Truth – what the heck is truth? The definition from the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the real facts about something.” Geez, that is helpful. Ask anyone about the real facts about the Veteran’s Administration scandal, Benghazi, or even older scandals such as Iran-Contra or the Gulf Oil Spill, and all you get is political spin. Maybe it is because all of those things are just so political. Nowadays, I don’t have a good feel for what is NOT political!
Try asking someone about some seemingly uncontroversial subject like global warming. Hmmm. How about something simple, like the number of people who have signed up for the Affordable Healthcare Act (aka “Obamacare”)? We can’t even get the ground truth in our own elections. Even in this high technological age, it seems an uncontroversial “truth” that both the voter rolls and actual voting are skewed. That makes me a little nervous when we declare a “true” winner.
Recently, some long-held human “truths” have been called into question. For centuries it has been true that marriage was a union between a man and a woman. No more. It used to be true that certain body parts provided the true definition of the gender of an individual. Now even that is now subject to interpretation. You can hardly tell any more someone’s gender by the person’s clothing!
No wonder why our kids are so screwed up. They don’t know what to believe. We have created a sense that truth is only what we say it is. Truth, now, is true only in the eye of the beholder. I’ve heard this described as relativism. As Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, stated years ago, “we are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.” Among other things, this leads to a denial of absolute truth which leads to moral license to do anything one desires.
This is a problem not only for its lack of a foundation for people to build their lives on. It is a problem for society at large. We still by and large agree in the truth that murder is bad. Yet in reality, it depends upon the context. American society seems to bend that truth when it comes to abortion, capital punishment, and even physician-assisted suicide. Other societies have other similarly skewed rules. In some Muslim societies, it is okay, even honorable, to murder an infidel. If a woman commits adultery in that society, she too may be killed.
Maybe I am getting old, but I, for one, reject the idea of skewed truth. No, I do not see everything in black and white, but there are certain principles that I believe are universal and everlasting. Most of those are the ones espoused by our country’s founders in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Those include the ideas of natural law, certain rights inherent in humankind, subservience to a benevolent creator, and the fact that this country was blessed by that creator with liberty.
Unfortunately, that blessing of liberty depends upon certain truths and principles. To paraphrase the words of Benjamin Franklin, to keep the blessing of liberty, we must adhere to the truths and principles upon which this nation was founded.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
Don't Shoot the Mouse!
What a gorgeous Spring Day! After church and grocery shopping, Amy and I spent the day planting our new expanded garden. I certainly cannot name the plants (that is Amy's specialty), but I do know that they are perennials, so hopefully, this garden work will not be an annual monumental task. A day later, my fingers are still dirty and my muscles are aching. Still, it was worth it. The day prior had involved similar manual labor, including slaying a few trees to provide more sunlight for the new garden.
Anyway, yesterday we finished off with beers on the deck as we admired our weekend's handiwork. As the dogs whined for their dinner, I figured it was about time to cook the hamburgers on the grill for Amy and I. That is when the real adventure began. I pulled off the cover of the grill and opened the hood. As I glanced into the grill I noticed what looked like a bird's nest under the grate. So I opened the bottom of the grill and pulled out the drip tray. Sure enough, it was a large nest. I did see a few bird feathers, but no eggs, unless they were buried deep in the nest. I dumped it into the trash can, returned the drip tray, turned on the gas, and proceeded to light the grill. As I watched the burners light I saw what looked like a foot through the grates. I quickly turned off the gas and opened the doors under the grill. Looking back at me with bright wide eyes was a MOUSE! I probably jumped back several feet as the mouse just stared at me. I began to shoo him away with a spatula and he scampered out of the grill and somewhere under the deck.
I then proceeded to re-light the grill. I went inside to get the hamburgers while the grill warmed up. After a few minutes, I decided that the grill was plenty hot, so I reached into the bottom of the grill to grab my grill brush. Sure enough, as I peered in, the mouse was back looking at me. This time, he quickly scampered away, so I proceeded to brush the grates of the grill. Out of curiosity, I decided to look around to see if the mouse was still lurking around. I jumped back again when I saw him clinging to the gas line hose on the side of the grill. At this point, I should probably call it "her" since she is obviously looking for her baby mice.
Not wanting to play this cat and mouse game all night, I decided I need to get rid of the mouse. But how to do it? I guess I could have whacked her with my spatula or grill brush, but that sounded pretty brutish. As I have become an avid hunter of scavenger birds, I quickly thought of my pellet gun. I ran off to get the gun and -- surprise -- she was still clinging to the gas hose. So I quickly loaded the gun thinking that would get her to scramble. Nope. In the background I hear Amy screaming from the kitchen, "don't shoot the mouse!" I move in and get the barrel of the gun within nearly a foot of the mouse and she still didn't move. So, I pulled the trigger.
Mouse and mouse guts everywhere! Dead hit. Just a little clean-up work that I wasn't expecting. It was only in the after-thought that I realized how STUPID this whole debacle was. Surely, the mouse would have gotten the message that the baby mice were gone -- and she would probably have left for good. The thing I didn't even fathom, though, was that I shot at the mouse as she was clinging to the gas line -- THE GAS LINE! Had I missed my shot by a mere fraction of an inch, I probably would have gone up in a huge explosion, together with my deck and half the house!
I thank my lucky stars, but can honestly say that I learned something today.
Anyway, yesterday we finished off with beers on the deck as we admired our weekend's handiwork. As the dogs whined for their dinner, I figured it was about time to cook the hamburgers on the grill for Amy and I. That is when the real adventure began. I pulled off the cover of the grill and opened the hood. As I glanced into the grill I noticed what looked like a bird's nest under the grate. So I opened the bottom of the grill and pulled out the drip tray. Sure enough, it was a large nest. I did see a few bird feathers, but no eggs, unless they were buried deep in the nest. I dumped it into the trash can, returned the drip tray, turned on the gas, and proceeded to light the grill. As I watched the burners light I saw what looked like a foot through the grates. I quickly turned off the gas and opened the doors under the grill. Looking back at me with bright wide eyes was a MOUSE! I probably jumped back several feet as the mouse just stared at me. I began to shoo him away with a spatula and he scampered out of the grill and somewhere under the deck.
I then proceeded to re-light the grill. I went inside to get the hamburgers while the grill warmed up. After a few minutes, I decided that the grill was plenty hot, so I reached into the bottom of the grill to grab my grill brush. Sure enough, as I peered in, the mouse was back looking at me. This time, he quickly scampered away, so I proceeded to brush the grates of the grill. Out of curiosity, I decided to look around to see if the mouse was still lurking around. I jumped back again when I saw him clinging to the gas line hose on the side of the grill. At this point, I should probably call it "her" since she is obviously looking for her baby mice.
Not wanting to play this cat and mouse game all night, I decided I need to get rid of the mouse. But how to do it? I guess I could have whacked her with my spatula or grill brush, but that sounded pretty brutish. As I have become an avid hunter of scavenger birds, I quickly thought of my pellet gun. I ran off to get the gun and -- surprise -- she was still clinging to the gas hose. So I quickly loaded the gun thinking that would get her to scramble. Nope. In the background I hear Amy screaming from the kitchen, "don't shoot the mouse!" I move in and get the barrel of the gun within nearly a foot of the mouse and she still didn't move. So, I pulled the trigger.
Mouse and mouse guts everywhere! Dead hit. Just a little clean-up work that I wasn't expecting. It was only in the after-thought that I realized how STUPID this whole debacle was. Surely, the mouse would have gotten the message that the baby mice were gone -- and she would probably have left for good. The thing I didn't even fathom, though, was that I shot at the mouse as she was clinging to the gas line -- THE GAS LINE! Had I missed my shot by a mere fraction of an inch, I probably would have gone up in a huge explosion, together with my deck and half the house!
I thank my lucky stars, but can honestly say that I learned something today.
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