As for me and my house
As for me and my house
We will mind our own business
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!ICYMI, my last post featured a poll asking readers to choose which of five possible titles would be my next post (this one). Some of you responded, resulting in a four-way tie! So once again, I’m left to my own devices - it’s my pick, and here we are.
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Now, on with the ‘stack!
One of my favorite Bible verses is Joshua 24:15. It reads, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (emphasis mine).
In Cab Calloway’s song, Abi Gezunt, he says, “You cats can be who you wanna be - I’m the cat that’s in the know.” By the way, abi gezunt means ‘as long as you’re healthy.’
Both of these quotes say (at least to me) - “You do what you think best, and I’ll do what I think best,” or “You mind your business, and I’ll mind mine.”
I once encountered a subway preacher on the F train going from Manhattan to Brooklyn. The subway car was not crowded but full - every seat was taken, and the only one standing was this unkempt, sweaty man in a rumpled charcoal-grey suit with a Bible in his hand and what sounded like anger in his mouth. He leaned over various individuals and loudly ‘encouraged’ them to accept Jesus as their savior or suffer the hellish consequences. Most of the citizens he chose to harangue either hid behind newspapers or pretended to be asleep.
When he reached my seat, I smiled at him, waited for him to inhale, and said, “May I ask you a question, brother?” He did not like having his rhythm broken, but he stopped and said, “What?”
“What is ‘The Great Commission?’” I asked.
He grinned. “To go forth and preach the Gospel!”
“The good news, right?”
“Amen!”
“So, not to go forth and be a pain in the neck to people who don’t want to listen to you?” He glared at me, then moved on to the next car. I got some applause. And, full disclosure, I did not use the word ‘neck.’
It’s not news that we are living in a time when certain people are working very hard to force their beliefs into everyone’s life. The America I know and love is a place where, although we’ve got a long way to go, we have the right to mind our own business.
I learned as a child that your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose, and for most of my life, that was true. Minding your own business means not getting into mine. If the guy who I bump into in the frozen food aisle at Walmart is having a bad day, I shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not he’s carrying a concealed weapon.
If my neighbor doesn’t want their kids to read certain books, that’s fine. But to tell a library what books they can and can’t have on their shelves, well, that’s minding other people’s business. Don’t do that. You don’t like what’s on television? Don’t watch it.
My wife, my daughters, and my granddaughters should have autonomy over their own bodies. If you’re against abortion, that’s fine. don’t have one. But why should anyone else tell them what to do?
Why are the people who oppose abortion so frequently the people who 1) think it’s okay to brandish deadly weapons and 2) oppose supporting the children they want to force into birth? As Tucker Carlson says, “I’m just asking questions here.”
William S. Burroughs, an interesting thinker if ever there was one, wrote: “Yes, this world would be a pretty easy and pleasant place to live in if everybody could just mind his own business and let others do the same” and “Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can’t mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.”
While I don’t agree with a lot of what Mr. Burroughs had to say, the idea of M.O.B. (My Own Business) is appealing.
I’ll close with the words of Fritz Perls, a couple of sentences that were almost an anthem of my generation:
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
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Agree 💯. I also believe in collective good. Not in religion, but an example would be a public health crisis, where my business of not wearing a mask becomes the public’s business too, so the businesses merge. In the proselytizing world,it’s tedious and amps up in certain parts of the country. I have trained myself to let go saying they are doing their business, which in their religious world, calls for meddling with others, sadly--to me.
Great column today. I think what you are in essence talking about at the base level is the use and abuse of power.