Someone Does

by Thomas M. Pender

 

If you’ve ever wanted someone to believe in you,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to miss you when you’re not around,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to fantasize about you,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to cry over you,
     someone has.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to feel you’re the most important person in his world,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to devote his life to your happiness,
     someone wants to.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to be afraid of spending one more day without you,
     someone is.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to stare at your picture when you’re gone,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to want to raise children with you,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to talk to God about you,
     someone has.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to dream about you,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to want to spend forever with you,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to need you,
     someone does.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to give you his heart,
     someone wants to.

If you’ve ever wanted someone to love you unconditionally,
     someone does.



I do.

written by t. michael pender  4/18/91

copyright 1991 T. Michael Pender.  All rights reserved.

Empty Staff

by Thomas M. Pender
 

It's time to kill Music
For crimes against
The Heart
For the rape of Love
And the murder of Faith

We once sang to the Son
And now we play to the Fire
Our melodies were sprung from light
But our tunes now are children of heat
If you scream
They will dance
For while they can still hear
They no longer listen

God gave Music to Man
And Man shared Music with Hell
To create Noise

Our babies know no Beauty
Because they cling the Noise to their ears
They have forgotten how to talk
How to listen
How to feel
How to think

The notes no longer engage the heart
But the gut
Instinct
Drive
Fear and Hate
The light dims as the fire spreads

Start again
With an innocent child
And empty staff
And Love



written by t. michael pender  3/6/97
copyright 1997 T. Michael Pender.  All rights reserved.

The Ultimate (and Impossible) Cure For Bigotry

by Thomas M. Pender

I have always had a major problem with bigots.  Even as a very young TV addict, I never liked Archie Bunker.  It took many years for me to figure out that the audience was laughing at his small-minded character.  When I would watch the show with my grandmother, all I saw was an awful person with horrid ideas about people, based on elements that should not be used as human categories.

The amazing thing was that Archie Bunker’s daughter Gloria didn’t have as small a mind as her father.  Typically, racism and all other forms of bigotry are force-fed from generation to generation.  As babies and small children, we revere our parents, and believe that every word from their lips is gospel.  This is where bigots come from.  If all a child hears from a loved one is that any particular group of humans is worthless, that child will believe it, just as they believe everything else their loved one teaches them.

So years ago, I came up with a solution to all bigotry as we know it.  It will never happen, but it brings a smile to my face to muse about it.  In this fantasy, the procedure would go as follows: Adjust the questions on the census polls to include attitudes about immigration, various ethnic, social and belief-based groups, and other bigotry-inducing topics.  Use this information to locate all the households in the country (and the world would follow after our tremendous example, no doubt!) that include both bigots and children under the age of four.  Next, take the children under the age of four away from the bigots, and give them to households with more humane views on other humans.  Then wait about 100 years for all the existing bigots over the age of four to shuffle off the mortal coil.

Voila!  With no children to whom bigots could teach bigotry, the practice itself would eventually die.

But again, this is sheer fantasy.  The good news in the real world is that interracial and interfaith marriages and families are much more common, which means that future generations will have such mixed heritages, that there will be very few groups and individuals against whom they could even form prejudices.

Since childnapping – even for the greater good – is not only highly unlikely, but rather creepy, perhaps what humans should aim for is the creation of an actual “human race,” through the fine art of comingling the existing races.  According to the Old Testament, the races and nationalities were created as a punishment.  Let us prove we have learned our lesson, and while we promise not to challenge God again or be silly enough to believe we can build a tower to Heaven, let us become one society.  Let’s not wait for the Martians to attack in order to find a common ground with our fellow humans.

Simply love your brother and sister humans for the sheer joy of bigots’ discomfort.  That’s an awesome enough reason in itself!

Two Hours In Cinematic Sunday School

by Thomas M. Pender

Which is better?  To be beaten over the head with a golf club, or to be beaten over the head with a Bible?

Answer: They both hurt and irritate you.

I don’t have cable, so I missed any and all ad campaigns for the film Seven Days In Utopia.  I don’t know if it’s a big film or a little one in terms of release.  I first saw the title while searching local theatres online for something I hadn’t seen.  Upon investigating, it looked like a decent show to see: the cast is filled with actors I enjoy (Lucas Black of Friday Night Lights and Sling Blade, Robert Duvall of The Godfather, and Kathy Baker of TV’s Picket Fences), and the story seemed harmless, although a bit used: Golfer loses a big match, goes angry-driving through Texas, skids off road, damages car, has to spend a week in a small town no one’s ever heard of, and his life is forever changed for the better.

I could name five or six films that already did this, except for the golfer aspect.  Still, it seemed worth a look.  Sadly, it’s a poorly conceived two-hour sermon that just happens to have a great cast in it.  I checked to make sure this wasn’t a true story, as that would negate my criticisms of the storyline.  It’s fiction, so here are said criticisms of the storyline:

First off, when the very first thing you see on the screen is a Bible passage, you can be sure you’re in for a soul-pokin’!  Then, a golfer who goes driving with no destination (or “no direction” as the Christian uber-message would probably word it) ends up in a town of just over 300 people that happens to have a makeshift golf course in the cemetery?  Puh-leeze!  And the architect of this course happens to be a former golf pro who everybody wonders where he disappeared to?  Puh-leeze times two.  The senior pro convinces the junior pro to stay in town for a week, during which the senior will help the junior “find his game.”  Now, we begin the Karate Kid portion of the movie, where the junior pro is told to perform all manners of crazy seemingly-unrelated chores (catch a fish, paint a picture), but as we know ahead of time, each chore will help him on his path to greatness.

It would have helped my irritation level greatly if the junior pro had simply heard of this crazy golf course, and chose to drive there to see it, to get away from it all.  That’s believable.  But crashing his car across the street from it?  And the mysterious senior pro happens to find him?  I’m already sorry I bought the ticket.

Add to this the anvil-heavy Christian message.  Now, I’ve been a Christian all my life, and I’m proud of it.  I think stories that put Jesus into people’s lives are wonderful, but there is something to be said for subtlety.  Jesus himself told parables, which were cute little non-head-beating stories that led people to understand God’s message.  It wouldn’t have taken much to change the script into a pleasant, featherweight story that got viewers to think about God’s work in our lives.  Instead, the creators went for the Crusades-level teaching style, and lost me altogether.  I don’t think God would want to be an irritant to those He’s trying to win over.

Halfway through the film, I’m hoping it’s a short movie.  Three-quarters through, I’m checking the time.  At the end of the film, when they opt not to show you the end of the story, but instead guide you to a website in order to find out . . . I was livid!  The nerve of some salesmen.  I decided it was my duty (and, admittedly, my revenge upon the filmmakers) to report this on a public weblog, and wave people off from seeing it.

I’ll even go a step further: The golfer wins in the end.  In the meantime, read your Bible if you want to learn about God.  Now, you don’t have to see the movie.  There!  Take that, Seven Days!