What's love got to do with it?

Tina Turner coined the phrase “what’s love got to do with it,” and from the basis of her song, absolutely nothing. Love to many, maybe to most is an end all emotional connection that overshadows everything and eclipses the very sun that shines.  Love is as defined:  A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person or a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.

Is that all that love is, a feeling of affection based on attachments, an often fleeting emotional connection that comes and goes as the winds of a passionate evening?  Love is so much more than the simple definition above and much more then the simple explanation of the recent Supreme Court decision.

“No union is so profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideas of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family….”  Justice Kennedy

I apologize for pulling the religious card here but without Charity love is only a base emotion, a fleeting feeling of passion and connection.  Without Charity as its foundation love is nothing more than the opposite of hate.  Charity is the pure love of God, a transcendent emotional and spiritual connection that clarifies what love is and how it works. 

Charity is: the benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity,

A generosity and helpfulness imbued spiritually within an individual especially toward the needy or suffering or in my words Christlike.

Love is important and more love would be a great thing to witness in this world filled with hate and discord, divisions and dissidents.  And I proudly agree that love is the right of all people, all sexes, all races and all religions.  What I do not agree with is the demeaning and corruption of the word love.

 Same sex couples can love and I would never deny that privilege, but I do want to unequivocally state that the level of love available in most non-heterosexual couples will never attain the foundational principles outlined by God, as he loves his children and exemplifies that love for us as we love, teach and sacrifice for our children. That is called Charity of which love is a part. 

Again let me be perfectly clear.  Same sex couples can love their children and can develop deep and abiding emotional connections with each other but to be God like and charitable one must, and I emphasis must, put aside the things of this world and follow the words of His son (mat 19:3-7) Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

This is not about love, it’s about Commitment, Charity and Obedience.  Love without commitment is not love, its passion and sex only.  Love without Charity is selfish and self-serving.  Love without Obedience is hopeful but without foundation and without a strong foundation that love cannot endure.

You may think me insensitive or even cruel in my attempt to explain and in some way deny your “love” au contraire mon fraire, I am neither. Despite your initial reactions of hate and exclusion let me say something simple and guided that I hope will bridge this widening gap of discord between those that favor marriage only between a man and woman and yes to the exclusion of those of similar sex engaging in this holy and highly sacred covenant. 

I love my wife and children not just because of love but because what Justice Kennedy alluded too, sacrifice (I understand sacrifice and your sacrifice, but misplaced sacrifice means nothing) and what he failed to mention, Charity, with the deep understanding that without Charity what good is sacrifice and without sacrifice there really can be no love….So I’m happy for your love for each other but maybe it’s time to start thinking about how deep that love really is in relation to our commitment to God and to each other?

Highway to Hell

I just made a momentous drive across a third of this country.  1268 miles, give or take a few pit stops to eat and other bodily needs, 1268 miles of mostly open country with only the asphalt filled with civilization.  1268 miles in one day!  Kinda dumb, difficult but necessary I guess, or so I thought at the time.

As we approach the 4^th of July I wanted to demonstrate in words the wonders of what we have.  Not just in the ability to drive 1268 miles without anyone questioning my intentions, nor asking for my documents but the ability simply get up and go, even if it wasn’t the smartest thing to do in a 17 hour period of time.  Please don’t do the math, I would hate to think that your impression of me was anything more than law abiding…and in most cases it was and is.

Many are saying that this country, the United States is not an exceptional country and there are others countries that offer more freedoms, more opportunities, more life and more liberty, name one!

We do have issues, we do have problems to overcome but in the grand scope of what makes a civilized country, the United States of America has surpassed all in creating and sustaining a level of civility and opportunity that is to date unattainable by all others on this planet.  I can’t speak for other worlds but I would venture a guess that we would do pretty well against them also.

During my drive, I saw great cities, miles and miles of homes, stores and industry in abundance but mostly I saw space, open beautiful space.  There is space to expand, space to till, space to build and space to stretch out.  There is approximately 2.3 billion acres of land in the US.  As a graphic, divide that by the  350 million and you get 6.5 acres per person.  Have you ever tried to weed 6.5 acres of land, or even keep it trimmed or fenced?  That’s a lot of land per person and yes I know it includes all the mountains and all the valleys and deserts but the reality is simple, we have a lot of land to go around.  Overcrowding is not the issue.

The issue is what do we do with what we have?  How do manage and how do we allocate the almost endless resources at our disposal?  There are some countries that have similar resources but have even less managerial abilities than we do and it’s easy to see the results of poverty, cronyism and corruption. Can any one spell Mexico? 

Please don’t get the wrong idea about the above statement I love Mexico and I love the culture, ask me some time about my connections with that great country, but you have to admit that their abilities in allocation of resources is not that great.  Like us they could do a lot better, it’s just we’re doing better then they are.  That however is starting to change as the political structure of our country is changing and the simple allocations are becoming complicated as money mongers ravage our land, legislate our lives and overtax our motivations. 

For 1268 miles I witnessed the greatness of what this country has to offer and for 1268 miles I pondered the future of what will be and worried about what is coming, who is leading us and why.  Is the American Dream dying, is the ideal of freedom only a whisper of hope and not the standard of the world?  Can we continue on the road we’re on without heading into a fascist or socialist wall?     The balance that has sustained our country is teetering and vacillating.  The republicans and the democrats are less concerned about the freedoms of the individual than they are about the opportunities to lead.  The conservatives and the liberals are at odds with no quarter given and no love lost.  I admit I’m one of them, thinking I know what’s best…I do, but that is another issue and another post.

For 1268 miles I drove into the past and into the future knowing that this country may not stay the course of our founders and knowing that the fight for freedom is real.  The fight for liberty is real and vicious with blood being spilt on both sides of a war that will determine the course of not only this country but of this world.  

For those 1268 miles I listened to the voices of liberals and conservatives with only the insight gleaned is that we will all have to choose a side.  Like the civil war of the 1860’s our country is at that crossroads, the divided highway of selfish overseers or selfless servants, the chasm of truth and integrity or deception and dishonesty.  We can all see the tides rise and the signs of discord.  We can all agree that things are changing.  The only question left is how will you travel, who will you travel with and how many miles are you willing to drive to get what you think is right?

For me and my family, we will chose to travel toward liberty, honesty and a belief in God and are willing to drive a lot more than 1268 miles to get there.  

Fathers Day...We'll see.

Happy Fathers Day to distrust, dishonor and down right disdain for anything noble or of good report, which seems to be the mantra for society of our day.  How is it that so many are so inflamed about the minutia of the trivial and so forgetful regarding that which used to be important, honor, trust, respect and service?  Have we as a people fallen so far that our view of humanity is now so myopic that all we see is that pinpoint of light that sheds only a reminder of what we used to be, a glimmer of the hope that for so long drove man to achieve, invent and support the greatness of the human spirit.

With increasing vitriol we argue and accuse, leaving no room for understanding, believing the spurious rhetoric of the media and politics over the long standing and proven endeavors of the righteous.   What’s in it for me, how to I profit, what will it cost are the questions most asked, not what can I do, who can I help, and is it the right thing to do?

We are a country closeted from goodness, shying away from the crowds that scream and accuse.  Who would dare to try to overcome that wave of evil if all you get is sarcasm and hate?  The large and spacious building of commonality is truly burgeoning with occupants who are more inclined to yell and scream their support toward evil, motivating those still searching to run the gauntlet of pleasures and passions rather than responsibility and accountability and fathers are leading that pack.

But yet in this turmoil of life, this tornado of strife and relativism we celebrate Fathers Day, and hope that their contribution to turning the tide and stemming the flow of all that is bad in order to protect their children, nurture, love and listen, is still paving a path of example.  Fathers and mothers (but it’s not mothers day) so fathers who cry for their children unite and pray for the world as it is so that it may become the world as it should be to ensure the sanctity of life, liberty and love through those forgotten factors of honor, respect and service.

Not all fathers are wanted, but all could join, when their ready to take on the mantel of responsibility of what it means to man up to the reality of caring for and providing for that little life, that growing life, that little man or girl who is your charge, your doing and your ultimate and most important duty.

We have enough fathers who fall by the side and shirk their duties, running towards the screaming crowds of acceptance rather than fighting against the urges to indulge.  Stop running, start fighting, start standing firm and follow your heart. Start looking into the eyes of those that look upon you with wonder and give back to them in such a way that at least they know you tried your best and served with honor their cause as children.

The fractured family is epidemic and mostly due to the weakness of men.  Women play a role in that destruction (but it’s not mothers day) so men are to blame.  Men, not boys are needed to repair those cracks.  Men not selfish males are needed to build the relationships by going home, staying home, being providers, being loving husbands and honorable examples to their children. 

One man at a time, one choice in the right direction, one responsible act, one fathers day that has real meaning and eventually a father who loves will be loved back, a child’s life changed and a family recreated from the ashes of destruction brought on by the fires of selfishness, distrust and immorality.   Welcome back Fathers, Welcome back Dads, Welcome back Families, Welcome back happiness and joy and the goodness that is life.  Happy Fathers Day once again…