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Early summer squash blossoms
(*photo
by Sally Remsdell)
July 1,
2009 Cultivating Anglo-American Friendship
Canadians have been long-term U.S. friends, and we owe them
gratitude on this, Canada Day. Without their help we could
never have healed our discord with the United Kingdom (UK)
motherland. The Canadians remained faithful to their mother
country, honoring their queen, accommodating the French-Canadian
culture, and helping all North Americans to bury old hatchets and
join together within the world community. Maybe it was better that
the United States and Canada went their separate ways, and that the
larger land mass to our North saw fit not to merge with us as one
nation. As individual Canadians journey south each winter, the
"snow birds" make us U.S. citizens aware that we are related and yet
still distinct nations.
Viewed
over a span of time, it may be historically more accurate to say
that there is an "Anglo-American Empire" (including the United
States); this "empire" started with the Norman conquest in 1066 and
continued in modified form until today. We could regard the
American Revolutionary War as a separation, but not a total
divorce. We share the same language and culture, and have come to
the estranged motherland's aid during two 20th-century wars. Ever
since the 19th century the United States has had close ties with the
United Kingdom -- if we ever really lost them. It is amazing in
reading American history to see how soon full relations resumed
after the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Winston
Churchill's mother was an American and he felt the kinship between
our countries keenly. In turn, Americans came to respect him,
especially in Britain's finest hour during the bleak days of the
Second World War. President Roosevelt (FDR) solidified those bonds
by bending over backwards to see to it that a number of American
mothballed destroyers were furnished to embattled Britain. The
country stood almost alone after the fall of France in June, 1940,
and before the Soviet Union entered the fray in 1941. Britain was
assisted by Commonwealth members, which included Canada, but it
needed much more to counter Hitler's conquering legions. FDR knew
that we had to supply the UK's needs, even though US isolationists
wanted no involvement in other struggles.
The
United Kingdom has seen its power wane dramatically within our
lifetime. The largest navy in the world no longer rules the waves.
If the sun never sets on the Union Jack, it is because the few
remaining islands are so scattered that a faded Empire is always in
daylight. Well over 90% of the former UK colonies are now members
of the United Nations -- though most all still cling to a
Commonwealth association with the mother country. Through it all
the US/UK relationship has grown stronger thanks in to Canada acting
as the go-between. For better or worse, we are Anglo-Saxon.
Prayer: Lord, teach
us to learn along with our neighbor Canada and mother England how to
bridge difference among struggling groups to become one world.
A herd of cows, congregating at a pond
(*photo
credit)
July 2,
2009 Enduring Summer's Heat
We are
preparing to start the long July Fourth weekend, and there are many
loose ends to tie. But let's not overdo the preparations. People
slow down with their need to withstand summer's heat. Most learn to
take it easy in order to survive. Some suggestions for keeping in
spirit with the season include:
*
Adjust timing. Plan less exercise outdoors in the heat of the
day. Rise earlier to garden, hike, jog, bike or shoot hoops.
*
Drink plenty of water. This is a must in hot weather for each
of us, along with all flora and fauna, needs proper moisture.
*
Keep cool (see July 7). Wear what is right; avoid the
sun.
*
Reduce outdoor demands. If you must pick berries, do it in the
morning or evening before the sun is hot or just when it goes down.
When we age it is fitting to simply taste the fruit and not pick so
much; a seasonal taste should be sufficient. Why more?
*
Eat lightly. It's hard to digest heavy meals. Light cold soups
and salads are perfect for the season.
*
Relax more. Give more time to soft music and reading; this is
not the time to overdo, and listening comes easy.
*
Abbreviate everything. Note how short this essay is.
Prayer: Give us,
Lord, a constant reminder to continue our prayerlife during this hot
weather, and to do so in a light-hearted manner.
The Chaplin River, Washington Co., KY
(*photo
credit)
July
3, 2009 Being Free from Credit and Debt
Indebtedness is modern slavery that is deliberately imposed by
financial institutions with the connivance of governments and
cushioned by the silence of moral and religious leaders. I can
never forget when I asked a person aspiring to open a non-profit how
he was to fund the operation and he raised his credit card.
* Do
not use credit cards. Resolve not to have any new credit cards,
to get rid of older ones, and to refrain from using them if carried
as your Linus blanket. Make "credit card free" a motto and
challenge others to do the same.
*
Reduce existing debts. Make a financial plan for paying off old
debt as quickly as possible. Refinancing is to your advantage, now
that credit is far cheaper and mortgages can be refinanced more
easily. Get proper financial advice on how to be debt-free ASAP.
For some that is a distant hope -- but still it is possible.
*
Eliminate unnecessary and impulse purchases of quickly outmoded
stuff that clutters people's homes and yards. Remove the unneeded
items and give them away, sell them or recycle them. Take time to
unclutter the place though this takes special will power and
deliberate resolve.
*
Live a lower level lifestyle and be proud of it. We don't have
to live like the "Jones," and purchase the bigger house, the motor
home, the boat and the extra car. Refuse offered stuff that is
expensive to maintain: "I would not do the item justice," which may
mean, "I will be tempted to keep it around and that costs money."
*
Join in community yard sales and promote fewer purchases of new
items such as furnishings, utensils, dishes, tools, and lawn
equipment. The problem with material swaps is that you simply
exchange one pile of junk for another. Useless items are costly and
take up space. Share seldom-used items such as lawn mowers, hedge
clippers, and ladders. Learn from pioneer recyclers how to reuse
materials. Recycle unneeded gifts and save the wrappings for reuse;
a respectful gift to you is equally so to another.
*
Eat less prepared food. Eat lower on the food chain to reduce
costs and the carbon imprint of animal products.
*
Keep healthy, for indebtedness is often related to paying for
medical treatments. Stop smoking and engaging in substance abuse of
any sort. That may be easier said than done.
*
Ask education-related questions. Can bills be cut by changing
schools and get less costly but equally high quality education?
Prayer: Help us,
Lord, see the onus of debt enslavement as worthy of liberation that
may require a struggle and the assistance of other like-minded
people.
Five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus
(*photo by Walter Para, Stanton, KY)
July 4,
2009 Reflecting on the Declaration of Independence
Does the
following apply today to the underprivileged of the world?
When in
the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should
not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly
all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their
future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these
Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to
alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the
present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment
of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let
Facts be submitted to a candid world:
* He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.
* He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his
Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.
* He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation
of large districts of people, unless those people would
relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature,
a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
* He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance
with his measures.
* He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing
with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
* He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable
of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their
exercise;
the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.
* He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States;
for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new
Appropriations of Lands.
* He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his
Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
* He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone,
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their
salaries.
* He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither
swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their
substance.
* He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies,
without the Consent of our legislatures.
* He has affected to render the Military independent of and
superior to the Civil power.
* He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws;
giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any
Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these
States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us
in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting
us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses: For
abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and
enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example
and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into
these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our
most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our
Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.
* He has abdicated Government here by declaring us out of his
Protection and waging War against us.
* He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people.
* He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign
Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and
tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
* He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on
the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the
executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall
themselves by their Hands.
* He has excited, domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the
merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for
Redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated Petitions have
been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character
is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit
to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We
have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and
settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and
magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have
been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We
must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces
our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind,
Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,
do, in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these
Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United
Colonies are and of Right ought to be free and independent
states, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political connection between
them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be
totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES,
they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract
Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and
Things which Independent states may of right do. AND for the
support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
John Hancock et al
Ephemeroptera, delicate summer beauty
(*photo
credit)
July 5,
2009 Risking to Be Prophetic
...
and when I am powerless, it is then that I am strong.
(II Cor. 12:10)
All too
often people, even those closest, want to break off conversation on
some issue. Today, the subject of simplifying our lifestyles is a
difficult one to broach with others who have made a deliberate
effort to live affluent lives. They have enjoyed consumption; they
regard it as a patriotic duty; they enjoy the advertising hype;
they want to go with the fashions; and they may even find our
presence irritating. For them, moral and religious leaders are to
make them feel comfortable. They may ask us the unsettling
question: "What are we paying you for, to make us feel
uncomfortable?" The attitude just expressed is far more common
than we would like to admit. The doubly unsettling question for us
may be: is the prophetic word to be comforting or
disturbing? Is the entire modus vivendi of this period
to maximize comfort levels or to arouse some to change their ways?
Is what is needed at a given time the mark of a true or false
prophet? In times of troubles we need to weigh the alternatives
paths.
Bad
prophesying allows listeners to continue in current ways.
This says what is being done is fine and those who want to shake the
boat are disturbers of the peace. The status quo is good and must
be defended by such stalwarts of conservative ways. The privileges
currently enjoyed may be seen as gifts to good stewards who are
called by God to do proper things with them. Part of this
optimistic comfort picture is a future that does not include any
sign of gloom and doom. Should others like to call attention to our
current practices or to oppose them in violent or non-violent
fashion, we must resist their efforts for the good of existing
privilege and others who are in company with us in this position.
The bad prophet teaches adherence to what we have and refuses to
consider any major changes.
Good
prophesying addresses current questions forthrightly.
The current consumer lifestyle is not sustainable. To continue to
defend it only encourages the aspiring emerging economies to follow
our example and consume as well -- thus dooming the world through
sheer numbers of consumers, to accelerating pollution, resource
depletion and waste, and a growing disparity between the rich and
poor. While some live in comfort, others suffer from lack of basic
food and health care -- and this real situation is not comforting,
only disturbing to those in short-term privileged comfort. If we do
not change, we will surely die. The good prophesy rests in the word
"if" for contained in the message is the real possibility that
change is possible and can lead to benefits to the greater numbers.
On the other hand, the discouraged must be shown compassion for it
takes effort to undergo and gain by the change that is needed.
Prayer: Lord teach us to be prophetic in a good sense even if
such a practice is risky. Teach us to remember the mission before
us and not to forget that Jesus said what had to be said -- and he
was crucified for doing so.
Cloud uplift on a hot summer's day
(*photo
credit)
July 6,
2009 Jogger's
Lament
Lord, what makes people jog,
in sunshine, wind, sleet and fog,
spending time in shoes that clog,
dodging cars, potholes, excited dog?
Why do they endure such pain,
weary legs, muscle strain,
raw groins, ankle sprain,
and yet they seldom complain?
What makes them run the extra mile,
to pass another with a fleeting smile,
or dress just right to be in style,
with the social grace of the rank and file?
How can they keep the furious pace,
turning every day into a prize race,
or heading out to a meeting place,
or just establishing breathing space?
When will they stop ‑‑ in their old age,
or when falls make them turn a safer page,
or when they don't need the center stage,
or begin to earn a steady wage?
Don't jogging questions need reply,
like running gear that one must buy,
when preparing for that runner's high,
that natural way to reach the sky.
Count the steps, meditate;
observe the scene, contemplate;
reach the wall, hallucinate;
call it fun, rejuvenate.
Now good Christians please step aside,
keep the competitor from breaking stride,
and come right up to the finish tide,
step back and overcome perverse pride.
It's time now to call it a day,
when one is unsure of the step or way,
may younger ones continue the play,
fun while it lasted; okay, okay, Ole! |
