I'm flipping through one of my magazines the other day, anxious to get to my favorite section, yes the cartoons, when I ran across an ad that grabbed my attention. (That's kind of the point in advertising.) It was a simply black and white ad with a picture of two older men sitting on a couch. Reverend Al Sharpton and Reverend Pat Robertson were sitting there, smiling, and gazing at each other like a young couple on their honeymoon. (By the way, let me save you some time from researching their church affiliation. Neither one of these guys is actually a "Reverend" of any church, but function more as political puppets for the left and right.)
Al Gore has started a new organization called wecansolveit.org (no I'm not providing the link) and he has teamed up with Rev Al and Rev Pat. Two superhero religious leaders of our day with polar opposite beliefs, working together to end global warming. It's kind of like Superman and Spiderman joining forces, Dirty Harry and James Bond, RoboCop and the Terminator, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (wait, that already happened), Kevin Federline and Kato Kaelin, so enemies beware!!!
I love that the dominant political, I mean religious forces of our day are joining the dominant political, I mean documentary-making, eco-cover boy Al Gore. And you have to love the Bob-the-Builder, "Can we fix it, yes we can!" attitude of these grown men. I just have one problem... we can't solve it. For many reasons, but primarily because we are the ones who started the problem in the first place.
I'm enjoying the 21st century, even more so now that I have a MAC. We are becoming alive and responsive to the realities of poverty, pollution, war, and disease. We are seeing an explosion of NGO's and non-profits making huge efforts and great results in local, national, and global markets. Individuals are waking up to the reality that self-consumption can not come at the price of others. Even churches and large companies are making sacrifices in building structures, energy use, and disposal practices. It's like the crying Indian, make America beautiful campaign from the 70's, has finally found some ears. You know, a lot of this social, political consciousness reminds me of the 70's, and that's what has me a little worried. Not so much the consciousness, that's a good thing, but what comes after self-awareness... remember the 80's?
Some of you don't, you weren't born yet, and me, I was only 2. The 80's were all about pride, self-indulgement, a bubble economy, greed, and bad clothes. Seems odd, how can we go from caring about others and our environment right into pride and greed? Because self-awareness only works when you become aware that yourself can't solve it. When you look at the problems in our society and mankind, and bypass the problems of self, things get fuzzy and you start thinking that all we need is Oprah and her book club, Al Gore and his gang, Hollywood and its stars, and 'poof'.... we've landed safely on modern-day Utopia.
Truth is it feels more like quicksand, and I'm looking for a way out. We need someone who doesn't think like us, who doesn't do things the way we do it. Someone who can honestly say, "My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts." Someone who does more than care about humanity, the environment, and social justice, they lay their life down for it.
So before you join the 'we can solve it campaign', ask yourself if that really makes sense. Can we really save us? I think it's time we look outside of humanity, reach out to divinity, and ask him to solve the messes we've created.
Sorry Al and the Dynamic Duo, we can't solve it.
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