As I was in the shower this morning, I had the notion that Solomon must have been my age when he wrote Ecclesiastes. When he was young and idealistic, he asked God for wisdom. Perhaps as his ideals were held up to the light of reality which wisdom can't ignore, he saw his ideals for what they were, and became a little cynical and depressed. Then he wrote Ecclesiastes.
I got a Louis L'Amour book from the library yesterday to enjoy some light reading. I've read a few in the past, and they give you the feeling of watching a good action movie. This time, however, my enjoyment was stifled by a new perspective of westerns.
Our cookout a few weeks ago was attended by one of Chris' friends and his wife and sister-in-law. The women are twin Native Americans that grew up on a reservation in Nebraska. Late in the evening, after most of the guests were gone, they sat smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, and relating they oppression they experienced growing up. In their discourse, they described bleaching hair in attempts to pass as white. They described the relief they felt when they moved to Tennessee, where 'Indians' aren't the focus of racial prejudice. And they despise John Wayne.
Hate John Wayne? The great American hero who shot bad guys and protected the women and the homestead from those wild and crazy Indians? Oh.
On another tangent... I received an e-mail about a massive, 23-foot alligator that was caught in a Texas lake where there aren't supposed to be alligators. The end of the e-mail stated that it was a shame they killed it... That it would have been helpful in the Rio Grand. I can imagine the writer is also a republican who also is against stem-cell research and raves about the sanctity of human life. And I suppose if he or she happened to be born in a third world country, he or she would be content to sit and starve in a slum when the 'promise of a better life' was just a few hundred miles away.
The big picture is not black and white.
I should write my own modern-day Ecclesiastes.
1 comment:
Solomon has always been a mystery to me....How could the wisest man on earth end up so tragically?! Why did he forget his conclusion to "Fear God & keep His commandments"? Was his wisdom his stumblingblock and in his despondency he turned to women for some comfort? Is there a lesson in him about being TOO wise?
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