by Colin Hyde
If you’re a Christian, you are called to pattern your life after The Christ, not Moses, not anyone else. The Christ’s footsteps are a tough follow, and we all come up short, some of us way short. It’s all about us being animals, and it not being that easy to curb the instincts of the flesh. In respect to our failures, we are to stay away from justifying them. We are not to compound sin by bragging about it, which is likely to happen if we immerse ourselves in the wrong company. Strive to keep quality company, because show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are. Absolutely we don’t want to find ourselves reveling, boasting about our wrongdoing. That is a very bad thing. That’s why we are to keep friends who check us when we trip up, and keep arm’s length from friends who wallow in low behavior.
Jesus was a champion for peace. In this Lenten season we see Him having to choose between His mission and His life. He could have called ten thousand angels and wiped out His enemies. But then the Lamb would have had a spot, a blemish. When His disciple used the sword, He ordered him to put it down. The message is clear: thou shalt not kill. There is no confusion about the picado Jesus cleared for us to walk in. He came to put an end to “an eye for an eye”; He said turn the other cheek.
Some time back, I told you the story about the old brother who had spent 20 years in jail for a murder, and that my boss put me to work with him. The brother’s expertise was in lining the fields, so he didn’t have much interaction with the other workers on the farm. We had a good relationship. If I live long enough, someday his name will pop up in my head and then I’ll go to the archives and research his crime. No, my interest there is not about judging him; I’m just inquisitive. Whatever the brother had done, he had paid the due the society exacted for his terrible crime.
Every success and every failure in our life goes with us. Talking about the taking of human life, there are a number of ways that can happen. There is accidental killing, there is defense of self or country, there is killing in hot blood, and the absolute worst, in cold blood. States that like to go to war, prize men who are good at killing on the battlefield. Both killing in hot blood and cold blood carry penalties in peace time, with more time in prison ordered by the court if you are found guilty of the latter.
No one who takes a human life is the same afterward, no matter how it happened. The person “responsible” for an accidental death might suffer worse trauma than a cold-blooded person. There are boxers who hung up their gloves after an opponent died after being hit in the ring. The person who kills through deliberate action might try to justify his deed. Some might think they are great for what they did, and suffer no remorse, at least not outwardly. One fact is that the individual isn’t the person he was before he killed. And he is different from those in the society who never killed.
A sober society must be aware of these changes, and it must be concerned. The war hero who saved the country from the terrible invader, he might have returned from the battlefield physically unscathed, but his mind, his mind might be messed up. The society has to have great compassion for someone who was involved in an accidental killing.
Looking at the individual who kills in hot or cold blood, and almost all males are capable of that, I assumed the old brother I worked with had been found guilty of this type of crime, hence the 20 years in jail. I said society has to be careful with the person who is involved in a killing. The individual might have a straight path to heaven; only God knows the heart, only God knows absolute truth. The individual might be repentant, he might even preach against violence; but there are people who will fear him, people who will scorn him, and people who will admire him. Hopefully, the latter group is the minority. Consider too that there might be people out there who want revenge, and the last thing the society wants is more killers.
Killing a person is not like tax evasion, taking out-of-season lobster, driving an uninsured vehicle, or stealing someone’s chickens. You can restore those types to near full status in the society. The chicken thief can replace the bird with a fatter one. No one can replace a life.
Many people in this world live in niches, some by choice, some because they are forced to. I have heard it said that if you get HIV now, with the proper medication you can fling about in the society without endangering others. I have heard. Okay then, let’s use the flu for an example. If you catch a bug, you should find a corner. Millions of people can’t have the whole cake. There’s a line there with killing. Life can never be the same. Nobody said life is easy.
If it was carbon monoxide, I hope it wasn’t non-mercaptan gas
Carbon monoxide poisoning was one of the first suspicions of some media personnel when it was reported that three young US tourists were found dead in a hotel room in San Pedro last month, but the official reports from local authorities ruled that out. There was mention that some tequila and gummy bears were found in the room. There are reports that families of the tourists who died were upset with our police for putting that in their blotter. The police found what they found. Those of us who ran off thinking the girls were on a wild spree need to be checked. The alcohol and the gummy bears caused speculation that the girls had consumed contaminated party stuff. I think that was legitimate suspicion.
Last week it was announced that the hotel where the young tourists died had been closed down. Immediately following that, there was a report from the foreign press that the foreign experts haven’t ruled out carbon monoxide.
When I first heard the suggestion of carbon monoxide I wondered wherefrom, what could have produced the gas. Then I realized that many water heaters use butane, and of course that is the main fuel in our kitchens.
Five or six years back, the Amandala ran a story about a butane leak that led to an explosion when people who weren’t aware of it lit a stove. The people weren’t aware of the leak because the butane wasn’t smelly. I remember that the newspaper called on the authorities to ensure that all butane sold in Belize had an odor. The Wikipedia says, “As fuel, butane is often mixed with small amounts of mercaptans to give the unburned gas an offensive smell easily detected by the human nose. In this way, butane leaks can easily be identified. While hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans are toxic, they are present in levels so low that suffocation and fire hazard by the butane becomes a concern far before toxicity.”
We can’t bring back these precious young people, but we can prevent a tragedy like that from happening again. I hope that if it was carbon monoxide that killed the girls, it wasn’t caused by butane that had no smell, because the felony is compounded when we fail to heed sound advice.
Arsene Wenger’s top 5 entertaining footballers on the world stage this season
Retired football coach, Arsene Wenger, a legend who coached the mighty Arsenal to the only undefeated season in modern English football – 38 games, zero defeats – named his top five world football players, the players who make the great game a joy to watch. At the top of the list was that terrible Mo Salah of Liverpool. Wenger prefers players with magnificent artistry, and in his number five spot is young Yamal, four is Cole Palmer, three is Vinicius Junior, and he gives the second spot to Mbappe.
Wenger could have left Arsenal’s brilliant Saka out of his top five, because he has been out for some time with a hamstring injury. Aha, I liked how Pirlo said football is played with the brain, that the feet are the tools. That’s just so some people get the sense. Uh-uh, it just occurred to me that Wenger missed out Dembele. For years and years Dembele, a scintillating talent who walked through every defense on the planet, had been the world’s most frustrating player because he didn’t know how to score. Well, finally something clicked in his head; and because it did, Salah and Liverpool’s dream of winning the double, the British and Champions League, is over. And all the Barca, Real Madrid, and Bayern fans are shaking in their tennis shoes.
Arsene is French, so he has the inside to French players. He retired some years ago after a number of also-rans at the Arsenal. I think he deserved to go. I don’t know if Arsene had a chance to get France’s great motor, N’Golo Kanté, but we ended up with Mesuit Ozil. Chelsea ended up with Kanté and the trophies; Arsenal ended up with Ozil and the pretty play.
I couldn’t understand Arsenal spending the big bucks on Ozil. I appreciate pretty play, but pretty players are pretty worthless without the supporting cast, and Arsenal’s roster was chock full of players who played for the girls. That Ozil was a big zero on the defensive side, and the bohga played midfield. Wenger got starry-eyed; he forgot the importance of muscle. Bah, Chelsea got all the trophies.