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Sheltering Walls

Bare Trees in Fog

I Cannot Tell a Lie.

Whether those words were spoken by the "Father of our country", American History cannot say.* Yet, every schoolchild in the United States knows some version of that boy speaking the truth when he was guilty. Legend has it his father asked what the young George had done to the cherry tree, and he replied, hatchet in hand, "I cannot tell a lie".


How far we have come. Nowadays, we must sift through lies told every day, all the time, to get to the truth. The BBC has hired over 60,000 fact checkers to do this task. Believing whatever you want, is another way to go. Why not?


Like Ripley's "Believe it or not" there is a litany of unbelievables spewed on any given day. If you can believe the most egregious falsehoods about other people eating pets, it is not a leap to believing lies while witnessing just the opposite of what someone actually does. And, that is what the "Lyin' King" counts on most. Truth be damned!


Shocking as it is, we are not actually being asked to believe, but to accept, ignore, and proceed "as if". Even a gullible schoolchild understands the difference and why it matters. The facts are irrelevant in the eyes of the Lyin' King, who built a life, unlike the first President, on anything but truth. Here's the rub: for every person who wants to become a citizen of this country, there are certain questions, certain truths that must be accepted as fact. I wonder how many of us could pass the U.S. Citizenship test*? Try it. You may be surprised. I was!


We have each been given one unalienable right that separates us from those who want to one day be part of this country. That one right is our right to vote. It is what makes it precious.


Uncharacteristically for the Lyin' King, he is telling us the truth about how he will use our votes, i.e., for or against him. Depending on which way things go in any given state. His actions and words are telling us that our one unalienable right as American citizens will not be necessary if only the numbers can be fudged . . . ahead of time, no less. Believe it or not!


The Lyin' King knows he is staring down a possible landslide and that he will have to ratchet up not only the lies but the actual things he must do right before our lying eyes. We are witnesses to the man-boy with the hatchet cutting down the tree, cherries stuffed into his mouth, asking: "What tree?"



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Who Shall We Take Aim at This Time?


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For the second week in a row, I am asking myself what I might say regarding the "news du jour". You are probably asking what else is there to say? We have exhausted these explanations: lone wolf, angry young man, deranged teen, etc. etc. etc. You know where this is going. While we have run out of words, those who aim to destroy life will never run out of guns, unless we do something.


From the school room to the golf course, there is no safe place when guns are prevalent in every town in this country. Don't start with the second amendment; start by stopping the sale of weapons without regard for who buys these lethal tools with only one thing in mind: to use it!


Things are out of control when presumptive candidates for our country's most important position duck for cover on the fifth hole huddled beneath paid Secret Service. Never mind our children going into lockdown with nothing between them and their teacher. (Thank you teachers!)


Guns are aimed with equal force and will against candidates in the public eye and children in the public school. Guns are not being used in these cases for self protection, as the "right to bear arms" proclaims. A golf club against an AK-47 machine gun is no match anymore than a teacher's ruler against a rifle. Caught in the crossfire are those without guns who have the same right under the second amendment to bear arms, but they don't in their everyday lives while golfing and learning. This has become an intergenerational issue to resolve, once and for all. Boycotts can be effective if you want to stop a product from being sold. But, those who do not buy guns cannot take such a stand to make a change. Protests raise up voices in anger against injustices. But, it is too little too late after death ends an innocent life.


  • Who then shall we take aim at to end violent murder by guns in public places?


  • Who owns this responsibility?


  • We do!


We vote for or against gun laws each time we vote for a candidate on our local level, our state level, our national level. Before you vote on November 5, find out if your candidate of choice is on the record regarding gun laws. If not, ask them where they stand.


gunsensevoter.org* is a resource site that lists ALL U.S. candidates in 2024 who advocate for stronger gun laws. Looking up your state is as easy as logging on to take aim in the voting booth at anyone who refuses to protect you and me as we go about our day.



*project of Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America





 
 
 

© 2023 by Marie Laure

​Six Stages of Pilgrimage:

  • The Call:

  • The opening clarion of any spiritual journey. Often in the form of a feeling or some vague yearning, a fundamental human desire: finding meaning in an overscheduled world somehow requires leaving behind our daily obligations. Sameness is the enemy of spirituality.

  • The Separation:

  • Pilgrimage, by its very nature, undoes certainty. It rejects the safe and familiar. It asserts that one is freer when one frees oneself from daily obligations of family, work, and community, but also the obligations of science, reason, and technology.

  • The Journey:

  • The backbone of a sacred journey is the pain and sacrifice of the journey itself.  This personal sacrifice enhances the experience; it also elevates the sense of community one develops along the way.

  • The Contemplation:

  • Some pilgrimages go the direct route, right to the center of the holy of holies, directly to the heart of the matter. Others take a more indirect route, circling around the outside of the sacred place, transforming the physical journey into a spiritual path of contemplation like walking a labyrinth.

  • The Encounter:

  • After all the toil and trouble, after all the sunburn and swelling and blisters, after all the anticipation and expectation comes the approach, the sighting. The encounter is the climax of the journey, the moment when the traveler attempts to slide through a thin veil where humans live in concert with the Creator.

  • The Completion and Return:

  • At the culmination of the journey, the pilgrim returns home only to discover that meaning they sought lies in the familiar of one's own world. "Seeing the place for the first time . . ."

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