WHOSE HOUSE?

    A person's house is a very private thing. It is a concept as well as a physical place. Some are cold in decor, while others have that welcoming feeling. A house usually gives an insight into the person who lives there. The question of whether a house is necessarily a home is up to the person living within, whether they imbue it with themselves and their values, use it as a temporary dump or just as a place to lay a head on a pillow at night.
     A home can be a choice or a pre determined place meant to provide some kind of shelter. The place to go when things are difficult, or one needs to think and rest, or simply rejoin with those loved ones who share the house - the home. I believe that a house must be a home, for if not, the necessary refuge that a person needs to reenergize, to refresh and come out in fighting form again is not there.
     That is one of the tragedies of the life of today for so many. With the population of homeless swelling, there is a lack of something in our society. We reject the homeless as unworthy, as lesser beings, as if they are all drunks, addicts, homeless through their own faults. We step over them or curse them as inconvenient to us.Well, yes, and no. Some are addicts of one kind or another. No doubt about that. But many are not and if we were to be honest, most of us realize that there but for the grace of G-d go we. Many of us live paycheck to paycheck and the statement that one needs to have so many thousands of dollars in banks as a safety cushion  is just nonsense in reality for too many of us. One layoff, one disaster and homelessness becomes the norm for a formerly housed family.
     Now think about other houses that you might have known. In which were the values good and solid? In which was there a warmth, a welcoming for others? Which were and are the homes one finds a constant gathering, a meeting place, filled with kids visiting friends and adults simply gathering to share in life with others.
     Those are the homes we need more of, need to translate into governmental 'homes' for the people of the country. Think of the atmosphere of the national homes of our country. There is such tension, discord and disuntiy that many are not functioning the way they were meant to and we are suffering for that. We cannot trust the values keepers of these political homes for they have forgotten to whom and to what they owe loyalty. They have forgotten that real heroes are true to themselves, to their constituents, and are always ready to do the right thing. They have a responsibility to keep out the ogres of society, the outsider society who wish to bore into us and our values, take over the world as we know it and transform it into a place wherein there are no more homes to welcome us in, to shelter us from harsh conditions that can be avoided or ameliorated. This, unfortunately, is the world we are headed into, actually, there right now.
     A tweeting base for a madman. A yes place where adults who should know better kowtow to that same madman. A home where the original occupants, the people of the nation, are unwelcome, where the new occupants forget the true responsibilities and obligations they owe to the people and instead declare loyalty to a man rather than to a nation. A home where the original family is so divided that the individuals do not converse with each other, much to the detriment of the family.
     Our nation's home is broken. We have enemies of the nation hacking, literally and figuratively, into our lives, our business, personal and public. We have the President of the country welcoming them in instead of fighting them off. He has forgotten the job he has, the job he took on - and no, not the plan to enrich himself and his buddies, but to serve the people, to uphold the Constitution, to keep our home safe and intact.
     When we forget the right way, when we forget to build our homes for longevity and the right path, strong enough to withstand clamor and discord, lacking in mercy, we then have TV shows such as the new Party of Five where the heartbreak of deportation, the whole rotten system is exposed for the huge wrong thing that it is, the ugly consequences of it all
     Today I am beginning to think that we must turn to another House, one that has good values, morality, warmth, and welcome. It is a House of mercy, a virtue we are sorely lacking these days. That House is mentioned many times and here is one reference from Psalms.
     "Because of Your great mercy, I come to Your House."
     No need even to believe, just emulate the rightness of it all, the necessity of mercy in life and living. If not, well that next tornado might be heading for you with all the alarms ignored and silent.