"Where Have All the Good Men Gone?"

I was listening to the radio the other day and a song sung by Frou Frou came on entitled, "Holding Out for a Hero" and it dawned on me, where are all the good men, moreover, where are the values, and characteristics that you find in said men?

I grew up on a solid dose of cartoons, Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and even Gargoyles. What did all of these men and creatures share in common? Integrity, character, the desire and purpose to defend and protect the weak and innocent. Superman himself was the symbol of "Truth, Justice, and the American way". He's been the depiction of said symbols since 1938. And we all know Uncle Ben's line from Spiderman, "With great power comes great responsibility." He, Batman, aka the Caped Crusader, and even the Gargoyles stood for what was right and good in this world. Protecting, serving, and seeking out all the injustice in the world. So... where are those Heros now? What do we see in the media today? Tai Chi Chasers, Yu Gi Oh and its spin offs, pokemon? Cards and Chi, Electronic battles, Spongebob??

After my cartoon indoctrination, the next non family/friend source was college. I've seen it at nearly every college, "The school values". Each school has them, something like, "integrity, fairness, respect, and responsibility" no doubt. Then if you're willing, the military. Here you have the LDRSHIP Values: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. But by this time, isn't it perhaps a little too late to try "teaching" these traits? Shouldn't most people at this time be exemplifying these traits rather than learning them?

At least in my own point of view, I've noticed a severe propensity for people to do what they want when they want, despite what's required of them. Get what they want with no down time and no consequences. I grew up with the adage, "We do the things we don't want to, so that we can do the things that we do." But now I see most with a, "Why do today, what I can put off till tomorrow" mindset. Many of the men I see around me lack a self discipline as well as a level of personal courage to do what they know to be right; to stand up, speak out, act out, shout out, when they are needed most. I don't know if the cause is public pressure, scrutiny, apathy, the fear of what others think, because they don't know what's right, or because they've had their testicles removed. Whatever the case may be, it needs to change. We need to bring back the best cartoons, bring back the backbone, bring back the will and desire to do good by others and ultimately wake up from our emasculated state.
*Soap box finished*

The Secret of Wait

This was a poem shared by a family friend. May it bless all of you as it did me

The Secret of Wait
Scripture: Psalm 40:1

Desperately, helplessly, longingly I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently, said, "Child, you must wait."
My future and all to which I relate,
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to WAIT
I'm needing a "yes," a go-ahead sign,
Or a "no," to which I then can resign.
And, Lord, you promised that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And, Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry,
I'm weary of asking, I need a reply!
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate;
As my Master replied, once again, "You must wait."
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
And grumbled to God, "So I'm waiting... for what?"
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign."
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun,
I could raise the dead and cause the mountains to run.
All you seek I could give and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want, but you would not know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.
You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair,
You'd not learn to trust by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me,
When darkness and silence were all you could see
You'd never experience that fullness of love,
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove.
The glow of My comfort, late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked,
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have, last.
You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that "My grace is sufficient for thee."
Yes, your dreams for your loved ones, overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss if I lost, what I'm doing in you!
So, be silent, My child, and in time you will see,
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft' My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still WAIT.

-Russell Kelfer