The Conflagration of Madness

A strong wind has been blowing for much of the day carrying upon its ephemeral back the evidential smoke of wildfires more than fifty miles away; wood ash and creosote... more of the former, less of the latter. The moon, half awake and sinking fast toward the west is smeared by a sickly yellow pal; were it a full moon, you might call it baleful. But as it is, it is half-lidded and so high above it all it need not worry about breathing the slight sting of the winds poisonous soup carried out of conflagration and elemental transformation... Wildfire, we call it.

And yet that's true of everything: the moon is immune to all we do, to the ills of this world-- for now --while exerting over us an influence, beneficial and unrelenting, in a rhythmic tug of war we cannot win. We labor here, laugh here, build and destroy here, love and die here, make war [but not peace] here, and yet the moon itself is unaffected by our works, loves, wars, and deaths.

I used to view the world as something beautiful. I still do, but I should qualify this simple statement. I look at the sky, the earth, the trees, clear springs, and especially the pounding surfs of oceans and I see nothing that deserves destruction. Likewise I look at the animal kingdom and see the big red kangaroos doing what roos do. I see eagles, salmon, cicadas, lions upon the savannas of Africa, Elephants in the jungles of Thailand and I see nothing deserving of destruction.

But then I look at man. And what do I see? I see murder... from the very first. I see hatred, selfishness, apathy, and insipidness... I see ignorance and arrogance... and I see very little NOT worthy of destruction.

And I am being Generous.


Wildfires are burning close enough to my home that winds carry news of them, postcards from the front. Letters from soldiers who will never see another spring or another inch of growth, because conflagration has consumed them. And yet this could be a metaphor for America, as well as the world.

Ignorance will be the death of America. Ignorance and apathy will be the death of the world. Ignorance of God, and indifference toward learning His ways. Vasko Kohlmayer is correct in saying that those who war against God suffer madness. For it is madness to argue that partial-birth abortion [or ANY abortion for that matter] should be a constitutional right, especially while just across the street the very same are picketing prisons and decrying the death penalty. It is madness to look at a man and woman, see how they are uniquely made for each other, and conclude that homosexuality is a natural outflowing of God's perfect will in the lives of those who practice what is biologically inconvenient. It is madness to advance a law that criminalizes thought. It is madness to believe raising taxes will increase revenue especially in light of record breaking tax revenues spawned by tax decreases!

It is madness when female school teachers guilty of raping students get comparably lighter sentences than male teachers guilty of the same. It is madness that the medical profession is propagated upon the deceit and corruption of drug companies and government agencies. It is madness when doctors have to pay upwards of 150k a year just for malpractice insurance.

The Right is susceptible to madness, but the Left even more so. Just fifty years ago everyone was rightfully suspicious of Communists, and those with communist leanings and contacts. But today, actor Danny Glover thinks nothing of going to Venezuela to meet with Hugo Chavez to talk about a film deal. Jimmy Carter has cozied up to the man as well, as has Cindy Sheehan. Today, Socialism is a badge of honor among the liberal elite, despite the fact that Socialism and Communism have failed everywhere and every time it's been tried.

Hatred, Intolerance, Murder, Envy... all of it is madness, and all of it resides in the human heart, irrespective of race, nationality, creed or religion. Everyone born of woman is subject to all these and more. And yet no one wants to look at it. No one wants to look at the fires of war raging across the world.

Beheadings, kidnappings, mass murders-- even children are not immune.

We like to point our fingers at Hitler. But we, America, have the blood of 45 million babies on our hands. We like to castigate America for 400,000+ civilian deaths in Iraq, most of which were committed by Muslims, and yet the Soviet Union destroyed tens if not hundreds of millions of lives. And not just in Russia, but also China, Ukraine, Germany, Finland, Belarus, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia... to name just a few. And the American Left mysteriously finds it chic to push a socialistic agenda upon this nation?

Why should God bless America? We kill the unborn, sanction unholy unions between same-sex couples, we've stripped our schools of the Bible and prayer... What is there in America today that deserves blessing and not destruction?

It's true. America is not what she once was. She has become something altogether different. Where once she sat reverently on the pew singing hymns and thanking God for His great providence, she now sluts herself on every street corner with no sense of decency and no moral compass to speak of.

But the winds are blowing, metaphorically speaking, and they carry with them the acrid stinging scent of conflagration. Out of fire new growth will emerge; that is the honest hope of all men, and the promise of God. Yet this nation is on the fringe of a great purge. We can see the smoke and scull the eddies and winds of wood ash and creosote, but we cannot yet see the flames. Yet somehow, because the fire is still hid from our eyes, we discount and ignore the evidence of smoke, and the stink of elemental transformation. We feel the heat but do not yet see the flames, believing therefore that we are yet safe. There is no fire... We can continue to whore ourselves out to everyone and everything contrary to God.