Sunday, May 17, 2015

ANOTHER UNOPENED BOOK

Although it is one of the most voluminous books printed each year, I have as yet not seen it on any best seller list. Still the probability exists that it may be read or referenced by more people annually than any other published material.

Lest you die of suspended expectations, that which I speak of is the annual publication of the rules and regulations for the Federal Income Tax.

Although it will seldom be read by the general populace, tax accountants will spend billions of accumulated hours poring over every jot and tittle of the law, striving with great meticulousness to find advantages which will lure customers desirous of avoiding taxes or at least reducing their tax bills to their places of business.

Those who wish to serve the masses rather than the one percenters have developed Blocks and Turbos where the majority of the population can be guided through the process of untangling their tax obligation in small cubicles or be led step by step through the drudgery on a ‘user friendly’ computer program.

Besides the taxes which are due, the combined citizenry will have paid billions of dollars (one of those numbers we use when we have no idea what the real number is) to the various forms experts come in.

Experts are those who constitute a small portion of the populace which have actually perused the zillions of pages (another of those previously mentioned numbers) of the ‘simplified’ tax code. It seems that each year the tax code is simplified it takes a significant deforestation of the State of Washington to supply the needed paper.

We must all keep in mind the quadrillions of dollars (yep, another one of those numbers) which have been paid to those who have been elected as our representative legislative servants so that fair and equitable tax laws could be drafted.

I suspect there has to be some kind of message from these previous paragraphs about the collective intelligence of the human race, but that thought will have to be explored at a later time since my mind has wandered in a very different direction.

The thought which prompted this introductory tirade has to do with the real all-time bestselling book ever printed. That book being, in case you were wondering, and to no one’s surprise, the Holy Bible.

My spiritual prejudices make me ponder about what the strength of this or any nation would become if it were to expend the same national effort on understanding and obeying every jot and tittle of the Holy writ as we do on the uniform national tax code. (Of course there would still always be ‘scriptural experts’ available to hire to find the avoidance loopholes some would desire).

Weekly most citizens are made aware of their tax obligations as they sigh over what seems to be the ever expanding gulf between the gross and net of their weekly pay.

It is hard to imagine what would happen to our collective conscience if we likewise, at least weekly, made ourselves aware of the pluses and minuses which come as a result of adhering to or neglecting to follow the revelatory laws found in the scriptures.

Have you ever wondered how different life would be if the only sure things in this world weren't death and taxes, but instead were death and scriptural awareness? Oh, be still my faint heart! (Sorry, but if you are reading this you will never again be able to say that thought hasn’t crossed your mind).

Can we even faintly imagine the effect of a National Scripture Awareness Week that would, in some small degree, approach the magnitude of the taxees’ frenzy as they clog the parking lots of the Post Offices or the Federal Super Computer as the dreaded April 15th deadline descends?

It is probably beyond the modern citizen’s capability to contemplate what might be the positive result to a nation if all collected revenues were wisely used with thrift and economical integrity.

Likewise, we seem to stray daily from being able to be part of a collective national culture which is intent on following the revealed admonitions of a loving Father in Heaven, and delivered to His children through his Apostles and Prophets.

What a wondrous world it would be if our daily reading were less about politicians and bureaucrats bent on building more and more sophisticated armaments, more and more elaborate multileveled spy systems and higher and stronger governmental complexes, and instead our reading could be more about those who strive to direct the nation toward adhering to scriptural tenets which admonish us to become zealous in feeding the hungry and caring for the widows and orphans.

Well, there is little doubt that words could be multiplied ad infinitum, but then I would be mimicking those whom I have been criticizing; (gratefully, modern technology won't demand a single tree be cut down in order that this thought be distributed). Besides, it really is time that I pick up my scriptures for my daily reminder of that which should be of most worth in this world of ours.

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