If I Should Die Before I Wake

The older I get the more disappointed I am with the fruits of liberalism, all of which look good on paper, but tend to develop bitter headaches once ingested into society. Outrageous awards granted by juries in frivolous lawsuits have clogged our judicial system with get-rich-quick, finger-pointing, he said, she said, lawsuits that don’t amount to a hill of beans, all because somebody’s feelings got hurt over a spilled cup of coffee. It doesn’t seem anybody wants to be responsible for anything in their own life anymore, let alone be respectful of other people’s lives. The bottom line has become top priority and it doesn’t seem to matter how you get there anymore. “Just do it.” Lying, cheating, stealing and manipulating are all a part of business as a sense of survival of the fittest. Well, this type of thinking is tearing down financial structures all around the world. They can no longer be supported by the “new math” of liberals.
Most of what we really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, we should have learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox. These are the things we were taught: Share everything; Play fair; Don’t hit people; Put things back where you found them; Clean up your own mess; Don’t take things that aren’t yours; Say your sorry when you hurt somebody; Wash your hands before you eat; Flush; Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you; Learn, and think, and draw, and paint, and sing, and dance, and play, and work some every day; Take a nap every afternoon; When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together; Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the cup of dirt. The roots grow down and the plant grows up, and nobody really knows why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the cup full of dirt …they all die; so do we. Remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything we needed to know is in that book somewhere; The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living. Think of what a better world it would be if we all had cookies and milk about 2 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Just think, if we had a basic policy in our nation and nations of the world, to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes, what a different life we would be living today. And always remember, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, hold hands and stick together.
[Ecclesiastes 2] “If I should die before I wake” prayed young Billy, “If I should die before I wake …If I should die” “Go on Billy”, urged his mother, “you know the rest of the prayer.” Scrambling to his feet Billy blurted, “I’ll be right back!” He ran into the next room, but soon he was back. Dropping to his knees he finished his prayer without a bobble. Tucking him into bed, his mother gently rebuked him for interrupting his prayer and that he should be thinking about what he was saying while praying. “I was”, said the boy defensively, “that’s why I stopped. You see, I stood all of Ted’s soldiers on their heads just to see how mad he would be in the morning. If I should die before I wake, I wouldn’t want him to find them that way, so I had to go and fix them right.” We are all too worldly. In the Bible book of Mathew, chapters 5, 6 & 7, the teaching of Jesus changed the world. It’s a shame we’re slipping back into barbaric thinking.