Perhaps acknowledging that the “War on” monicker has been overused, and not very successfully at that (how is the War on Drugs, going guys?), the Bush Administration appears to have shifted terms. We are now engaged in a global struggle against violent extremism.
I’m not disparaging the work of the fine men and women who are putting their lives on the line in this struggle or the need to have this struggle. My complaints about how the Bush Administration has conducted this campaign remain regardless of what we call what we’re doing, but it is an interesting shift of semantics.
On the Fence makes a very good point, however: with this shift in semantics, will those who went apopletic and told the CBC to call a spade a spade, apologize for their misplaced anger now that both the CBC and the Bush Administration are referring instead to shovels?
Angry at God
This is somewhat of a bipolar post, but this has been something of a bipolar year for us. It’s surprising how much anger is a part of grief. And when a person has died too young because of a simple accident, the target of that anger — other than the innocent people of La Paz, Mexico — tends to be God.
And you know what? I think he’s big enough to handle it. He’s the type of being that can accept our small and frightened outbursts and still be there to comfort us when our anger turns to tears.
Though it has been called so in the past, I don’t believe that anger is a deadly sin, so long as it doesn’t turn to hatred. Look into this, and I think you’ll see it as something wherein Christianity has changed and grown over the past five decades.
At the funeral, we were still confronted/comforted by some older folks who said “you mustn’t be angry at God”, but the younger generation — even those in their sixties — who were raised on Calvanistic beliefs that suggested that illness and disaster were all part of “God’s plan”, were still able to come up to us and say: “you know? It’s okay to be angry at God.” I sense that’s is a big step for them.
Being angry at God is fundamentally an act of faith. You can’t be angry at something you don’t believe in, and a raised fist is as much of a prayer as clasped hands.
Sometimes the world sucks, and God’s in charge. He’s okay if you want to route all letters of complaint to Him.
Rosemary and Time Contract Update
I should get hard copies to sign in the mail shortly, so says Barry. He also pointed out that I’ve already fulfilled the September 15th deadline for submitting the manuscript. We’re now in the editing phase. He hopes to get into editing in September, and around that time I might see the cover design.
I’m looking forward to that. Dundurn designs nice covers (see right for an example), and it will be an incredible rush to see that aspect of the book come to pass.