Another letter to the editor, different subject this time

Sunday's N&O had an article expressing the "patriotism" that many Obama supporters and Democrats are feeling in light of the election. If you still have the paper, it's on the bottom of the front page. The following is my letter to the editor published in today's edition: (P.S. Dr. Chapman was actually one of my professors at CU.)



Fickle fidelity
Regarding your Nov. 16 article "Winds of patriotism renewed": While I am happy for Ronnie Chapman and the others' "renewed" patriotism, I don't consider this patriotism at all. Patriotism should hardly be so fickle. Absurd statements like "patriotism was a Republican thing" and that people were "told" that if they didn't support the wars they were "unpatriotic" are simply ridiculous. No one "told" me such things. I've flown my flag under all presidents and have considered patriotism bipartisan. The flag represents our country, and our country, believe it or not, is far more than who our current leader is.

Amy Bynum, Raleigh

Now I "get" that I just can't "get" it

This will seem like such a strange connection but bear with me: Last year on opening day of deer season I shot a beautiful buck. He fell dead right where he was. Several other deer were in the field at the same time. When I shot, they all scattered away. They knew, at least to some degree, the fear of the loud noise. But what happened next surprised me. A few of the deer, including one that had been standing close to the buck I shot, came back out to the center of the field within a couple of minutes. He came right back out to the opening where my buck lay dead. He seemed curious and stunned. I was shocked that these smart, wise, and cautious animals would be out so soon after just seeing, hearing, and witnessing one of their own get killed. Then I got to thinking about it later. In the deer minds, they probably could not conceive what had just happened. No doubt, they are innately born to sense danger. But they do not innately know the sound of a rifle, to know that it kills, to know that the deer laying there is dead because of it. They do not have the instincts to know that what just happened in that field is the worse danger they may ever experience around here. Therefore, they come right back out. I guess you could say that their eyes hadn't seen, their ears hadn't heard, and thus, their minds hadn't conceived what could and did just happen.

Now to my point in this: 1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. Often we wonder what heaven will be like. You hear of the pearly gates and streets paved with gold. (A comparison I find interesting since material things shouldn't be so valued). We try to imagine, in our human capacity, what could such a wonderful place be like. But that's just it: like the deer hearing a rifle and not "getting" it, we can't really understand what Heaven will be like. We don't have the mental capacity to even imagine. Our thinking and imagination are limited to what we have seen, heard, and thought about HERE ON EARTH. Heaven is a whole new dimension in our thinking that we can't even explore. (yet). I have faith that it will be an experience unlike what I can dream of here. Whether it is what I see, what I hear, what I taste, what I smell, or just what I feel...it will be overcoming and unexplainably wonderful.