This week someone in the IT department of my law firm died. No details were provided regarding the cause of his death, but it appeared his death was not unexpected even though he was only a middle-aged man.
Attorneys in the firm responded to the email of his death by recounting stories of how he had helped them with their computer issues, and how he was always patient with them. That was about as personal as it got.
At first it seemed sad to me that the best we could do was talk about his IT support skills, but then I realized that was the only way we knew him.
I’m sure his family knew him more fully as a person because they related to him as a husband, father, son, or sibling, but they are only a handful of people. We are a law firm of 750. In short, at work he was known more widely but less fully. And that is the case with most of us.
I drafted this post years ago and never published it. It was drafted during the one of the presidential primary seasons, but I never pulled the trigger on it. After reviewing it though, I’ve decided its applicability is not dependent on the election cycle.
Candidates say many things when they want to get elected, some of them true some of them not so true. I heard a presidential candidate say something that was so far from the truth but sounded so good that I thought it worthy of comment here.
Let me first say, the point of this blog is not a political one, and I’ve intentionally avoided writing in favor of or against any candidate. What I do attempt to do is offer a Kingdom perspective on current events and worldview. It is for that reason I comment on this candidate’s statement.
The candidate, a Libertarian, said that people were getting his message and realizing that “freedom is the answer” to our country’s problems. I was struck with how good it sounded but how wrong it was. The answer to our country’s problems is not more freedom; it’s more self-government.
I love freedom and would welcome more of it, but it won’t solve any problems because the problem is not that people aren’t free to do what they want; it’s that in exercising their freedom to do what they want they do what is wrong.
The day started sadly for Ann, who suffered a tragic loss, when her beloved No. 6 ranked, Texas A&M Aggies suffered a humiliating loss to the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the second game of the U.S. college football season. I told Ann it was an upset not unlike the Visigoths sack of Rome in 410 A.D. I don’t think I helped.
The drive back to Florence was uneventful, thanks be to God, and we successfully returned the car to the rental car garage in the city. I’ve driven in England, Scotland and France, and have even successfully navigated the most dangerous roundabout in the world encircling the Arch de Triumph in Paris, and I have to say that Florence is one of the worst driving experiences of my life.
I am formally announcing our upcoming GSB tour which will take place later this summer. This tour has been scheduled before, but the pandemic caused us to cancel the last two years. So, anticipation has reached a fevered pitch.
The destination: Italy. Specifically three cities: Rome, Florence, and Ravenna. As always, we will focus on the the Christian history in each city and the contribution of those events to the advancement of the kingdom of God on earth.
In Rome we will have a day devoted to the Apostle Paul and another to Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, both personal heroes of mine. We will descend into the Christian catacombs and explore the remains of the capital of the empire where the Gates of Hades did not prevail against the Church.
The Wife and I watched the movie, Red Notice, tonight. It’s not going to win any Academy Awards, but within the genre of brain candy, it was entertaining enough. What inspired this post was not the movie per se but a scene that is representative of a trend becoming more apparent in movies today. It’s a trend too silly to take seriously but not too insignificant to ignore.
The movie stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot as . . . (spoiler alert) . . . three art thieves in search of a 2,000 year-old decorative egg that Marc Antony (the Roman not the singer) gave Cleopatra and was later was lost to history. I long ago grew bored with thinly veiled plots designed to support two-hour chase scenes. But this movie’s action scenes, twists, and turns, succeeded in holding my interest, even if it didn’t engage my intellect.
What I found most interesting though was one scene in which Gadot physically defeats the 6′ 5″ 260 lb Johnson and 6′ 2″ 190 lb Reynolds in a knock-down drag-out. Now, of course, Hollywood tried to made it all look realistic enough so viewers don’t call “B—S—“. But I am more interested in the message than the creative sleight-of-hand.
I get that most of the chase scenes and stunts portrayed in movies aren’t really possible. They stretch the possible while trying not to break it, knowing that excitement camps out on the border between reality and our imagination. Got it. But there was an obvious message in this scene, and it’s the effort to eradicate gender inequality by suggesting this woman could physically overpower these two men.
As I said, it’s silly. And when it’s exposed for what it is, even the most progressive, gender sensitive, post-modern will admit it’s silly. It is significant though because it shows where the gender-confusion of our generation is headed. In short, if we fail to recognize gender differences, we will be led into the land of make-believe, and we will all become fools.
