the cure

“Goodbye to Rosie the queen of Corona
See you, me and Julio
Down by the schoolyard”
lyrics by Paul Simon

(they say it help / Julie Cook / 2015)

Probably not the image you’d expect seeing on a Sunday morning.
And no, this is not an advertisement for Corona or beer or anything along those lines…
and the truth be told, I don’t even much care for beer.
I’ve always been a bit more hard core but this is not about that….

This is actually the image of a suggestion…
or rather the recommendation of a curative…

And if the truth be told, there has been more than one well meaning
family member and friend who has wholeheartedly and
even joyously made this recommendation.

For some, this is more of an excuse hidden within a recommendation…
For me it’s a last ditch effort of relief from misery.

Part of this is most likely my own fault as I have always been more camel than human.

(image courtesy of ABC)

I’ve never been one to consume those 8 glasses of 8 ounces of water a day.
64 ounces is a lot of liquid to have sloshing around in ones stomach.
I don’t usually drink anything while I’m eating,
waiting I suppose to wash it all down,
after the fact, with a swallow of whatever has been offered.

I’m bad to nurse a bottle of water on and off for most of the day.
Sometimes I finish it, sometimes I don’t.
I probably run on more dehydration than I do on hydration.

Yet I do know the importance of keeping hydrated—
it flushes out the kidneys, ridding the body of toxins…
it keeps the blood flowing smoothly, the skin nice and plump
and it keeps the brain running smoothly—

So think plum verses prune.

They told me in the ER to drink, drink, drink…

So far today I’ve already finished all of these…

2,480 ounces thus far, add to that one 12 oz beer and I hope I’m drowning any and all kidney stones
stuck in this body of mine, causing me all this tremendous pain and suffering.

Is it bad that I’m drinking a beer while sitting propped up on a heating pad?

I am however currently watching my beloved Bulldogs playing against UNC, so I suppose
it’s in keeping with the spirit of the game…..

I’m however still putting my money on the disc causing most of my woe…

Yet with all this talk of cure alls, curatives and snake oil treatments….
this business of drinking lots of beer in order to flush out the stones…
It’s all gotten me thinking…

So often in our lives, the cures are often worse than our ailments—ask any cancer fighter who has endured chemo, radiation and radical surgeries all in order to either cure or prolong life…
Chances are that they will tell you first hand that if it doesn’t kill you, those potential cures and helps…those things indeed to help….may or may not help you in the end, but it, whatever it is, will make you stronger…
if you survive it….

We fight hard when told our very lives, health and wellbeing depend on it,
we find ourselves willing to do and endure almost anything for the sake of living…
Despite our not having always tended to those very things we should have early on…
which, more often than not, could have prevented or avoided a bit longer the
precarious health predicament we may be currently finding ourselves in….

Yet what of our spiritual lives and our spiritual health?

More often times than not we live our lives with very little thought to our
spiritual health and well being–
that is until we find ourselves facing a crisis of unsurmountable proportions…
For despite what the critics will say,
we are spiritual beings—
spending the majority of our lives, most often unconsciously, searching for that reunion with our Creator…

It is only, for the majority of us, that when we find ourselves scared or in a tight fix,
that is when we turn our thoughts to God, Jesus and our very salvation…

When we feel backed into a corner, helpless, defenseless and hopeless…
never mind that the majority of time when life was foot loose and fancy free,
that our thoughts were on living life and far from anything “other than”…
We had no need, no urgency to keep our spiritual health in check because we were…
busy…
living…
life…

And isn’t that what life is all about…. living?
Leaving any and all thoughts of spirituality and that of a spiritual need to those in need..
those who are sick or dying…..

And there was Peter, full of Peter, living in the moment of desperately wanting to come met Jesus out on the water—despite the raging storm—
and yet it was that very raging storm that diverted Peter’s attention as he took his eyes,
his faith and his trust off of Jesus…
turning instead to face a fierce and consuming storm…
At which time, he began to sink, crying out for “salvation”

It is exactly when we are happy, healthy and full of life that we need
to tend to our full being—
both the physical as well as the spiritual.

We take our cars in for regular maintenance, check-ups and oil changes because they
are a huge investment and we know that maintaining them prolongs their “life” and performance…

Yet the question begs…
why don’t we do the same for ourselves…?

Here’s to another bottle of water….

But I will restore you to health
and heal your wounds,’
declares the Lord,
‘because you are called an outcast,
Zion for whom no one cares.’
Jeremiah 30:17

history of responsibility

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
George Washington

Statue of George Washington and small friend / Boston Public Gardens / Julie Cook / 2014

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of Liberty is as follows:
1 : the quality or state of being free:
a : the power to do as one pleases
b : freedom from physical restraint
c : freedom from arbitrary or despotic control
d : the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges
e : the power of choice

Dictionary.com defines Tyranny as:
1. arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority.
Synonyms: despotism, absolutism, dictatorship.
2. the government or rule of a tyrant or absolute ruler.
3. a state ruled by a tyrant or absolute ruler.
4. oppressive or unjustly severe government on the part of any ruler.
5. undue severity or harshness.
6. a cruel or harsh act or proceeding; an arbitrary, oppressive, or tyrannical action.

Our founding fathers believed, with all their hearts, that it was necessary to fight with sword and blood for the establishment of a Nation grounded and anchored by a state of existence known as Liberty.
The sacrifice was great.
Many lives were to be lost.
Days turned to weeks as weeks turned into years.
Hardships, suffering, hunger became common place.
Misery was rife.
But the will and perseverance of this group of men, prepped to birth a Nation, was rooted in the knowledge of what life under Liberty could and would mean.

These guiding Fathers next fought and wrestled with the grievous weight of words and what those words were to look like when lived by the citizens of a free Nation–a Nation free of Tyranny and oppressive rule by a king or despot.

It was a time of deep soul searching, heated debates and arguments, flaring tempers–but in the end, they all possessed the same desired result—that being for the people of the united colonies to live as one Nation under the blanket of shared Liberty.

Have we, all these many years later, forgotten the sacrifices made?
Are we so smug that such ideals now seem trite and of ancient history?
Have we grown, as Benjamin Franklin would admonish, fat and lazy, drunk with complacency?
Are we so apathetic that we are no longer concerned with the safeguards which must be honed and fine tuned in order to continue growing in the original direction set forth?

Do we argue with the rhetoric of “that was then, this is now—- things have changed, all of that which was, is no longer relevant to our modern technological savvy ways?”
Have we lulled ourselves into such a state that we don’t want to rock the proverbial boat—we’ll just let the Government take care of us–isn’t that what everyone really wants, a Government which acts more like a benevolent parent rather than a Government which needs and requires it’s people to work to maintain its very functions.

Woe be unto those who’s watchman is caught sleeping, the enemy will take advantage of the unguarded post. It is the responsibility of the Nation’s people who must work to maintain that which was fought and fraught with angst, blood and lives. The question begs, what is the responsibility of you and I to those who birthed this Nation as well as to the Nation itself which was birthed so long ago?

When one is given a fine gift, if that gift is not cared for, polished, cleaned, tended to with regular maintenance but rather is left to simply run itself and “do it’s thing”, unguarded, unobserved, unattended, allowed to morph and grow into something else, then the original gift is simply no longer. . .

May we remember we must care for and maintain this most humble yet fragile gift.