the beginng?

Along a path which seemed to stretch for ever and ever, I trudged and trudged. Thinking to myself, I shall not quit, I shall not quit, I shall not quit. Finally! Sweet relief commenced; I had finally reached the summit of the hill. Sadly, by this time it did not feel like I had traversed up a hill but instead, like a gigantic, unending mountain. It was about this time that my wife yelled at me from the sliding door of our cookie-cutter McMansion "honey, why are you standing on top of the mulch heap?" --Did I mention, I really need to loose some weight, and how?

Later, after dinner was finished and the evening ritual began of recline in to the easy chair for an evening of "Dr. Who" reruns, the doorbell rang. (I wonder who that could be). Straining to pull away from the intriguing episode, I made it to the door, opened it and Lo away in front of me was the TARDIS!...

joys of a two year old

We have finally reached the point in our daughter's development where she has a large enough vocabulary to actually accurately repeat things we say. Good by curse words. I had already begun to curb my occasional blue outbursts, so instead of those I say things like 'cheese and biscuits' or 'oh biscuit'. well this morning on the way to daycare, I ran over the curb and blurted out 'Oh Biscuits!'...and a high tiny voice from the back seat quickly said 'oh bibcit'. Cutest thing ever! Michaela, my dear little girl, you truly know how to make life interesting and exciting.

what are they pondering?

My Great-grandfather and his brother-in-law. A couple of hardy latterday Vikings ready to explore the world? All bundled up to go work as lumberjacks? What made them decide to get their picture taken in a studio while dressed up in work clothes? They have their whole life ahead of them still. What did they hope to do? To accomplish? How would they like to be remembered? My Great-Grandfather died 86 years ago last November when my grandpa was only a month old. They combined the funeral and baptism into one service because the pastor did not live close by. How conflicted my great-grandma must have felt during the service. Joy for her new baby boy...sorrow for the loss of her husband...wish you could find out somehow, don't you?

The Underdog?

Where is the drive to truly fight for the underdog in American Society today? Why must we insist on only giving government handouts? Instead, why not teach each other that to truly help our fellow man, we must do it ourselves. We cannot and should not rely on the government to assist those in need. It is our responsibility through charity organizations, local support groups, and churches to ensure that no one is left wanting.

When we rely on the government to give sole support to those in need in our society we only perpetuate the problem and create generations of men and women unwilling and ultimately unable to help themselves or actually seek paths which will help them in their time of need but also show them a way out of the cycle of dependence and despondency that is created by reliance on government handouts to survive.

We in this country used to strive to assist all of our neighbors in their times of need and grief. Now we do not so much anyore because 'the government' will do it. This attitude must be changed or our nation will be fundamentally altered from the one which was intended and set forth by our founders mor than two centuries ago.

A hope

There is a strain, which runs through the heart of America. It is perseverance and determination in striving toward a goal. We root for the underdog because we were once the underdog in the world. No one anywhere outside of the US in 1800 thought this pipsqueak upstart of a nation would stay together, let alone stick it out and strive to eventually 150 years later grow into the greatest, strongest, freest, most generous nation and people human history had ever seen.

I firmly believe that spirit still exists in the hearts of many Americans still today. We have been hit below the belt a bit in recent years, but we will survive and we will prosper and we will continue to be the greatest shining hope for freedom, liberty, and prosperity humanity has ever produced and quite possibly will ever produce in the future. We cannot allow our fellow citizens to fall into the easy trap of complacency and apathy. As on of our greatest presidents, Ronald Reagan once said, "Freedom is never more than one or two generations from disappearing." Our ancestors fought to preserve it and we, as those who have been passed that mantel of responsibility must continue the good fight. We must not give in to the temptation that because the Federal Government is large and headed by intellectuals that they somehow will take care of us. It is our responsibility to look after our families, our communities, and ourselves.

I must remind you that the government did not create the people. The people created the government. We run it, we vote for it, we can change it; we can also preserve it how the Founders of this great republic intended it to be. We must realize again the importance of being a shining city on a hill. This does not mean we become arrogant. No, it simply means we must realize the great gift that our ancestors bestowed on us to become citizens of this republic and the recognition that we must show that to the rest of the world.

return

It has been longer than I had anticipated since I last updated this blog. I am going to try and post something on my day off, every monday maybe it will help clear my head to do this more regularly...

A muse:

The wind howled through the trees and banged against the window as the young man sat on the couch and stared at the snow on the dead signal of his television. Wasn't the cable repair man supposed to have shown up like four hours ago? Well with the wind it isn't surprising that they had not appeared yet.

The man decided to investigate the food situation while he waited for the arrival of the repair man. It truly reflects the situation the world currently is in, reflected the man, when it takes an entier day for a person to expect to have their cable restored. What is the advantage of modern society when one is unable to benefit from it for more than a few weeks at a time before everything comes crashing down onto the ground?

*Knock. *Knock. Finally, he has arrived. I can return to finishing my weekly ritual of watching Keith Olbermann and vomitting up dinner:)

To better hone my writing skills I will write short stories and vignettes on here with the hope that I will be in better writing shape to begin writing chapters of the novel I always intend to begin writing but always put off till another time.

Till next week,