I have to preface this with a little from my own growing years so as not to offend anyone with any religious conviction. I was raised in a church family, with my father and mother pastoring a large congregation with satellite churches throughout the state.
So Ol’ Dutch had plenty of chances to hear the Good Book and should have been fine. But, it has been said that you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. To which Miss Trixie just said “Amen”. Which makes me wonder if she knows more about the silk purse or a sow’s ear?
But regardless, growing up in this household and being exposed to many different denominations over time, Ol’ Dutch got to see how others believed. It was mostly a pleasant experience and quite fun at times too.
This memory of the past was brought about after Miss Trixie was exposed to an overzealous religious person. Now Ol’ Dutch is far from criticizing people who like to pray and I myself am prone to a lot of prayer as I always end up in a pickle that needs heavenly extraction.
Why quite recently in fact, Ol’ Dutch noticed that a lot of people were praying in public places. Just stand at any gas pump in your neighborhood and you’ll hear people say, “Oh my God.” And that’s understandable with current prices because it’s a sure disaster that will likely require divine intervention to fix.
But aside from gasoline or buying other necessities that will make a man pray or maybe drink, there are people who seem to do nothing but talk about religious things.
I actually have a friend who says he’s read over 600 books on the end times. This is when some people predict that the world will end, people will walk around with nanochips and there will be a rapture, or no rapture, depending on your religion. All theories presented as bankable predictions, even though Big Guy’s son himself said “no man knows the time of my return”.
But it sells books, makes money for writers, and creates a slew of people ready to tell you all about it for hours if you stay still long enough in one place. And I guess that’s okay because they’re excited and excited to think they’re the only one who knows “the big secret.”
Given enough information, whether good or bad, some people just take it too far. They spit everything from conspiracy theories to doomsday scenarios with something like diarrhea from the mouth.
My mother, still the holy woman that she was, had a way of sorting out and succinctly laying out the facts. One of his favorite quotes came from Chief Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes: “Some people are so heavenly they are no good on earth.”
The Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash, agreed with old Ollie Holmes and sang: “You shine your light, and you should shine it, / But you’re so heavenly you’re not good on earth.”
Now Ol’ Dutch knows that we are all called to be witnesses to the truth of the Good Book as we find it, but I also think that living as an example may well have more influence on our neighbors than a continual flow of religious nonsense.
You know? The old testimony of “love your neighbor as yourself”. And it will save you a lot of money currently wasted on books and podcasts whose authors promise ancient secrets, deep knowledge and wealth.
Ol’ Dutch generally found that the writers themselves use all the ancient secrets and deep knowledge of how gullible people must bring a lot of wealth to the writer. So I guess it works. For them, at least.
We are all going through tough times these days and turning left and right for answers. You are still on this earth, because you still have earthly good to do. So join me in keeping the golden rule and helping others. It can’t hurt.
Kevin Kirkpatrick and his Yorkie, Cooper, fish, hunt, mountain bike or hike every day. His email is [email protected] Additional news can be found at www.toutrepublic.com.
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