What I learned from my children this year

Each year comes and goes and each year I find out how little I really know.   Daily life can point out what you don’t know, your friends are good at pointing out what you wish you knew, and your boss can often point out what they wished you would learn.  It really is amazing, but I find that it is often through my children that I learn my most important lessons.

From my eldest son, Chris, I have learned a number of things.  He’s taught me to do hard things, even when you don’t seem to have time to do them.  This year he showed me the importance of taking chances.  He made changes in several important areas of his life this year, there was no need to, and he could have comfortably stayed in his proven routine.  He realized changes were needed and that they would be good for him.

My eldest daughter has taught me a lot about being a dad over the years.  Dominique has taught me to be gentle, patient, and cautious in the way I speak.  This year she showed me a new lesson, how to be willing.  Throughout this year she has shown her mother and I a willingness to take on whatever her circumstances require.  No matter what we have required of her, no matter the curves life has thrown, she has shown steadfastness.  When life got in the way of her plans, she accepted the new reality and moved on without complaint.  When I asked her to take on extra responsibilities at home, she did so and asked if she could help in other ways.

My youngest daughter, Alexandra, has taught me so many lessons of the heart.  It’s because of her words that I made a huge change in my life in 2006.  This year she taught me the meaning of truly smiling.  When she smiles, she doesn’t hold back, she lets it be as big and goofy and fun as it needs to be.  Her laugh has refocused me to what joys I was overlooking when I came home from a lousy day dozens of times this year.  It is because of her that I have begun to enjoy the pleasures of a good laugh again.

Jeremiah, son number two, has been a teacher to me on many fronts.  He is single minded about goals.  He has and shows a soft heart.  He stops to help others.  This year he taught me about trusting God’s plan for me.  I learned this from him after a practice session during which his coach had shared with him some disappointing news.  Instead of getting down, he considered his coach’s opinion as that of an authority put in place by God, and decided he would trust his decision.  He even had the boldness to tell his coach he was okay with the decision because it was part of God’s plan. 

“From the mouths of babes…” goes an old saying.  Well, my children are not babes, but from their mouths and from their actions I experienced wisdom spoken into my life.

Beautiful Ride

    What an amazing change in the air this morning.  I noticed a little of it first thing Sunday morning before the Chrome Diva's poker run, a little sniff of coolness.  Yesterday I went out the back door with all intentions of riding, but the fog was so thick that I could hardly see the workshop from my back porch.  TODAY however... how wonderful, how marvelous, how glorious was the crisp dry morning air.  The morning stars looked as though they were dressing up for a party.  The air smelled so fresh and so clean, I thought I was in a Glade air-freshener commercial.  There was an ever so slight touch of coolness in the breeze, enough to warrant a thick shirt, but not cold in the least.

    I woke up feeling a bit sluggish, feeling the usual regrets of youth in the various joints of my body.  I wanted no part of breakfast.  Lacing up my boots felt like a Herculean task, but when I walked outside.... Oh My!

    The first 2-3 miles of the ride to work are on our rural lane and a 2 lane twisty, hilly, canopy style road.  That part of the ride was so amazing I almost turned a u-ey to do it all over again.  Something was definitely right about the ride.  Not only were the conditions wonderful, the traffic was nearly perfect.  The lights were nearly perfect in their timing, I had to stop once, and even then I didn't put my feet down because the light changed to green right away.  The 2 jerks who usually plague the route I take to work (one young teacher from Rickard's High in a silver Impala and a dangerously impatient tailgater from the Fort Braden area who drives a gold tone Malibu) were blessedly absent from the commute today.  It was toes in the wind the whole way to school.

    As I got to school the only thing that I could think of was the fact that tomorrow's forecast called for identical conditions.  I think I'll leave early tomorrow and take the LLLLLLOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG way to work.

Why not?

     I am not sure why it takes me so long to do things.  I can keep some things (most things) simmering on a back burner better than most people I know.  I have a porch that has needed emptying for 2 months, a car that has needed an alignment for 5 months, a lawn mower and generator that have needed  new carburator  bowls for a year and a half, a roof that has needed recovering for 2 years, and a story that has needed writing for 3.  In so many other aspects of my life I am almost obsessively prompt, why do I pick a certain group of things to put o the shelf to steep like a barrel of old whiskey?  It drives me crazy when I think about it, and I know it drives at least one other person a little nuts too.

     I have never been one to make resolutions; resolutions don't strike me as things that are meant to be kept.  Think about it, when was the last time you kept one?  If you can remember, try thinking of another example.  Chances are, you're not going to have more than a couple of instances that you can point to as successes in the arena of resolution.  When I was a salesman, our G.M. always insisted that everyone put a "number" on the "big board."  I guess his thought was that if we saw it regularly enough we'd do something to attain it.  I never put much thought into the number, and I never gave a second thought to it once the sales month started.  In every other aspect of the job though I was focused in like a hawk.  I did everything on a schedule, from phone calls to prospects and customers, to walking the lot and the service department every single morning and evening.  I knew more about what we had on the lot and the big ticket customers in service than anyone else in the building.  I took advantage of every tool I had at my disposal.  Some months it paid off well, others, well, I padded my stories to people who asked.  As a teacher, I am one of the first people in the building.  When my door is shut and the kids are there it is game on, if I have to recite the parts of the nervous system while wearing a Slim-Goodbody suit I'll do it.  Focus is the catch word in my class.  So why two years for the roof, and three for the book?????

     I've got to figure this out before I turn 50.

Worst Case Senario... There is NO Election

     I caught myself thinking about this for the umpteenth time today as I rode home from work.  What's the worst that could happen before the election?...
   
     I keep coming up with the same answer; There is no election.

     Wait, don't be crazy!  you say.  There is no way that the election does not take place, you say.  Well, I hope you're right, but I have some concerns.

    They all center around the whole situation going on right now between Iran and Israel.  Unfortunately, Syria is involved in a bit of a mess, so people are distracted and not paying as much attention to what is going on in the area as they should be.

    Israel is in a bit of a pickle.  If President Obama is reelected in November, chances are he will down grade US relations and support of Israel.  Recent events in the US have shown that this is a very real possibility. The POTUS has not been very cordial toward our number one ally in the region since he took office.  He has called on Israel to tone down their rhetoric, called for them to rename their capital, called for them to move their borders back to 1967 lines, and he has made no move to block or condemn Iran's military movements into the Mediterranean Sea.  He has also made no effort to contradict  or condemn the statements made by by Iran's two most powerful leaders when they threatened to destroy Israel.  He has also done little to use US influence and leverage to limit the ability of Iran to access powerful international bodies such as the UN.  Add to that the obvious efforts of the DNC to erase an unpopular decision by the party of the POTUS to eliminate our recognition of Jerusalem as the true capital of the tiny democracy and you have a rather bleak picture painted for Israel should "four more years" actually happens.

    Thus Israel knows if it wants to remove the nuclear threat of Iran from their future they have to act before the first week of November.  Taking unilateral action against Iran between now and then affords at least the possibility that the US will honor standing agreements to assist them in the event of conflict with an Arab-State neighbor.  Wait till after the election, and there will be no guarantee that Obama will  not use an executive order to circumvent the enforcement of any treaties the US has with Israel for the protection of this long time ally.  I know that is a stretch, but just consider, would it really be out of character for him to do so?

    Part three involves what happens then... after Israel strikes Iran and the whole blooming area erupts in a blaze of gunfire and high altitude gas dispersion bombs.  The whole house of cards starts coming apart.  Fuel supplies from the Middle East (you don't really think the Arab Emirates and the Saudis will side with the US and Israel or stay neutral, do you?) get jammed up.  An emergency ramp up of US military forces occurs (you thought the Gulf War call up was big).  International and interstate travel becomes more difficult, expensive and less available (due to restrictions implemented by way of the Dept. of Homeland Security; you do still remember the first couple of weeks after 9/11, don't you?That was before the DofHS & the TSA).  Free access to the internet communications is eliminated or restricted by the Feds through the implementation of Executive order 13618 (signed just over 60 days ago, in 30 more it becomes law unless the Congress acts to block it) which gives the Feds the ability to use a national emergency to restrict our 1st amendment rights. (See it Here.)  You get the picture yet?

     Suddenly out of nowhere the hammer falls...  a state of emergency is declared by the POTUS and the use of one of the Insurrection Acts, a National Emergencies Act (Scroll to the United States), or the good old Homeland Security Act ( read this for a couple of paragraphs, then click on the Critical Infrastructure Protection provision) is leveraged to basically put us in a state of Martial Law.  Dependence on the government is now heightened and the TSA and local authorities have everything pretty well locked down.  Basic supplies (food, fuel, information) are at a high-cost low-availability level.

     We are then graced by his POTUS-ness with a dramatic, important, and historic speech; all the available news services are locked into carrying the news of change that is about to take place.  We hear that in the situation we find ourselves, any change in the executive branch would be seen as a sign of weakness to those who would seek to do us harm.  We are told that in the best interests of our grand and glorious republic, there comes a time when, for the common good of the people, we must put aside some of our normal privileges.  He goes on to announce that for the foreseeable future, (according to the  Insurrection Act, the executive branch need only report to the congress every 16 days, until the threat to national security is, as determined by said executive branch, gone) he is implementing a series of executive orders to get us safely through this period.  All elections will of course be postponed as holding them would have a detrimental draining effect on available fiscal resources.  (The news services all trumpet what a brave and unselfish leader he is; the ones who say otherwise are locked down by the TSA and DeptofHS.)

    Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but there it is.  What's the ONE way the POTUS can guarantee he stays in power?  If there is no election.  He is not a native born American ( forget the forged birth certificate, his own college history shows that he was classified as a foreign student), therefore every act and law he has signed is by definition null and void.  Every decision by every judge he has appointed is void.  The purpose of his presidency has been and will always be to disrupt and destroy the power and influence of this sovereign nation.  So if he has been willing to play the game as such this far, would my senario be out of the realm of possibilities?  (Any armed or outward public outcry would be considered acts of civil unrest and be quickly and quietly put down under the previously mentioned executive orders.)

The REAL America

So Tropical Storm Isaac is moving toward land in the vicinity of New Orleans and its surrounds.  Samuel L Jackson is questioning how God can be so good if Isaac didn't slam into Tampa wiping out all the  (enter colorful language here) republicans.  Ellen Barkin tweeted that the storm should wash all the (insert colorful language here) (insert more colorful language) bleeping republicans screaming into the sea.  The mayor of LA is quoted as saying you can't just trot out a brown face and expect to get votes.  Our homeland security people forbade James O'Keefe from traveling to Tampa to speak at convention events because his investigations and exposure of Democrat voter fraud in several states have cut them too close to the bone.  Code Pink protesters stormed into a private meeting being attended by Condoleeza Rice and tried to arrest her for war crimes (completely ignoring another illegal round of drone attacks committed inside Pakistan and approved by the POTUS)(PS we are still interrogating folks in Gitmo and other places not so nice, also signed off by the POTUS who said he would stop both actions 3 years ago).  Oh, and a St. Louis school board has forced a 3 year old deaf boy to change the way he signs HIS NAME because it looks to much like he's shooting a gun.

All this to say thanks to the hundreds of men I saw today staging here in and around Tallahassee as they wait for Isaac's wrath to fall on the coast.  These men (and I am sure a few women) have left their families for a period and are getting ready to rush into the devastation left in the wake of the storm.  They are line men and arborists from around the Southeast who band together to help areas recovering from natural disasters.  They work in dangerous conditions, for unending hours, and for little more than their regular pay and a thank you.  They put aside everything that is important to themselves to bring shelter and relief to those in need.  They are the real America

God go with you men.

UNidiotic

Just read this.....


(CNSNews.com) - A report issued by the United Nations-backed Global Commission on HIV and the Law; recommends that nations around the world get rid of “punitive” laws against prostitution – or what it calls “consensual sex work” -- and decriminalize the voluntary use of illegal injection drugs in order to combat the HIV epidemic.    http://cnsnews.com/news/article/un-commission-calls-legalizing-prostitution-worldwide




Wow, using drugs in a unsafe manner in order to chase your next high is a major contributor to the increasing instances of HIV/AIDS.  Promiscuous sexual activity is another major contributor to the increasing instances of AIDS/HIV.  So... in the infinite wisdom of the UN it is suggested that we make each of these activities legal, easier to access, AND pay for/take care of the folks who participate in such actions.  That's logical.... to the 

UN= 

UNnecessary+

UNsuccessful+

UNworthy+

UNthinking

The UN is useless.  I'm sure all those little girls and boys in the "Voluntary sex trade" around the world are shouting loud HUZAH's for this UN proposal.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Today was good.  Even without my wife's help, I didn't leave any of the kids stranded at one of the activities they participate in during the week.  We had dinner provided through the volunteer efforts of my number one daughter, and so will be the case for the rest of the week.  I was able to assist a stranded motorist, and help to ease her anxiety after a pretty scary incident.

Today was bad.  My back hurts..... bad.  I have to buy a (2) tire(s) for my car.  I drove across T-town 3 times, dear OPEC, have mercy on me.  My wife is out of town for 4 days.  I missed a deal in a big way.

Today was ugly.  I am constantly reminded how easily we fail to live up to Jesus' command to love each other.  Simple things like brothers in a common cause caught up in name calling and back-biting.  I see clearly the end of a ministry's 15 year long history, short of a miracle.