“Someone’s knockin’ at the door. Somebody’s ringin’ the bell…” (1976) “Let ‘Em In” Recorded By: Paul McCartney & Wings Composers: Paul & Linda McCartney
The phone rang. I saw on the ID that it was my eldest daughter, Tabitha. It was an early morning, about 6am, so I wondered why she would be calling so early. Of course, right away, one conjures up a trauma, or an emergency where I might be needed. After her typical hello, and how are you, I quickly learned of her horrid situation.
“Dad, we have a plumbing problem.”
She knows me better than that. I do not have talents on that side of my brain. After asking a couple of questions, she described the issue. It seems her family wakes up to dry toilets. Each morning, they have to flush their toilets to fill the bowls up again. Basically, she wanted to know if I had ever experienced this phenomenon before in any house or apartment from my past. After making a joke about heavier gravity in her neighborhood, and aliens abducting H2O for experimental purposes, she began to brainstorm for herself.
A few days later, my phone “dings” with a text message. It was from Tabitha. It was a simple, short and sweet text, with a photo. It simply read,
“I caught the alien overnight taking toilet water samples.”
Meet Bear, a beloved Great Pyrenees. He is relatively new to the family, and still a huge puppy. With a giant head, much like a polar bear, he somehow finds a way to get his head in the toilet whenever he gets thirsty overnight. Oh, the joys of being a dog.
Much laughter came from my end that day. Naturally, I called her with the news that most dog owners, including myself, have had such potty mouths in our family. She insisted on keeping him in the house overnight. My remedy was to simply form the routine of closing the bathroom doors at bedtime. This worked well, until my son-in-law left the bathroom door slightly ajar one night. Well, if you’re a dog owner, you know that if a door is not shut completely, they will nudge a way in. Bear may be a puppy, but he is no fool. He wants that fresh, cool water from the bowl of porcelain.
I guess if a family isn’t particular of what their dog consumes, I will assume an open bathroom door is a gateway for liquid pleasures for a dry tongue. In time, the dog owner just gets adjusted to the sounds of lapping coming from the open doors of invitation. A hard, decisive choice is in order.
Since Thanksgiving last year, I have had my dementia stricken mom living with us. Her favorite pastime is watching television. It’s no wonder. For about 15 years she lived without a working TV in her house. She missed it greatly. She always loved the one-eyed monster ever since her parents obtained a TV in 1957. A true transition from radio. However, television programming has changed over the years. During the last few months I have come to realize my own desensitizing of audio/visual content in my own living room.
For as long as I can recall, I have always been very protective when it came to my mom. As an only child with a single mom, I am sure it came to me easily.
Without any sense of planning, I found I suddenly was far more keen to the content coming out of the speakers, and the visuals flung at us viewers through the flat digital screen. Whatever it is inside me which automatically wants to hold up a shield in front of my mom, as well as my kids when they were growing up, it is activated greatly way too often now. As we are watching selected programming, I find I am more aware of what the producers and writers present on certain shows. Off we go then to something more benign to the ears and eyes. Today, I realize older programming, from a few decades back, tends to be the better choice for my mom. Obviously, there are exceptions to the more recent productions, but it’s a learning curve of “parental guidance”. So for her viewing hours it’s, The Waltons, Little House On The Prairie, Andy Griffith, Bonanza, Touched By An Angel, etc.
Unfortunately, even the national newscasts are often too liberal with language, or even the captions, “You voted for that !@#*>%!, you sorry, >^@!**!”. Don’t you just love how they don’t mind bleeping out the majority of the words, but they feel the need to spell it out with “***t”, or “you stupid ***ch”? Often times, the words aren’t bleeped. I mean, really. Why have we stooped so low in this culture to air out profanities as if we were all sailors on the high seas engaged in battle? Why is it, you can’t eat a dinner as you watch the 5 o’clock news without being blasted with vulgarities? We once believed in the edit buttons in this country. Not so much anymore. Just who gave permission to assault us all with airing out vulgarity? Even now, it’s tough to find a next door neighbor who can tame his/her mouth over the fence line.
The visuals are not much better. Tell me, if you can, why is it we must see the actual footage of a victim on the street being murdered, beaten, stabbed, shot, etc? The news item might come with a verbal warning, “We warn you. The following clip may be disturbing.” How does the image of seeing someone being slaughter enhance my life? How does seeing a image of a video of a blurred out woman being raped in the subway increase my knowledge of what happened that day? Intelligent viewers know what the act of rape is. How does a news clip of the rantings of a disturbed individual, laced with verbally violent F-bombs and finger shooting, (because he/she has lost the ability of self-control), enriches my day, or gives me better understanding of the story? Can you tell me? There was a producer behind a desk which made that decision. Possibly some news editor was persuaded to leave in as much gore and vulgarity as the FCC allows to sensationalize the story that much more.
Erosion of a society has reactions. The tearing down of a society creates cause and effect. Our children and grandchildren pay in the end. We, the people, shut God out, deny the power of His Spirit and His laws, ignoring His benefits. We, the people, have left the door open, an invitation to air out in public, what was once taboo, hidden in the darkness, and held back due to honor, respect, and love for others. We, the people, have said yes to the potty mouth. Whether in ignorance, or intentional, we, the people, have left a door ajar for smut from the enemy of humanity. We, the people, have applauded the board rooms of the studios in Hollywood to be filled with individuals who push the envelope, nudge open the door to the porcelain bowl as much as allowed…for now. Agendas, self-rebellion, and lack of true love for others, stirs this poisonous stew while serving it up to a public who claims to approve with their shrinking dollars.
After a beautiful day of elementary school graduation ceremonies, and award presentations to deserving students, a good natured teacher at Robb Elementary School, for whatever reason, propped open the back door of the school in Uvalde Texas . Harmless act, really. No matter the reason, the propped open door was the breech in school security in which the murderous 18 year old took advantage of that fateful day leaving 21 dead, most were under 11 years old.
At this time, the investigators are continuing their work. For now, we do know, this twisted mind of mush, bent on shooting his grandmother in the face, then slaughtering innocence at the school he once attended as a child, was deep into digital war games where you kill people to rack up high scores in very realistic simulations. Honestly, these types of video games should be restricted to military training. For a mentally disturbed young person, this can be a deadly concoction. This is the trend, this form of entertainment, are seen in almost every mass shooting from young men turned monsters. If a young person, especially a mentally ill young person, has an addictive personality, digital killing software sours and desensitizes the soul. This boy from Uvalde, Texas, found an invitation through an open door, not just at Robb Elementary, but way before in cyberspace.
Equally, a young mind of mush, in upstate New York, found an open door to a contaminated porcelain bowl of choice in recent weeks. As he drank from the filth fed to him from “true” white supremacy doctrine online. Like a fool, he marinated in this toilet water of lies day and night. Influenced by the enemy of humanity, he was indoctrinated into a deformed worldview which always leads to destruction in one slant or another. The door to this particular latrine of hate, put a ring through his nose and pulled him into viewing mainly black people and Jews as slime to be slaughtered before they replace the white race. This is an ancient evil designed to destroy the very souls of men and women. It is murderous before a finger touches a trigger, before the long drive to Buffalo, NY takes place, before he aimed at a sweet, loving elderly African American woman as one of his first victims in the parking lot of Tops Grocery Store.
Some politicians immediately want to ban specific guns, or guns all together. Did you know more murders occur using a hammer as a tool than guns? It’s true. Will we ban hammers? Will we ban knives, swords, propane tanks, Chevys used to mow down pedestrians?
The better question might be, the obvious…where are the parents???? Better yet, where are parental controls in the home? Where is the guidance? The indoctrinations take time, seductive hours. WAKE UP, PARENTS! Your child is YOUR responsibility! If you are not computer, or cyber savvy, you know someone who is that can review what your child is watching on screen. FIND OUT! If something odd is being said on a social media platform that looks deviant and harmful, report it! There are 19 dead children in Uvalde, Texas who needed someone close to this teenager to monitor him. What a shame, in the aftermath of such mass killings, for a parent to say, “I’m shocked. He was always so quiet. He was a real loner. Spent lots of time online in his room, not bothering anybody.” WAKE UP!
Yes, like Bear, the White Pyrenees, we, the people, are being slowly seduced through the open door toward a bowl of porcelain, This was not meant for us. God raised up this nation to refuse corruption, sin, and the slippery slope of ancient civilizations who are no more.
A spring of living water spews from fuel for the race.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” – Paul from Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
Bonnie spends most of her time in the small sun-room adjacent to the back-steps leading to the backyard. You might say, the backyard is her jungle, her domain, her personal wildlife preserve, where I’ve witnessed her sitting like a statue in the bushes, as if to say, “Nothing to see here. Move on.”
A few days ago, my wife, Michelle, was in the backyard watering the plants. Our two dogs and Bonnie were out with her enjoying a warm morning in Texas. Michelle heard a loud, frantic call from a nearby bird. She spotted an agitated mockingbird yelling her obvious profanities from a lower limb from one of our trees. She quickly flew from that perch to the top rail of the fence, to another tree, and so on. Michelle tried to calm the feathered frantic female as she walked around with the garden hose.
Fuel For The Race 