Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

4 comments:

Bruce Kratky said...

Sin. Those responsible for it will reap what they sew.

4:54 PM  

Bruce Kratky said...

When you think about it, on a deeply personal level, what kind of mentality must one have to move into a building acquired in such a fashion. Let us make believe that the Israeli courts have made this decision on a morally acceptable basis. Let's assume that the whole world thinks that taking away the fifty year residence of a family is no worse than "ethically neutral". How, in God's name, could an adult man or woman sleep in such a place? I know full well that I could not.

Yet, I sleep in my home of twenty-four years on land most likely appropriated by fraud from native Americans. Still there is a difference. One hundred and sixty years have past since the land we live on was appropriated for the purposes of the State of Minnesota, United States of America. We purchased the building within accepted norms of economic behavior into which I was born. The previous owners sold the house to us on a purely voluntary basis. They built it. In fact, they initiated the transaction. More importantly, they were overjoyed at the price they received for the property and immediately purchased another property more suitable to their life's changing needs. Though historically my land has blood or sin associated with it the ghosts that live here with us are very, very old and abstract.

And what land has no blood in it? Not one acre on this planet. And the process the Israelis are using... not so different to what was used on their populations in Egypt, Tunis, Persia, Russia, France, Germany, England. What goes around, comes around. No doubt there is a reaping going on here, but there is another sewing happening too. I am reminded:

"This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid out, somewhere beyond the blood. The angels beckon me, from heaven's open doors. And, I can't feel at home in this world any more."

5:27 PM  

Andrew said...

I have definitely thought about this idea as well. As Americans our lands are equally stolen and founded on the bloodshed of Native Americans and others. Does it make it more right that it was centuries ago? Nope, definitely not, but the opposite does seem to be to be more wrong when it occurs in the present, wherever it may be. In a period where our ethics and morals have supposedly evolved into something more humane. Perhaps we haven't changed at all.

6:31 PM  

Bruce Kratky said...

Andrew, we have not changed at all. That is what I feel is the sad reality of the Middle East and so many other places. We westerners have a most insulated view of life compared to many of the cultures of the world. Some of my insulation was peeled off when we were in Cairo together. Thank you.

Though you enjoy Cairo and have come to love some of its people... life there can be very brutal. Little time to think. Little time to read and study. Little time to consider the finer points of history and to learn from them. When I said "we" in the first sentence I meant humanity in general. So much of humanity's time is spent on simple survival. Maslow's hierarchy of needs shows that most are still looking for shelter, water, food. They are not into the "self actualization" in life that perhaps you and I have been privileged to experience. I am haunted by some of the scenes in Cairo, in a good way spiritually, yet I know that what I saw there was relative wealth compared to so many other places. You know this much better than I.

I think the leadership in Israel sees these points I make. I think they feel they are dealing with very primitive instincts in those who oppose them. Certainly they believe, reasonably so, that these ancient animosities if left unchecked would lead to their extermination. That some Jews use this for wrong is a point I would concede. That all Jews act wrongly and rationalize violence toward others based on fear I do not accept. I do know that many Jews, particularly the elders, fear for their young, that their youth, never having experienced the concentration camps, will revert their nation into the oppressor. At some level they are there now. But, they do, I feel, have a national conscience that at some level fears God.

We must continually pray for all. We must somehow try to do better and help others to do better. We must find what is the ultimate expression of love to both Jew and Palestinian. For my take... they need to learn and experience "grace."

6:54 AM  

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