‘Be The Lighthouse’
My TAC colleague Scott McConnell tipped me off to this extraordinary tweetstorm by someone whose name I don’t know, but who appears to be a conservative who is now going offline. I’m going to post the whole thing here for you who don’t use, or know how to use, Twitter:
The double life was a strain. I’ve felt it for years but during ’16 I admitted that I needed an exit. Then we had kid 3. More responsibility
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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I was prepared election day for any future and warned my wife in case HRC won, it might get real. Don’t lie, you guys DMed me the same.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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That same week a childhood friend died of a heroin OD. He was not a loser. He was a strong, handsome slightly dopey good guy. It hit me.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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It hit harder later when I recalled his dad was a drunk and he had said “I hate my dad, I’m nevah gonna end up like him”.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Not even 40, he was dead and left behind a kid. He ended up worse than his dad. How? How 3 years ago was he fine when I last saw him? How?
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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The opioid crisis is legit a crisis. Fentanyl, the gangs now spreading it to cities as well as the rural areas. It’s going to get worse.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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I was home in June for a childhood friends’ funeral. Cancer, not heroin. At the calling hours, it was a shitshow. The women looked fine.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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My male peers were a wreck. Basketball star 6’4″ and handsome at even 29, was not 38, fat, bald and looked 50. Smelled of alcohol at 11am.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Friend’s dad saw me, shook my hand, said Sean was 2nd row near casket. I couldn’t recognize Sean. I looked puzzled. Sean’s dad realized.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Walked me to doorway to point to Sean. I waved. Sean was bald + looked awful. At 16, he was a blonde god destined for Harvard’s hockey team
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Sean’s dad said, “I wish he had dated your sister instead of Shelly”. Because of course 1 bad GF from HS sent his son down the drug path
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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I complimented two female classmates for looking good amid the carnage. We laughed. “You haven’t changed” they said. My sis gave me the info
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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1 a single mom. 1 a single childless SWPL who dated older married rich men in Boston. These were the cream of the crop. Top 10% in HS
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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He says he spent all summer thinking about how in the hell we might solve this. More:
Podcasting was easy but it is far easier than writing. I was tired of tragedy porn with heroin + tired of yeah it’s crazy out there posting
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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I returned home for a long stay in July. No writing, lil tweeting, and just observing. How hollowed out is New England? A near shell.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Walk a grocery store. All elderly. Rename Stop N Shop to Purgatory. Bumped into friend’s mom. She had 3 sons, all over 30. Not 1 grandkid
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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“3 kids now! You have 3! How do you find the time?” Damn Mrs. R, how did you find the time when your sons were my classmates. It’s possible
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Cultural transmission ended. People don’t care about history, women cant cook, men aren’t handy, statues, art, civic orgs It’s all connected
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Boomers were the Me gen, but someone told them to be that. They placed the individual over everything. Forget nation, think small.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Irish-Am org? Screw that
WW2 memorial fundraiser? Ehhh
Divorce? Hey, kids need a happy mom
Kids? I got so much to do
My career > my kids— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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People traded being cogs in some horribly repressive machine (progs’ words) to be free to be cogs in a prog-capitalist consumer machine
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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We stopped being part of organic roles + traditions to slide to the roles cultural mandarins wanted. There is no silver bullet. No 5 min fix
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Ever go to a nursing home weekly to see gramma and wonder why no one else has visitors? I used to wonder. I don’t anymore.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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We forgot basics.
We bought into the prog-capitalist sales pitch.
We forgot that our identity is not just who we are but how we fit in.— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Don’t replace TV with Internet. Save the 6 hrs/day and fill it with things for those around you, those who raised you, and those you raise.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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My grandfather was dirt poor and had 11 kids. He spent years rehabbing the town’s 1st fire wagon. He died penniless but that remains.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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When he died, I walked to his twin brother and cited how I brought back sand from Normandy for them. I said “I will honor your sacrifice”.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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Tweeting, writing, podcasting has all been a part of it. I’m done just writing because we need to build, curate, cultivate.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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We do not have a single institution on our side. So build them. There are millions of confused and worried people out there. Reach them.
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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There are so many people in private hungry for competent, strong leadership. Be the lighthouse. The storm is here and it will only get worse
— RetiredSocialCritic (@RetiredSOBL1) August 18, 2017
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RetiredSocialCritic says in a much more powerful way what I tried to say to Christian readers in my book The Benedict Option:
I have written The Benedict Option to wake up the church and to encourage it to act to strengthen itself, while there is still time.
If we want to survive, we have to return to the roots of our faith, both in thought and in deed. We are going to have to learn habits of the heart forgotten by believers in the West. We are going to have to change our lives, and our approach to life, in radical ways. In short, we are going to have to be the church, without compromise, no matter what it costs.
This book does not offer a political agenda. Nor is it a spiritual how-to manual, nor a standard decline-and- fall lament. True, it offers a critique of modern culture from a traditional Christian point of view, but more importantly, it tells the stories of conservative Christians who are pioneering creative ways to live out the faith joyfully and counterculturally in these darkening days. My hope is that you will be inspired by them and collaborate with like-minded Christians in your local area to construct responses to the real-world challenges faced by the church. If the salt is not to lose its savor, we have to act. The hour is late. This is not a drill.
And this:
The way of Saint Benedict is not an escape from the real world but a way to see that world and dwell in it as it truly is. Benedictine spirituality teaches us to bear with the world in love and to transform it as the Holy Spirit transforms us. The Benedict Option draws on the virtues in the Rule to change the way Christians approach politics, church, family, community, education, our jobs, sexuality, and technology.
And it does so with urgency. When I first told Father Cassian about the Benedict Option, he mulled my words and replied gravely, “Those who don’t do some form of what you’re talking about, they’re not going to make it through what’s coming.”
If you think politics is going to turn around the spiritual, moral, and social dying that RetiredSocialCritic sees, you are delusional. Nobody is coming to save us from ourselves. Be the lighthouse. The storm is here, and it will only get worse.
