“The Destiny of Man is to unite, not to divide.
If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts
at each other out of separate trees.”
T.H. White, The Once and Future King
(Born in the USA album cover)
Long ago and far away, I was once a ripe and tender 25 year old teacher.
This was about my third year teaching and I was teaching high school art,
art history and science of all things…
(they were shy a science teacher that year and I was the lucky one tapped to take that on)
Always having a deep and abiding love for all things Renaissance Art,
I got the bright idea that I should take a group of students and adults on an educational tour
of the art capital’s of Europe for a few weeks during summer break. We would go to the great museums
and the architecturally rich historic treasures of about 7 countries.
Great ideas do not always turn out so great…but that’s a different story
for another day.
I’ve written about this bright idea before and won’t bore us today over the tales of
my first and last major trip of responsibility with teenagers abroad—
however there is one moment that I vividly recall and
it seems rather applicable to share given our current divisional crisis taking place
in this nation of ours.
Did you catch the Super Bowl Sunday evening?
Maybe you saw the new Jeep commercial featuring Bruce Springsteen?
But before I go on with that thought, let me back up to the tale of that 25 year old teacher.
When I took that group of folks, both young and old on that trip,
I was newly married and found myself rather homesick half way into the trip.
Probably just homesick for a lot of reasons.
We had made it to Venice and our tour guide took us that evening to a disco as he
thought the kids would love to see an Italian style disco.
I was just ho-hum about it all until the DJ began playing the song Born In the USA.
One of the hallmark songs by “the Boss.”
Springsteen was the epitome of Americana.
Or so it seemed back in those heady day’s of the early 1980’s.
Hearing his song blaring throughout the disco, we all immediately took to the dance floor,
those in our group who were in their 60’s along with my young teen charges.
All singing united, gleefully proud to be Americans.
Yet sadly over the years, musicians, actors and entertainers have become more and more vocal
regarding their political leanings—going so far as to expressing vehemence for
anyone who takes a different view of things from their own.
It has become a ‘my view or no view’ mentality within much of the entertainment community.
So much so that even going all the way back to the election of George W. Bush,
many an entertainer, etc, was loudly proclaiming,
practically threatening, the decision to move from the US should Bush win.
Well, he won and yet they all seemed to stay.
Flash forward to this last election…there was once again a rising crescendo of those folks
singing the same old song…”I’m out of here if “he” wins!—this time, he meaning Trump.
Bruce Springsteen announced during the previous election that if Trump won,
the Boss would be moving to Australia.
Well, the election turned out in the Boss’s favor—so he could stay in the US, making his
big US dollars.
And so now Mr. Springsteen has the audacity to star in, as well as narrate, a Jeep ad—
an ad for a vehicle that screams Americana…it was an ad that oozed with the notion
that we may now all be able to be united…because we all know that liberal democrats unite
while conservative republicans obviously divide.
So… it really doesn’t seem that the Boss truly represents us as Americans…
Sadly, he has drawn a line in the sand and half of this country, it appears, is on the other side of his line…
his line and the line of most of our Nation’s leadership, entertainers, and sports figures
has smugly excluded one half of these ‘united’ states…
Something sounds quite divisive about all this new unity….
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be
no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
1 Corinthians 1:10
cookiecrumbstoliveby 
Oh goodness…I am sorry but as long as the “other” side goes against all that God represents there can’t be unity. God…please save the USA
Amen!!!
Love the ‘monkeys throwing nuts’ analogy.
Blessings.
Puts quite the picture in ones mind!!! 🤣
[…] monkeys throwing nuts […]
There are a lot of divisions today, but we can only unite around the truth. Truth before unity otherwise we may have to accept a lie for the sake of conformity. I would not want to practice 1 Corinthians 1 with someone who is not a brother or sister in Christ.
Ha! Sometimes you just have to be a monkey in a tree and throw some nuts! But seriously, speaking of art and museums, at some point in my life I saw historical posters with the word “unite” boldly written across them, dripping with blood even, and today the very word has left a bad taste in my mouth. I will actually typo it as “un-tie” without even thinking and must go back and edit. Every fascist dictator, every humanitarian disaster has just loved that word as a weapon of propaganda to force unity to their agenda. So “untie” it is, as in, He came to set the captives free! Stand alone “unity” outside the context of Christ and freedom, is something more akin to idolatry and deception.
I hear you my friend— or is that comrade?
I’m practicing for the road we seem to be racing down 😑
Ha, your overseas trip with your students reminds me of my own except I was the student who probably made my teacher’s job a lot more stressful than it needed to be. What can I say, I was young and dumb!
On to the Boss. Great musician with a pretty face but oh man I could never stand his politics. But I never stopped listening to him. It would never occurred to me to cancel him out like so many on the left do with people they disagree with.
That’s what’s so infuriating in all of this— the man represented so much about so many of our lives but yet he has become so vocal that so many of us no longer really matter or count because we are on the wrong side of his ideals— frustrating and sad!!!
I once substitute taught high school biology, a course I never took in high school or college. It was fun, but I taught it, not giving them a free study period.
As for the “boss”, I did not see the ad until Beauty Beyond Bones had it on her website with the same feelings expressed. I am glad I did not buy a Jeep, but I have a feeling that after a couple of years of total Democrat domination, there will be more than half on the other side, if we have a country left.
Of course Springsteen always meant “Born in the USA” to be a political attack upon the country rather than an expression of patriotism and national pride. It’s about the Vietnam War, unemployment, injustice, etc. But the chorus sure is rousing. J.