Values Archives < For Better or For Worse

Does Winning or Losing Deserve More Attention?

If you’ve ever visited a gambling casino, you know that whenever someone has a big win on one of the machines there are often flashing lights and a kind of music to celebrate it.
   Of course, there’s no celebrating a loss, big or little—it makes sense—you can hardly entice someone to keep playing and betting if you blast out the news of their losing to everybody within sight and earshot.
   It’s really odd, but when it comes to our religious practice and faith, we sort of do the opposite. We make a bigger fuss about failures than successes.
   What’s the first thing a child learns about, the first thing that gets a lot of attention? Why, it’s failure, reprimand, and perhaps punishment.
   From early childhood most of us were made aware, sometimes vividly, of our failures, of our sins! And we were taught how to go to church and confess our sins and seek forgiveness.
   There was rarely any special fussing about good things and successes—they didn’t send us to the priest to speak about that but to speak about the bad things, the sins!
   If you were being coached in preparation for the Olympics, the whole emphasis would have been on getting things right, not reminding you that you got them wrong.
   Why do we attach so much importance to defects and sinning? Why do we give so much more recognition to failure compared to the attention that success should get?
   A child almost learns inverted values, getting more recognition and attention through failing than through succeeding!
   Sure, God punishes, but, most important of all, he forgives! We seem to forget that and that we are celebrating his love and forgiveness in receiving communion.
   Were a special music playing and everyone applauding what we did, we might feel a lot better about our religious behavior!

   Much of the Bible dwells on failures and losing and their consequences—but also on heroism, good deeds, and successes.
   It’s sad if our childhood memories are mostly of our failures and weaknesses and not of successes and unexpected blessings.
   In our contemporary society, there’s a much greater tolerance for certain behaviors, for certain “sins,” than there used to be—and often it’s about something not to be unthinkingly dismissed.
   To be brutely honest, we have to admit that sometimes sin gets far more, and better, attention than goodness! And, sadly, there are children who get more attention and recognition over their misbehaviors than their virtues.
   Remember the story of the good thief and the bad at the crucifixion of Jesus. The focus wasn’t just on the track record of each but on the present and actual attitude and behavior of each. And, as we know so well, Jesus promised Paradise to one of them—the one, who, in spite of his past record, repented, sought, and received forgiveness and mercy from the dying Lord!
   It’s important to believe in the mercy of God, and it’s important to believe in the repentance of sinners—Godlike you might consider it!
   The mercy of God and the repentance of sinners can both be very surprising to us, and both should be welcomed for what they are—even though there’s no flashing lights and a kind of music to celebrate each of them!
   Stop giving more attention and recognition to losing than winning. After all, it’s God’s mercy and love that deserves drums and trumpets, not your failures!

27 August 2023

Independence

On July 4, 1776 the Second Continental Congress enacted “The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America”, known since then as “The Declaration of Independence”:
   When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation….
   This first paragraph of the declaration officially launched a process of political separation, of revolt, of the thirteen British New World colonies from the rule of the King of Great Britain and his kingdom.
   Was it reasonable? Was it justified? Was it, so to speak, legal and law abiding? The answer, of course, depended on which system and body of law one was following.
   Clearly, from a British point of view, it was a matter of rebellion. On the other hand, it was celebrated and defended by the colonists (as The Declaration of Independence went on to say) as a matter of rights, justice, and liberty.   The key word and concept of the declaration of the colonists was Independence, and it remains, still, as a key concept and value in the contemporary American mind and practice.
   “It’s a free country, aint it?” was and still is a classic defensive comeback from someone in the U.S. who feels that they’re being pushed around, accused of a crime, or being disparaged or treated unjustly.
   But, does independence mean I can say or do anything, whatever I choose? Don’t I have any responsibility for the consequences of what I say, promote, endorse, or do?

   “Independence” means free from the influence, control, or determination of another or others, not depending on them.
   Isn’t that, so to speak, exactly the way God made us, each of us? Isn’t that exactly what the story of the creation in Genesis teaches?
   No!
   Genesis is about how God made each and all of us and about how, even from the beginning, we have failed to live up to our creator’s plans and instructions.
   Pure, total independence—devoid of any responsibility whatsoever for others—goes against our nature, our maker’s design, and all we hold dear.
   In the words of the Pledge of Allegiance, we aspire to be “One Nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
   This is a goal, a work in progress, a challenge that drives us, a value that we esteem—but, being the limited and weak creatures that we are, we have to keep working at it all the time and not forgetting it. (Remember the remedy for failing: “If you don’t succeed, then try, try again!”)
   Like the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, the U.S. National Anthem also articulates a high ideal for the country, describing it as “the Land of the free and the home of the brave.”
   Is it really the land of the free? Does every U.S. citizen consider himself/herself totally free and brave? Again, it voices a goal for the future, a work in progress, but not necessarily the current state of affairs.
   It’s the U.S. aspirations that have made it so attractive to people from many lands. The U.S. and each of us still struggle to achieve our goals—it’s a work in progress; it’s come a long way but still has a long way to go!

2 July 2023

Translation Involves More Than Words

Translation usually implies the rendering from one language into another of something written or spoken. Fair enough!
   But, something written or spoken centuries ago—in the same language—can mean something entirely different today.
   For example, “varlet” could refer to an attendant; a youth serving as a knight’s page; a scoundrel; or a knave—depending on when and where the word was used.
   Another example: “bitch” could refer to the female of the dog, wolf, fox, etc.; a woman, especially a bad tempered, malicious, or promiscuous woman; a course term of contempt or hostility; anything especially unpleasant or difficult; or a complaint—also depending on when and where the word was used.
   Still another example: “damn” could refer to condemn as guilty; to condemn to an unhappy fate; to condemn to endless punishment; to condemn as bad, inferior, etc. (often used in the imperative as a curse); to criticize adversely; to cause the ruin of or make fail; to swear at by saying “damn”; to express anger, annoyance, disappointment, etc.—also depending on when and where the word was used.
   Reading the Bible has some challenges of this nature also. First, because the translation we are using may have words that used to be in common usage and may sound odd or perplexing to us today.
   Also, because the mentality of the particular author—for the Bible is a collection of writings by many inspired authors over a period of many centuries—may be somewhat foreign to ours or concern matters, places, and people that we do not understand or accept.
   That’s why there is always a need for new translations of the same ancient texts, since the meaning of our words is constantly changing as well as our worldview.

   The understanding of the universe and the world we live in was very different in most Biblical days from the way it is now.
   We face a similar situation when we read, reflect, and pray using the Divine Office (the Breviary). We’re reading Biblical selections and reflections by ancient scholars and saints over a period of more than two thousand years. The meaning of words may have changed and evolved over the centuries as well as rules, regulations, laws, customs, and traditions.
   Some people are somewhat offended by what they consider to be annoying changes in translations and in rules, regulations, laws, customs, and traditions. But, for better or worse, there’s no escaping it. We always face a challenge of translation and adaptation, tiresome though it may be.
   The answer is not to criticize, condemn, and correct all changes but to adopt and understand the best and necessary of them.
   We each continually grow and develop—and so does the world we live in as well as everyone in it.
   It’s not just the Bible and the Breviary that constantly need updating and improved translations and interpretations—it’s everything, everywhere, and everyone.
   It’s okay to get tired of change and be reluctant to constantly modify and update your life—but, it’s not good to become a critic and opponent of all change.
   Each of us transitions from childhood to teenage to young adulthood and beyond—sometimes making mistakes and having regrets as our lives move on.
   Living involves constantly reacting to changes and challenges!

25 June 2023

Inundation

Inundation can be defined as flooded or overwhelmed by a great volume of something.
   In our contemporary society we are increasingly inundated by the sheer volume of options and choices that are available to us and the sheer volume of information that we are challenged to digest and respond to.
   I remember, as a kid, that New York City radio station WINS used to tout, “Give us ten minutes and we’ll give you the world.” (referring, that is, to the latest news). They prided themselves on digesting all the significant daily news into a few minutes, which were repeated hourly all day long.
   Now, we have television stations that spend all day long giving us the daily news. WINS’s problem was digesting the news into ten minutes; the problem that modern television news station have is how to find enough news or how to spin out the news long enough to fill out the entire day!
   The more is definitely not the merrier!
   This is just one way that our contemporary society overwhelms us, overwhelms us by giving us too much information or by not allowing us to have time to digest and reflect upon the information we already have.
   Another common example: the shopping mall. In the old days, you simply went to the nearby store to quickly purchase something; now you go to a huge complex, often very beautiful, highlighting and selling almost anything imaginable. You never have enough money to buy all the things that inevitably capture your attention and attract you.
   How about eating? entertainment? movies? ballgames? fashionable styles?
   There are so many things overwhelming us, inundating us, every day of our modern lives—and, you know what it does? It’s like the indigestion that comes from eating too much and too fast.

   We become not only sated but satiated. We are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of our daily experiences—and as a result we’re learning less, profiting less, and fatigued and enervated.
   The same thing applies to the spiritual aspect of our lives: too many books that are recommended to us, too many sermons and advices that we hear, too many models and behaviors that we are urged to imitate or to condemn!
   Do you recall or did you ever hear the Latin expression, “Quid ad aeternitatem?” It more or less means, “What does it matter in the light of eternity?”
   We rarely, if ever, ask ourselves a question like that. We rarely, if ever, get off the endless merry-go-round of our lives. You know what happens after a while? We forget how to get off! As the merry-go-round ride is non-stop, the so many courses in the daily meal of our lives are killing us! We’re hearing and seeing so many things that we’re becoming deaf and blind!
   Is there any hope for the future? Of course!
   What to do, how to do it? It’s easy!
   Stop!
   Stop the rat race! Stop the merry-go-round! Stop trying to keep up with it all! Stop trying to digest it all!
   Don’t forget the great wisdom you probably learned once upon a time, a question and answer from the catechism:
   Q. “Why did God make you?”
   A. “He made to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and be happy with Him forever in the next.”
   Take it easy! No hurry! You have forever!

21 May 2023

Perfection

“Perfect” is an adjective with a wide variety of usages. For example, it can mean,
– conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type,
– excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement,
– exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose,
– entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings,
– accurate, exact, or correct in every detail.
   There’s an old joke about two children, one incorrigibly pessimistic and the other incorrigibly optimistic. One Christmas their loving parents tried hard to break them of their habits.
   The parents filled one room with a magnificent Christmas tree, beautifully decorated, surrounded by a huge quantity of gifts. They invited the pessimist to open the door. He did and then burst into tears. “Look at the angel figure atop the tree,” he cried, “it’s crooked!”
   They prepared another room for the optimistic brother. He opened the door, saw nothing but straw and manure all over the floor, and clapped his hands with delight, saying, “Where’s the pony?”
   No human construction, situation, assessment, or communication is 100%, absolutely perfect and beyond improvement. (Remember, we’re not the Creator, only his creations.)
   No matter what we attempt and try to do and achieve, there will always be pessimists who will call attention to our flaws, limitations, or incompleteness. And, conversely, there will always be optimists celebrating our assistance, successes, and achievements.
   God made us, limited creatures that we are, and loves us in our struggle to celebrate and use the gifts he gives us and to overcome our imperfections and failures.

   There are no perfect people—not even among canonized saints! We all have limitations, flaws, and failings. We all make misjudgments and mistakes and “sin”.
   It doesn’t necessarily mean that we are profoundly flawed—only less than perfect.
   If our lives are to be thoroughly examined, measured, and adjudged, there will be, in retrospect, imperfections and regrettable moments—words, deeds, or actions.
   Since we’re limited, a critic can always find grounds for criticism. Generous school teachers to the contrary, we actually never really merit 100%—but, even so, there are huge differences, for instance, among grades of 95% (very, very good), 75% (not too bad), or 50% (seriously needing attention and improvement).
   This doesn’t mean that we should stop striving for perfection, only that we should do so realizing that it is absolutely totally unattainable.
   It also means, though, that we should stop wallowing in our inevitable failures or bewailing our imperfections. It’s okay to dream the impossible dream, but only if we don’t forget that it’s the impossible dream! (No 100%!)
   It’s also okay—and appropriate—to be realistic about our successes and failures, for we necessarily have both.
   If you’re inclined to be overly pessimistic about your life, remember that total perfection is impossible for you—but, also, with the help of God you can do, and probably have done, many good and wonderful things for many others.
   If you’re inclined to be overly optimistic, remember that only by God’s grace have you achieved all that you have achieved!

26 February 2023

God’s Requirements

With what shall I come before the Lord,
   and bow before God most high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
   with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
   with myriad streams of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my crime,
   the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

You have been told, O mortal, what is good,
and what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6:6-8)

   Religiosity in the days of the prophet Micah (8^th century BC) and for centuries before had a heavy emphasis on personal and public sins and atonement for them.
   In the days of the Jerusalem temple, atonement rituals involved sacrifices, especially animal sacrifices. The worse the sin (and the greater the sinner’s resources), the greater the sacrifice.
   Micah—and others—challenged this traditional religious custom and practice. You know what God really asks of you, he taught, it’s simple, three basic things:
– Do justice
   – Love goodness
   – Walk humbly with your God
   Now-a-days, we have no temple for atonement sacrifices but we still have a somewhat similar atonement mentality.
   But now as then, there’s no paying God back with sacrifices. If you regret what you have done, the answer to what you should and need to do is simple: exactly what Micah taught centuries ago.
   What God asks of you is not to spend time and effort regretting and mourning your failures nor in being jealous of others. “Don’t cry over spilled milk!”
   Just be just, be good, and be humble!

   Look, no matter what you can come up with, you can’t change the past. What’s said is said, what’s done is done.
   Don’t waste time regretting the past. We all have regrets about the past. None of us are perfect people, and none of us has a perfect past. Fact of life!
   Also, don’t waste time and effort in trying to “pay back”. No matter what you may consider to be enough, it may never be enough for another.
   The best you can do is to confess, to admit what you have done and, then, change for the future. It may never be enough for another, but it may be the best you can do.
   We still have a sacrifice mentality. We may feel the need to atone for what we have done. Others may demand that we pay a price for what we have done.
   Over the Christian centuries, many atonement practices have been popularized and some are still with us—e.g., special prayers, fasting, wearing painful devices, or vowing abstention from possessions, marriage, or free choices.
   With the best of intentions, we may still be making inadequate or inappropriate decisions.
   What God is asking of us, requiring of us, is relatively simple to state, pretty much what Micah taught long, long ago:

You have been told, O mortal, what is good,
and what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.

We more or less pray this every day, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

2 October 2022

Taking Care of the Baby and the Bathwater

“Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater” is good advice about a lot of things, not just about bathing babies.
   The point of the saying is that in caring for the baby we shouldn’t confuse the baby with the dirt that may have accumulated on him/her.
   When good Pope John XXIII announced his intention to convoke an ecumenical council he had used a somewhat similar metaphor, about cleaning a great painting so that its original beauty could better be seen, for assuring Christians worried about possible changes in the Church.
   In our modern world, polarized in many aspects, similar concerns, unease, and challenges are facing us.
   On the one hand, we don’t want to leave the baby dirtied or the great painting encrusted with accumulated grime and retouching—but on the other hand, we don’t want to endanger either the baby or the painting.
   The reality of life is that babies do get dirtied and need to be bathed—and great works of art sometime do require a delicate cleansing.
   Remember when Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel were cleansed and restored? Some in the art world were shocked by the boldness of the original colors he had used, since they were so accustomed to seeing them through the pre-restoration accumulations of grime.
   When it comes to babies, the matter is more complicated. Babies are living beings; that means they grow, changing and developing. If we want to have them always as they once were, we are denying them life, since life involves change and development.
   Resistance to change may preserve something valued in the past, but also it may preclude growth and, perhaps, betterment and progress.

   The challenge is about discernment. Are we cleansing the accumulated disfigurement over time that needs to be washed away? Or, are we confusing accretions with essence, altering and changing something important and vital?
   For better or worse, our contemporary politics are never going to be exactly like the days of Washington, Lincoln, or Roosevelt, nor should they be. The world has changed.
   For better or worse, our contemporary social customs are never going to be exactly like those of a century ago or even those we may fondly remember from our youth.
   For better or worse, our religious beliefs, customs, and practices are never going to be exactly like they were before the early 20th century or the Second Vatican Council.
   If we’re tempted to work for restoration, allowing for development, we really need to remember the baby/bathwater dilemma. We cannot return entirely to the past.
   We have to let the living baby grow and mature, while washing away all that despoils its beauty and impedes its growth.
   Part of the challenge of our aging is experiencing change in our health, fitness, appearance, ideas, and values, as well as adjusting to the continual changes in the customs, practices, priorities, ideals, and values of the society in which we live.
   Do I always get it right? Do you? Of course not! It’s the very essence of a human being to be limited in every way—and also to be changing in every way.
   Call it what you will—mistake, error, misjudgment, fault, sin, or even progress—it’s who we are and what we do.
   God knows! (He made us this way!)

12 December 2021

West Point Seminaries

The seminary of the New York Archdiocese, St. Joseph’s Seminary, is located in the Dunwoodie neighborhood of the City of Yonkers; hence it’s nickname, Dunwoodie.
   Established in 1896, it had once been referred to as the West Point of seminaries. West Point, being, of course, where the United States Military Academy was located.
   What would a seminary be like if it was really modeled after West Point?
   These thoughts danced through my head during a recent visit to the West Point Visitors Center with its striking exhibitions about the Military Academy’s history, contemporary status, and what in a seminary might be called its “spirituality”.
   The exhibition area proudly displayed the mission statement of the academy:

To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.

   Change a few words, and it could serve as a mission statement for a seminary too, since the seminary also is meant to be a place where (the church’s) “officer corps” are educated, trained, and inspired.
   The seminary graduate also is commissioned (ordained) as a leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Church and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to his Diocese, Eparchy, or Order.
   In the Military Academy, the student body is not like that of other colleges; it is referred to and treated as a “Corps of Cadets”. The cadets are educated, trained, and inspired as a collaborative group, not as elite individuals.

   This means that shared responsibility and teamwork characterize every aspect of their experience. Like the Military Academy, the seminary is not meant to be a place for individuals to pursue their personal and individual goals and advancement.
   The cadet experience includes the equivalent of military basic training and more, since their training continues over the course of four years.
   Although seminaries usually do not have physical training as such, they traditionally had some rigorous demands and discipline with a tightly scheduled day that included when to arise, meditate, pray, eat, attend class, study, recreate, speak or be silent, be indoors or outdoors, and sleep.
   The defining values of Duty, Honor, Country that are esteemed at West Point are its strength. The academy trains and tests men and women for leadership.
   The seminary’s traditional strength usually has been more quality philosophical and theological education and less its developing of “esprit de corps”.
   Training for leadership in country or church is not like running for office. It involves subordinating one’s personal desires and advancement to the common good, seeking to serve, not to be served.
   However this doesn’t mean unthinkingly conforming and blind obedience. Professional excellence involves critical thinking and honest communication as well.
   The West Point Visitors Center and nearby Museum exhibitions trace the history and development of the academy and even such things as the nature of warfare itself. They effectively explain, educate, and inspire.
   West Point is a good model for a seminary!

26 September 2021

It’s Tradition

tradition 1. the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc. from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or practice 2. something that is handed down 3. a long established or inherited way of thinking or acting 4. a continuing pattern of culture beliefs or practices 5. a customary or characteristic method or manner 6. in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, unwritten codes, laws, doctrines, teachings, sayings, acts, etc. regarded as handed down from Moses, Jesus, Muhammad.

With respect for all our traditions, please notice that a tradition can and may be correct or mistaken, right or wrong, good or bad.
   Usually when a law or regulation is changed, we get used to the change and obey it, even though we may not think that the change was a good idea and personally liked the old one better.
   But, when it comes to traditions, we’re not so easily accepting of change—in fact it often seems that the very idea of deliberately changing a tradition is almost contradictory in itself!
   However, actually our traditions do change but usually gradually and imperceptibly (and sometimes mistakenly as well).
   For example,
   – What’s the proper skirt length for a well-dressed woman?
   – If I say, “Thank you”, and you reply, “No problem”, is that polite or inappropriate?
   – Is missing Mass on Sunday without an adequate reason a mortal sin for which you could burn in the fires of Hell forever?
   – Should a man greet another man with a kiss on the cheek?
   – Could a woman be elected president?
   – Is Heaven only for my coreligionists or can any good person end up there?

   – Is it wrong to use contraceptives?
   – If it’s written in the Bible, it must be always true, no matter who, what, or when.
   – If Jesus spoke Aramaic, not Latin, why should the Mass be in Latin?
   – Shouldn’t real Americans be Republicans? Democrats? Liberals? Conservatives?
   – Shouldn’t the man be head of the family?
   – The U.S. should keep out aliens, foreigners, socialists, communists, gays, Africans, Asians, Latins, etc.
   – Is gender a matter of anatomy? social customs? upbringing? personal preference?
   Excuse this smorgasbord listing of odd examples, but I’m trying to illustrate that traditions have changed or are changing, and are changing more rapidly than we sometimes realize.
   Why? Because of growth and development, individually and collectively, we are always encountering new challenges, ideas, experiences, and understandings. To be alive involves change, non-stop until the end of our lives.
   We no long believe that the earth is flat, that we live in the center of the universe. We no longer believe in many gods, and for many, in any god. Our notions of right and wrong, virtue and sin, evolve with the course of history and our individual lives. Our capacity for rapid exchange of information and communication is phenomenal—and often misleading.
   Sometimes, it’s because we can’t keep up, because we can’t process so much so fast, that we fall back on and cling to “traditions”.
   Our heritages are our legacies not our laws, our gifts not our obligations, our memories not our futures.
   Respect traditions, surely, but also live!

19 September 2021

Building Sand Castles

Sand Castle: 1. a small castle-like structure made of wet sand, as by children at a beach. 2. A plan or idea with little substance.

The dictionary definition is accurate enough, but in yet another sense much of our lives involves building sand castles.
   It’s not that we are consciously and deliberately choosing to construct something fragile and impermanent. It’s that no matter how hard we may try to build to last, no construct of ours lasts forever, not even close!
   – Many marriage rituals include the making of a commitment “until death do us part”. It may be a sincere and heartfelt expression of choice and determination—but, alas, how often unanticipated circumstances and changes, like the sea with the sand castle, can wash it away.
   – For some people their employment is something to be endured for the sake of the salary they receive, but no matter what their feelings any employment is impermanent, although why and when we may not know.
   – Think of the sacrifices parents often make to provide for their families. They may work and save to buy a big home, enough for all their children. But sometimes as children grow, marry, and move away and as parents age, the house that was so desired once may become empty and burdensome.
   – You may have a job that you dedicate much of your life to. You may even make valuable contributions to the organization’s greater good. Yet, when another comes to take your place, all may change for better or for worse.
   There’s an old lyric that voices a similar idea: “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot.”
   It’s clearly expressed in the Bible: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)

   The moral of all this doesn’t mean that every human effort is futile. There is a joy in the doing, a satisfaction in the achievement, a gifting to another or others in the process.
   In the Genesis story of the temptation and the fall, the serpent urges the woman to eat the forbidden fruit, “…your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods…”
   Isn’t any human aspiration to build forever, any attempt to create something that is everlasting succumbing to the same temptation?
   Isn’t any brooding sorrow over the collapsing, failing, or ending of any kind of human endeavor or effort “devilish”? Or, as Mr. Spock, of Star Trek fame, might say, “illogical”?
   We may yearn for the eternal but it is beyond our means to achieve it. We may lament the endless moments of loss in our lives but it is our human condition.
   Just because a sand castle, no matter how large or beautiful or complex it may be, ultimately is washed away doesn’t mean that there was no pleasure or satisfaction in its building.
   The very capability to build it and all our life and to experience pleasure, satisfaction, and joy in the doing is a gift of God.
   Shouldn’t that very realization be a further motive for gladness and for thanksgiving?
   “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
   Enjoy your time at the beach! Have fun building your sand castles! But, when the day wanes and the daylight dims, it’s time to go home.

15 August 2021