Hey America, have you noticed? We’re not doing so well.
Our boys are extremely angry—like really angry. It’s gotten to a point where some might want to harm each other, abuse women, and even lash out at authority figures.
Honestly, it’s like being at an all-you-can-eat buffet where we keep indulging but never really get satisfied.
Our young women are feeling depressed, isolated, and unfulfilled. Even those who seem fine often struggle with their own unhappiness to the extent that some might take drastic actions against their own children. Shockingly, some even support that decision.
And women can legally end a pregnancy right up until birth.
Outward expressions
It appears that violence and murder have become, perhaps, more acceptable than they should be. This is often celebrated, weirdly, by fellow Americans.
We openly showcase moments of over-the-top emotional reactions, recording and sharing them for all to see, with many cheering it on.
Nothing seems to be kept private anymore. Everyone feels the need to share their struggles and thoughts, believing it’s a way to connect and help others. But it really just perpetuates negative behaviors until they become the new normal.
It’s quite noisy. I find myself thinking about how much simpler things might be if we all kept our thoughts to ourselves a bit more—just tweeted or posted less often.
Disconnection from reality
Lindsay Clancy and Karmelo Anthony may have lost touch with reality amidst this chaos, and yet, in a way, so have we all. We’re living in this surreal state filled with thoughts and ideas, disconnected from the reality around us.
It feels crucial that we reconnect with the physical world around us. In Christianity, they say God “is everywhere present and fills all things.” But He’s not in every thought, tweet, or Instagram post; He’s in all things. The less we engage with those things, the more we drift away from Him and the inherent goodness of His creation (Genesis 1:31).
We need to create things—beautiful furniture, vibrant gardens, or even just interact with nature: grass, trees, dirt. Anything that has a divine essence.
We also need to nurture and love our children; after all, they are “good.”
Valuable creations
Producing tangible items is far more beneficial than just ranting into the void. Cameron Schiller, who founded a hard-tech startup, put it well when he said:
If all you do is shuffle papers and change numbers in an excel sheet, what connection do you feel to your neighbor? What responsibility do you feel to your country? People who can see the fruits of their labor have a different sense of pride.
We not only need to interact with the physical world but also practice restraint and discipline in how we use it. We haven’t exactly been good stewards of our bodies, our environment, or the myriad resources that God has entrusted us with.
We’ve let go of essential elements—like family, friendships, health, and yes, our faith—in favor of fleeting pleasures that never truly satisfy, whether it’s food, money, convenience, or anything else that ends up leaving us feeling empty.
It’s like being at that buffet again, stuffing ourselves but still feeling unfulfilled.
Healing for the soul
I must admit, I appreciate the comforts of modern life. But they come with a need for moderation and, perhaps most crucially, gratitude, both of which seem to be lacking these days.
We’re so free and so liberated that we’ve ended up lost—in a maze of physical, mental, and spiritual ailments.
It’s vital that we recognize our weaknesses. We need divine guidance to help realign us with our true purpose. Truth is absolute, not subjective, and it’s found in God and the world He created.
The church serves as a kind of hospital for our souls. What we need is genuine healing; healing found through the sacramental lives God invites us to lead—not just in thoughts or prayers, but in authentic communion with reality.
Until we do that, we’ll continue to struggle.
