Church of the Earth of NC

Sometimes you are sad and mad and tired and frustrated and then -- then you hear someone sing or see someone paint and it changes things…. It reminds you of creation, and you laugh and you cry because you remember in your bones that there is a point.

So, anyway, I just watched the second half of Dreamgirls. When Effie White (Jennifer Hudson) was singing “I Am Changing” in her last chance audition for a comeback, it affected me. I had not watched most of the movie that lead up to it, but it had been a really trying day, so by the time she finished, I was wrecked.

And then -- THEN, she sang "Let it Be" on the Hope for Haiti telethon.  I'm getting all faklempt just remembering it, and I don't even know what faklempt means.  I can't wait to see what she will do next.

A hallmark of human civilization is the habit we have of dividing the world up into “Us and Them”. The group that we describe as “Us” always deserves trust, respect, and the benefit of the doubt. The group we describe as “Them” is usually out to get “Us”, and their actions are suspicious if not downright hostile. Since we are being attacked by “Them”, it gives “Us” the right to do almost anything in self defense or even retaliation.

To make things even more complicated, we have a tendency to apply this segregation over vast expanses of time and space, dividing the people of many generations and geographies into these two groups. When picking “Us”, we tend to select those that can further our feeling of persecution, those who have been mistreated or betrayed. And, when picking “Them”, we choose the persecutors and betrayers.

Unfortunately, most of “Them” think of themselves as “Us”, and believe that we are “Them”. Since they can't really be trusted, this is obviously a trick.