A hundred years of New England freedom

This past week our family took a vacation through the New England states; I especially enjoyed the forests and tranquility of Vermont as well as a boat trip on Portland's harbor.  With vacations it's always nice to get away and see things you don't get to see everyday, but after a week it was also nice to get home and sleep in my own bed last night and poop in my own toilet.  

When we approached Boston, consciously or not a lot of our trip involved looking at stuff related to the Revolutionary War.  We stopped first in Concord and Lexington, just west of Boston, where it could be said that the civil war started in April 1775.  There we saw the places where 'the shot heard round the world' kicked off a series of events by which a bunch of diverse colonies united to claim independence and ultimately win it as well.  We also saw some of the historic sights in Boston, as well as a few touristy ones like the Tea Party museum.  It's a reminder that people suffered and sacrificed for the idea of a new nation, for liberty, for the ability to begin something very new.  No matter how imperfect it was (I was expecting monitors from the Trump administration to be sniffing around to see how America-glorifying it was, which it wasn't always), these are things that should give Americans of all stripes a sense of pride.  

A few days later we left Boston and drove to Newport, Rhode Island.  Rhode Island is where Roger Williams fled in the 1630s when the freedom-seeking pilgrims of Massachusetts denied that freedom to others  Rhode Island was found as a colony seeking a greater sense of religious liberty.  Two and a half centuries later, however, Newport became known as the place where religiosity was easily swept aside in the name of rich people wanting a summer showplace built a series of mansions overlooking the ocean.  It was the time of the 'gilded age' of the 1880s, a time where people (many of whom genuinely had worked hard; some had inherited wealth going back generations) had the wealth to lavishly show off their position in society.  Many of the old mansions still today, though a lot of them are museums; a few now belong to a college I had never heard of before, Salve Regina University.

It struck me as we strolled along the cliff walk that bordered these homes and the ocean how this week had explained a lot of America.  Our country was founded on a sense of freedom, however imperfect (ask the slaves, women, and indentured whites), but a century later was more about wealth and status in a way that might have embarrassed our English forbearers.  It may well be that this is the eternal struggle of the United States, that the energy and passion that inspires true greatness inevitably leads to a form of greatness that is gilded and self-absorbed.  Could it be that our human nature and our tendency to desire a legacy in the form of monuments leads us into a place where importance is only something that is bought?   

$430 Million

Today we were stunned to learn that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (I still think of them as the California Angels, but oh well) signed Mike Trout to a 12-year, $430 million dollar contract extension.  That is a crapload of money, however you look at it.  Some thought that maybe he didn't make enough (by statistical metrics, some think that he probably is worth twice that, if he stays healthy).  Others think that Alex Rodriguez, in current dollar figures, probably made more money.  Still others are worried how this will increase ticket prices.  The general feeling, however, was that this was to be celebrated as a good thing...one of the greatest ballplayers of this (and maybe any) era is going to get PAID. 

Of course this story comes out one week after last week's story about the horrible, horrible people who dared to pay bribes to get their idiot children into the perfect college.  I sense a connection...why are we so quick to celebrate people getting paid unbelievable amounts of money to do things that ultimately don't matter in the grand scheme of things, while at the same time denounce when similar kinds of people spend unbelievable amounts of money to do what they think is best for their children?  Surely the two things are related? 

Wealth is a corrupting influence, no matter how you look at it.  We might think that only the love of money is the root of all evil, that only the worst offenders of corrupting wealth deserve to be roasted over the coals of public opinion...but for all those people who denounced inequality last week, shouldn't they also be just as upset this week? 

The College Admission Scandal

So some rich people have been caught doing some bad, bad things.  Everybody is outraged.  How dare they try to make an unfair playing field for their children to enter into certain institutions of higher learning. 

Seriously?  Have we not been paying attention to America for the past 200 years?  We are a nation not of meritocracy, and never have been.  Instead, we are a nation who have promoted the children of the rich and the powerful above all else.  While we may say we don't like this, we don't really want the system to change...because what happens when we are in the same situation? 

Let's say my son, who is really good in math in elementary school, had the option of two teachers next year.  One is OKAY.  The other teacher may be one of the best in the business.  Would I slip the middle school principal a $50 to ensure that he got in with the good teacher?  I'd like to think of myself as a good, moral person...but I might. 

As parents we feel an overwhelming parental obligation to provide the best possible starting place for our kids.  Whether it's getting them into good preschools, or working hard to ensure they have the money to go to a good college, or ensuring that our nimrod children get security clearances from the White House even as they still pursue their own interests....this is what we who are parents do for our children.  For all the outrage that has gone into this current story, I'm guessing deep down many of us are looking at Lori Laughlin, Felicity Huffman, and these other parents with a little bit of sympathy.  They got caught doing something illegal, to be sure...but many of us do things all the time that are little better. 

I suppose that this story has touched a nerve that might be a tipping point about how we view the rich and the powerful.  But most likely this story will soon fade away.  We'll return to the high crimes and misdemeanors of the President, we'll obsess about which starlet is sleeping with which co-star, and we'll soon be transfixed on what nation is getting ready to go to war against another nation. 

Until we go to true lottery system in which every possibility about advantage is considered (and even then, bribes will still ensure that some kids bypass the system), these kinds of things will continue to be what our nation and our culture are about.  Privilege has its price, and that price is gladly paid everyday. Maybe you can't cross certain lines, but the children of the wealthy and the powerful will always have their advantages, righteous or not. 

World's Richest

On my BBC world news page I learned the exciting news today that Kylie Jenner is now the youngest billionaire.  I am so, so glad to know that a child of privilege had her name slapped on something by other wealthy people and so is recognized as a titan of industry. 

These kinds of stories pop up all the time.  How much is Mark Zuckerberg or Martha Stewart worth?  Is Donald Trump really just a bunch of leveraged debt?  Is Apple or Facebook or Amazon going to be worth the trillions that some have made them out to be? 

I always thought that I had something of an eye towards business until I realized that much of what counts as business today is simply accounting.  Put enough numbers (real or not) in one column, create the right kinds of spreadsheets, and you, too are a paper billionaire. 

Nobody would look at me and think that I have much at all, and that's OK.  A few years ago a friend of mine was shocked that the members of the church can look at my yearly salary from the church, that it's not a private thing.  I told him, I don't really care if everybody knows what I make.  I am not defined by how much is in my bank accounts or my stock portfolios, even though I'm doing fine and have never worried for more than a day about how to pay a bill. 

Maybe this is why the Bible so often speaks about the dangers of people getting too caught up in it, whether it's the love of money being the root of evil (1 Timothy 6:10) or the dangers of those who keep adding wealth at the expense of others (cf. Isaiah 5:8).  It's not just the people who do these things who are engaging in sin; it's about the rest of us who will never come close to such wealth who obsess over the wealth of others.  Whether it's simple resentment or jealousy, or a greed that never finds its success, or even a hostility towards material things, stuff is never to be that which defines us.

I don't know that it's ever a good thing to keep reporting on what others have; prophets can surely speak against those who flaunt their prosperity, but obsessing about what others have or don't have is never the Biblical intention.  Rather, let us hear again these words, "...let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." (Amos 5:21)  If we would all pursue these things, we'd no longer care what spoiled heiresses are worth, or even care about what they sell.  And that, I think, would make this world a better place. 

Panemwear

On the way home from the city today after making some hospital visits I decided to stop by the mall to look for some Christmas presents for my lovely wife.  Normally I do most of my shopping for her over the internet as I don't care for the mall crowds, but I decided to look around on a quiet Friday morning and see if anything stood out.  I'm past the point where it fears weird as a forty-something guy to be walking through women's wear and having the ladies doing their own shopping think I'm some kind of pervert. I'm not...just find me what I need to get, and I'll leave.

So I walked through something like 10 stores at the mall that feature women's wear: Von Maur, Dillard's, Forever 21, so on and so forth.  They have lots of clothes...and most all of them absolutely atrocious.  My wife, who dresses simply but with generally good taste, would never wear most of the stuff in those stores.  It's not that they are necessarily skanky (being wintertime, not a lot of very revealing stuff out there), it's just that they are overly colorful, overly decorative clothing that place so much more emphasis on some weird thought of 'style' than they do functionality.  She's very practical, as am I...anything that won't really wear comfortably so that she can work, she doesn't want.  She'd probably be most happy shopping at a sporting goods store to get some sweatshirt and comfy pants, but I had thought that I'll at least look in 'regular' clothes stores.

About the sixth store I was in it finally hit home where I shopping: the great mall of Panem.

It started to become clear that whatever store I was in had completely gone off the rails as far as fashion is concerned.  Overly fashionable, utterly useless clothing for living seemed to be what I found, anywhere I went.  It's not just that I thought "she'll never wear this", but rather, "why on earth would she ever wear this?"  Most of the clothes in these stores would not have seemed that far out of place in Panem, and most of the fashions of Panem do not seem that radical for our modern sensibilties.  Our celebrities are more like Panem than we think.

What's more, every once in awhile I would look at labels to look at price but I also noticed where they were made:  Bangladesh.  Vietnam.  Pakistan.  Could you make the case that each of these places are 'districts' that cater to the whims of the global superpower?  In the Hunger Games each of the twelve districts work only to meet the needs of the bloated victors; are things much different in the real world?  Yes, we say, we are helping these countries by providing a market for what they produce...but at what cost?  Are they really being helped, or are we just justifying our bloated consumer economy by saying that they get to receive some of the scraps of our economic might?  

Movie Pitch: Buy Your Life

I have loved movies for most of my life.  They have affected the way that I look at life, at relationships, even at faith.  I've preached sermon series about movies, and I'm convinced that Hollywood isn't missing out at not using the Bible as an almost-endless supply of source material (and no, I'm not talking about junk like 'Left Behind').  The Bible is filled with terrific stories of intrigue, sex, violence, and forgiveness.  Just look at the book of Judges or the lives of Saul and David.  I'm preaching through David's life right now in fact and would think that the story of David and Bathsheba definitely ought to be made a movie.  Michael Douglas as the aged king who falls from nobility into lechery.  Some young hollywood babe to be Bathsheba.  Al Pacino as Joab, the military commander who has a past of his own.  Denzel Washington as Uriah, a man sent from the palace carrying his own death orders.

Instead, we get Fast and Furious, part six.  Oh well.

But I have other ideas as well.  One of them takes the best elements of The Hunger Games, Death Race, Running Man, and our current resentment and fascination of the wealth class of this country.

Imagine a dystopian future (they are all that, these days)...the wealth have secluded themselves into little islands of fortune, while the rest of civilization is poor, strung out, and does nothing but seek entertainment.  Revolution is in the air, but it is stifled...why?  The biggest show in entertainment: Buy Your Life.  (OK, I know...better titles can be made than this...but we're just brainstorming here).  Once a month the wealthy offer up a sacrifice to the proletarian masses.  In an arena, the wealth superstar (picked at random, of course, or so it seems) has to defend his/her life in some way.  Maybe it's in mortal combat with killer.  Maybe it's in escaping from a hunt by expert hunters. Maybe it's in a race to buy their freedom by making an agreement with a group of rag-tag people who might (or might not) be able to be bought.  The beauty of this is that the rules of the game are always changing...and there is a chance for freedom, or a chance for death.  Sometimes the end is gruesome...a beautiful heiress gets raped and tortured.  Sometimes the end is heart-warming...the wealthy creep pays for a new, well-maintained village for a few hundred families out of his fortune and finally learns the most important lesson of life.

The first 20 minutes set up this world...but what then?  There's several ways to go.  One of them is about how the game is rigged...maybe a business tycoon pays off the 'random selection' committee in order to have his main rival put into the arena.  Maybe a trophy wife, having had her husband caught, sells him in much the same way.  Or maybe, just maybe, we find out that the people being sacrificed all along were not the wealthy ones.  Instead, they were stand-ins for somebody else.  The powerful continue to get their own way, and the poor are instead unknowingly killing their own.

Maybe it's a personal story about an oblivious young wealthy person who gets entered into the arena.  He's done some bad things, but nothing too horrible, but his name is selected.  At first he is terrified and does all the wrong things, but eventually his heart and his courage (not to mention his good looks) make him into somebody that the viewers can identify with.  What's this?  Can we really root for the rich man?  But I'm not sure where this story ends up.

Or maybe it's a story of the sneering wealthy guy whose death is not enough.  The arena erupts, and violence begins spilling out into the streets.  If one wealthy person is killed, why not all of them?  Homes are invaded, rebellion comes, and a new world order comes out of it all.

Maybe somebody competent will take this idea and run with it.  But I think it's a good start.  I'd pay to see this...or at least get it from Redbox.