Sunday, May 6, 2007

The Abolition of Man
If no one has ever read the book "The Abolition of Man" by C.S. Lewis, I strongly urge you to pick a copy up. Now that I have said that I am sure that 10 our of 100 people will pick it up, 5 out of 100 will attempt to read it, and then 4 out of those 5 are going to say it's too hard and put it down and then sell it on Amazon.

That's pretty sad but true. America is pretty dumbed down when it comes to good literature as well as when it comes to thinking. We live in a country where we idolize our movie stars and our pop singers rather than those with intellect and heart.

I babysat a while ago and I remember I asked three kids what they wanted to be. They were about 7 or 8, you know the age when you start thinking and dreaming about that sort of thing. Anyways, they had responded with movie star, a country singer, and a rap star.

So I asked then why not a teacher or a fire fighter. They responded that there was no money in that, and no one likes you when you are those things.

Which I guess is true here in our great country that I truly love (seriously).

The thing that I am getting at is "ubi sunt" or.. "Where have all the heroes gone?" Our nation no longer appreciates the people who truly matter in this country. You know, the people who keep out lives functioning?

If you can't think of who I am talking about, allow me to share them:

Teachers
Fire fighters
Doctors
Social Workers
Industry workers
White collars
Blue collars
Farmers


How many of you actually think that life would be possible without any of these people? Our society glorifies a group of celebrities, sports stars, and others who do nothing but make money off of us sitting and drooling over how awesome they are. We pay them to be ignorant, and talented.

I can think of very few celebrities who are intelligent. And though most of America does not agree, Tom Cruise is indeed intelligent, and one of the few celebrities I speak of.

It is nice to appreciate the talent and effort that people have in their field, but it is also nice to appreciate those who do the ordinary things.

I urge you: CELEBRATE THE ORDINARY. We need to step out of our glorifications, we need to step out of all the glamorous, flossy, and shiny things that we THINK we need to be good people.

There are only two things in this world you need to do to be a good person: Love God with your whole heart. And love your neighbor as you would yourself.

Even if you aren't a believer of God, you can at least be a good person by acting kind towards others.

We need to step out of this idealistic generation set on praising those who do very little for the hearts of mankind. That goes for anyone, even the tousled poet is wrong in his doings. Step back and stop trying to be someone that the masses will praise and bow down to. You trying to be something that everyone adores is just setting the abolition of mankind into a faster track than it is on now.

All you really need to do is be ordinary, plain, and above all caring.

It isn't that hard. Really.

I challenge you to try it.
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