Let Me Be Clear...

"Let me be clear..."  It’s not a statement, as you might expect to hear in a politician's prologue to answering a reporter's question, but rather it is a prayer.  "God, I need some clarity in my life...help me clear my mind and refocus...Refocus on what is truly important…Reflect on my life’s direction…God, let me be clear...."  

I had been feeling lately that I needed to get outside of the world of social media and try and learn something about myself.  I needed a catharsis. Direction. Focus. Reflection. Clarity. 

That’s what this journey was to be about. Clarity.

Part I, Getting There

I had a trip planned to visit my daughter and grandson in Colorado. That’s a long drive. Especially when you do it alone.  A lot of solitude.  I mean, Kansas alone gives one ample time to think.  Ample time.

But for this trip, I decided that I would take my time and see things.  Notice things. Reflect on things.  See how life outside of social media might affect me.   

It wouldn’t take long. 

I pointed my car west and began the journey from Springfield, Illinois.  I stopped at a QuikTrip in the Kansas City area to get gas and for more of the black elixir I would need to help me stay awake on this drive. As I was getting back into the car with my drum of black coffee, an African American woman called out to me from the passenger side of an old pickup truck.  “Sir? Excuse me, sir?  I’m sorry to bother you…”

Great, I thought.  Here we go. What story would I hear? We’re stranded here on the way to help our children? We don’t have enough money to get back home? All we need is a tank of gas, can you help?  “Yes?” I answered, trying not to sound too impatient, but not too inviting, either.  “Your gas cap is off.”  Shame on me. I sheepishly thanked her, replaced the gas cap, and got back in my car. I smiled at God’s sense of humor. Okay, I get it: slow down, allow yourself to learn something on this trip.

As my trip west continued, music helped pass the miles. It’s hard not to relax and enjoy the drive when Lionel Richie and Little Big Town are singing “Deep River Woman” as I take in—not just endure this time—the beautiful sky and wide-open plains of Kansas.  

The long straight stretches of open road through Kansas offer plenty of time to think

  
I begin reflecting on my life. Choices made. Mistakes made. Why do I keep making the same mistakes?  Why am I so weak?

I changed from my iPod to satellite radio and The Message.  The first song I hear is MercyMe’s “Flawless”.  Now, I know this song.  I’ve heard it before.  Bart Millard has a way of stinging me with his lyrics. But this time, the words slam into my ears and drill down into my brain, cutting a searing path to my heart.

There’s got to be more
than going back and forth
from doing right to doing wrong…

Wow.  Okay, I’ll listen…

No matter the bumps,
No matter the bruises,
No matter the scars,
Still the truth is
The cross has made.
The cross has made you flawless…

Truth.  Clarity. Didn’t come from Facebook.  Imagine that.

I had decided that I would stop on this drive if I saw something of interest.  Something that might help me slow down and experience life outside of social media.  (Let me be clear.) On the west-bound drive of I-70, I see a billboard advertising “Ray’s Pharmacy” in Quinter, Kansas.  The billboard invited me to stop in and relive a blast from the past with their old-fashioned soda fountain.  There was just such a soda fountain at the Rexall Pharmacy in the town where my grandparents lived, in Crane, Missouri.  I want to see this.  I pull off the highway at the Quinter exit and find the downtown pharmacy.  

Soda Fountain inside Ray's Pharmacy

It really was a step back in time!

The owners of the pharmacy bought this massive structure on eBay.  It was made in 1904 in New York and they had to disassemble it to bring it back to Kansas. I ordered a Cherry Phosphate, which was delicious and tasted exactly like a happy childhood visit with my grandparents.   

And they did!

I know the whole idea of this trip is beginning to take root in my soul when I suddenly pull over to the shoulder of I-70 in western Kansas to take a picture of----a field of sunflowers. 

This beautiful field of sunflowers caught my eye and begged for a photo

Something other than the bright yellow expanse caught my attention. Then I remembered. From somewhere in my past education…Kansas is the “Sunflower State.”

Like western Kansas, I-70 in Colorado seems to stretch out forever

Crossing the border into Colorado, the terrain doesn't seem to change much, but a quick check of the Altimeter app on my phone tells me that I am already at over 4,000 feet. 

Suddenly, the motorcycle rider in front of me on I-70 began losing things out of the pack on the back of his motorcycle.  First, a cell phone charger cable and power cube flies out, bouncing once before hitting the front of my car.  Then a cell phone case, followed by some papers. I thought, “There's a guy who is going to have a bad day when he gets where he’s going and can’t find his stuff."  And then, I hear in my mind an elderly woman’s voice: “Your gas cap is off"...Shame on me. I sped up and caught up with the rider and got him to pull over and told him what was going on. He thanked me, and took the next exit to go back and retrieve what he could.

When I arrived in the Denver area, I noticed I couldn’t see the mountains.  Why was the haze so bad?  My first view of the mountains is always a special moment for me when I drive to Colorado; that first glimpse of the majesty of God’s creation.  As it turns out, those mountain views were obscured by smoke from dozens of wildfire in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Ironic, given that this journey is about clarity.  

Missing on the horizon in this picture are the Rocky Mountains, normally
easily seen at this distance, just a few miles east of Lyons, Colorado

Part II, The Cabin 

Our rented mountain cabin is located in Allenspark, Colorado, near the Peak to Peak Highway, in the shadow of Long’s Peak, not far from Estes Park.  

Beautiful cabin built in the 1930s, currently owned by The Copeland Institute

Long's Peak towers over the valley along Highway 7 near Allenspark, Colorado

There is abundant evidence of the beauty of God's creation in the Rockies

There is no cell service and no TV at the cabin. There is Wifi so I can email, but I am continuing my fast from Social Media.  So far, I don't feel like I've missed one single thing. But I have experienced much more going on around me because of it! I truly believe that alone had been the biggest contributor to my finding clarity. 

"Chapel on the Rock", St. Malo Chapel on Highway 7, Allenspark, CO 

With Long's Peak rising above the town of Allenspark,
the views are enough to distract one from social media

When I sit on the deck in the morning with my coffee, I can hear life: the little mountain stream that flows in front of the cabin, gurgling its way toward Crystal Springs there in Allenspark; I hear a squirrel high in the Lodgepole Pine above me, barking at me for interrupting his morning ablutions; the wind curling through the Aspens at the edge of the stream.  

He became a regular visitor, so we named our little buddy "Willy" 

The front porch of the cabin became my favorite place for reflection...and coffee.

My rocking chair on the front porch of this 1930’s cabin creaks as I reach for my coffee mug, sitting on the lid of the firewood box and steaming in the cool morning air. 

Early morning coffee on the front porch of Greenbrook Cabin

Just one of the many spectacular views from the front porch

There is a stillness even in these sounds.  Stillness doesn’t necessarily equal silence.  There is clarity in this kind of stillness.  

An old school desk adorns the front porch

Even the wind chimes provided their own sort of stillness

A beautiful flower box on the deck rail of the
Meadow Mountain Cafe in Allenspark

I’ve discovered that younger people do not seem to like this kind of stillness.  It’s too quiet.  The first thing my daughter did when we got settled in at the cabin was pull up Pandora on her phone and stream music for an hour.  I don’t know, maybe that’s a sort of stillness to her.

There is something about staying in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains that brings with it a clarity of its own. But you must be willing to lift your head.  

Not even the breathtaking views of the Rockies can be experienced if you do not first lift your head out of your phone or tablet. 

But if you can get to that, oh what you will see and hear there!  I highly recommend you find a way to experience life outside of social media. Maybe your stillness isn’t a road trip to Colorado.  Maybe you find your stillness in a stream of music, as my daughter does. Maybe it’s as simple as lifting your head in your own living room.

Part III, “What Have You Learned, Dorothy?”

As I made the return drive, through eastern Colorado, across the Kansas border, leaving Mountain Standard Time, I was able to reflect on my journey. I glanced in the rearview mirror as I turned onto I-70 Eastbound from the E-470 Expressway, and there they were: the Rocky Mountains.  The haze lifted enough to bring that magnificent view back.  Clarity. 

It has been 6 days since I gave myself permission to ignore social media.  I have seen the notifications number count building on my phone app.  And I will come back to it.  But I will see it with different eyes now.  Its self-importance will not overshadow what is actually important. Because there IS life out there beyond the Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat/Facebook/Reddit/Whatever-Is-Next Social Media universe.   

Let me be clear…I didn’t begin this journey to change YOUR life.  Or my life, for that matter. I am merely sharing my own personal journey of giving myself a timeout.  Making time to notice life. Actually, chronicling this journey brings its own clarity. 

God, thank you for clarity; for the chance to reflect on what is truly important.  

Your journey is out there.  Lift up your head.

Where Are We Headed?

This morning I enjoyed my coffee on the deck.  It was a perfect morning for it.  Coffee, warming sun, and life happening all around me.

As our two Golden Retrievers scouted the yard, I enjoyed the slowly rising sun, the clear air, and the multitude of different bird conversations going on around me.  I heard the familiar bark of a Cardinal as it flew from tree to tree, apparently giving orders to whomever would listen. I watched two Mourning Doves make their landing, in formation. (Do they always and only travel in pairs?)

I began to contemplate the recent events in our country.  Hate has always been with us.  But when was “supremacy” of a particular race ever a thing?  Or at least a thing that worked?    Have we not studied our own history enough?  Has nothing been learned from a civil war? A “final solution” by Nazis in World War Two? 

And what about the so-called “antifa?”  Are they any more valid? What is their motivation?  Their TRUE motivation?  Nothing I have seen from them gives me any confidence in their good intentions.

It seems to me that today we have too many “causes” with wrong motivation.  Wrong philosophies have a way of proving themselves wrong after a time.  Socialism, Communism, bad ideas that just don’t work.   “White supremacy” and the so-called “Antifa.” Both wrong-headed philosophies, more bad ideas.  Why do they keep hanging on?  What keeps them alive?  Hate.   My son says, they’re “two sides of the same wooden nickel.”  When has hate ever worked?

Today, it seems to me if you don’t like something, you are obligated to hate it.  And all associated with it.  How’s that working for us?  We seem to have jumped from “I disagree with you” to “I hate you.”  We seem to have lost all respect for anything we don’t agree with.  I wonder why we don’t hate “hate?” Racism is bad. What to do about it?  Tear down statues, thump anyone who gets in our way.  Too many questionable police shootings?  Hate all cops, ambush them.  Kill them.  Don’t like the elected president?  Hate him.  Hate everyone whom you think supports him.  Hate him enough to burn something down.  Hate violence? Bring baseball bats and bottles to your protest.  Too many things just don’t make sense anymore.

And do we really, honestly believe that the current climate in our country just popped up since last November’s election? It has been building for years.  I would suggest researching attorney and political scientist from Vanderbilt University, Dr. Carol Swain’s study of the issue in her book from 2002 titled “The New White Nationalism in America.”

As I looked out over the treetops from the deck this morning, I thought about the monuments that are falling all over the country.  Monuments to a tragic moment from our past.  A past we MUST remember and NEVER repeat.  And I wondered, is Mount Rushmore next?  Washington, D.C.?  Where does it end?  How long before the joke about the “P.C. Police” becomes an unfunny reality?  Don’t think it’s possible? 

Think about it.

“News” organizations no longer seem to report the news—they create it.  And we choose whichever outlet best supports our philosophies and rely on them as Gospel, regardless of how biased they are.  We use social media as a weapon to beat others over the head with our “truths.”    We seem to have come to the conclusion that the only way to change something is to destroy it first, with no regard for collateral damage. 

I wondered if our enemies were waiting for us to wound ourselves enough, further weaken ourselves, so they can strike?  And I wonder if they even need to. 

Clouds vs. Sunshine: The Plague of Social Media

I dislike dark clouds. I much prefer sunshine. I don’t care for the gloom of dismal outlooks.  I am weary from the apocalyptic posts of a society getting its information from quips and memes.  I am so tired of seeing so many posts and comments by people claiming every morsel as “fact.”  And because their facts don’t fall in line with your facts they are clearly idiots.  And it has gotten to the point where social media is nothing more than a giant dark cloud.

Both sides are guilty, and I personally believe it is this very platform of social media that is at the root of most of the vitriol and anger and hatred out there.  It’s hiding behind a keyboard and lashing out.  It’s assuming you are right and anyone who doesn’t agree with you is not just wrong but stupid, or somehow less educated, less worldly, less cosmopolitan than you.  It’s being able to slam and slander someone else because we don’t have to face them or, indeed, have any obligation to prove our points. It’s the “I have free speech and I’ll punch you right in the throat with it,” but if anyone dare take another side, you are compelled to shut them down and try and minimize their own free speech.  Because they disagree with you?  Really?

People post memes that are utterly untrue and dare anyone to disagree with them.  They make themselves out to be fools by publicly posting what they think are killer slogans and signs without bothering to determine whether or not they are true.

We’re all guilty.

I have never before seen so many political experts—some of whom have never voted in any election.  So many champions of every constitutional right that they agree with, while stomping on anyone else’s constitutional rights if it is in conflict with whatever talking points they picked up that morning from their favorite (only trusted) news source.  Seriously, I have never seen so many people perfectly willing to swallow whatever their biased news outlets dish out, unquestioningly.  “If blah-blah-blah news said it, it’s true, and if you listen to blah-blah-blah news, you’re an idiot.”  They believe THEIR news source is right because THEIR news source is obviously the only truthful news source out there.  Do they try and verify it before posting?  Of course not.  Oh—unless they run it through a “truth mill” website, which itself has been proven to lean strongly to one side or the other.

I have never witnessed so many people throwing out falsehood after falsehood about things that are simply not true, with no more motivation than that’s what someone in the public eye told them to believe.  And those same people refusing to even bother to learn whether or not the things they are saying are true!

“I don’t believe in your cause.”

“Well you’re an idiot and a pig.”

“I don’t recognize YOUR president.”

“Well you’re an idiot and a pig.”

“My scientists say the world is melting.”

“My scientists say your science is wrong.”

“Well your scientists aren’t really scientists, they’re idiots and pigs.”

Eric Hoffer once said, “In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”  In terms I can more easily understand, I say “If you think you’re green you’re going to grow…If you think you’re ripe, you’re already rotten.”  We do need to learn.  To grow.  But we need sources of truth, not opinions and educated guesses.

I believe a large part of the problem is that most news sources are themselves slanted and no longer try to hide their own bias.  Journalism has given way to sensationalism. They create the news rather than report it.  Or at the very least try and shape it to reflect the world view to which they ascribe.

I always thought that journalists didn’t become journalists in order to change the world.  But today, that seems to have changed.  Television correspondent Alex Thomson says “People should want to be journalists because of anger…”  He went on to say that journalists he admired “were doing it because they were angry at the way things are and they had the power to make it better.”  Writer and Playwright Tom Stoppard said, “I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.”  Shouldn’t that scare you?  It does me. It scares me to think that the ones responsible for informing the world of up-to-the-minute happenings actually want to shape those happenings.  See, I always believed that one doesn’t become a journalist to change the world, but to chronicle the changing world.  You report what is happening.  You don’t report what you want to be happening or why you think it’s happening.  That’s not journalism!  Or at least I believe it didn’t used to be.  It is my opinion that we have too many of these kinds of journalists and not enough reporters of news.

Too many people confuse commentators with reporters; opinions with news.  Walter Cronkite once said, "Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as a Bible and Playboy magazine."  But today, the line is too often not clear---if there is a line at all.

(If one thinks that media bias is all paranoia and conspiracy, perhaps reading "Bias: A CBS Insder Exposes How the Media Distort the News" by Bernard Goldberg. Or "Stonewalled..." by Sharyl Attkisson will at least offer some perspective.)

Another key factor is that no one seems interested in finding common ground anymore, or even trying to understand what anyone else is saying.  They seem only to be interested in making their point in any way possible.  Especially if it berates people who don’t buy into their own ideals. They seem only interested in belittling the other person.  As one meme stated, we don’t listen to understand—we listen to reply.

Once, in a disagreement about a particular political philosophy, when it was clear that we were at an impasse, I tried to close it out with the old saying, “Well, we will just have to agree to disagree.”  The other person would not accept that.  “No, but it’s important that you understand why you are wrong!”  And then on he went, rehashing his arguments.  He would not—could not let me disagree.  When I again attempted to simply let it end with us not agreeing, he finally resigned with, “Keith, I hope you will educate yourself better.”  So, you see, the problem was not that I simply had a different view, based on my own research and knowledge.  The problem was that I was not smart enough to see how right he was and come over to the side of enlightenment.  And that’s the problem we have with communication today in a nutshell.

Where does it end?  I am deciding right now to simply no longer fall into the traps.  As much as I would like to straighten out some of these lies, I can now see that it will not end until we choose to make it end.  I cannot change your mind.  I cannot force you to see my side of things with catchy slogans and soundbites and memes.  Nor can I change your mind by belittling you. 

Someone said that social media is the new “front porch” of the old days, when people would talk to their neighbors and friends in their yards.  I don’t believe that’s quite accurate.  The difference is, in those “old days,” people rarely talked about politics and religion, simply because it never solved anything and more often than not strained or even ended relationships.  Today, with the relative anonymity of social media, all restraints and filters are off.  Our front porch conversations with neighbors are usually arguments with people, some of whom we have never met, whom we are happy to vilify and degrade as morons simply because they believe differently than we do…or get their news from a different source than us.

So I’m laying out.  I’m biting my tongue until it bleeds if I have to.  I will continue learning—I will be a learner—I will think myself green…But I will no longer contribute to the problem.  I will not be a part of the slow-but-steady decay of civilization.  If it means I have to, I will unfollow, block, hide, or even unfriend whomever I need to in order to maintain some degree of civility and see the positive. 

That’s my revolution.  My revolution has already started.  For one day, I simply scrolled, unfollowed, blocked, or hid things that would normally make me lose my mind.  At the end of the day, I was amazed at how much less stressed I felt, and how much better my outlook was!

There will be some who will read this and determine that it is over-simplistic and doesn’t recognize the importance of their cause du jour.

Click. Scroll.

There will be some who read this and assume I’m talking about everyone on the other side of the issue.

Click, click.  Scroll, scroll.

 

I’m gonna be a sunshine guy.  You can keep your clouds.