Don’t we have something better to do?
March 10, 2010 (Wednesday)
”See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me” (Isaiah 49:16 NIV). Sarah Palin, who wrote notes for her speech on her palm, has been ridiculed for doing so, but in a recent speech reminded her audience of this verse, saying she was in good company with the practice.
I write my sermon notes on paper. I use those outlines when I preach. I tried preaching without notes for a while, but discovered that I was using a lot of mental energy trying to recall the outline. I felt that was wasted energy that could be used in the actual presentation, so I abandoned the “no notes” policy. Instead, I just try to keep my using notes an “invisible” part of my preaching. As I have grown older, however, I have found the notes more necessary, because my short term memory does not always serve me well.
Hey, what difference does it make? Notes on the palm, shirt cuff, paper, teleprompter? Why is it so important for us to know? We need to be less critical. I’m not talking about politics; I’m talking about simple human decency.
I can’t help thinking, in Mrs. Palin’s case, that her writing notes on her palm would not have been reported in other, less asinine, times. FDR used a wheelchair, which was hardly ever photographed or mentioned. The press earned its right to freedom by being responsible in reporting things that really mattered.
Today there is no such thing as privacy for celebrities. How would we like to have a small army of photographers following us everywhere we go? Somehow that does not seem right. Oh, but it is said, “we have a right to know.” Do we, really?
An entire industry has come into being with things like the tabloids, which have influenced the main line press to report as serious news the private concerns of just about everyone. Sometimes, when you hear folks discussing the personal lives of others in a judgmental or titillating way, don’t you just want to scream, “Get a life!”