Treasured Artifacts

In my family, there are important relics of days gone by that are venerated.

There’s an old plastic Santa head that came from my grandmother Bryant’s house. It’s arrival on my mom’s mantle is the first indication of the Christmas season
There’s Gently, an old stuffed animal of mine that I created a shrine for out of an old Bass Shoe box
And then there’s the tape

A VHS tape, believe it or not
Tarheels 1982 victory over the Georgetown Hoyas

Watching that always gave us hope

When the Tarheels would blow another shot, we’d watch that, remember the glory days of Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins and James Worthy.

Hallmark Movies

I confess a fascination for them
They’re comforting, you know there will be a happy ending waiting for you at the conclusion

Open ended things give our fears a chance to run wild.

Scrooged Movie

Promo for their Christmas special

Word War
Epidemics
Crime

YOU MUST WATCH THIS SHOW

Fears are employed to manipulate us
Hope is the antidote to fear

When we Most Thirst for Hope

When things seem hopeless

For most people, things right now aren’t where we’d like them to be.

COVID
Orwellian world in which privacy a thing of the past
Civility is breaking down

A few years back, a gun man walked into a nightclub and shot fellow Americans

We argued about gun rights, gay rights, faith rights, you name it.

Didn’t grieve.

Ask most anyone about their hope for America right now.

Most are a little dubious in ways that haven’t been evident in my memory ever before

The Younger the generation the greater the worry

They’re going to be here
But in their fear, younger generations are turning to

Escapism
Sexual Immorality
Drugs
Cheating

The Church

More “nones” than any time ever before
Spiritual but not religious

But oftentimes what that spirituality boils down to is little more than whatever makes me happy, I do. Whatever brings me grief, I avoid

That’s not being spiritual, it’s being selfish

We need hope now more than ever but, with the world’s hope, we don’t have very much hope for things improving at all