With No Direction Home

One of the best ways to tell whether I'm awake is to note whether I'm reading. While we discontinued the newspaper briefly when the kids were tiny, for a few years now I've had my daily dose of text delivered to the door -- to go with four weekly publications and a houseful of books. Along with the advent of the Internet, I rarely have to fall back on cereal boxes to get my daily fix.

I've also very much enjoyed having a fresh Sudoku arrive every day (two on Sundays!) -- at least in theory. For some reason, our local newspaper is publishing the Short Attention Span Theater version of Sudoku. They are so painfully simple that they never take me more than 10 minutes, and usually 5 or less.

The problem is that the Puzzle Center in my brain is just starting to wake up at that point and still wants to play. So I've gotten into the habit of tackling the crossword puzzle located on the same page. I'm not a crossword maven, but with a mother and aunt who structure their day around the morning puzzle, there's definitely a strand of it entwined in my DNA. The newspaper crossword is not overly difficult, so I've had reasonable success.

My daughter found a way to increase the challenge level, however. Finding herself with the day's newspaper and a pair of scissors (and minimal supervision, apparently), and knowing my fondness for puzzles, she cut out the crossword, sought me out and presented it to me with a flourish.

Unfortunately no one had the chance to explain to her that in order to do the puzzle, dad would also need the clues.

But you know, I see this kind of thing going on around me all the time. The virtue seemingly most prized in today’s world is “tolerance”, which at one time meant “respecting the right of others to have different viewpoints and beliefs”. The new & improved Y2K definition appears to be “believing everyone’s viewpoints and beliefs are equally valid”.

When you carry this to its logical conclusion, there’s no way for parents to teach their kids the difference between right and wrong – if there are no absolutes and it all depends on the situation and “what feels right to you.”

I think those of us who were raised to believe that there are moral absolutes would probably testify that we’ve seen some disturbing and even tragic choices come out of this approach to life. Recently, however, I've found myself feeling sorry for the young minds that have been put in this spot. After all, it’s hard enough to Do the Right Thing when you have some idea what the Right Thing is. It must be a truly helpless feeling to try to make decisions, some of them potentially life-changing, with absolutely nothing to go on. As Rich Mullins wrote in another of my favorite Neglected Classic songs, “The Maker of Noses”:

They said boy you just follow your heart -- but my heart just led me into my chest
They said follow your nose, but the direction changed every time I went and turned my head
And they said boy you just follow your dreams -- but my dreams were only misty notions
But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses
And the Giver of dreams: He's the one I have chosen
And I will follow Him

I don't lay claim to a perfect record of making perfect choices, but I'm certainly glad that I have something, and Someone, to base them on (the poor choices have more to do with my own Short Attention Span). The puzzle's hard enough to do when you have the clues.