I've Got My Rights

I just read about someone who was involved in a motor vehicle crash. For some reason, I don’t think he survived. Or, if he did, he was pretty mashed up. The report said his air bag was disengaged and he was not wearing a seatbelt. Sounds to me like one of those people who are determined to live according to their rules only.

Pity. There is a collective wisdom among us bipeds which we have amassed over the last, oh, million years and codified into law. Or, at least, “things my parents told me.” But the School of Hard Knocks remains open, filled to capacity, year after year. What don’t we understand about “listen to those who have gone before you?”

I don’t believe in Original Sin, as taught; it’s nowhere in the Bible, but was invented much later to explain why we mess up and tend to do bad things. So, in that way, it’s a handy doctrine, even if we did send millions of unbaptized babies screaming into Hell to burn in unquenchable fire for all eternity. Tough luck, kids.

What I think it means, if My Favorite Church That Can’t Be Wrong will add a program and reboot, is simply we have the inability to learn from those who have gone before us. We are too proud to listen, unwilling to admit we don’t have all the answers and maybe Mom and Dad, along with the rest of civilization, might be right.

But we decide it’s our right not to use seatbelts, so we go flying through the air; we demand the right to smoke cancerous cigarettes and die. …sigh…