Translating a World on the Edge

We want to love others, but when we don’t see ‘love’ staring back at us, it’s hard. We may not even try, or we may give up.

Love isn’t a fluffy feeling. It all comes down to a decision we must make: I will love this person. I will give him, or her, respect. I will see God’s spirit in him. I may not like this person. But I’m called to love them, regardless.

Real love loves for love’s sake, and not because the loved one is lovable.–Eugenia Price

Amazingly, sometimes the people we must struggle to love, actually bring out the best in us. Our genuine attempt to love them causes us to implement at least five of the seven virtues: patience, courage, justice, and hope.

Now, what about those who are trying to love me? Am I hard to love?

Am I sarcastic, vindictive, or mean to someone? Do I cheat or lie to them? Do I ignore them, and put my own needs ahead of theirs? Does the person who’s trying to love me have to walk on eggshells so as not to upset my sensitive nature? How can I expect someone to love me if I have traits like these?

We can make it much easier for those who are trying to love us by taking a good, honest look at ourselves. If we don’t like what we see, we must change it.

And one of them, a doctor of the Law, putting him to the test, asked him, “Master, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus said to him, “‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.’ This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.–Matthew 22:35-40

The American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, are not just stories somebody made up. Real people fought, thought, and brought freedom and greatness to America. Some tried to hide that fact, but could not–the DEPLORABLES would not let it be hidden.

The Truth was remembered by over sixty million, hard-working, and overlooked Americans when they voted in this month’s election. Those Americans voted against the dusty, self-aggrandizement of political correctness and for the real, shining, and noble story of our country.

This is something to be very thankful for; it could have gone the other way. And if it had, we would be looking at a future that not only threatens religious liberty, but the lives of many more than the 59,558,417.3 already aborted children, would be in jeopardy.

We would have been looking at the continuance of ignoring of our US Constitution, the loss of our jobs to other  countries, and much, much more that would  eventually destroy the America created by the Founders.

I think many people forget that our laws, which have worked for more than two centuries, are based on spiritual truth; each of us are created by God. We are not happenstance. We did not make ourselves.

Each of us has dignity, and a purpose on earth, and our purpose goes hand-in-hand  with loving each other.

We could have lost. We Deplorables might have been the losers. But I would hope that if we had lost, we would not have taken the elementary school attitude of vindictiveness and even violence against those who won.

Many of us had to suck up the last eight years. Many of us actually prayed for our Democratic leaders–okay we prayed that they would see the light–but we prayed nonetheless.  And a prayerful attitude is what we need today, from both sides. We do not need division–brother and sister, against brother and sister.

The childish, playground attitudes we are seeing are the attitudes of bullies who did not get their way. On this American holiday of Thanks giving, I believe those who lost should recall this paraphrasing of their own words–Go High, Not Low.

Let us ALL pray for America, remembering WHY she was established in the first place.

Two videos follow. The first explains the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man and upon which our country is founded.

The second is from 1941, an example of Hollywood’s “former esteem” for our country.

Last week was an exhausting struggle for many of us, but ultimately became extremely elevating for me. The man I voted for and promoted on this blog, actually won despite all the odds against him. Many of us Catholic bloggers pushing for Trump were maligned with vitriolic comments. Those comments hurt, but we kept it up, and of course, it paid off. Now, I believe, and am praying, that Donald Trump will be great for America–all of America, including the over 60 million previously excluded middle-class and blue-collar Americans of faith.

On Wednesday after the election, I picked up my regular life again. I traveled to New Orleans for the William Faulkner Conference and Competition. Since I had two novels that made the finals, I was able to meet with two literary agents and two acquisition editors, one from Dutton, the other from Penguin/Random House. I have more work to do on the novels, but one of the manuscripts was called, “very publishable” by one of the two editors, and the other editor gave me absolutely super suggestions for my other book. So, I was very encouraged.

Because I’m going to be working hard on my manuscripts, I will only be blogging once a week for a while. I do appreciate all of you who subscribe to and follow this blog!

The election and the following conference have proved one thing for me–never give up. There are days when everything goes against us and we may become discouraged in our endeavors, even with life in general. But we should keep hanging on.

Near the end of her life, I gave my mother a cup with the image of a little bear cub hanging onto a tree by its claws. The inscription on the cup was: You’ve Got What it Takes to Hang in There–Long Fingernails! It was difficult time for my mother, but she struggled through it. She hung on and prevailed in a very beautiful way.

I often remember those words, and link them to this passage: 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

Hanging on by our fingernails is hard! But great struggles can produce even greater rewards.

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