Relationships sacrificed for advancement
by KC Jones, feature editor

    After pondering what is wrong with the world today, I have concluded the problem is the lack of quality relationships.

   Other countries seem to understand the importance of relationships, especially familial.

   However, those who have been indoctrinated into the “almighty dollar society” seem to have forsaken real people for green, paper ones.

   For example, how many working dads and moms say no to overtime and choose to spend that time with their children?

   How many relatives choose to live close rather than move across the country for the dream of more prosperous premises?

   How many couples work through the financial crises they caused by overspending?

   I have to admit, I haven’t had very many successful relationships in my life.

   I was married to an over-controlling man who tried to keep me from having friends or even visiting my family. For years, I missed family reunions and even funerals of loved ones while I lived in seclusion.

   Where can I see a healthy relationship? Movies and television, both fiction and nonfiction, are a continuous parade of wrecked and dysfunctional lives.

   From what I can tell, most people are too self absorbed to care enough about someone else to develop a healthy relationship. It takes trust, openness and concern, among other things, to create the kind of bond needed for a real relationship to flourish. And these traits aren’t a one-way street.

   It takes people’s understanding, patience and commitment to persevere through the hurts and misunderstandings that will inevitably occur.

   It seems most people are disposable in the United States. Parents kick out the children they never really got to know anyway. Children kill other children. The news is full of horrific accounts of people acting out against others. If there were a loving relationship, wouldn’t that help cool the tempers and heal the hurt?

   This society has even turned away from believing in the importance of a relationship with a loving Creator. The ACLU doesn’t even want the Ten Commandments in the courtroom. However, those commandments, if followed, are the blueprints for civilization.

   What is wrong with telling people not to murder, not to steal or even to honor their parents?

   Where is everyone? This country is so busy rat racing we don’t even know that we lost the prize: our precious relationships.