Sunday, April 24, 2011
This thread was posted around Easter midnight
Someone took photos of teenage athletes after a competition who happened NOT to be smiling and someone else thought that young people should always be smiling in photos. I show below only my side of the conversation.
I commented:
Given the slap-stick vacuous humor which surrounds American media I find somber sobriety refreshing ESPECIALLY among young people. Life is about being serious and not being a giggling, grinning clown and buffoon who constantly seeks to have fun and diversion. Nowadays sitting presidents do the late night talk show circuit and make their little jokes. I find it hard to imagine Eisenhower going on such shows and cracking jokes. I think America has gone down hill in the past 50 years.
I did not say they were not happy. I say that one need not smile in a photo to be happy and it is ok to be yourself and not do things simply because others arbitrarily expect it. King Solomon said it in a nutshell (paraphrasing) "Better is the end of things than the beginning and the day of one's death than the day of one's birth. The heart of the wise man is in the house of mourning but the heart of the fool is in the house of mirth." No single verse could better sum up the essence of the Bible and yet that verse is totally incomprehensible to the American culture which considers itself "Bible-based.". Ruth thinks they should be smiling in the photo. I think they look just fine. I am sure they laugh and smile and play. What is that other verse from Solomon (ok I had to google for this) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ---- ____________So, at the moment that photo was taken it wasn't a time for smiling.
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ---- ____________So, at the moment that photo was taken it wasn't a time for smiling.
Serious question: was Christ unhappy on the cross? I say that he was not unhappy because he did what had to be done and what could not have been done in any other way (since he said that verse about "let this cup pass") ... I think that people confuse laughter and smiling and comedy with happiness. Happiness requires fulfillment in a meaningful way. I do not think Socrates was "unhappy" accepting the death sentence since he saw it somehow as part of his social contract for being an Athenian citizen and since "philosophy is a preparation for death." Regarding Solomon: Solomon prayed for wisdom and God told Solomon that he would be wiser that any "anthropos" who came before him and wiser than any "anthropos" who would come after him. Therein lies the significance of Jesus saying that "a WISER than a Solomon is in your midst." One may deduce that Jesus is not simply "anthropos" but "theos-anthropos" or "God-man" in which case Solomon remains the wisest anthropos ever.
At which point someone posts this:
Your posting of that link speaks volumes about your personal values and ironically, this thread unfolded at midnight when the Christian world is celebrating the resurrection. If there is a judgment then I am certain that your posting of this link will not pass without mention. I am not a Christian but I consider that post on this day to be in poor taste.
That's why a certain stand-up comic said "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."
For your sake let's hope that I am wrong, which I usually am, and you are right, and you always seem to be right.
Ah, but you did not seem anxious to be understanding and forgiving about Obama's "do unto others" gaffe. You hinted that it foreshadowed and portended ominous things. We are told that "with what measure you measure out unto others so shall it be measured unto you." So, suppose YOU are judged for this by the same standards which you chose to judge Obama's gaffe?
But isn't part of the whole teaching that if you have a grievance with your neighbor, you should set down your offering, go and forgive and make peace with you neighbor and THEN come and make your offering. Have you forgiven your brother Barack? It does not sound to me like you have. And if you cannot forgive him then can you seek forgiveness for yourself?
But since Jesus advised that we pray in the privacy of our room rather than on the street corner or the photo-op, then how can you be certain that Barack has not repented of his sins and sought forgiveness. God tells the prophet Samuel that God alone is the only "knower of the heart." That is why we are cautioned not to judge others in a pharisaic fashion. Remember the example of the publican and the pharisee.
