Eric's Sunday Service; Is It Legal To Be Happy?

It would seem that we are supposed to act mad. Not just upset but mad. Sorry we are happy. Sunday morning and church? We go around and have some buddies that are fun to see and sing with and listen to live music that is not in a bar. We discuss sermons and generally rate them on if they made us cry or not. Cry is good. We kind of have fun dressing up together, helping with ironing and finding socks. We like our one day in the kitchen cooking wretched cholesterol builders though nowadays the stuff is organic and wheat is seldom seen. All of us in the bathroom getting in each other’s way and laughing. The car drive is spent yacking about the week and sights to behold. Maybe we have the radio on and do a car dance party. We say “I love you” more than is probably cool. We pray out loud and prod each other to say a prayer of selfishness, and that almost always leads to car hugs. Turns out that what is selfish is what is good for each other.

I read someplace that we are poor and that if we place our child in public schools it is not so good. I am on the council and my wife meets with other parents and our teacher daily. We go to children’s parties near monthly and we do our best to speak Spanish though we are an American Vietnamese family. All our pards and neighbors are other races – is race really a real term? Monkeys and Tigers do not have races.

We cannot deal with an unanticipated bill very easily. But we make our payments and our credit is good because we borrow little and pay as we go. We have to shop almost daily because our fruit, veggies baked stuff is ready to eat and not off big chain store shelves. We recycle everything after we have done our best to re-use and or share. We give at the DAV. Our footprint could trick an Apache tracker it is so small. Let me think here. Nope, no car under seven years old. Water saving landscaping and a reasonable garden.

We share with neighbors and call them friend. I reckon I should be mad at someone, but more likely they should be mad at me. I just got no reason to be upset with anyone. Maybe you should take this time to get mad at someone it seems to be the thing to do.

We stay informed and visit social media. We do not watch live news. But we research areas that concern us like Mansanto having to upgrade labels. The dead in foreign conflicts and where to give our charitable support. Oh and of course we review who says what about all hell and brimstone and sky is falling stuff. But we kind of look at that like – we do not think so. A R or a D in office has not affected us in decades. If ever. We voted for and like our local reps. they could do better. But so could we.

We kind of might not look so good if we posted our real life on FB. We are kind of rag tag and really cannot take selfies in Cancun though I have been there. We need a new American flag and some good weed pulling. I don’t keep in touch with those I love very well but they get that I am kind of a loner. We do not violate the law.

Come to think of it we are pretty boring. Sure we do stuff that others might find interesting, but only for a moment. I write from home and my wife works the necessary 60+ hours a week and really likes her job. My son loves school – really, and his teacher. Of course his favorite subject is recess – duh, we are boring. I would not wish my life on anyone but would love to have it if I did not have it. Our streets are paved, our poop normally goes down the toilet. We can afford garbage pickup and cooking and heating gas.

Yes we have had some real problems, but we have found that working through them together makes us stronger and more loving and appreciative of what we have.

Why would people call me names if I support a concept that someone else that they hate supports it also? It makes no sense. It would be like hating my son who is half Vietnamese because you lost a brother in the Vietnamese war. Why would it be improper to hate someone who hates you but proper to hate someone just because they disagree with you? That whole scenario that I painted above is only happy in the absence of hate. Joy filled because not hate filled. There are no brass bands playing or golden eggs to make one joyful, there is only perspective and outlook.

Due to circumstances I have had the great pleasure of visiting very young cancer patients in hospitals. They suffer, but there is just no way someone is bringing hate into their lives. They are way, way loved. Almost every encounter that they have is loving and nurturing albeit sometimes very unpleasant. These children actually smile much more than normal healthy children out in the world of …. Love is the absence of hate and has no room for apathy.

Now we often see people who do not exhibit the same vitriolic hate as their friends, losing friends. Yes, in other words people hate other people for not hating. To my understanding that is pretty much the biggest reason for that hell hole known as Syria. Again it is not the first hate, it is the double whammy of hating someone because they do not hate.

Yes it really very clearly goes this way on FB; “Trump is a hater, so I hate Trump and if you do not hate Trump then I hate you.” It could not be made any clearer than that. So I do not hate Trump and let that be known. I did not say I love him and support everything he does, I simply do not join in and hate him so I will lose friends. If I just described you, sorry for being brash.

So in our home we have no victims. We do not suffer. We witness hate but do not engage in it. We see people who are mad and angry and we even discuss that fact. But we discuss it as a fact not as an injury to us. Maybe some will say that we have no values or that we have no backbone or that we live with our head in the sand and that is ok. Well I can tell you how well our way is working for us, can you tell me how well hating is working for you?