Romance, The One, your messiah

Some thoughts inspired by praying for my children and Reverend Yong’s Morning Devotions. A work in progress. Happy New Year, everyone. 

The popular image of romantic love is that we exchange a look, a glance, and then ZAP! goes the lightning bolt and aaaaaahhhhhh! goes the invisible choir. We know this is The One. We’re in love, we love everything about them, and off we go. Aaaahhhhh It just happens. 

We dream of meeting the person who is perfect, who will complete us, who will transport us into the magic world of love and we will really start living for the first time. No more loneliness and misery. We will see the world with new eyes, happy everymore. We will be whole instead of being half. 

We have the same dream about meeting the Messiah. He’s floating down from the sky. We see him and ZAP! aaaaaaahhhhhh we know He is The One. He holds out his hand and says “Come (your name here) follow me,” and we rise and follow as if we’re in a trance. But aaaaaahhhhhh off we go and from then on we’ll just do what we were always supposed to do, even if we don’t know quite know what that is. Aaaaahhhhhhh We’ll be happy for ever more, saved from misery and loneliness The world will suddenly be perfect. 

Now romance is not something completely useless. A lot of the romantic ideals of love – leaving your home and your country, learning to speak their language, following them to the ends of the earth for love – ring true as things you should do when you meet your messiah. (And what’s the point in having a messiah if you don’t make them your messiah?). All fine so far. 

The one missing link, of course, is that the popular romantic dream is ‘you and me against the world, baby’. God is not included. Everyone else ceases to exist as far as you’re concerned. 

With the Blessing, you are including in your relationship the most romantic being of all – God, our Heavenly Parent – the one who created the beach and the sunset, chocolate and flowers, kittens and puppies. Okay, you can argue that humans, not God, created chocolate, but who made the ingredients for us to play with? 

The world romantic has come to mean ‘impractical, unrealistic or fanciful’. Here we have a new definition of romance – an eternal relationship between three or more beings, who enjoy seeing each other enjoy the things we enjoyed making together. In joy. So the concept of Blessing – including an everlasting Being in your everlasting love relationship- is actually megaromantic, in a true and enduring way.

The ideals of romance are not wrong. We’ve just been lied to for a long time about how they work. It’s time to set things straight so that the real romance can happen, with the most romantic being of all: God, our Heavenly Parent. 

Now, I’ve obviously skipped a few steps. To achieve this megaromantic relationship, there is preparation so that you can a) be ready to recognize The One when you meet them, b) be ready to go with The One, and c) be ready to live with The One everafter. Stay tuned for that.

Based on the thought and teachings of Rev and Mrs Moon.

Treat us nice. After all, we’ve got your kids….

I doubt that most of you making these negative, sweeping comments about education have spent a day or a week teaching. If you don’t have a passion for it, you just can’t keep doing it. The only exception being the burnouts. I challenge you critics, sign up as a sub and see if you can do for a week what these people do year in and year out. It’s not like we get a lot of respect, money or power. But we keep doing it, and we make it work.
And teachers are usually the last ones quoted on education issues. You hear from the professors, the administrators, the theorists and the bureaucrats. While these ‘experts’ keep debating, making noise and changing programs, standards and theories, teachers have quietly kept on the business of teaching. And society keeps on expecting us to teach, though most people have no idea how teaching works or what it takes out of you.
Personally, I know some teachers who should be candidates for sainthood. I also know some who should be quietly shuffled off somewhere far from students, but they are certainly in the minority.
It’s a lonely job – conversations with other adults are maybe 5% of your working day.
You get to see teachers portrayed in movies as buffoons and uptight idiots
You spend more time with your students than their parents do.
And it’s true, unions can be a pain in the butt. However, if teachers were listened to more often, rather than being trashed by the public and dictated to by bureaucrats who treat us as if we don’t know what we’re doing, if people heard and respected our opinions, it would be a different game.
Treat us nice.
After all, we’ve got your kids…….

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