[Rhodes22-list] Politics? Religion? Inspiration?

howard kitzmiller bestpestcontrol at earthlink.net
Tue Aug 22 22:57:06 EDT 2006


Lulluy by and good night, go to sleep little baby, go to sleep go to sleep
go to sleep little baby,
'we are wishing you well now.   Sweet dreams will come your way.  Lulluby
and good night.


> [Original Message]
> From: Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Date: 8/13/2006 6:37:56 PM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Politics? Religion? Inspiration?
>
> Frustrating day here!  Can't get my 12 year-old car to run or the much
older
wife to buy off on a new Volkswagon diesel - something about all the new
construction equipment.  Here's something I stumbled across in blogsphere
that made me feel better.

*Psalm 9-11: I will fear no evil
*By *Jules Crittenden <jcrittenden at bostonherald.com>*
Boston Herald City Editor

   Sunday, August 13, 2006 - Updated: 09:09 AM EST

*D*o you know anyone whose Sept. 11 fears have returned Someone with a
sick
feeling and a tightening of the chest, bordering on panic Someone
distraught
or perhaps just withdrawn and distracted in the past few days

       What do you say to calm their fears We drive each day on highways
where the likelihood that a dumptruck will veer into our path far outstrips
the possibility that we will find ourselves on an airplane targeted by
terrorists. The chances that we will get it in any number of benign but
equally deadly ways are exponentially higher than the chances that those who
want to kill us will, in any given case, succeed.

       Logic is irrelevant in combating these fears, as it is with children
who fear monsters under the bed. This is not to disparage these fears. The
threat is real. And while statistically remote, there is a factor that
elevates terrorism beyond the many mundane fates we all dodge daily. It is
the malice.

       There are men out there who want us dead. This is undeniable. They
want to see us all dead. Each and every one of us. They don't know our
names, they don't know what our thoughts are about their grievances. They
don't know what our actions are and how we've lived our lives. They don't
care. They just want us dead.

       I wish I had a sweet, comforting post-Sept. 11 lullaby to sing the
ones I love to sleep when they experience fear of these evil men. But I
don't. Lullabies combat false monsters. Real monsters require something
different.

       Psalms, like lullabies, give comfort. But they don't mask or deny the
threat. They embrace it, and show the way to strength and ultimately comfort
from within. What might a psalm say to anyone whose 9/11 fears have been
reawakened

       Strong, ruthless men and women go long hours without sleep for you.
They do everything they can to keep you safe. They are your shield. They
will kill for you, and die for you.You can take comfort from that knowledge
and draw strength from their example.

       But that is not enough. There is something you have to find within
yourself. It may be that one day, our shield will fail, and the insidious
foe that operates from beyond our borders and even within them will
penetrate that shield and kill some of us again.

        You must decide for yourself that you will not let them deter you
from your path. If they rise against you, you must be prepared to meet them.
Prepared to be ruthless in defense of what you love. It may mean that you
will die. We all do someday. As a friend of mine who knew what he was
talking about once said, it's not a matter of whether we will die, but how
we will die. And when the time comes, the best we can hope for in this life,
the one thing we might be able to control, is that we die well.

       Each of us must look within ourselves for the strength that pushed
the passengers of United Flight 93 forward against their hijackers on Sept.
11, in a successful if tragic assault that prevented further death and
destruction.

       We must look to the bravery of men such as Rick Rescorla, the
British-American security executive and Vietnam war hero who shepherded
thousands of people out of the World Trade Center but who stayed back
himself with the last and ultimately died in the wreckage.

       They are towering figures, but each of us has a little, just enough
of that in us that we can draw on, to carry us through. We honor them by
endeavoring to live up to their example. It begins by repeating to ourselves
the words from which others have drawn comfort in time of war and peril for
more than 2,500 years.

        I will fear no evil.

.............here is a footnote from the author at the blogsite source:
        "I'd like to note that while I am not particularly religious, I
consider the 23rd Psalm one of the greatest pieces of literature of western
civilization and also one of the greatest comforts in hard times even for an
unrepentant sinner such as myself.

Ditto,

Brad

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