2 Random Thoughts

I tried to start a conversation about American Idol today. One of my colleagues sarcastically wondered if I had overnight become a 13 year old teenage girl. I looked. I didn't.

I do watch American Idol. Why? Not sure. But I'm entertained.

This year the choice came down to Adam or Kris. Kris was middle America's choice. A good looking, guitar strumming, song styalist. He's from Conway, Arkansas. Married. I understand he's a believer and spent some time as a worship leader.

Adam is west coast, from San Diego. He wears guyliner, loves rock and roll, toiled in the theatre world and has been seen kissing other men. Nothing about him suggests that he is a man of faith.

Both men are great entertainers. I've heard both are really nice guys.

Kris won.

Some say the 'Christian vote' might have been a deciding factor. I think it made a difference.

This morning I started joking that the internet was filled with some disturbing news. Adam was the believer, not Kris. Kris was gay, not Adam. I have an ability to make insane things like this sound true. And I wonder if anyone I talked to was caught in a bit of an American Idol cunundrum?

What if it was true? What if we had been dooped? What if Simon Cowell used all that money of his to play one huge practical joke on America? What if this was all a big set-up, a humorous attempt to get us to believe something was true but it really wasn't? Would Christians want to change their vote? Would middle-America lean toward the left coast and start chanting Adams's name? Would they point fingers at Kris? And it got me wondering. Were people voting against a lifestyle or for a singing artist? Or were they doing both?

I wonder about thing like this.

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Yesterday, I got my bill for my defibrillator and hospital care. It's up there. Right around $120,000. Yipes.

But no worry. I have great insurance. Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO. It's like the gold standard. My cost, so far, is under $1,000. Still a bite but it's not $120,000.

It got me thinking about the issue of health care. What happens to those who don't have insurance, who lost their coverage, or just can't afford anything? What happens to them? What would it be like to get a $120,000 bill in the mail and not have the foggiest idea how it might get paid?

That's what's happening to lots of people in the USA. They can't afford routine medical care and something like a defibrillator is out of their sight.

And then I turn on the news and learn that a big teaching hospital in Chicago is closing some clinics. They're closing the ones that care for the poor. And so where are the poor supposed to go?

I talk to a friend who works at another teaching hospital. They still care for the poor but because so many others aren't their budget is hugely burdened. Can they continue to do what their mission asks them to do?

I think of what Jesus says, "I was sick and you looked after me".

And I'm realizing this health care crisis is very real. It's real to Jesus. He didn't tell us only to care for those who had a Blue Cross PPO. He meant for us to care for everyone.

I wonder about things like this.

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