Cuba

Staring out at our frozen parking lot today made me think of Cuba. I'm not whining about all the ice and the $500 we've had to spend on gravel to keep our parking lot from turning into a rink or lawsuit. Okay, maybe I'm whining a little; I will admit that the ice skating has been lovely. I'm just tired of wearing grippers everywhere.

So I was thinking about Cuba. I know we just got back from the tropics in Malaysia, but Cuba seems closer and the recent thawing relations opens up new possibilities. There are also mojitos, beaches, and pretty amazing music too.

We had the privilege of visiting Cuba for a couple of weeks in 1998. I do not want to belittle the terror and suffering that the Castro era brought. A wonderfully written novel about the horrific experiences of that time is Waiting for Snow in Havana. I also need to acknowledge that every tour of Cuba is filled with propaganda to support the revolution; I am not that naive.

But, we had been in Tanzania the year before and Cuba seemed like a paradise. There was water and electricity; healthcare and education. This was after the fall of the Soviet Union when Cuba was struggling greatly, but still managed to provide residents with basic services.

Don't fret, I gave up communist leanings a long time ago (even though I think after reading Acts 2:44,  "All who believed were together and had all things in common," one always has to be tempted with a common purse). I do find myself agreeing with Reinhold Niebuhr that communism and unbridled capitalism both fail to take human sinfulness seriously.

There is no perfect political system or idea, but there are scary ones that sound pretty tempting. I started out in college as a political science major, but realized soon that I couldn't change the world through politics. It was changing me way too much so I switched to math. If you can't change the world, at least make it orderly. Then, I stumbled into a mandatory religion class and fell in love. I fell in love with the world and my place in it. I fell in love with a God who is alive and at work in the world in the most mysterious and unexpected ways. 

So now I don't try that hard to change the world. I just try to keep my eyes and heart somewhat in tune to what God is up to and get on board. The scary thing is that I normally end up doing all the changing and the world just keeps spinning.

Yay it's snowing now! I don't need to go to Cuba any longer. The snow on ice will really make the sleds fly and that beats a beach any day.