I Was Thinking... Standing Up

I’ve been asked several times, “Where do you get your column ideas from?” Most of the ideas I get, come from everyday experiences. Once I started writing a weekly column, I became more aware of events around me that could possibly be turned into a story. Others have also suggested topics I could write about. Today’s column came directly from a Good Friday church service and a comment a friend made last week over coffee. It is strange how things that you wouldn’t think connect, sometimes do.
When the DCI arrives at our house on a Thursday, I get to read what I submitted to the paper the previous Friday. That particular column may have been written during the prior week or possibly weeks before and just been waiting in my writing folder. But writing a column and then reading what you wrote once it is in print sometimes even surprises me. Last week I wrote about how easy it is to be beaten down by the negativism that seems to abound all around us. But after I read it in the paper, I wondered how others perceived it because I wasn’t sure how I took it myself.
For the most part, I still agree with most of what I wrote, but I began to wonder if I was also sending the wrong message. If you try to shoulder all the troubles we see every day in the media, we can easily feel beaten down because we can’t change most of those things. But I also didn’t mean to imply that we should just ignore all the injustices, struggles, and crises affecting the world we live in and just care about making ourselves happy.
Good Friday services are usually somber and solemn occasions since they recount the beating, humiliation and finally the death of Jesus on the cross. This man was “beaten down” literally before eventually being killed.
The service I attended had actors going through the stations of the cross that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. But as each station was enacted, there was also text read that encouraged the parishioners to examine their own lives and be willing to take the right stand, even if it was unpopular, hard or dangerous. This brought me back to another conversation I’d had with friends over coffee some weeks before.
As is true when men get together for coffee at some local establishment, they discuss issues. It is often about their favorite sports team, but it can also be about the state of affairs in their city, country, or the world. It can result in a lot of complaining and lamenting about our limited ability to change anything.
But amidst our frustration of having limited influence, one man reminded us that when people stop trying, all will be lost. He admired those that even against great odds, still stood up for what they knew was right, even if it meant standing alone. We discussed the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, women’s crusade for voting rights, and forming of labor unions to ensure workers’ rights.
Others mentioned the resistance to tyrants, even at the cost of death. Throughout history, those that stood up for what was right often did so at great cost. The sacrifice played out during the Good Friday service was just another reminder that blessings often come at great cost.
Some may argue that in their life they have gone through struggles and maybe even were actively involved in issues in the past but now they’re retired. I deserve time to enjoy life they say.
While I certainly can identify with that approach, the recent church service and men’s discussion reminded me, you still have to take a stand. You are never too old to still care about what is right, just, or imperative. The famous quote attributed to Edmund Burke may say it all. “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
 
Did You Ever Wonder? — If two left handers have an argument, who is right?