A Few Minutes with the Mayor – November 2015

I remember, as a child, being struck by the Greek mythological fable of Persephone, daughter of the goddess Demetra, who was abducted by Hades and brought into the underworld. Demetra, whose task was to bring fertility to the land, became so depressed she renounced her divine duties, causing winter to fall upon the earth. Zeus, seeing the earth beginning to die, forced Hades to return Persephone to her mother. But Hades, smitten by Persephone’s beauty, tricked her into eating four pomegranate seeds which forced her to return to the underworld four months each year. Since then, Demetra withdraws her presence from the earth when her daughter goes back to Hades and winter ensues until her return.

What a charming way to explain the four seasons. And how inventive, given the real reason for the seasons which the ancients had no way of knowing… seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth’s axis relative to the plane on which the earth travels around the sun.

In no small way, this fable reminds me of the current state of our nation. There is a discontent in our land unlike any I have ever experienced… not in wartime nor in stressful times of depression or recession. It’s there, beneath the surface of our daily activities, an unsettling force, quiet, unspoken. Our politicians, left leaning, right leaning, and those with no compass whatsoever, all have answers for this unease. And… like the ancient Greeks, their ideas have no relevancy to the real problem. They offer reasons they believe we want to hear. The economy is worrisome, foreign policy is failing, the President is a failure, Congress is a failure, special interest groups are destroying the country, the Republicans are to blame, the Democrats are to blame…etc., etc. Even if all of these are true, and many are, I would submit there is a far more basic reason for our unease. The problem lies within “we the people.”

According to surveys in U.S. News and World Report:

80% of “high-achieving” high school students admit to cheating

51% of high school students did not believe cheating was wrong

Those cheating in school are 2.5 times more likely to cheat in their relationships than those who don’t

Almost 85% of college students said cheating was necessary to get ahead

In short, we are a nation beset with a citizenry lacking in truth as a moral compass. What’s ironic about this is that liars usually never understand they are their own worst victims. They go blithely through life never expecting to be caught, but almost always are. The piper will be paid.

Etched in my memory is a time when I played hooky from school and went to the beach thirty miles away instead. Against all odds, a customer of my barber-father saw me and told him where I was that day. When Dad confronted me, shamefully I admitted the truth. I learned an important lesson that day. Never lie!

Sadly, in every level of business and government, we have liars who have never learned that lesson. No community is immune… not even our own. It is why so many of us are looking to candidates outside of the political mainstream hoping for someone who speaks the truth.

On another level, we have been taught to be a self-absorbed people whose consideration is always about “Me.” This is inevitable when politicians cater for votes by bribing citizens with free handouts or promises they have no intention of keeping. Even our commercials exhort us to reward ourselves. “We owe it to ourselves.”

Pastor Larry Jung, in a recent sermon at church, gave a remarkably simple definition of true love. “The essence of love is giving.” This is diametrically opposite to those who willingly lie, or live by the rule of ‘what’s in it for me?’

I would add one more fundamental truth. The act of giving without the feeling one has to, offers its own reward. Any doubts? Then talk to people who give their time and services every day, such as the volunteers in Food and Friends, or those who reach out, such as the Honduras Mission Team from our local Presbyterian Church, a medical team treating people in desperate need, or the Rotarian’s whose motto is “Service Above Self.” These are people who truly give, and they are the antithesis of those who, when looking at Life’s mirror, see only themselves.