Twilight Zone

As I lay in bed in the morning, contemplating the day, I wonder if I will be entering the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits when my feet hit the floor.  The Twilight Zone, where normal becomes bizarre and the bizarre is accepted as the norm.   Where everyday life has become so peculiar that we don't know what is true anymore.
                                  
I remember watching the Twilight Zone as a child.  We did not have television so it was a treat when we spent the night at our cousins and could watch that wonderful black and white box.  One episode in particular comes to mind of an individual on a wagon train suddenly cast into the future with cars, etc.  I thought it was interesting to see the reaction he had to the future and how the residents reacted to him. To say he was stupefied by all of the "conveniences" of the future would be a gross understatement. I feel a little that way now, like I have been cast into a place that is completely foreign to me.  Perhaps I am not as adaptable as I once was, or maybe the world has just gotten weird, but something really strange is happening.

Recently I ran away for a couple days and in our travels happened upon a little ghost town out in the middle of nowhere.  The stroll through the cemetery was interesting and enlightening.  The monuments held the history of the past.  While I knew none of these people, I could understand their pain and anguish as I paused before each stone.  Children, so many children had died.  Sometimes up to three or more in one family.  Young women who never survived childbirth on the frontier.  Men who died in accidents or other tragedies.  Those stones told a story.  It told of hard times, of pain and anguish, of unbearable circumstances; it reflected the life of this long forgotten town.  Somehow, at some time, it had ceased to exist as a viable place, but the monuments were still there to help us remember.

As you have probably surmised, I have a difficult time with the history of our country being torn down and defaced.  While some of these landmarks may not reflect our proudest moments, they are still a way of remembering the past.  Germany refused to dismantle the concentration camps.  They choose to remember the holocaust and the pain and destruction that ensued.  It was horrible and yet, it must be remembered so as to never repeat it.  Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.  That is pretty heavy if you think about it.

I suspect that many of the people  involved in this uprising have no clue as to why they are doing it.  They need a cause and choose to believe what they are told.  Destroying our monuments is not going to change our history.  To move forward, it is necessary to embrace our history.  We can change the future, but not the past.  But we can learn from the past, if we take the time to understand it.

At this point, the protestors are not changing anything.  In fact they are riling people to the point that they will never establish any change.  The looting, stealing, killing, harming others....none of that is endearing them to the average American.  Just the opposite. I have no sympathy or compassion for them in the least.  If they want to better themselves, get educated, or find their place in society, I am more than willing to help. But doing it with violence, fear and destruction will accomplish nothing.

So am I the only one who is floundering in the Twilight Zone?  Do you wake up each morning and wonder where in the universe you are living?  There are days when I have reached the Outer Limits of what I can accept in this world. Lord, give me wisdom, compassion and understanding as I traverse these days.  In spite of the all the convoluted circumstances, this I know, we can't do it alone.

Just Writin' on the River Road