Axelrod, Jesus, and the Cognitive Dissonance of American Politics and Religion

I'm a preacher's daughter. When you grow up next door to where your dad works, and when he works from home a lot, and when you work in the church a lot--loading the communion trays, ditto-ing and folding bulletins, choir practice, the quotidian tasks of a church mouse--you can say you've been "baptized," "washed in the blood," as it were. Every part of my life was honest-to-god Christian. Poster-family quality. It was great. Until I figured out that some people who also said they were Christian were very mean and hurtful, for no reason I could discern.

1954 Mtn. Grove, Missouri. On the way home from Cabool one night after the movies, we rounded a curve and came upon a wreck. It was pitch dark, and we couldn't see much, but Daddy pulled over. He told us to stay in the car, and ran to the wreck to see what he could do. It seemed like a long time before a state patrol car came along, while we sat paralyzed with dread. My first real tragedy. I later learned that it was truly a tragedy for my father--one of the little boys in the wreck died in his arms, and it may have been the first time I saw my father cry. He was a real life example of a Good Samaritan.

Daddy grew up on a farm, so he was pragmatic about most things--hunted, fished, comfortable with the laws of Nature. But he had a soft spot in his heart, which helped me create an impression of THE Jesus. A man who cared about other people to the point of taking on suffering himself. Who helped others.

At the very same time, this was NOT what I saw some folks doing. Like the whole damn state of Arkansas threatening a few young people who actually WANTED to go to school to learn and grow. I couldn't see Jesus standing on the steps to the school spitting on any child, red, yellow, black or white. Because I learned in Bible School that we are all precious in his sight. Is this not the perfect Jesus all Xtians believe in?

As I grew older, and learned more about the stories and musings behind the daily structure, I found my dad's text from divinity school for New Testament Greek. In Greek. Aha. Coupled (literally) with my mom's influence with words, this propelled me into researching the general topic of religion, especially other peoples' religions. After years of study and reflection, I still believe that Jesus was a man to emulate according to the teachings we've received, no matter how shaky. I have believed since I was around 15, that Buddha and Allah and God are pretty much the same idea, with Jesus, Mohammed, and Zarathustra as the comm link, all swirled around with various colors and flavors of the Holy Ghost, ghospodi, spiritum sanctum, cavorting in Valhalla, Paradise, a sunny beach in Mexico.

Which brings me to what set off this rant. David Axelrod in an interview with someone from the WaPo. Thinking that he is just the person to be where he is right now. Kinda reminds me of Bill Moyers back when he was in politics, LBJ's press secretary, et al. Bill has that Jesus/Buddha-like quality of calm, open-minded reason, willing to do the heavy lifting into researching and reporting the truth. David Axelrod speaks the truth. I think the new administration in general is speaking the truth. Time to act more like Jesus and less like the obliterating Old Testament God of Hate that some self-styled "Christians" like our former VP and other twists to their own ends. It's a hard parallel to make, but it's stunning how politics has become so in service of a wrathful deity to practically self-immolate. At the least, to polarize politics right along with this Christian dichotomy of cognitive dissonance. At least in Hinduism, there is a pantheon of gods and goddesses to more closely mirror the human condition. Even the duality of Buddhism is a cyclical reminder that we are all one, it's all connected.

However, the destructive example of Christianity found in this country doesn't look that different to me than that of Sunni vs. Shi'ia--similar ideology--my god's better than your god, and I'm going to kill you. We're better than that.

Not an especially Christian thing to say. On the other hand, I don't advocate bombing, starving, torturing, or surrounding them with that wretched depleted uranium, or giving all the money to buddies instead of the people who it's supposed to help. I do wish that people would stop listening to them and putting any kind of Jesus-loving link to what they're saying. Jesus is better than that. Don't feed the animals.

Elderbloggers are aging...and why that's important

Capricorn/Aquarian birthdays are proliferating, and I'm aware of the wheel turning. A dear friend just turned 50. He was barely in his 20's when I met him in grad school, and I can hardly believe he has only 7 years until retirement.

Every once in a while I get swept up in a deep sense of loss, as it must happen. I've been thinking a lot lately about the very special, critical difference in elderbloggers and younger bloggers. We have less time. We must gather and push our very best adventures and what we've learned from them out on the internet and in person to connect. Clue those youngsters in to what they will need to know to get their little dogies along down the road.

Elderblogrolls, frozen in electronic amber, the penners having passed on into their respective ethers. Links take on an entirely new meaning. The march of generations.

Remarkable elders, caring enough to share in ways that are gifts rather than dictates. After all, is that not our job? My most perfect memories are at my Mamaw's side, learning how to grow flowers as well as veggies, make fried okra, sew and crochet; and my Papaw's--learning how to work with wood, make fried yellow squash, peach ice cream, and fudge with pecans.

Another phenomenon more and more with elderbloggers is contact out of the blue with old boyfriends, school chums, my sisters' school chums, my daugher's school chums et al, childhood friends from 55 years ago. I'm telling you, it's hardly even two degrees of separation now.

I'll have to find it, a post by a woman who was contacted by an old schoolmate, male. Her description was on the nose--hilariously duplicating my own experience. It's just so amazing to see new horizons to explore.

So while I'm sad to lose elder voices, their pioneering work is exemplary and inspiring. It felt good to be a part of the Viet Nam era revolution. It feels great to again be a part of a movement with positive, life-affirming goals.

Support Your Local Elderblogger

SXSWi images

Some of the intriguing glass sculptures in the SE stairwell of the Austin Convention Center. Quite a bit more appealing than the institutional drab of the meeting rooms.

Met some great people, including Rhea of The Boomer Chronicles, and Virginia of First 50 Words. Plus a lot of cool, nice, smart techies.

Yes, I was at the PostSecret session with Mr. Warren, and witnessed the young man sharing his secret with the audience--he proposed to his girlfriend on stage, and to his relief, she accepted. A young woman shared her fear about her sister's illness. This was not your typical SXSWi session. "PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard." The art and the revelations compel you to dig deeper.

The only two sessions I could find on elders and technology were "Over Fifty and Not Dead Yet," targeting enterpreneurs who want to know how to market to us geezers and geezettes. I made a little comment at the end of the session, which resulted in an invitation to one of the "Conversations," a new feature this year. "Your Mom 2.0" slanted toward the usability and design techies. Some interesting discussion there.

I was disappointed that these were the only two this year. I suppose we're not that interesting--either that, or the generational gap is deeper than I thought. The obvious answer to that is to propose more sessions on aging and technology. Anyone game to work on such a presentation?

The holidays came early this year

Joared at Along the Way gave me the perfect gift today. She heard me. And she told other people that she liked what she heard. Joared gifted me with an absolutely amazing review in her blog, and at the same time, introduced me to some other truly wonderful, thoughtful, creative, world-changing people who are quietly blogging about things that matter to all of us, from the local to the global.

And elderbloggers rule! We've been there, tried that, given up, tried it another way, failed, succeeded, and learned from it. Now we want to share. Not only with other people our age, but with anyone who recognizes that we have something to share.

I invite you to visit the blogs joared recommended--you'll see what I mean.

Thank you, joared, this is an exquisitely thoughtful gift. I am humbled, and gratified.

Elderblogger badge by Kay/Ronni

A shoutout to Kay of Kay's Thinking Cap for coming up with the idea for the elderblogger badge. She modestly credits Ronni Bennett for helping with the code, but it's all about the collaboration, eh?

I'm psyched that I qualify for the badge, and display it proudly. If you're too young to be an elderblogger, there's another badge at Time Goes By that says "Elderbloggers Rule," and if you meet the criteria, you can show your support for the elderbloggers in your life. Start a trend--go check it out.

Kay features the "Groaner of the Week" and "Kay's Wonderful World of Weird Words," both of which appeal to the twisted wordsmith that lives in my soul. It shouldn't come as much of a shock that she is also a big fan of the annual O. Henry Pun-Off here in Austin, just one of the cool things to do here. She subscribes to The Pundit, in the punny sense of the word. She turned me on to the fact that the pun-offs are up on YouTube, which means endless merriment and fascination, if you can stomach them. An extra helping, please!

I met some articulate, thoughtful, and sometimes hysterically or quietly funny elderbloggers during the week of guesting on TGB, and I'll slowly add their links to my list so you can enjoy them, too.