Are You Noticed Enough



One of the You Tube sites I look at occasionally has a popular host who goes live periodically where he give his views and sometimes answers questions. On a discussion page a viewer complained that he typed in a legitimate question several times and the host did not notice his question.  The site has 100,000 subscribers and when he is live questions continually scroll by trying to get him to notice. Most all of them are ignored by the host. The viewer was crestfallen to learn he most likely will never be noticed by the host.

This reminded me of a childhood memory. Before television, there was a radio show for little children that reached the farm where our family lived. Each morning the host would say, "I'm turning on my magic eye so I can see you from your radio. Hold up your hand if you had a good breakfast. Okay, I see Molly, Johnny, Mary and Buddy...etc" I would hold up my hand because I wanted to be noticed.

When I was first a Mayor, all bonds issued to finance city infrastructure has to be signed by the Mayor. I would travel to large cities and sit for long periods writing my name. Once, in New York City I used a machine that signed 10 at a time. The manager said in a hushed tone, "JFK used this to send personally signed notes to people." While lots of money is spent on advertising, politicians use much of their time making sure as many people as possible think they are important to him or her. Phone calls and personal notes, many not actually written by the politician, are the stock and trade.

From day one, religion recognized individuals have a need to be recognized. Christianity with its prayers, heaven and hell are designed to fit the bill perfectly. Some branches do not believe in a personal God but nearly all see there is some kind of divine monitoring of sin and/or good deeds. Every person can feel known and recognized.

Politics and religion understand we all need attention. In exchange for our money and loyalty they let us think we are important. 

Comments

  1. Matt NoahSeptember 23, 2019 at 7:59 PM

    Jaded wouldn't begin to describe your take on my religion. I'm not speaking for any other religion, but my religion (Catholic) believes in a God with 3 distinct personalities; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray (conversation with God), we learn and we interact with Him. Naturally, we don't sit down for coffee or a meal and have him speak to us as one would speak to one's friends for family. But we learn of the passion He had for all of His creation during His Good Friday pains, His death and Resurrection. He personally cares for each of us. His ability to interact with everyone on earth is a mystery but is real. This I know through Faith and my interactions with fellow Catholics, laity and religious. Scoff, ridicule or demean Faith. We know it happened to HIm, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2019 at 11:07 AM

    It's possible to believe absolutely anything on faith. Accordingly, faith is not a reliable tool for determining what is true.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LindgrenSeptember 24, 2019 at 12:58 PM

      Anonymous--Perfect reply to Matt Noah.

      Delete
    2. Matt NoahSeptember 24, 2019 at 1:42 PM

      A person is multi-faceted. I am a graduate of both NDSU and Stanford with Electrical Engineering degrees. Not only do I work in the realm of real physical science and apply to engineering products, I also enjoy politics, math, music and sports. When it comes to religion, a person can hold faith in many different ways or none at all. For the atheist, he refuses to believe in God. He disregards all sorts of physical evidence contrary to his belief in "nothing". For the person of Faith, they have to sort out which religion to adhere to. Some people practice different religions at different times in their life.

      Faith is absolutely necessary to determine truth. Only a madman would be an atheist. An atheist doesn't consider the murder of another human being an arbitrary act; applying innocence to the murderer. After all, what measure does an atheist use to value the murdered life? Philosophy? Man-made values? If so, whose philosophy and whose values? What of theft? For the atheist, he may think that a rich man can be robbed because he is rich, or because he attained his riches illicitly.

      Science is paramount for discovering and understanding our physical world.

      Faith is paramount for discovering and understanding our spiritual world.

      Science does not provide us with morality or values. Faith does.

      Delete

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