[ShadowOfGreatness, 2015]
Psalm 39:6 (NKJV)
6 Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them.
The scene appeared to be composed from irony. The shadow of the intact, imposing and virtually untouched tower fell across the ruins of what was left of its identical mate. "This is what you once were... look at you now!" seemed to be the whisper of the breeze. Where once you stood mighty, the safe haven of a deposed queen, now you cannot even prevent the field rats from foraging in your cellars. The shadow of greatness only highlighted the humiliation.
Cromwell's army did this, intentionally destroying only this section of the castle so that its military value was denied, knowing that it would be too costly to ever rebuild, and so the ruins are a testimony to the ultimate futility of fallen man's aspirations to lasting greatness.
Surely man does "busy himself in vain" as the Psalmist declares. The most he can reasonably expect is to pass as a shadow across his assigned space in time and leave behind some monument to his existence, which, in time, will crumble away. No matter how self-important we deem ourselves to be, no matter how wise and far seeing and forceful our character, time will humble us. No matter how laudable our achievements, or the greatness of our fame, the mouthed praise of our contemporaries will be lost in obscurity... like this castle, lonely in its surroundings, sought out only by those who give it passing notice.
Each of us live in the shadow of greatness and our lives, in more ways than we like to admit, are just crumbling rock and mortar that highlight our futile ambitions.
Adam was great... and he fell.... and all of mankind, like these remaining walls, can do little more that stand in the shadow of what he was. This is man's natural fallen condition.
But there was, and is, another Adam and His greatness far exceeded and exceeds that of our first parent. Though we exist in this fallen world bearing the shame of Adam's shadow, yet the second Adam came to bring light... and light chases away shadows. Like Nehemiah, the Lord Jesus Christ came to rebuild the walls of His city Jerusalem, His Church, and is doing so. Where man's fallen condition negates any hope of greatness, of stability, of lasting significance, because of Adam's shadow, Jesus came to alter that entire image. Another, greater, city or castle is being built. The stones are being gathered together and the mortar that seals them in place will last for eternity. No Cromwell, no pride of man, no anger of Satan can overcome these walls. There will be no more "shadows" of greatness only the living Presence of Light itself.
It is easy to look upon the world about us and be overcome by weeping. As the aged men wept at the building of the second temple because it was but a shadow of Solomon's glory, so we weep as inept, blundering leaders and vain philosophies bring ruin on what was to be a beacon of light to the weary and downtrodden of the world. But that is only part of the story and the shadow should remind us... that shadows only exist when the light is being obstructed. Here is where we regain our hope, renew our confidence and get on with God's work of rebuilding the walls. What God is doing will not pass, nor crumble, nor fail.
The shadow on the wall reminds us that it is easy be busy in vain and that our works will be tried, as in a furnace, and only those things of eternal value will remain. There is where our energies and our hopes are to be directed.
Politically Correct & Totally Absurd
[Flower & Bee, 2015]
The Honorable Ray Maybus, Secretary of the Navy has issued a memo calling for an "update" on how to make titles and ratings in the US Navy more gender neutral. [See HERE]
The status of "Midshipman" may very well be on its way out - as well as "Bosun's Mate" ( I assume), and all the other time honored, traditional titles by which men and women have been classified for hundreds of years.
It's actually been underway for quite a while. As technology has progressed some ratings that I knew as a junior enlisted man prior to commissioning have been replaced by other titles that are completely genderless, thus "Radarman" (which is what I was) is lumped into the category "Electronics Technician."
Quite frankly, in the overwhelming majority of these cases I don't much care. But when it comes to certain ones - among which are Midshipman & Bosun's Mate - I consider it just plain wrong to let them go.
These titles are tradition bound and history provoking categories that tie the present to the past in a good sense. Midshipmen in the 1600's & 1700's could be as young as 10 or 12. They were bunked in the "mid-ship" region of the ship just as the "top-men" (sailors who handled the very top sails on the old square riggers) bunked with the other sail handlers in the "fore-ship" berthing. These young midshipmen were commissioned as such and entitled to their own "mess" but they were not truly officers and ate in the officers' mess only by invitation. They were "officers in training" and for some of them that was an elusive goal. It was possible for a man to be a midshipman for his entire career.
But the incredible thing was that these young boys were often put in charge of boarding parties, leading swarthy bosun's mates, armed to the teeth with cutlasses and dirks, to take possession of enemy vessels.
The point is, the title is not tied to a technical skill, it is tied to traditional military capacity or classification and to the honor, service and duty that was required in it. There comes a point when changing stuff just to be changing it looses, in a barely perceived manner, a knot that holds fighting units together. Traditions are important - the sense of continuity in a centuries old history is important - the pride of standing where men and women, just like you, have stood and doing your job as they did it - is important.
Breaking links with the past, especially when there is no urgent necessity to do so, should simply not be undertaken lightly for sometimes, when the crisis hits, honor and tradition make the difference between victory and defeat, life and death.
Leave the Mids alone... and give the Bosun's back their cutlasses. Enough of this crazy idea that "now" is the only thing we have, that "yesterday" is forgotten and "tomorrow" is not guaranteed.
Posted by Gadfly on January 21, 2016 at 09:11 AM in Commentary, Culture, Movies, etc., Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)
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