Author: Betsy Horvath

I had some other plans about what I wanted to post today, but in the face of all of the media hoopla and general laughter about the “rapture” prophesied by wacko preacher Harold Camping, I felt compelled to talk about that instead.

I’ll tell you that I do not necessarily label myself as Christian, although I do try to follow the teachings of Jesus as much as I can and to the extent of my understanding.  Some days I do okay with that, some days not so much. I do not belong to a church.  I personally don’t really believe in the rapture.  I have my own understanding of those passages in the Bible, but as far as I can tell, most church denominations don’t agree with me.  Ah, well, to each their own.  I don’t think any of us has a complete understanding of anything in this life anyway.

Regardless of your thoughts about the rapture, or indeed about Christianity, it is my opinion that Harold Camping has done a great deal of damage in the last couple of weeks.  He’s done damage  simply because he has made the beliefs of a lot of good people the object of ridicule.  This is not true simply for the people who actually follow him.  His words, his actions, and the media attention he has willingly and eagerly pursued, have allowed a broad brush to be swept over an entire community of faith, most of whom don’t have anything to do with Mr. Camping.

I guess what I’m saying is that, in the  midst of the general hilarity over this incident, we must remember several things.

1) There are people who really did believe Mr. Camping.  Those people were hurt by this incident.  Sure, there are some who will put on their blinders and move on. But for some, their entire world was rocked.  They may never recover.  This isn’t a TV show.  Real people were and are involved.

2) We must not paint an entire faith by the actions of one, or several extremists, whether Christian, Muslim, Jew or any other community.  The acts and beliefs of one person or group, do not necessarily reflect the acts and beliefs of the whole. Don’t let the media direct your opinions or your actions.

3) By the same token, the espoused views of leaders are not necessarily to be followed blindly.  We must all have the courage to follow our own hearts, regardless of what we are being told to do. It’s hard to buck an authority figure, but we are obligated to think for ourselves.

There you go – just a little bit of a soapbox.  Now, if you haven’t done it already, turn off your television, radio or computer, and go outside to enjoy the lovely day.   🙂

The real title of this post is “10 Things I Wish I’d Known Sooner Than I Eventually Figured Them Out, and I Eventually Figured Them Out Mostly Because Of the Consequences Of Not Knowing Them Sooner”

But that wouldn’t fit on the title line.

Oh, my friends, if only I’d known then what I know now! How happy life would have been.  But would it have been my life, or would it have been a different life?  Would I be the person now that I am if I knew then what I know now? Would I be the person then that I was then if I knew what I know?

Do tweedle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle?

Regardless of these deep questions, here is a list of 10 things I wish I’d known sooner rather than later:

1. Stay out of debt.  ’cause all of that stuff? It just means you have to work harder to support it. And you have to pay the debt back.
2. Save money (including your allowance when you’re a kid). Don’t waste it on a 10″ black and white TV or a first generation VCR.
3. You just can’t eat everything you want to eat.  Sorry. Deal with it. Hello, Mr. Diabetes.
4. It’s perfectly okay to want to write romances and not something else. Because you know what? You want to write romances. Not something else.
5. Just go ahead and be an English major, will you? Because trying to be a business major is just a waste of time for you. And no, you really don’t want to be an accountant either.
6. The Mustang is going to lose all of it’s oil – twice – when you are out on trips, and the T-roof is going to leak. So stick with your Nova for a while. It’s not as sexy, but it stays dry inside.
7. Don’t buy all of those cassette tapes. And God! Stay away from the 8-tracks!
8. You have the right to dream, and your dreams are just as valid as anyone else’s.
9. You can’t be other than who you are, and who you are is fine.
10. The cat is going to hock up a hairball in the hallway, and you if you’re not careful you’ll step in it with your bare feet. It will be icky.

Today I’d like to tell you a more serious story.   It’s kind of long, and a little sad in places, but don’t worry – everything turns out okay in the end.  And it includes some angels.

Once upon a time, there was a girl. We’ll call her “B”. B had a lot of problems, not the least of which was that she was being abused daily at school. The abuse was verbal, but the abusers were cruel, cutting, and constant in their “attentions”. It had started in elementary school, but really picked up in junior high school. See, B was very chubby, very shy, somewhat geeky, and scared. In other words, she was a prime target. Things got pretty intense.

By the time she’d made it to 9th grade, B was what you might call “at risk”.  Today she would have been put in counseling or on drugs. She didn’t tell her parents, but B had started to think some pretty unhealthy thoughts. Sometimes she thought about running away (maybe to go live in a tree like “My Side Of The Mountain”). Sometimes her thoughts were darker.

Then at the beginning of 9th grade, B walked into the Home Economics class.  Everyone was sitting around tables. The only available chair was at a table with boys. Boys had been her biggest and most constant tormentors, although girls certainly contributed. As she stood, not knowing what to do, one boy at the table looked up, smiled, and said. “Here’s an empty chair. Why don’t you sit here?”

B sat at the table and eventually she and the boy became friends. She made friends with the other kids at the table too.

Fast forward to 11th grade. B had taken on a project that was beyond her, bitten off far more than she could chew. It was a lot of responsibility, but she didn’t know what she was doing or how to handle it. She felt helpless and afraid. Because of who B is, she locked all of those feelings up inside. Everything kept spinning tighter and tighter inside her until she really thought she was going insane. She probably was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She might even have been having one.

Then there was this girl. This girl and B had been friends for a long time, even though B could be a real jackass and had a lot of issues. The girl had remained B’s friend even when she probably shouldn’t have. When B was at her worst in this particular situation, the girl knew she was in trouble. She said, “You’re really upset. You need to get away from this. Why don’t you come out with me and my grandmother?”

B went with them. She couldn’t quite explain it, but it was like a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. There’d been an elephant stepping on her chest, and after that small trip, it eased off a little bit. She still sucked at what she was trying to do, but she had a friend who cared enough about her to try and help.

This boy and this girl were everyday angels in B’s life. There were other angels too, and they kept materializing as the years went by. They always seemed to show up when things were at their worst, offering encouragement or hope.  And, in part due to their timely interventions, B has lived and grown and even managed to thrive. After a while she learned sometimes she could be an angel too.

I guess all that I’m trying to say, in a very long-winded way, is that we just never know. We don’t know how something we say, some little action, will impact another person. We don’t know if we are going to be somebody’s angel. We don’t know if a little remark, a simple act of kindness, a throwaway gesture, will save someone. We don’t know if our cruelty will destroy them.

So please think before you speak, people. We can be angels, or we can be demons. The choice is completely up to us.