Last Week

I took my wife and mother in-law back to the little country church in the woods yesterday. The pastor, Rosemary McMahan, was out of town celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary with her husband so the associate pastor, Houston, presided over the weekly ceremonies, instead. He quoted several sections of the holy text, including one that stated, "This is my command: love each other." I also found the yellow slip of paper that Rosemary had handed out last week, which stated:

The Halverson Benediction

Wherever you go, God is sending you. Wherever you are, God has put you there. He has a purpose in your being there. Christ who indwells in you has something he wants to do through you where you are. Believe this and go in His grace and love and power.

Submitted by Elder Rosemary McMahan, Pastor

I don't purport to have working knowledge of this place where I live, including the local climate, the planet, the solar system, galaxy, supergalaxy, cluster and/or universe. I am not a scientist, philosopher or theologian (or any combination of those professions). I'm just me, a simple guy with simple needs. I happen to possess the characteristics of the male gender of my species and tend to see the world through the eyes of a male human animal. The only thing I know (or think I know) is that my species has turned this planet into a playground, reducing or eliminating many daily threats to individual survival from other species, including large game animals and small bacteria/viruses, and acting generally as if our species's survival is a guaranteed right.

We built civilization into what it is today, having rebuilt upon previous civilizations. Future civilizations will rebuild upon ours. Superstitions of the past have been recreated by our generation, will be forgotten and recreated by our descendants. Myths and legends will come and go just as urban legends come and go today.

We believe what we believe. We see what we see. Our only purpose, goal, reason for being, or any other concept we can develop to disguise the fact is summed up in the phrase, "have kids and take care of your family." That's it.

Yet we allow ourselves to be trained otherwise, to be led by others to believe and act in ways contrary to species preservation.

I hear people say, "well, I can't do [something to guarantee my family's survival/happiness] because I don't have any money." When I examine these people's claims, I see they can afford cigarettes, cable television subscriptions, Internet service, automobiles and automobile accessories, cell phone subscriptions, clothing and clothing accessories, housing redecoration (including monthly rent on furniture and computers), yard maintenance payments, credit card bills, etc. Not having money is a misnomer. Not managing monetary resources is the issue.

We let ourselves believe that the trappings of society are requirements to live. Somehow my grandparents and great-grandparents survived and enjoyed their lives without all the modern conveniences provided by monthly payments for superfluous items.

A funny thing happened on the way to the bank. We got lost amid all the product advertisements. We fell for the trick that says you must keep up with the Joneses. We have these bodies that can handle baby production and rearing with relative ease and act like we must find a way to fill the time between emergencies or other attention demands from our offspring.

Whatever happened to something simple like sitting down and talking with one another? I don't know. Admittedly, I sit in a room piled almost to the ceiling with yellowed newspapers, photo albums, defunct computing equipment, college textbooks, toy animals, half-built balsa wood flying models, souvenirs, tax receipts, hobby materials and other unknown items buried in stacks. I am a good example of a human with too little time spent on having kids and taking care of one's family.

More importantly, I represent the vast majority of humans who go through the education process in a capitalist society. We raise the excitement level of our children by stuffing them constantly with education so that they only know how to live by filling their time stuffing themselves, either literally with food or figuratively with more education or similar activities like computerized time-compressed entertainment (cell phone chatting/texting, myspace/facebook/baidu/twitter posting, etc.). It's almost as if we're training our children and ourselves that it's not okay to take it slow. Move quickly or die, we seem to say subliminally.

We are raised to want to spend money on stuff, including trips away from home and other time occupiers. Of course, the faster we move, the more opportunities we have to participate in a consumerist society. Spend, spend, spend!

What do you believe? Do you believe in an omniscient/omnipotent being (or beings)? Do you believe the being wants you to surround yourself with unnecessary stuff that adds nothing to having kids and taking care of your family? If you do, can you see what I see, that you're going to keep chasing your tail until you collapse?

This is my last week at the institute. I will hand out final tests for two courses I've taught and hold one more lecture/discussion class with the students/customers in my third course. In the students/customers who've sat in front of me, I wonder how many of them will continue to maintain the simple lives they've led so far, raising their children without needing to accumulate vast quantities of junk. I hope they do. For those who haven't yet settled into a family life, I wonder if they will focus their lives on having children and not on amassing rooms full of trinkets.

I spent most of my adult years working for organizations that depended on a consumerist society, or at least on a growing civilization. Therefore, I sit here having directly benefited from mass consumer-based education. Am I being hypocritical, suggesting that such an education does not match my idealistic, utopian world? No, I'm not. I believe what I believe. My belief can conflict with the beliefs of others because I know I won't change the world. I can only control what I do. I am not going to walk around all day and preach to others that their lives are mostly filled with useless time wasters because they're ignoring their kids and family when they spend money on stuff because society hasn't taught them how to manage their resources on what's the only important activities we should be doing -- my friends who own businesses in this capitalistic/consumerist society probably don't want to hear it.

I'll close with these thoughts. My life is essentially over. I am a product of mass education. I have filled my life with trinkets and it's too late for my wife and me to have kids. Let me be an example, even a warning, to you. Fill your life with the love of/for your children and family. Love like that has no monetary value so don't hook your kids on TV, Internet, cigarettes or consumerism, and avoid mass education systems, if you can. The time and money you'll save will increase your net worth beyond measure!