QBLOG #45 Thirteen (13)

I woke this morning to an incredible full moon just overhead. It's light gave just enough visibility to enhance the view of the camp. Many thoughts have been swimming in my head dealing with religion, politics, right, wrong and how easy it is to take away focus from more important things by something salacious to feed our apparant appetite for such things.

And during this whole thought process the number 13 kept popping up. From that an absolute rush of emotion and thought and words came splashing down on me. 1 and 3 is the trinity, but together we make them a superstition that attaches negativity. 12 and 1, Apostles and Christ make 13, and yet we make the number something we almost detest. The reality? It is just a number. We attach meaning. We have a nack for making something neutral, something bad or good, and something bad , we may attach good. Or something that is good, we can give a meaning of bad.

This week the news focused on Mark Foley's resignation and his email to young pages. Salacious. Also during this week Iran thumbed it's nose at the European Union, the Dow reached an all time high and North Korea is moving forward with its threat to test a nuclear weapon. We had the highest number of soldiers killed in any week since the Iraq war began. This is news, but it was trumped by the Mark Foley "story". That is not to say that what he did was not wrong or not important. But it should not have trumped "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say.

What is the rest of the story? It is about the number 13 in so many ways . It is about how our view of it can distract us from where focus could or should be instead. No event happens in seclusion. There is always a build up, a history, to any event. Our knowledge or lack of can determine how we view the event.

An example is how some view our history with the American Indians and see the Indians as savages. There is a song in the movie "Pocahontas" where both the natives and European settlers are preparing for war and naming each other savages. It is always the victor that writes history. The victor does not necessarily mean the "good" side. It certainly wasn't the good side for the Indians who were native to the land we now call USA.

SAVAGES, from the movie, "POCAHONTAS

[Ratcliffe]
What can you expect / From filthy little heathens? / Their whole disgusting race is like a curse
Their skin's a hellish red / They're only good when dead / They're vermin, as I said / And worse

[English Settlers]
They're savages! Savages!

[Ratcliffe]
Barely even human

[English Settlers]
Savages! Savages!

[Ratcliffe]
Drive them from our shore! /They're not like you and me / Which means they must be evil /We must sound the drums of war!

[English Settlers]
They're savages! Savages! /Dirty redskin devils! /Now we sound the drums of war!

[Powhatan]
This is what we feared / The paleface is a demon / The only thing they feel at all is greed

[Kekata]
Beneath that milky hide / There's emptiness inside

[Native Americans]
I wonder if they even bleed /They're savages! Savages! / Barely even human / Savages! Savages!

[Powhatan]
Killers at the core

[Kekata]
They're different from us / Which means they can't be trusted

[Powhatan]
We must sound the drums of war

[Native Americans]
They're savages! Savages! / First we deal with this one

[All]
Then we sound the drums of war

[English Settlers]
Savages! Savages!

[Ben]
Let's go kill a few, men!

[Native Americans]
Savages! Savages!

[Ratcliffe]
Now it's up to you, men!

[All]
Savages! Savages!
Barely even human!
Now we sound the drums of war!

The middle east is another arena in which we often see only our side...the "good" side. Go back to 1953 and the Coup d'etat in Iran that was sponsored by the U.S. This US sponsored coup ousted the last democratically oriented government in Iran and replaced it with a dictatorship that suppressed all forms of popular political activity. American interests were at stake (oil) and the government of Iran during this time was not siding with America . So America sponsored and helped overthrow that government and put in place a Shah of their choosing. Today when we speak of bringing democracy to the middle east, most here are wary of what "democracy" means out of the mouths of us Americans. They wonder will that "democracy" benefit the people living in that country (Iraq) or will it benefit only those living in the United States?

In the fight between Afghanistan and Russia the US quietly funded someone who would come back to haunt us. Osama Bin Laden. This war lasted over 10 years and ended only when Russia pulled their troops out. U.S. support of Bin Laden was not a well known fact in most US households, but it was well known amoung those fighting that war. Americans are still wondering why people in the Middle East are angry at us. We fight wars on soil that is not our own where families who are not American see their children, siblings, parents and spouses die , some at the hands of American's, some at the hands of those America funds/supports. We wonder why they want to bring that same terror and horror to our own blessed soil in America?

How many times has this president stated that we would rather fight the war on terror in someone elses back yard than fighting it in our own? We agree and we feel safe, and then we wonder why some in the world are angry at us.

It's the number 13. We see it in a way that best benefits our position, our feeling comfortable. We simply forget there is another part of that story, a different view, a different history, a different set of circumstances that if we took the time to understand completely, we might better understand the number and our relation to it.

12 apostles + 1 Christ = 13. 1 God is 3 Spirits, the equation of the Trinity...and so many other ways we can view that number....and the world...

We each have our journey. It is only when we walk in the shoes of someone else that we can truly move forward.

Robert



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