One Of These Days
Deborah Venable
03/11/12
Making
it through another day is a miracle in itself, but making it through another
year is just another milestone. One of
these days, each and every individual will find himself in that last day – the
one they won’t make it through. Anyone
facing reality knows this all too well, but does he truly grasp the meaning of
his “numbered” days on earth?
If
you have never seen anyone die, if you have never held anyone while he dies,
perhaps you won’t be able to identify with anything I say. When a human heart beats for the last time,
the mystery of life is over for that person, but not so for anyone left
behind. No one has all the answers in
life. No one.
So,
whenever I hear anyone speaking in certitudes, a question comes to mind: What if you are wrong?
I
could come up with a resolution of sorts – something like, “never speak in
certitudes” – something catchy like that.
But that might just play right into the hands of, say, progressive
educators, who already try to teach children that 1 + 1 isn’t always equal to 2
– or any other number for that matter!
Or that believing in a “sky god” is fantasy while being sure that humans
“evolved” from fish or monkeys or some such thing is scientific certitude. Or that florescent light bulbs, windmills
and solar panels are certain to preserve the future, while incandescent lights,
coal power, and gasoline engines will send us all straight to hell – for
certain! Or, here’s a real certitude
for you, that socialism and communism are far more moral forms of government
and economics than good old freedom and capitalism!
Wow! But what if those all-knowing educators and
the politicians and people who support their ideas are wrong? Does anybody ever bother to ask them that?
Why
is the “faith” they place in their own “knowledge” and ideology and their
ignorance of history about some of these things deemed such an honorable and
intelligent stance, while my faith is called stupid fantasy?
So,
if you are an atheist and do not believe in God – any god – what if you are
wrong?
If
you are a Muslim and believe that your god is telling you to kill all
non-believers that refuse to pay a tax to your religion – what if you are
wrong?
If
you are a Muslim or a Jew and believe that Jesus was just another Jewish
prophet – what if you are wrong?
If
you are a member of any organized religion – large or small, and believe that
only you and those who believe like you are worthy of something wonderful or
awful beyond that last heart beat – and therefore live your life wrapped in
that conceited cocoon cut off from everyone else’s reality – what if you are
wrong?
If
you consider yourself a moral secularist owing allegiance to nothing you can’t
see and do your damnedest to make sure your views are the only ones that can be
considered right in the public forum – what if you are wrong?
If
you believe that a “woman’s right to choose” trumps all other moral law because
39 years ago some Supreme Court justices decided it should be codified in
United States law, and to hell with the Constitution – what if you are wrong?
If
you personally do not like guns, and therefore think nobody should legally own
or possess them, once again, to hell with the Constitution – what if you are
wrong?
If
you believe that life should be one big collective regulation instead of an
individual responsibility to find your own happiness, because everyone should
have a right to the same outcome – what if you are wrong?
If
you believe that socialism, communism, and fascism are morally superior to
freedom and capitalism, even though history does not back up that view – what
if you are wrong?
If
you believe there should always be someone else around to do the things you
don’t want to do, and that government should fulfill that role – what if you
are wrong?
If
you think women are “punished” with babies, as so many in all walks of life,
including our current president and his minions in government, and therefore
must be able to avoid pregnancy (but not sex) at all costs – what if you are
wrong?
If
you are a child or an adult who thinks that any reference to or reverence for
God should be banished from public view, and take great happiness in
accomplishing that goal – what if you are wrong?
If
your heart is beating those last, few, desperate beats to supply blood and
oxygen to your brain, and suddenly you realize that the mystery is about to be
over, and perhaps – just perhaps, you didn’t have it right when you signed on
to most of these aforementioned beliefs - in other words, what if you’ve been
wrong and the last thing to fail you in this life is your certitude – what if
you WERE wrong?
I
have asked the question of myself – what if I am wrong in my beliefs – and the
conclusion is of no major import to me.
I have had such a full life, replete with so many blessings, that I know
I am prepared for anything. If I am
wrong, it simply means that NOTHING awaits me after that last heartbeat. I can live with that.
But
if you take ANY of the aforementioned positions, especially with certitude, and
I am right, well – what then?
I
have actually received comments to my writings that call me “crazy” or “stupid”
and the like. Out there on the fringe,
radical extremist, rightwing nut job are a few more inferences for the
positions I take. The truth is that I
wish only to encourage people to educate themselves. I do not want a government involved in shoving my views down
everyone’s throat, but I have one now busy doing that to me. That gets worse, not better, every
year. A witch hunt is going in America
now, and the witch is individualism driven by a moral conscience. Anyone displaying such thoughts and actions
must be hunted down and burned at the stake of convoluted law – if they cannot
be marginalized and ridiculed into silence.
One
of these days, according to my own belief, the moral conscience of the
individualist will be judged, and it won’t matter what man-made law says. The collective won’t have a say either,
because everyone is alone when that last heartbeat occurs. That is a certitude that no one can
escape.