Is it really possible to be loving, friendly, always positive and full of positive energy, warm and comforting -- without being phony or fake or plastic?

One of my earliest role models / heroes was Gomer Pyle.

I never saw him as the simpleton which most people associate him as being— but a man as simple, trusting, naive and good—that even the ugliness and brutality of the Marine life didn’t change him or his attitude—and efforts to take advantage of his trusting and simple nature often backfired but had a good outcome for everyone who might have deserved it.

There also were once a lot of folk singers and John Denver types who were kind, clear, helpful—and had a somewhat spiritual outlook that was hard to define but affected everything they said and did. They lived for a better world, and, with the public at least, they never said an unkind word though sometimes, somehow mentioned the banality of the way things were and suggested a better way. A world we could hope in.

Some people are as warm and comforting as company around a fire—as spiritual and as natural as a campfire—and have that hard to define touch of a divine presence that can only be found in a setting where everyone lights their one candle.

Dogs, especially, can be loving and loyal and comforting without pretending, but ready to fight when need be.

I once came into ministry though life as a camp counselor because I love children and nature. My first experiences were of playing the Appalachian dulcimer and serving in positions of “shepherding” (more like a sheepdog than a Good Shepherd) children and mentoring youth. I tried to be like that—like a folk singer, a John Denver type, with a positive and hopeful vision.

In those days, one of the biggest compliments I received was from someone who was insulting me. He said I don’t live in the world the way things are but the way I wished they were.

Over time I guess I wish I could get back to that. When I was a child, some people in church and at summer camp were just that way. Nice. Loving. Supportive. They cared and they would let you know it. They weren’t phony.

But over time I have become a cynic. I am critical and negative and don’t cope well with life—although I do help people to the detriment of myself.

We are supposed to love everyone and mingle in with other cultures, other ways. That’s what we were taught to—what we taught were right. But some of ‘their’ music is about killing law enforcement. Some of ‘them’ want to terrorize and subjugate us. Some of ‘them’ are selling drugs on our street corner, shot me in 2011, were sentenced yet back on our same streetcorner in 2017 selling drugs again out of the same car. There are many bad people in the world and they do not share our values for peace and living as One.

Is it possible, therefore, to live positive and giving, and be a comfort and strength for others? I strive to be that way, but I’ve become a cynic and somewhat of a loser.