Civility Week 44, October 29, 2012
Katherine McClintock: Are you going to stand there with that stupid look on your face while the hired help insults your wife?
George Washington McLintock: He can't help it - he's just ignorant. He doesn't know any better than to tell the truth. And I can't help this stupid look. I started acquiring it as you gained in social prominence!
From the movie, “McClintock”
One of my all time favorite movies was McClintock, though
when I watch it now, I flinch at the end when McClintock’s wife, Katie, gets
her comeuppance. I realize how many times in my marriage it would have been
possible for my easy going hubs to want to take a coal shovel to my backside.
He would never do that, I assure you, we would just duke it out on the sparring
floor if we needed to! You see, I have
one of the most patient, understanding husbands in the world. While other
people’s wives are gentle, kind and affectionate, I have been hardheaded,
stubborn and while other women engaged in more womanly pursuits such as
shopping, decorating, I would rather get in the boxing ring, sparring floor or
play tackle football.
So it goes right along with my personality quirks that I
needed this year of civility to become more civilized in my approach with
people I disagree with. So far, it’s
been 44 weeks and it still hasn’t become the habit I hoped it would be; still
working on it, not giving up, but wondering will this wish to be more civil
become a habit?
But with any new habit, comes old temptations, the ones
which seem to increase and multiply whenever you are trying to do a good
thing! So it goes, and the good Lord did
tell us that would happen but we must keep trying.
This whole civility experiment is winding up about the
time of our nation’s elections which I find amusing since it was political ads
that drove me to think about how much our society has lost its civility. I have
completely quit watching television because of the number of nasty advertisements;
I don’t take political phone calls which are always robot calls these days
anyway. I am trying to temper my
attitude about what is going to happen after the election, no matter which
candidates win with the, “life will continue to go on” after the elections
because it has for thousands of years no matter which human thought they were
in charge. I know that is silly because only God is in charge. In fact, just
today I found comfort while writing my teen newsletter about why we worship
God. We worship God almighty for the
greater part because He is so immense and wonderful, created everything and all
things, but we also worship Him because in giving Him our love and respect, we
circumvent any human who thinks they are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Even if we are slaves, if we are under martial law, or have no freedom at all,
we are given the opportunity to worship someone who loves us for no other
reason than because He made us.
I feel much better knowing this going into uncertainties
of the future. People have always felt
better because of this belief. So in
other words, we need God. We as a
nation, a human race, a universe, we need God, who is all loving, all giving and the ONLY one
who always treats us as “nice people!”
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