Warning. Urgent feeling to preach. A bit rough for Saturday morning

Urgency.

It is sad when a great word, an important word, first conjures up images of commercials for treatment of overactive bladder syndrome, prostate enlargement, or incontinence.

I don't mean to diminish the seriousness of that kind of urgency. In fact maybe I will use it as a metaphor this morning. A bit risky in the literary world to use the need to urinate as a centerpiece of an essay. But St. Augustine back in the 4th century uttered a famous prayer, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet." Pretty good company I think. Let's see how it goes.

Our advanced civilization has developed medications that dull the physical sensation of urgency, not only in the matters described above. There are pills that dull hunger pangs, sex drive, the need to sneeze or cough, the need to slug somebody, and a host of other natural urges. They have their places.

But it seems much of our society has been medicated against urgency to act.

All over the world, this very minute, as I am sitting on my sofa drinking coffee and mindlessly blogging, children are dying while their parents watch, if the parents are still alive. Governments are committing horrible acts of oppression which result in pain and death for innocents, at this very moment. In other places, children are dying by the thousands for lack of vaccinations that cost less than five dollars per child. A whole continent, Africa, suffers from a dreadful lack of safe drinking water, a primary reason for the spread of fatal or disabling disease, especially for children. Much of the continent could be provided safe water from new wells for what America spent on the Iraq war. Places like Haiti, just a hop flight from American shores, suffers from unimaginable poverty, resulting in pain, death, and desperation that is being felt today, with no hope for tomorrow.

Millions of living, breathing human beings, most of them children, suffering, hurting, dying, right now.

One of those commercials promotes the use of its medication "if you are always feeling like you have to go . . ."

When we are reminded of the horrible pain and suffering of millions, do we feel the need to go? As, "go into all the world?"

If not, what medication are we on?

Complacency, busyness, judgmentalism, hopelessness, selfishness?

It is uncomfortable to get off the meds, to once again feel the natural sensations that were meant to motivate us to action. Sometimes it means we have to feel the pain again. It's a tough choice to make. If we do, we can change the world.

But if we choose to avoid the feeling of urgency to help the least of these . . .

Well just piss on them . . .

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