Macadamia is good too . . .

I have a friend who is thinking of throwing a party because Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senatorial race. Another cause my friend champions is the medical treatment of children with cancer.

I doubt my friend knows much about Scott Brown except that his may be the vote that kills health reform.

I wonder if my friend is still worried about the sick children. It's gonna take a lot of bake sales to do much good.

My friend was not aware that Massachusetts has a good state administered health insurance system. Scott Brown does not believe the people of Massachusetts should have to pay more taxes to take care of the rest of the country, since they have taken steps to care for themselves.

Wow. I hope that kind of thinking doesn't catch on. If we in Alabama wake up tomorrow and learn that the rest of the states are no longer going to take care of us, we might as well call in sick, but do it quickly, because neither the phone system nor your job will likely survive very long if our federal aid fix is taken from us cold turkey. Hopefully you won't really be sick, cause our health care system would be on life support as well. But I digress.

No one knows what will happen with health care reform.

But if you are one who is giddy about the possibility that it is dead, what now?

I hear chocolate chip is always popular.

Sam Dixon

Dr. Sam Dixon, Deputy General Secretary of UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief), who was found alive under the Hotel Montana, has died. It is so sad. He was alive with his colleagues, talking while they were awaiting rescue. His daughter was just interviewed on CNN. She talked about his desire to serve victims of disaster, a desire that put him in Haiti at the time of the earthquake. Pray for his family and his co-workers.

bob

Unity . . .

Saturday. Sofa. Coffee.

I am watching the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake on the news channels this morning. The coverage in Haiti was interrupted for a few moments for a formal announcement from the White House. President Obama requested former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush to be co-heads of the Haiti fund, an offer they both accepted. As they appeared together outside the White House, President Obama spoke of both former Presidents' efforts to relieve suffering of the sick and impoverished in the world. Clinton and Bush made gracious remarks about President Obama and each other.

It is not necessary to be a serious student of history to remember the harsh words and feelings that from time to time have existed between and among these three in different permutations. It has not always been pretty.

But there they were this morning. There was humility, graciousness, a sense of grief, and an air of determination to get this done as well as possible, considering the reality of the disaster.

Disasters unify.

I do not believe that the path to the unity of humanity is to hope for a continuing series of serious disasters.

So what is it about major disasters that bring out the best in the rest of us? Is it possible that we could experience unity without disaster?

Or as I asked in the last post, why did it take an earthquake to get me to see the plight of Haiti?

With apologies to Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, and revival preachers everywhere, I believe humans are basically good. We have just been conditioned to think that good is not smart. Giving away what you have worked for, storing up no more than you truly need, seeking to serve instead of be served, choosing to be last instead of first, loving enemies, not insisting on being right. Not smart if you expect to be successful in this world. Smart people are successful people.

We want to be successful. And we want to be smart. Smart is a good thing, right?

It is supposed to be. But what is smart? What is good? What is success?

And what's that got to do with Haiti and disaster and unity?

You tell me what you think. Click on "post a comment" below. Type your thoughts in the screen that opens, press anonymous if you don't have one of the other id's, sign your name to your statement or not, and click publish.

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Haiti

There is only one thing to write about today.

Do what you can to help the people of Haiti. There is no shortage of great organizations to give to. My favorite is UMCOR http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/ but there are so many others.

Politics, religion, economics . . . these discussions can be had another day.

But not today. Because what difference do those things make when family members cannot be found, when the only water available might kill you, and when travel through the streets is made difficult not only by the rubble of collapsed buildings but by the dead bodies of those who were their victims. More than fifty thousand.

So many people want to help, and there is so little that anyone can do.

For me it is even hard to pray to God to give relief and comfort when God is the only one who could have stopped the earthquake.

But God is looking at me and wondering why it took an earthquake before I truly looked at the plight of Haiti . . .

So we are not talking much . . . just sitting quietly.

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