The aged Lady

Ah, Madam,

What has become of you?

That was then, this is now. Yes, certainly. But the fabric of the gown you wore when you were young, the one woven of titanium, indestructible, but with a delicacy that revealed your natural beauty, is a tattered mess. You seem stooped. The years have begun to catch up.

Having just past a birthday, I cannot help but think back, and really, your birth was a miracle. Disparate colonies. What did Massachusetts have in common with Virginia beyond a tyrant king? Nothing like a common enemy to drive together a people so different.  And yet, not so different. A biblical Christianity stood as the foundation for the lives of the majority of citizens from north to south. Agrarian livelihoods dominated your young limbs, and even those in the cities--hamlets, really--had extensive ties to the country. Your people read well, read often, read much, and read broadly. Today we read very little unless it's in text shorthand.

Four score and five years into your existence, it seemed that your body would rip itself in two at the navel. The Civil War should have killed you. Consider France. A beautiful country if you look at her skin. Beneath the surface she's schizophrenic and rotted to the core. Seems to have always been that way. Every time she tries to set things right, her own self-interest ruins the day. No principle. No foundation. But, Madam, when your lower extremities began to pull away from your upper, you destroyed the disease, and quite miraculously left both your body and it's soul intact. Extraordinary.

We now stand 150 years removed from that time. For most today, the War Between the States compels our attention if a movie enacts what happened, and then only if they twist history to include vampires. The greatest tragedies and lessons from our past become a backdrop for a horror story.

Today, your atrophied muscles and fragile frame seem to be more like those of France than the strong stature with which you stood as you hurtled toward the Civil War. I believe you stand more starkly divided today than you did then. In 1860, your division was linear, along Mason and Dixon. Now your division seems total with neighboring fingers at war with one another. When we talk red and blue, there does seem to be some polarity along the coasts with moles of blue within the cities dotting the deep red of your midsection, but on the whole, your body is a checkerboard of oil and water, Hatfield and McCoy.

Today, you are racially divided. Back then, the conflict raged between white Anglos in the north and white Anglos in the south. There did not exist a racial hostility or hatred. Yes, there was prejudice and bigotry where many felt light skin superior to dark, European ancestry superior to African, but it was not so much that white hated black or black hated white. The seeds of racial hatred--sowed where?--have blossomed into a hemlock rash that has covered your body. It seems that there is a political element to this disease, too, as the lion's share of animosity seems to come from blue toward red. Go figure, considering the red fought so passionately against the blue to end slavery.

Today, you are morally divided. Some consider the killing of a baby in the womb an issue of personal liberty. "Who are you to tell me what I am to do with my body?" as though ending a life in the sanctuary of the womb were no different than getting a flower or butterfly tattoo. On another moral front, many hold to the God-given institution of marriage between one man and one woman while others suggest that the government should let any mix or multiplicity of partners be considered a marriage.

Today, you are economically divided. In all honesty, you're not, but those with the loudest microphones have convinced the masses that you are a nation of lords and serfs and that the oppression of the lords is far worse than anything seen throughout the Middle Ages. Looking at your economic situation, your people are far better off than they have ever been in history. Your people have more wealth, especially in the lower economic stratus, than has ever been known on this planet. There is not a want of food. Rare is the instance of starvation. None serve under the whip. None have hours mandated by a cruel boss that they cannot quit or cannot leave. None are manacled to the machine. And yet, the idea of unfair, unjust division between rich and poor is as rampant as racial hatred.

Today, you are spiritually divided. Despite the disagreements about the Bible (dizzying to think that some actually advocated slavery as practiced in 19th Century America as a good from the pages of Scripture), the country of the 1800's could appeal to the word of God to discern the way of righteousness. By and large, America has rejected the Bible as an authority for really anything to include spiritual things. Few read it. Fewer heed it. Few preachers, pastors and priests believe it to be the inspired, inerrant word of God. What then do they preach? And why bother? Might as well go to the lake on Sunday. And really, we are largely secular, espousing no religion or embracing a non-offensive, impotent, pick-your-god spirituality. You want to appeal to a moral authority? You'll not find an American consensus in the heavenlies.

Today, you are culturally divided. The only taboo that remains is stating that there is a taboo. No sexual boundaries remain. The only language considered profane is stating anything positive about Jesus Christ or his church. Regarding violence, the human body has been tortured, exploded, slashed, gashed, flayed, slayed, dissolved, dissected, burned, poked, prodded, maimed--you get the idea. Gone are the days when it is clearly a stuffed dummy tumbling down the cliff. No longer will the cowboy grip his chest and fall to the ground. No, we need to see the slow motion spray of blood and matter from the exit wound on his head from seven different angles. Thanks so much.  Many long for good story-telling coupled with discretion, telling more with less. Others long for more of the profane.

Today, you are constitutionally divided. I would say "politically divided," but it's not about politics, the art of compromise. It's about how your government should function. Do we follow the Constitution as the Founders intended, or do we follow the Constitution as it suits us in 2012--no, 2013--no, wait, 2014? If the latter, then you are France, and God help you. I do not believe that even the staunchest Federalist of the late 1700's could imagine the massive and horrifying tumor that would become the Federal government of the 21st century and how it would be destroying your soul. And yet, many today think it should be bigger and have greater control over our lives. Others think it should be razed and rebuilt, brick by brick, upon the very documents that gave you life at the beginning. Which is it?

So back to my opening salvo, what has become of you? And more troubling, what will become of you?

With each of these divisions, there seems to be little to no common ground upon which to stand or even grab some footing. We do not even agree upon a common enemy. Is it poverty? Is it sloth? Is it corporate America? Is it government intrusion? Is it Christian fundamentalists? Or is it Islamic fundamentalists? Is what's happening in Europe good or bad? Is it the Yankees or the Red Sox? We might hope for a common enemy, but even when we were brutally attacked, we lacked the courage to declare that enemy by name.

Your face has grown ashen and it seems that your pulse has weakened. I would love to see you stand tall again, hale and robust, full of color and the glory of a people submitted to the principles woven into your Declaration and your Constitution. Will another election matter? Will it change anything? Can such wide chasms be closed? Or will you finally tear yourself apart?

It seems you have a malignance beyond healing. We see the problem, we feel the problem, but we are powerless to stop the demise. Can anyone from Bangor to Burbank reassemble this crystalline structure shattered into 300 million pieces? It is beyond our reach.

And so I plead with the One who heals to turn your heart back to him. Only God can restore to you a richer and purer beauty than you once had.

I pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for that day.