Just day-dreaming

Imagine…

A world in which all marriages would be healthy and all children would be safe. Those who have too much would give to those who have too little. Israeli and Palestinian children would play together on the West Bank; their parents would build homes for one another. In offices and corporate boardrooms, executives would secretly scheme to help their colleagues succeed; they would compliment them behind their backs.

Just day-dreaming

Reality TV programs that featured happy people living fulfilled lives, whose only problems were that they were unable to find anyone who needed their help or money, teenagers who were studying hard, volunteers who happily spend hours sitting with elderly people, reading to them and listening to and learning from their life stories.   

Tabloids would be filled with accounts of courage, sacrifice and moral beauty. Talk shows would feature mothers and daughters who love each other deeply, wives who gave birth to their own husband’s children, and men who secretly enjoy dressing as men.

Disagreements would be settled with grace and civility. There would still be lawyers, perhaps, but they would have really useful jobs like delivering pizza, which would be non-fat and low in cholesterol. Doors would have no locks; cars would have no alarms. Schools would no longer need a police presence or even hall monitors; students and teachers and janitors would honor and value each others work. At recess, every kid would get picked for a team. The only graffiti would be in art appreciation classes. 

Churches would never split, and when Christians disagreed over matters of eternal importance they would seek wise counsel, and refuse to take offense, reveling in the wondrous variance in God's creation.  
  

Taxation rates would drop to and stabilize at 10% because everyone would be honest about their income and earnings, and share the burden of good governance equally and the welfare state was replaced by the well-being state.     

The trillions of dollars spent on weapons of war and border defense would be diverted into environmental projects, the vast tracts of desert across the world would be infused with life, the lungs of the world, the rain-forests, would be restored, once again teeming with species brought back from virtual extinction.  

People would be neither bored nor hurried. No father would ever again say, ’I’m too busy,’ to a disappointed child. Mothers would be honored universally and  their graceful discipline would instill respect and deference in their offspring. Family elders would be sought out for their ambassadorial and sagacious advice. 

Our national sleep deficit would be paid off. Starbucks would still exist but would sell only fair-trade decaf. Veggie burgers would taste great, and happy meal toys would work. Actual junk food would be nutritious. Strawberries would  grow and be full-flavored all year round. Brussel Sprouts  would become extinct. Pavlova would not affect blood sugar levels.  

Divorce courts and battered-women shelters would be turned into community recreation centers. Every time one human being touched another, it would be to express encouragement, affection, and delight. Sex would be the ultimate expression of love and commitment between adults. Anger and hatred would be on display, as an exhibit beside the dinosaur fossils and dodo skeletons in the museum. 

No one would be lonely or afraid. People of different races would join hands; they would honor and be enriched by their differences and be united in their common humanity. Borders between people of differing faiths would dissolve as together they faced and overcame the one who has deceived mankind. 

Just day-dreaming.....

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And the sea no longer is. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there will be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying out, nor will there be any more pain; for the first things passed away. 

Revelation 21:1-4 MKJV

** Updated and re-published from May 2012