obligatory picture of the first day of kindergarten" of the grandchild.  To read a few pages in a good book. To watch and listen to the station of one's choice on the early shows.
      Maybe it does not seem like a great show of respect or honor maybe, but it seems to me it is the absolute most appropriate way to honor them. To enjoy, to celebrate, to share the ordinary, normal, routine activities of our daily lives is what they would all have wanted to share.  These are the things that the family miss most. The morning huge, the first kiss, the packing the lunches, the mowing the grass, the going to work, the coming home, the fighting the traffic, that french fries and the coke. The beer at the end of the day. To honor their lives and to remember their deaths by living ours and enjoying the ordinary average routine of life. They were wonderful ordinary people, and in a lot of ways we remember that by pausing and appreciating our own good ordinary life.

Stupid Things I Have Seen Recently

     Of course, there are decisions and events that I do not agree with, but which can be argued wisely and cogently.  While I do not believe we need to be bombing Syria by ourselves, without international support, I have read strong rational arguments for that action.  But sometimes there are just plain stupid decisions made. The last couple of weeks there have been two glaring ones:
     1. The decision to override the Governor McCory's veto of the drug testing for welfare benefits. The Governor thought that was an unproductive bill. Two states, Florida and Colorado, have already done that and discovered that the number of people found to be doing drugs was smaller in percentage of that population than the general populations.  The program cost both states money. It did not reduce the amount of welfare benefits by enough to cover the costs of the test.  So here you have the governor telling the legislature that this was a bad move; the evidence from two different states showing it was a bad move, and the N.C. Republican legislature going ahead and overriding the veto.  Just plain stupid.
     2.The second action was from South Carolina at a Wild Wings Cafe.  A family gathering of 25 people had come to Wild Wings to have a "going away" party for one of their members. They waited in line for 2 hours to get seats enough for all of them. They were seated as a group, and no sooner had they been seated than the assistant manager came and told them they would have to leave. Why? because one white customer felt "threatened" by them.  My label of stupid is not on the race issue. It is the plain economic issue for the manager. 25 customers versus 1 customer.  Which makes the larger impact on your bottom line?  Why didn't the manager just ask the one white customer to leave if he/she felt threatened?  Is that what we tell people? If you feel uncomfortable in your surroundings, then it is wise to get out of there?   As a PR problem Wild Wings has it big time. But it was just plain stupid of the Assistant manager.
      Ken Copeland and his ministry telling his people they need only trust God for their good health and not get vaccinated or do to the Doctor is another stupid thing as far as I am concerned but I will let them have their measles and hope they don't give it to others.