Dr. Seuss and Politics

This is it: the day the fate of our country will forever be determined. Today we either enter Utopian bliss or seal our own destruction. Today is our only shot at rescuing America from its sinful ways; if we choose wrong today, our once-great nation will pass under God's judgment and most likely fail.

All right, hold the phone. Are American standards of morality rapidly deteriorating? As a Christian, I believe so, yes. Is the right to elect our President a blessing, and one I think we should take advantage of? You bet. I voted for the first time this election season and I'm proud to have done so. Does God have the power to judge sinfulness at any time? Of course He does. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah.

I don't agree with President Obama's politics, but I don't believe the fact that babies are being brutally murdered is his fault. Have his policies made it easier to get an abortion? Sure. Did I vote for him? No. But it isn't his fault. It's not his fault that lots of people consider homosexuality an inherent quality rather than a sinful lifestyle choice. Do his policies facilitate it? Yes. Is it his fault? No.

It's my fault.

It's my fault because I don't say anything. I don't always defend God's Word when its principles are questioned. I don't like trying to tell someone who identifies as gay how God feels about that. Even when I stand up for these issues that have jumped the border between morality and politics, I am more than content to sit back in apathy when someone uses the Lord's name in vain, telling myself that's "not as big a deal." I don't ask other Christians why they watch television shows filled with profanity and sex jokes. I shy away from directly telling an immodest girl that she's causing brothers in Christ to stumble.

Even at a Christian college, I pass people every day who don't know Jesus, and I don't even bother to mention Him. I'm not welling over with the indescribable joy that comes with salvation. For the most part, I don't care enough about others to try to get them to Heaven.

Why is America going downhill? I can blame it on politics all I want, but the bottom-line is I'm doing nothing to stop it. But at least I voted!

Growing up I loved Dr. Seuss' book The Lorax. As Dr. Seuss so often is, it's deeper than it seems at first glance, and I've always liked this quote: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." I can vote a certain way, talk a certain way, blog a certain way, but if I'm not actually out there trying to affect change, what on earth is the point?

Lucky for us, hearts, unlike the government, always have the capacity to change. There won't be another presidential election for four years, and whatever happens tonight, we're stuck with it for a time. However, you can go out tomorrow and change someone's life. And that will have a longer lasting impact anyway.

Bottom line, this country isn't going to start changing until I start changing. So I'm gonna start changing. What about you?

Cherry Tree Lane

The weathervane next to your chimney turns

Again, and since the gray skies now grow bright

With colors dancing on the wings of kites, 

My time is spent, and though my warm heart yearns

To bring you with me in my travel case

Crammed in next to my coatrack and my books--

Your impish smiles folded into nooks

So I can take them out on rainy days.

Or better yet, to scorn ungrateful hearts

Who needed to be told your love was rare--

But no. The rooftops call through ashen air, 

Proclaiming there are stories yet to start.

Your happy ever after now begins, 

So I will barter passage with the wind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey peeps. I wrote this a couple of days ago. 

I was thinking deep collegiate thoughts the other day about how life changes and people come and go in each other's lives.  As a dear friend of mine would say, "The curtain goes up, and the curtain goes down," and that applies to people too. Sometimes people need your friendship desperately, but sometimes those same people stop needing you, even though you really want them to need you. While that's a serious bummer, you have to have a good gauge of when you've played your part in their life, and it's time to let them do their own thing. The great thing about it, though, is that it's not necessarily a bad thing. There are wonderful people and adventures still out there that need you. 

...And then, I thought, "That's just like Mary Poppins." 

And this poem was born. 

I kinda wanted the Poppins references to be sort of subtle-- the chimney and rooftops, and the never-ending travel case, and traveling by wind (like with the umbrella). Cherry Tree Lane is also the street the Bankses live on. Hopefully the references are obvious enough that maybe it made you think of Mary Poppins, but you didn't realize I did it on purpose. That's kind of what I was going for. 

Hope you enjoyed it! Critique welcome! (I don't always say that, but please. Critique if you wish.)

"Practically perfect people never allow sentiment to muddle their thinking." -Mary Poppins