Sunday Morning Musings

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This Christmas season finds America embroiled in a Civil War. Not two armies engaged on the battlefield, but a very uncivil political war. It brings to mind the Christmas ceasefire of December 25, 1862, along the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia. The event was a seemingly impossible moment of civility following the devastating Battle of Fredericksburg, where Union forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside suffered a humiliating defeat against Confederate troops led by Gen. Robert E. Lee.

How shocked those survivors, on both sides, must have felt after the carnage—the absolute slaughter of so many souls of all ages is mind-boggling! Think of it, old men and boys, all of them Americans, were blowing each other to pieces or desperately fighting hand-to-hand—sometimes literally brother against brother. Yet, amidst it all, a spark of humanity, brought on by the Christmas spirit, reminded them of their commonality and the futility of war.

[Editor's Note: Apologies to author and readers. I goofed on the category and it didn't appear on Sunday. But better late than never?]

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           A Parable of Noise and Silence 

C.S. Lewis once wrote a short book about a senior demon in Hell exchanging letters with his nephew, offering him guidance in his role as a junior tempter here on earth. One of the letters to his nephew went something like this: "Music and silence—I can't stand either of them! Thankfully, ever since our Father arrived in Hell—so long ago that humans couldn't measure it, even in light-years—not a single inch of this place or moment of its time has been surrendered to those awful forces. Instead, it's been filled with Noise—glorious Noise, the sound of everything bold, ruthless, and strong—Noise that keeps us safe from pesky doubts, moral scruples, and hopeless dreams. One day, the entire universe will roar. We've already made great headway on Earth, and the songs and silences of Heaven will be drowned out. Still, I have to admit, we're not quite loud enough yet. "

This got me thinking about a famous pop/folk song of the'60s—Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence." The following story is the result. 

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December 7th

Eighty-four years ago today, 2,403 Americans (mostly sailors and civilians asleep on a Sunday morning) were killed in a single surprise attack at Pearl Harbor. It was the moment the country realized the world was bigger and more ruthless than many had wanted to believe. Within hours, the generation that grew up in the Depression was lining up to enlist, knowing they might never come home.

What hits hardest on this date is how quickly that kind of shared, visceral memory fades. Pearl Harbor, Antietam, Chosin, Khe Sanh, Fallujah… each one cost blood that most of us today can barely comprehend, and yet a lot of people under 40 couldn't tell you what happened on December 7, 1941, let alone name the battles their great-grandparents fought in 1861–65 or 1950–53.

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The Eternal Story

C.S. Lewis once remarked that when we pray about something—like the outcome of a battle or a medical consultation—it may occur to us that the result is already decided. But that is no reason to stop praying

In a sense, the event was decided "before all worlds," yet our present prayer could be one of the very factors that brought it about. Strangely enough, this means we might, at noon, be part of the cause of something that happened at 10 a.m. (a concept some scientists accept more easily than most people do).

Our imagination quickly raises tricky questions: "If I stop praying, can God go back and change what has happened?" No, the event has already happened, and one of its causes is that you are pondering instead of praying. "If I start praying, can God go back and change it?" Again, no, the event has already happened, and your current prayer is one of its causes.

President Trump's 2025 Thanksgiving message was pure, unapologetic red meat for the forgotten Americans: a blunt declaration that open borders and "politically correct" stupidity have flooded the country with 53+ million migrants from failed states, prisons, and mental institutions, destroying schools, hospitals, neighborhoods, and budgets while native citizens foot the bill and stay silent out of kindness.

He called out the Somali takeover of Minnesota, roasted Governor Walz as "seriously retarded" and Ilhan Omar as an ingrate who hates the country that took her in, and promised the biggest reverse-migration operation in history: pause Third-World migration, end all welfare for non-citizens, deport public charges and security risks, and strip citizenship from those who undermine domestic tranquility.

Note to readers: Back in June 2021, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Silver City Press that I believe is worth sharing again. It captured my feelings about the state of our nation at the time and raised an important question: What are we going to do about it? Will we stand with our President to reverse the political and cultural decline that's quickly pushing us toward Third World status, or will we give in to the chaos driven by the modern Democratic Party, which arguably aligns closely with the goals of the official Communist Party USA, and is tearing us apart from within?

Without God, we are trousered apes 

Grandmothers are often underappreciated, especially if they live great distances from their grandkids.

I was looking through some old letters that my mother had saved from my childhood and came across a treasure trove of cards and letters from my grandmother in Bermuda. Many of them came on birthdays and holidays such as Easter and Christmas—she never missed any of them—not one. And every one of the birthday cards carried a crisp new five-dollar bill. She must have gone broke trying to enrich her dozens of grandchildren!

Why Evil?

If God is good, why does he allow evil to exist?

Evil doesn't come from God—it comes from us. It grows inside the human soul like a cancer, turning us against ourselves and slowly corrupting and consuming us. The first step is recognizing and accepting the truth of our fallen nature. We humans might be rational problem solvers, but without help from beyond this life, we can't overcome the spiritual weaknesses that overpower our physical abilities.