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Blogs by Dorien Grey
Because
10/25/2010 4:33:21 AM
Knowing what we should be is one thing. Being what we should be is another.
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From Dorien Grey and Me, http://www.doriengreyandme.com
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I often wonder—as may you—why I rant and rave so much; why seemingly small things will throw me into a fury. I really don’t like grumpy, complaining people, and hate being one of them. But boiling everything down to its basics, I realize my rants and raves are almost always based on the fact that I cannot and will not abide people and things being what they are when there is a choice for them to be better than they are. This of course includes me, which is why I hold several ph.Ds in self deprecation and self-loathing.
I experienced another fury attack the other day when someone send me a video from the net: it was a recording of one of my favorite songs of all time: The Battle Hymn of the Republic, sung by three high-school choruses. It was beautifully done and I was moved deeply, as I always am by the singing and the music. Had they simply photographed the joint choruses singing, it would have been extremely powerful. But what drove me absolutely to distraction was the illustrations that went along with it.
Whomever produced the video obviously thought that the viewer would be totally incapable of appreciating the song on its own merits. Now, I know The Battle Hymn of the Republic reflects our nation’s Christian heritage. Jesus is prominently featured throughout, and I do not mind that, given, again, it’s historical relevance. What I resented about this particular video was the producers’ insistence upon, instead of letting the viewer simply accept, enjoy, and interpret the song on whatever personal level he or she chose, inserting as many shots of Jesus and crosses as they thought they could get away with. The effect was of being grabbed by the shoulders, shaken until my teeth rattled while someone with their nose three inches from my own screamed in my face at the top of their lungs: “HALLELUJAH, BROTHER! THIS IS A CHRISTIAN SONG! SEE? THERE’S CHRIST RIGHT THERE! SEE HIM? IT’S A SONG ABOUT CHRIST AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT! PRAISE BE TO GOD!”
That it is a beautiful song which has deep patriotic meaning to all Americans means nothing to these people, just as the rights of anyone who happens not to be Christian means nothing to them.
(And yet again I think of Al Capp’s marvelous Li’l Abner cartoon strip featuring a group called the Lily Whiters, whose theme song was: “We are the Lily Whiters, brave and pure and strong! We are the Alway-Righters…everyone else is wrong!” There are a lot of Lily Whiters out there.)
I loathe, with every fiber in my being, those who feel it is their right…nay, their duty…not only to speak for God but to demand that I think and believe exactly what they do. I’ve always been confident that God can speak very well for himself, thank you. And I’m more than a little puzzled by how they can have the astonishing, unmitigated arrogance to believe He requires them to do it for Him.
It rather reminds me of whenever I go into a government office and encounter an imperious clerk who assumes he or she IS the government.
I refuse to believe we cannot and should not be infinitely better than we are: infinitely less judgmental of others, even a little more thoughtful of the rights of others, and a little more aware of our true role in the nature of things.
But I fear until that time comes, I will not cease to be outraged by the arrogance, stupidity, bigotry, hatred, greed, cruelty, and thoughtlessness of others. (And now I hear Nelson Eddy singing another of my favorite songs: “Give me ten men who are stout-hearted men, who will fight for the right they adore; start me with ten who are stout-hearted men, and I’ll soon give you ten thousand more!” Would that it were true.)
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Another entry will be posted next Monday, and I hope you will come by. In the meantime, if you enjoy my blogs, I hope you might consider reading one of my books. You can check them out and read the first chapter of any/every one on my website, http://www.doriengrey.com
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