There are now artificial trawlers and crawlers on every blog that publishes, and mine is no different. I tried to install a quick fix to deter this info-stealing, info-washing grabby monster—but there really is no hope, I think. No one holds a bloodsucker accountable; we small people just slap at the irritation of the chiggers and mosquitoes…And get back to planting a garden of our own. Anyway, what has been written will be rewritten and intellectual property is as passe as a bound dictionary at this point.
The modern thinkers like me (I am not tooting a horn, we should all be thinking instead of offloading it on Alligator Ivan) will have to write longhand and hope the messages in bottles still wash up on the right shores.
I’m reminded that the right person in the right era at the right moment can speak a word that changes everything. Or begins a domino effect, etc. And since we live, ever more, in an echo chamber of feelings and the threat that one’s free speech is another’s fearful reason to eviscerate them, I do believe we, the ones preferring wisdom to fashion, must speak just a teensy bit louder. Once in awhile.
Not for the mobsters to hear (they cannot hear over their shouting, nor will they stop shouting, as it is very much a prayer in their own humanistic souls) but for the quiet listeners who need a punch of courage. We speak, because the niggling conviction you feel—that something just isn’t right and you can feel it in you bones—the moral and ethical need to heed one’s conscience and perhaps even defend what is real and true—it is good, and it ought to not be cast aside.
I have been diving into this with my kids this semester, since our school leaders have decided to, quite overtly, abandon reason and critical thinking skills. I’ve been informed that I’m in enemy territory for questioning their stance on anything.
It is ok, and I am fine! The older two are ready for the challenge of speaking up and engaging on the battlefield, so in public school they stay to refute the Big Bang, play online chess, practice self-control around other kids’ cellphones, dip their toes in apologetics, and to be (I hope) supernaturally kind so “the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us”! (1 Peter 2:12)
Exercise your brains, I say. Play Socratic circle in every class until the questions stir something deep inside them. Boys, this is good company. Let loose, Holy Spirit. God, use them.
But it is not fair for my youngers, who need less practice standing up to the school counselor (“don’t worry, kids, she’s nothing like her mom”, “oh, do you have an anger problem?”—fighting words to a little girl who wants to be just like her mom) and more fun and love and light and basic math and civics. Less worrying about the gender-confused student teacher (“is he a boy or a girl? Why does he hide his name tag and talk about his boyfriend? Mom, he hates religious people, I’ve heard him talking…”) and more playing music with our new favorite jazz pianist. More being a kid, because kids shouldn’t have to affirm anyone, ever, for any reason. (Copy work this week included Proverbs 10:9—“the one who lives with integrity lives securely, but whoever perverts his ways will be found out.”)
I am entering this season of homeschool as a very act of civil disobedience in a society and culture where individual freedoms are so egregiously trampled, especially on that of the child. If they aren’t precious enough to be protected in my school district, if the liberty to raise your family as one sees fit is no longer respected—well then, I believe the Ones in Charge need to re-read that evergreen document, the Declaration of Independence.
In this her 250th birthday year, it has never been more prescient.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…
I do not think this is happening everywhere, and I don’t believe everyone should jump ship on their public school experience. It’s like nothing I’ve seen, here in Colorado. The state laws themselves make children victims of their education system, and the schools with no moral compass of their own keep digging a deeper hole. We give to Caesar what is Caesar and he keeps whining about declining school enrollment and lack of funding. He orchestrates social chaos, invites shady characters, and provokes the average caring parent to pure outrage.
“The leech has two daughters…give! give!” they cry. (Proverbs 30:15)
But I’m spending this season with a genuine smile on my face. This is what the disciples must’ve felt in their relief when Jesus said to them, “whoever does not welcome you nor listens to your message, as you leave that house or city, shake the dust of it off your feet.” (Matt. 10:14)
In Luke 9, Jesus gives more details: “if anyone does not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that town, as a testimony against them.”
I’m in my shaking dust off era.
No more meetings kindly asking for freedom of thought instead of compelled speech.
No more emails sweetly pointing out the flawed logic in giving eleven year olds quizzes on how they feel about transgenderism before they’ve even experienced puberty.
No more optional testing to ensure per pupil funding via high test scores, no more fretting to makes sure we don’t exceed our absence quota when our state refuses to protect children from predators and other bad actors.
You, my dear administration, were warned by a mom who cared about kids more than anything. You pretended to be open to accountability, democracy, all things fair—then you spat in our faces. I am not saying these things to be unkind; I am walking away in testimony against you. The truth was spoken and it was rejected.
Jesus said to “go into all the world…” We are called to visibility—“a city on a hill cannot be hidden”. He said He would never leave nor forsake us. He didn’t tell us, once we served the mission, to pick up a megaphone or grab a bunch of easily riled buddies and rally or protest. This is the difference between a solider taking orders from King Jesus and how the rest of the world behaves.
He also said, way before Taylor thought she was clever, to shake it off.
Do the thing He assigns you, execute orders, and shake off the dust.
Can you, my friend? Can you shake off the little (but sometimes big!) inconveniences and irritations enough to let His light better illuminate your path, continue on your merry way?
But Pearl, why is the assignment so necessary if all it does is get us dusty? Why am I urging you to still listen critically to your conscience and defend what it real and true, even when it feels gritty and hopeless? Why is it ever important to nail down your theses instead of getting caught up in the modern algorithms or groupthink?
There are a few reasons I want to get to next time I sit down and write. Stay tuned…
