Perhaps the hard part comes in after the holidays. That's right now as I write this, early Thursday morning. I retire early in the evening and rise early, following the dictum of the great Ben Franklin. Am I wiser? I suspect I'm wise enough to see the total folly - the joke as it were - of Donald Trump as president. I am forced to circulate in the world here in Morris where the most committed conservatives, often rock-ribbed people of faith such as the Apostolics - appear supportive of Trump. Such a crude, ignorant and vain man.
Or, is it just a case of conservatives being coached by the strident right wing media to fear Democrats and Nancy Pelosi? Why be scared of Nancy Pelosi? Is she not motivated by a desire to look out for the interests of all the people? What evidence can you give me to the contrary?
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" is on TV as I write this. Daily the show reveals the abject absurdity of the Trump administration. I literally pray for the stock market to have huge drops, the more catastrophic the better, to teach us a lesson about values. We need to value our basic humanity more. We need to pay attention to the science behind climate change. Maybe we shouldn't be so wedded to our motor vehicles and so inclined to use air travel. Maybe we should just stick to home more and be happy there. Sometimes I think the Apostolics worship business, they don't even worship God. I had thought there were two Apostolic churches in the area but a friend told me yesterday there are three. It seemed like a fringe church when I was young. I have always had friends from that faith.
Re-thinking the mainstream churches
Morris has three mainstream Protestant churches: First Lutheran, Faith Lutheran and Federated. The three seem to have experienced some erosion. To an extent that might be healthy because humility can be constructive. My church of First Lutheran has cut back with services offered: down to one per Sunday the year-round. For most of my life it was two each Sunday year-round. There was then a transition to one in summer with a resumption of two in the fall. Why does Morris seem to go into such a retreat mode in summer? There is no longer a summer Prairie Pioneer Days.
The ELCA went through the tumult of adjusting to our enlightened new world of realizing that gay people deserve basic rights. In the meantime we got a whole new church established in Morris: Good Shepherd. In a time where the Star-Tribune has a high-profile feature on the "un-churching" of our society, it hardly seems appropriate for new churches to be carved out, especially churches based on petty, passing grievances.
We have seen the phasing out of Morris Community Church. That church reflected my generation and the inclination of many to step away from the mainstream churches in which we grew up. We grew up seeing our churches as being disingenuous or hypocritical in some respects. It's easy to second-guess now. We grew up in a time of military conscription for the Vietnam war. As wildly inappropriate as Trump seems for the presidency, he has not committed a folly that even comes close to our involvement in Vietnam. The churches of our youth seemed staid and detached from that issue and other concerning issues of the day. But today? Today I am of a mind to root for those mainstream churches as being totally reasonable and a safe harbor from some of the rough right wing politics that permeates so much of the faith.
"Whose side are you on?"
In my young adult years, it seemed as though Faith Lutheran in Morris was a haven for the most politically assertive Morris public school teachers, the most union-attuned (or infected), who coalesced there and seemed to make it part of their power base. If you were new in town and chose the other ELCA church, you might legitimately feel on the defensive and have to explain, at least to yourself, if you had a problem with the teachers, their union and their power objectives (against the "evil" superintendent and school board). Indeed, certain teachers seemed to want to harangue us daily about how they weren't paid enough or in general appreciated enough.
Here's a theory: there was a time when it seemed people in education felt they worked in a zero-sum world. In other words, one party's gain is another's loss. The alternative to that would be "a rising tide lifts all boats." I think we got that with the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980, a rare time in my background where I saw merit in Republicans' success.
The school district in Morris was a blistering sore of contentiousness for a long time. My own personal memories of teachers, are that they did a terrific job crushing any potential I might have had to develop self-esteem. I say to hell with "rigorous academics."
Teachers created an intimidating atmosphere in classrooms, constructing exams and quizzes that ensured a certain percentage of kids would get a 'C' grade or maybe lower. The teachers had to do that or they'd be reprimanded. No matter if every kid in your class was attentive and eager to assimilate stuff - there was a guarantee of disappointment for a certain percentage of kids. It was baked into the cake. Most likely I had a problem of being insecure and overly impressionable - no one is perfect - and those qualities exacerbated the effect I felt from the draconian classroom.
Looking back for better or worse
Now that I am alone for the start of the new year, I cannot help but reflect a lot. I probably should have been prescribed "behavior meds," perhaps the garden variety that simply acts as a tranquilizer, slowing down my mind. I grew up getting absolutely no guidance for understanding and dealing with an essential part of our nature: sex. Nothing. If the subject got floated in our home like from a TV show, I'd feel unspeakable shame and embarrassment. I think many boomers grew up this way.
People often talk about how adolescence is such a difficult rite of passage. The early days of the Internet had a site called "Get Mortified" that was all about that. People sent in photos of their dorky-looking selves in junior high. Stories too of course. It could be that in my case, I literally did not survive adolescence. I was a casualty.
But we're at the start of a new year and the wise thing to do is to look forward. Speaking of being a casualty, maybe our whole nation will be a casualty of Donald Trump. Mark my word, it's a strong possibility.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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