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Month: October 2016

This Is Bigly Folks!

This Is Bigly Folks!

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Christian posing with his candidate a couple weeks before the election
Christian posing with his candidate a couple weeks before the election

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listening to the reading at church this Sunday, I couldn’t help thinking about the upcoming election.  This is from 1 Kings 3:7-9 and is young King Solomon talking to God about his new position:

7“Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.  8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.  For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

A servant…

A great people…

A discerning heart…

According to my study Bible this phrase “a discerning heart” indicates the ability to listen patiently to all sides of an issue in order to come to true and wise decisions.

 

Kim and I hadn’t planned on watching the last debate.  But, in the end I couldn’t resist and there we were, popcorn in hand, expecting to be entertained.

I knew we had succeeded when my wife turned to me and said,

“Is bigly really a word?”

“I think he is trying to say Big League but he is saying it so fast it sounds like bigly,” I responded.

Big League…

Big Time…

Bigly…

 

We are just two weeks away from having to make a decision based on the reality TV we have enjoyed the last nine months or so.  I found myself back in the same place I was before the Florida Primary.  Yup, “Presidential Politics, I Am Mad As Hell and Can’t Take It Anymore” deja vu.  So I thought maybe my proposal from March was worth taking another last minute look at.  Just to refresh, from March 14, 2016:

 

I told myself when I started this website I was going to stay away from anything controversial; nothing that would offend people and especially no politics.

But I can’t take it anymore. I now think I need to weigh in on the subject. If this offends you I am truly sorry.

We are on the eve of the Florida Primary (or in our case now, the Presidential election) and this idea needs to be vetted.

I think, without a doubt if I surveyed a sampling of our younger generation, those that we will be leaving our legacy to; a sampling like my two grandsons, Cameron and Christian, I would unanimously come up with a viable candidate. And who would that candidate would be?

Mickey Mouse.

Yes, that’s right, Mickey Mouse.

He has all the qualifications we need in a President.

He doesn’t lie.

He loves ALL boys and girls.

He manages a small country otherwise known as “Mickey’s Clubhouse.”

He is an excellent problem solver.

He has fiscal experience proven by the fact that he can round up and lasso numbers 1 through 10 and place them in a corral.

He surrounds himself with a team of loyal followers that include a female mouse, male duck, a couple of dogs, a cow, and another duck who is a professor, a big cat, and a couple of chipmunks. Oh, and a Giant.

And that is just his inner circle, his cabinet; that I would speculate looking this way:
Donald Duck – Vice President
Minnie Mouse – Secretary of State
Daisy – Interior
Goofy – Secretary of the Treasury
Willie the Giant – Secretary of Defense
Clara Bell – Labor
Professor Von Drake – Health and Human Services
Pete the Cat – definitely Homeland Security
Chip – Agriculture
Dale – Education
And I am sure Mickey can find a few more to fill in the rest.

But that is not the best of it.

Most importantly, Mickey Mouse has Mouseketools!

Can you imagine how much stronger our already fine military would be with the help of a Mouseketool?

National Security? Hurricane relief? No problem!

Just think about it.

North Korean President Kim Jong-un swinging his hydrogen bomb around again?

“Oh Toodles…………..Oh Toodles………… ”

That’s it, done. Go have another cup of coffee.

And what about vacation White Houses? Who needs Camp David; we’d have Disney World and Disneyland!

And how about those State Dinners? They would be like character breakfasts at the Contemporary Resort! How fun would that be?

And can’t you just picture Vladimir Putin doing the “Hot Dog Dance?”

I am telling you, I think I am on to something here…

Who’s with me?

Well that’s it then!

It’s unanimouse…!

I mean it’s unanimous!

Thank you my fellow Americans!

 

Somehow this sounds more appropriate now than it did in March.

We are a great people.

In a very short time we will be tasked with choosing a servant.

“Who will be able to govern this great people of yours?”

This is bigly folks…

Unlike Solomon, our servant candidates are not children, though one might argue that they behave like children (heck, Mickey will be 88 next month!).

Solomon asked God to give him a discerning heart, to be able to distinguish between right and wrong, to give him the wisdom to carry out his duties.

We are a great people, we deserve great leaders.  Could either one or both of these servants be great leaders?  Anything is possible.

However also, unlike Solomon I am not expecting our candidates to ask God for the strength and the wisdom to be great leaders.

Therefore I feel I just might need to do that for them.

Yup, I think I am just going to pray about it.

Christian consulting with his future Secretary of State: "How many times do I have to tell you, you have to do a nose check before you go out in public!"
Christian consulting with his future Secretary of State prior to the election:
“C’mon Min, how many times do I have to tell you, you have to do a nose check before you go out in public! Mom, get me tissue,  quick”
The Beauty of an October Day

The Beauty of an October Day

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You arose as something special from a world most us never knew,

At a time and place when life wasn’t always easy, and opportunities far too few.

A time when so many were overlooked and nothing seemed to be right.

You refused to be lost in the blank faces that were only seen in black and white.

From out of the darkness you walked on your own. 

Emerging from the shadows bright and strong, insisting to be seen and heard.

 

 Still others saw you only in gray, not me, I saw you as beautiful, your colors vivid.

And though there were days your eyes were sad and tired, your smile was always bright.

As the sun filled your heart and the days got longer, your will grew ever stronger.

I shared your tears and your laughter and looked forward to each day’s beginning.

Sometimes struggling to make the words sound right, we talked of the good and the bad in our life.  

And I always knew just what you meant, because it came directly from your heart.

 

And then that day I saw you lying there broken in that bed.

Hanging on courageously so that others could see that your time had finally come.

A time to be free from all the pain, a time to be rewarded for all you had done.

We talked of God and of going home, and fought through the sadness and managed to smile.

We both knew He was coming to guide you to the place we knew of only as Love.

Home, where no one knows of black or white and where there are no shadows, only light.

No room for sadness, just tears of joy, and the promise to live for evermore.

 

Memories of you will still burn bright, as I watch the sun rise and feel the warmth in its light.

I will see your face in the beauty of an October day and cherish those words you had to say.

And smile a little each time, as you said them in your own special way.

You were wise and you had the resolve to rise above the world around you as yourself.

And you carried those with you that you loved and that you helped. 

And those whose hearts were filled by you will never ever forget,

The love you showed them every day and the smile that you kept.

 

And this world became a better place for those of us who knew you.

 

 

October 15, 2011 was a beautiful sunny fall day on the James River in Williamsburg, Virginia where Kim and I were spending the weekend.  On that beautiful Saturday morning, my friend and co-worker Tawanda Hackley lost her battle to beat the cancer that had grown in her breast and spread through her body.

I got used to Tawanda coming in to work each morning and making her first stop my office where we talked about our jobs, our kids and grandkids, our lives in general, and God.

One morning she shared with me the axillary pain she had been experiencing.

I visited her in the hospital the Thursday evening before I left for the weekend.  We talked openly about what was coming.  She was at peace.

In life, she was a survivor.  In death she was brave.

In so many happy memories, she lives on.

 

My friend Tawanda Hackley and that smile