Of all the things in Mary Baker Eddy's masterwork, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, one of the statements I have been helped by the most is this: "Never breathe an immoral atmosphere unless in the attempt to purify it."
People have asked me how I can post what are often sublime thoughts on something like the Internet. I had to come to terms with this when I first began posting poetry on the Net, and later opened my first blog, then another, now a third. Even before blogging, since my name appears under several search engines and some pornographic sites have hitched their wagon to my name in an effort to push their filthy wares ( I deplore this, naturally), still I have resolved to do what I can to put clean material out there. Yesterday I posted a poem titled "In a sea of smut" which just about sums it up, and the feedback I am getting is heartwarming. There are many who, like me, are doing what they can to clean up our atmosphere and I applaud every one.
Several years ago I happened to be in Borders looking through the poetry section when what did I spy? A volume titled "Talking dirty to God"! Right then and there, I knew I must do something to counter such foul stuff, and not long after, my first book of poems was published, "For love of Christ".
As I said in a poem on another blog, if just one poor soul who is struggling in a sea of smut is thrown a lifeline by something I and we post, then it is well worth our effort.
And lastly, I recall my Sunday School teacher, a wonderful Christian Science practitioner saying she had had a call from a man who said to her, "just talk to me about clean things. The office where I work is filled with gross conversation." Of course, with the Internet and its downside, it has only gotten worse. But let us do all we can to purify it. Especially at this, what should be, a Christly time of year.
