¡Caliente, la Parte 2!

During this evening’s watering, I failed to notice that my very first habañero pepper had arrived! Fortunately, I returned home before dark and saw it.

And smiled.

: )



I am trying to formulate my exact feelings on the Supreme Court’s ruling on displaying the Ten Commandments. Sadly, I failed, miserably, in my Communications Law class (OK, I actually got a B … but for me, that was a bad grade), primarily because I could read a case, read the prevailing (??) and dissenting opinions and STILL not know exactly what the ruling was.

Seems to me — with my admittedly relatively uninformed opinion — that the high court’s decision on this matter is rather unclear. If I understand it correctly, it’s OK to display the Ten Commandments if they are engraved on some kind of permanent monument that is located on public ground out in the middle of some field, but it’s not OK to display the Ten Commandments if they are copied at Kinko’s and tacked up on the wall of your public courthouse. (OK, I made up the Kinko’s part.)

I have written a column on this subject before. I wanted to revisit the topic; however, I have no idea when my previous column was published, and contrary to my obvious tendency toward repeating myself, I, uhm, really don’t like the idea of repeating myself.

: )

Before I go on, though, let me be perfectly clear on a couple of things:

First of all, I adore The Ten Commandments — the movie, that is. Grandma Ginny got me started watching this film when I was very young, and I have to admit it is one of the guilty pleasures in my life. I love Charlton Heston as Moses — and, obviously, as Taylor in Planet of the Apes (another guilty pleasure: “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”) — and I used to watch this movie every year during ABC’s traditional showing of it around Easter (not exactly sure of the correlation there, but … whatever).

Secondly, I believe that the Ten Commandments contain some pretty good words to live by, even if you don’t happen to be a particularly religious person. Most of them are rules of common decency/respect, and if you avoid breaking any of the commandments, you will likely not find yourself in jail or divorce court — a couple of good reasons, right there, to try to adhere to them.

Truthfully, I’m not quite certain how these rules and regulations have been narrowed down to 10. When I looked up the Ten Commandments in the King James Version of the Bible that I, uhm, borrowed from my parents (thus, apparently, violating at least two of the commandments!), I was pretty sure I counted 11. I guess the wording threw me off a little, so I switched to the red engraved Revised Standard Version Bible that was presented to me on Aug. 26, 1973, by “the First United Methodist Church for entering third grade,” according to my mom’s printed notation inside.

Here is what I found, highlighted in blue, in Exodus 20: 1-17.

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but
showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

“You shall not kill.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

I have no problems believing in and attempting to follow the Ten Commandments on a daily basis. OK, so I’m a little lax about the sabbath day ... and occasionally I have been known to let slip the Lord’s name (though I’m not altogether certain it was in vain, ’cause I’m telling’ ya, I was really really mad!) ... and every once in a while, I see something like a neato car or a really cool house and think, damn, I wish I had one-a them! ... and yes, there are times when my mother and I absolutely do NOT see eye-to-eye. Still, though, it makes sense to me to make the attempt to live life according to a set of principles or guidelines or some kinda code or something ... though, I would have to say, my code would probably not be exactly the same as this particular list.

And even with this list, I have to wonder about all of the other instructions and what-not from throughout the rest of Exodus and various other parts of the Old Testament, some of which is mostly ignored by many followers of basic God-centered religions, and parts of which are brought up only for use in discussions featuring what I like to call “situational ethics/morals.” For example, I am constantly amazed by the number of people who quote Scripture, chapter and verse, when it comes to the topic of, say, homosexuality, but certainly aren’t going to follow “the letter of the law” when it comes to some of the seemingly more archaic rules set forth in the Bible.

Bottom-line: Do I think the Ten Commandments should be posted at the county courthouse, or the local high school, or even the city park?

No, I do not.

Learn these rules at home and/or church, and put them into practice in your daily life. Don’t act as if you need a list of the commandments, in clear view at all times, in order to remember them, or that having them posted will suddenly make all non-believers “see the light.” Don’t pretend that putting up these rules in public places cannot possibly offend or trouble anyone else because the fact is, not everyone believes the same as you or I or anyone else.

Personally, I would rather see something a lot simpler posted here and there, on subway walls and tenement halls, or even on water towers and silos — something with the same underlying principle that, essentially, serves as a reminder of what the commandments seem to be all about, anyway:

“Try to be as good a person as you can possibly be, always, in all ways. And believe and love with all your heart.”

’Nuff said, dontcha think?

: )