It’s been over seven months since Hurricane Katrina. My parish is adjacent to Orleans Parish, which obviously sustained a lot of damage, but still less than St. Bernard Parish, which is more to the right, closer to the Gulf and Biloxi. In St. Bernard, every single building flooded. Every. Single. Building. Think about that. It’s amazing.

My parish had a lot of flooding, but that is primarily because our parish president shut the pumps down and sent the pump operators far away. So wherever you go, there are FEMA trailers and construction, but my parish, Jefferson Parish, made out pretty well compared to our neighbors to the east. But I’m so very tired of it all. Seven months, and our daily lives, even in our relatively unscathed parish, are still affected.

I’m not feeling well and by the time I finished my last meeting today I didn’t want to cook, so I thought I’d get fast food for the DOTH and I for dinner. (The MOTH was repairing something at my mother’s house. He’s a saint, I tell ya!) 5:20 in the evening. Burger King was open, but the drive through was closed and the line in the lobby extended to the parking lot. McDonalds was closed. I finally found a Wendy’s that was open and thus was saved from having to cook. God is merciful. Especially to the Daughter Of The House. I don’t cook well when I’m sick.

Just one example of the things I used to take for granted. The sidewalks in what used to be a 24 hour city now get rolled up pretty early. If you want something from the grocery or drugstore, plan on getting it before dinner. If you want to watch a video, get Netflix because the Blockbuster that’s open is a good drive away. But even if you get Netflix don’t expect too much because the mail service is irregular. (Postal service is officially “back” but I’m telling you – five days a week is a good week. Three or four, usually, is what we get.) I’d like to be able to pick up the phone and schedule something with some good friends, but they now live in other states. I’d like to be able to go to church on Sunday, instead of on Saturday in someone else’s church building. I’d like to not have 10 to 20,000 illegal immigrants in my city, clogging up the ER so that my husband could not get treatment a few weeks ago. (They’re driving down wages, using public services, straining the already overburdened hospital system – several hospitals are still closed since Katrina, and next year when they enroll their children in our public schools, they’re going to want ESL teachers and resources in Spanish that we can’t afford to pay for. Thanks a whole heap, President Bush and Congress.)

Oh, I know I’m whining. I know people – many people – who still can’t live in their homes. My mother still has two co-workers staying with her. I know people whose homes are just gone. I know I’m lucky. But still. I want my old life back.

JARS OF CLAY LYRICS

“Flood”

Rain, rain on my face
It hasn’t stopped raining for days
My world is a flood
Slowly I become one with the mud

[Chorus:]

But if I can’t swim after forty days
and my mind is crushed by the thrashing waves
Lift me up so high that I cannot fall
Lift me up
Lift me up – when I’m falling
Lift me up – I’m weak and I’m dying
Lift me up – I need you to hold me
Lift me up – Keep me from drowning again

Downpour on my soul
Splashing in the ocean, I’m losing control
Dark sky all around
I can’t feel my feet touching the ground

[Chorus]

Calm the storms that drench my eyes
Dry the streams still flowing
Cast down all the waves of sin
And guilt that overthrow me

[Chorus]

Lift me up – when I’m falling
Lift me up – I’m weak and I’m dying
Lift me up – I need you to hold me
Lift me up – Keep me from drowning again

I love that line from “A Few Good Men” because I believe so few people can handle the truth. And I mean that in two ways.
1)Many people can’t cope with the truth. They will hide from it any number of ways, by avoidance, willful misunderstandings, anger, just to name a few methods.
2)Many people can’t be trusted to “handle the truth.” They twist and warp it to their own purposes. (Think MSM.)

At The Dilbert Blog, Scott Adams has an amusing post called Respecting the Beliefs of Others. A commenter responded with

As far as figuring out which is true, I think you’ll be surprised to learn that most faiths don’t believe in a concept of absolute truth. I know this because I asked them all on the usenet about 11 years ago. What they wrote back is at bandtek.com/truth. The exceptions were the fundamentalist christians and the muslims. The fundies told me I would burn in hell for asking, and the muslims said that logic would help me figure it out.

He knows that most faiths don’t believe in the concept of absolute truth because he asked “them.” (Which “them”? There are so many.) All. On Usenet. 11. Years. Ago.

Brilliant!!

Usenet, probably the earliest forum on the internet unless you want to count individually owned BBSs like those I used to dial into with my 300 baud modem. Thousands of people participated in Usenet, completely unmoderated and frequently anonymously. I went to the link the commenter posted, and found, grouped by religion, some of the responses. These responses contained the opinion of the responder, and frequently a link to another website housing their own or someone else’s opinion. The responders were generally practitioners of whatever faith, but not necessarily.

I would classify this person as a type 1 because a serious seeker of truth goes to the source. If you can handle the truth, read the source books; the Bible, the Quran, etc. Invest yourself in the quest. Speak to acknowledged experts on the faith like recognized clergy. At the very least, trusted friends who are long-time practitioners of that faith. Not total strangers on the internet. I’m not trying to mock the seeker; far from it. I feel sure that he was sincere, just extraordinarily unwise to rely on strangers on the internet as a source of religious education.

One nugget admidst the dreck:

I’ll try to be brief. You must read and study the Bible. While doing these two things, you will discover that Christianity is “the one true faith” as you put it. However, your understanding of God will expand and your perception of “the one true faith” will no longer be of importance.

Some may argue that you must read and study ALL religions in order to make that the assessment you desire, but I believe God will speak to you as you read and study the Bible — He will answer this, and all your questions.

Failure to use good judgement can cause you to be unprepared when you encounter type 2 people – those who can’t or don’t handle the truth in a trustworthy manner. (For whatever reason, be it ill will, poor judgement, poor communication skills, whatever.) For example:

If you look around, there are lots and lots of conversion stories floating around. Most are about conversions within Christian denominations…but the end point is clear, wherever the person writing the story ended up…it was the “true” faith.

What’s true for me isn’t necessarily true for you? Want your eternal life to rely on the “truthiness” of a philosophy you read on the Intarweb? I certainly hope not.

Then you have the folks who say, “any claim to ultimate truth is rather arrogant.” That is a copout, and a smug, superior way to make sure you get the last word. By definition, when you hold a belief of any sort, you inherently believe that your belief is correct. If not, you wouldn’t believe it to begin with. You would simply have no opinion on that topic. You may be open to persuasion, but while you believe something, by definition you think you’re right.

If you can handle the ultimate truth, I say pick up a bible. Ideally one in modern English that you don’t have to fight to understand, unless you’re one of those folks who is completely comfortable with Shakespearean English. I believe you will find the truth there. If you want a different answer, ask another girl or ask another question. But I’ll still think I’m right.