Learning from our Neighbors

Some of you have been wondering if I have dropped the ball. Nah. My wife and I just got back from this wonderful River cruise from Budapest to Prague. I promise not to bore you too much with the details. You may have the funny story of the Church Search Committee that said that they had only three requirements for their new Pastor: 1) That he had not studied Greek; 2) That his wife could not play the piano; and 3) He had not been to the Holy Land. I learned a long time ago that most folk don’t want to hear too much about your trip and they sure don’t want to see your slides.

This was an anniversary trip—and we traveled the Danube River in ten days. We touched five countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. We visited I don’t know how many Cathedrals, walked on cobblestones streets until our feet ached. We saw the beauty of changing leaves in country after country. Every one of these countries has been touched by years of war and destruction. I talked to a few natives that told of how scary some of those days were and how little they had to live on. Many lost family members. They were invaded time after time. The Russians, the Nazis marched in, tore up, tried to uproot heritage and history and their put their brand on these people. It never works. 80,000 Jews in Prague alone never came back from the concentration camps. That handful I talked to were curious about our country and our politics. I had no idea how closely the world really does watch us. They found it hard to believe that our President has so much opposition. They told me they loved and admired what he was doing.

We came back three days after the mid-term elections. We missed the last ugly days when every candidate was out to smear the opposition. The Tea Party people are delirious as if they have done something good for their country. Mr. John Boehner, the new Speaker of the House sounds more like a new President than a Senator. There is talk of impeaching the President, of turning back the clock on Health care, ignoring rules and standards which have tried to keep us safe. They have already forgotten the oil spill and the damage that will be with us for years.

We’ve been over this ground more than once. Franklin Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton all had to make-do with a triumphant opposition party at mid-term also. From the pundits you would think that President Obama is washed up. In this country we have a short memory when it comes to our history. Funny now that the party that blocked every single issue that the President brought to the table is now saying they want the President to work with them.

I keep thinking of those lands I just visited and some of the folk we met. We have known so little of the destruction and the fear that the people there have faced again and again. I remember Sinclair Lewis writing a book years ago entitled It Can’t Happen Here. And he went on to talk about how freedom could be taken away from any people. Our economy is weak, our debt grows and grows. Many are without jobs and foreclosures just keep going on and on. And on the other side of the world we fight a war that seems to have no end. And we keep changing it on our credit card.

I hope we don’t listen to the snake-oil salesman that would cure our ills with easy answers. Digging out of the mess we are in will not be easy. Mr. Obama has learned this the hard way. And these new winners will find out all too soon that our problems are bigger and more complicated than they ever thought.

There is an old play by James Goldman entitled The Lion in Winter. Eleanor of Aquitaine and her three sons vie for the right to succeed King Henry. As they meet in the castle in Chinon, France and begin to plot for the prize, one of the sons, John says, “Richard has a knife.” Eleanor answers, “Of course he has a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives. It is 1183 and we are barbarians. How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we’re the origins of war. Not history’s forces nor the times nor justice nor the lack of it nor causes nor killers; we breed war. We carry it like syphilis, inside. Dead bodies rot in field and stream because the living ones are rotten. For the love of God can’t we love one another—just a little. That’s how peace begins. We have so much to love each other for. We have such possibilities, my children. We could change the world.”

She makes in sound simple but we all know as Eleanor surely knew that love may be the hardest thing to do—and the best.