Today is marked as “Juneteenth,” the new national/federal holiday commemorating the day when slaves in Texas were told that they were no longer enslaved. We don’t yet have those awful sales like we do for Presidents’ Day or Memorial Day (a travesty), but I’m sure they’ll be coming. Our American society is too materialistic to let a three-day weekend go without sales.
Look at political campaigns, for instance, and the way they ask for signs of political loyalty. Not satisfied with bumper stickers – although in the wrong area a bumper sticker will get you curses, if not worse – political parties have gone in for shirts, hats, coffee cups. (I do have a Biden-Harris coffee cup, I have to admit), even jewelry.
Getting past the materialism of our culture is a challenge. We all acquire things as we grow and then as we age begin to wonder what meaning some of those things have in the long run. It’s hard to let go of those items that had meaning for us once upon a time, but unlike fairy tales, there is no happily ever after if only based on our possessions.
Prayer for the Day
Hold us in the present, Lord of time and space,
As we approach the coming summer solstice;
Free us from our possessions that constrict us,
For we know that they can hold us in ways we do not want.
Open us to the future, Holy Broadener of our minds,
So we love beyond the boundaries we set for ourselves.
In the name of the One who shows us the way,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and destructive of society.
- David Hume, Scottish philosopher (1711-1776)
All my possessions for a moment of time.
- Queen Elizabeth I on her deathbed (1533-1603)
Then Jesus told them a parable: the land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say t myself, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have, where will they be?”
Luke 12: 16—20