How Political Are We?

Dear ones:

            Reading Thomas Sowell can be deleterious to your health. 

            I mean that truly, for I have a story to tell you; I was the main character, but Thomas Sowell was the catalyst.  (Surely we can do as all the nations do, and play the Blame Game with an unsuspecting successful writer, can’t we?  I’m sure the writer of Race and Economics would approve.)

            As happens once every few months, I am in hot water at my office.  Having just polished off Thomas Sowell’s A Personal Odyssey, and feeling rambunctious, word got around to me that another employee friend of mine shared my views as to the true nature of employees in an office – “peons” was the word she used.  A mutual office friend [Rebecca] immediately dashed up to the front desk and told our office manager, “Corri, there’s something wrong with Chelsea!  She says that we’re ‘peons’!  You gotta talk to her!”  To be fair, Rebecca simply thought the word itself was amusing, as it began with “pe”, which is one of her favourite words.  However, when I supported Chelsea’s opinion with my two cents, near pandemonium broke out, for the following reasons:

1.                  Five of the peons and one of the overlords (attorneys) was at the front desk; group situations are always potentially flammable.

2.                  When pooh-poohed by an overlord (a good friend of mine – he can’t help it that he unknowingly perpetuates a culture of poverty), I insisted that, valued as we were, peons we remained – every good farm depends on them, I said.  I thought that this was merely insightful and helpful.

3.                  Instead of having the (political) good sense to keep quiet, when challenged I opened up more, and added details, unfavorably comparing an office to a prison, where you have to pay for your food.  This was met by high eyebrows and quick walking away by a second overlord, anxious to avoid the hordes of peons storming the castle, no doubt.  (He is also a good friend, with good intentions, who is in the same bind as his peons – same as the overlords in Braveheart who live exactly like their vassals.)

4.                  The office manager became incensed and told me roundly that SHE was not a peon, no ma’am.  I looked her in the eye and said that, though I would never cast it up to her or mention it to her face, the fact remained that we were all in the same peonic boat.  This met with less than general approval.

            So today, there was a dilemma – back down and make everyone feel comfortable?  Create a peaceful environment by (a) not quite saying that I was wrong and yet letting others air their views, (b) saying it was only my personal view and for goodness’ sake, not to assume that I meant it applied or had any truthful validity, (c) apologize for hurt feelings, or (d) ignore it?

            I thought out each and every option, and decided that option B would be too much like acceding to the popular notion of post-modern subjectivism, C would get us embroiled in a polite fencing match and be far too close to B, and D was impossible because of the nature of females.  One cannot simply ignore stiff backs and cold answers for eternity.  However, the fact that I am a ‘short-timer’, as one overlord put it, helped immensely – what were they going to do, fire me before the Christmas holidays?  Not likely.  So I went up to my office manager and stated the obvious – she was upset.  (Girls take too long; if you’ve offended them, get the obvious over and go talk about it.  Often, all they want is to vent.)  Then the barrage let loose, and she informed me that it did not just upset HER, there were other people involved, who felt the same way she did – that though this might be my personal viewpoint, one should not say such a thing in public, and that We (the office) wanted to preserve unity.  This did not in ANY WAY devalue me in her eyes as a person. (As if her opinion could counteract the fact of our mutual creation by the holy God.)

             Well, there were a few strains in the argument that are particularly attractive to females.  “I am mad at you, but I have others who agree with me, and somehow, adding more people’s common opinion is more valid that just upholding my own.  Also, peace ought to be preserved rather than looking at whether your arguments are valid or not; peace above all.  Unity is based on how much we agree; we must preserve a united front.  And I still love you, even though you hold this viewpoint – love the sinner but hate the sin.”   To be fair, she had to speak as an office manager, and was in ‘official capacity’; so, to help her with the united front, all I said was that I understood her position, and spoke of office matters – even stumbled a bit, so that she thought I was contrite yet stubborn.

            Being a female, I had to get this off my chest in a safe environment, which might not turn out to be at all safe.  But one must also take risks, and be ready for someone to take your ill-considered words quite personally.  One of the overlords had the best point of all, that as Christians, we are known as ‘slaves’; and I believed that I was helping with my illustrations.  The questions that remain in my mind are (a) if this Christian office is this politically correct, I wonder what other people deal with on a daily basis, and (b) do we really realize how much of our friendship depends on lock-step thinking?

            As I have said before – so much for the idea that females are so much better at reasoned debate than males.  And if you disagree with me, I’ll take your head off. 

Gratitude

   I am thankful, in my life, for weakness, failure and fear.

   These are not popular recipients of gratitude - so much the better.  The last month of my life I have experienced more anger at God (who am I to be angry? did I make myself?), more feelings of hopelessness and despair, and more fear than at any other time that I remember. I spent a night crying out to God in a hotel room because I couldn't stand to go home and I couldn't stand to ask anyone for help - I just wanted to die, to 'be taken away to heaven', was the way it was revised in my sinful mind. I was angry at God for not making my path easy, and allowing me to keep on the destructive, self-focused path I was on.

    And God has spoken to me more than I remember in the last 3 years - in 4 weeks, there's a new regular attendant at the RP church in Phoenix, there's been progress in witnessing to a roommate (the other one, the doors were definitely closed in her mind), my Mum has miraculously recovered health after a year of desperate hovering between barely alive and waiting -for-next-illness, and I've told my boss that I'll be gone from my job in a matter of months. 

   There are 3 things that have stuck with me through this time - nay, four (have been reading Proverbs) that have endured:

   (1) "So the Lord said to Cain, "why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.  And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."  - God gives you an entire Book to tell you that choices have eternal importance. Don't make Him the scapegoat when sin has crossed your threshhold.

  (2) "Prayer is the strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a good Christian weapon." - Martin Luther.  The one reason why the RPC of Phoenix is still alive, after many years of inactivity and the despair of Gondor, is prayer; it's the one thing we did not let up on.

  (3) CS Lewis and Oswald Chambers say the same thing - "We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us."  You can be a woman of strength by going into the temple and praying so hard that you're taken for a drunken woman, as Hannah did - and your children just might be chosen to be great men of God.

  (4)  And the crowner from Jeremiah 12 - "If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how will you contend with the horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?"

   (H)onor God

   (O)thers first

   (P) ray and prioritize

   (E)nd each day with integrity.

Love, Pin

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First Causes

Epiphany