One More Day Alive

Let’s start the year off right and realize how incredible all of us are. When push comes to shove, we love more than hate, we help more than hurt, and we care more than we care less about others. Let’s remember all those wonderful people out there who helped all the rest of us wonderful people make it through another year.

I have more of an opportunity than most to see that outpouring of love by writing stories about people reaching out to others, and giving talks to people from all walks of life all over America who tell me their wonderful accounts of those who rose to meet the needs of others.

Like the outpouring of emails and supportive notes I received after my last column when I wrote of the young mother who almost wound up on the streets because of a temporary financial hardship. Not only did so many of you sympathize with her, but one reader even offered her a free house to live in for a few months if she needed to get back on her feet.

Or the young lady who came to one of my talks and spoke passionately about her financial woes after losing her father, her marriage and her job, all within a few months. Within minutes she was embraced by several in the crowd who offered guidance, understanding and job references. Later in the year she showed up at a totally unrelated Catholic gathering brimming with joy – and employment – having found solidarity and support from the many who reached out to help in the Catholic community.

With times tough all over, the cynics would expect self-serving people to be hoarding, not offering, whatever blessings they had to others.

But therein lies the rub. We are independent in America, but by no means selfish. We are constantly looking for ways to help others, especially when the chips are down.

That’s why giving to charity continued to be upwards of $300 billion last year yet again.

That’s why the crime rate is down, even as unemployment and frustrations are up.

That’s why the divorce rate is down, as families realize it’s better to stick together.

And that’s why, despite all the troubles and tribulations, we continue to love each other, to help each other, and to spur each other on as if we were inexorably connected – as if we were all part of something bigger than ourselves.

We are part of something more – it’s called the Body of Christ.

When we remember that, we rediscover our reason for being and our courage to push on amidst the steady stream of pain, suffering and struggle.

So as we continue to fight the good fight, let’s not forget what we are fighting for. Here’s a helpful reminder, a list of five questions to refresh your memory. Fill it out and fill up your life with all the love that’s already there.

Happy New Year!

Road map to happiness

• Who do you love (pick one person) and why are they so special to you?
• What’s the nicest thing anybody ever did for you and how did it inspire or help you?
• What’s the kindest thing you ever did for anybody else that helped to make their day or their life better? How has helping that person enhanced your own life?
• What is something positive that you saw somebody else do yesterday or today to help someone else which filled your heart with happiness? It could be a family member, a friend or even a complete stranger who you felt made somebody happy.
• Who loves you and how do they show it? How has their love changed your life?

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Consensus has a value, especially when it is reached through a common high value rather than the lowest common denominator. Isn’t it about time we find that when it comes to health care?

It seems like that highest common value should and could be the respect for human life.

The debate over healthcare is dominating the airwaves, and suddenly people are coming out in droves at town meetings speaking their minds, questioning and criticizing.

Let me buck all the other pundits who are getting all shook up and say this is the best thing that could have happened to America.

Because Americans all over the place are looking for the most just and effective way to take care of each other; wow – that’s downright beautiful.

Furthermore people are actually taking the time to scrutinize a policy decision and think about how it will change our nation.

Finally, and even more importantly, they are trying to figure out what is morally right!

Intellectuals forever have worried that a rise in populism in America was going to bring about mob rule – a society in which people no longer thought but simply made emotionally directed decisions that were supported by a swell of support.

When I first saw President Obama swept into the White House last year in a wave of popular euphoria, I marveled at the public swelling of support. But I was concerned about whether in all the excitement people were really examining and questioning his policies enough, especially those that dealt with the issue of the sanctity of human life.

But right now I am witnessing a greater responsibility in our population than I have seen in my life time, and a greater concern for humanity than I have seen in a long time.

Most Americans want to help those that are sick, polls show, but they are equally concerned about losing benefits for themselves and their loved ones to pay for it and wondering whether the elderly and those on Medicare will have their care compromised.

Then there is the very real concern for whether or not the government should have the right to decide quality of life and length of life issues. Though the bills currently proposed do not implicitly endorse euthanasia, as some overzealous pundits have stated, they do paint a picture of a new government healthcare system that will pick and choose who deserves what level of care. That could lead to government deciding ultimately who will live and who will die.

Personally, I think it might make a lot more sense to build on what so many others have worked to create – making it better, helping to make coverage available to those who don’t have it through cooperatives, lowering premiums with subsidies, and increasing our nation’s commitment to faith based human services charities. In a nation as wealthy as ours, that shouldn’t be that difficult!

But there is one thing I know for sure, something I also believe the America people are starting to understand more and more because of this whole discussion.

We all have a divine right to life, and we do not receive that from the government but from our Creator. (Gallup Poll results in May showing more pro-life Americans than pro-abortion rights Americans for the first time since 1995 is a good indicator.)

I think maybe we could find the answer to this problem by looking deeper into the innate value of life and how to honor God’s dominion over it. He gave us this precious life, and only He should decide when it starts and ends. But in the mean time, it’s up to us to figure out how to best respect it in ourselves and others.

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