Of failure and obsolescence...

If there had been bail-outs down through the years, might we still see on many corners a blacksmith ? A livery? A phone booth? Typewriters are curiosities, and the popular Polaroid camera a thing of the past. Teletype and line-o-type machines are noisy memories from my days working for a newspaper. Will newspapers themselves survive? Just wondering....

Who would have thought?

I did not expect to wake up one day last week and find myself on Secretary Janet Napolitano's potential terrorist watch list....Because I am

* pro-life
* right-of-center conservative...generally
* Christian
* a friend of many military veterans of the recent wars

Surely, she does not know any of my patriotic friends...or me, for that matter.
She might not know a domestic terrorist right under her nose. Probably she should flag the Hollywood writers and producers who have been graphically inciting violence for years. No, wait. Senator McCarthy tried that. Nevermind.

Sunday morning back talk ...

The Pastor's main text this morning was Acts 1:1-25. I respond to the Lord,

It is not for me to know times and epochs which You, Father God, have fixed by Your own authority. But, I am empowered by Your Spirit living in me -- a believer in Jesus -- to witness of my Savior wherever I am.

Right now, I'm on this blog.

Close encounters...

...standing silent in the predawn stillness of the house and yard, we watch a pair of river otters leisurely wait for sunrise. Soon after their ice flow has melted into the lake, perhaps the female will be raising pups in a den just a few feet from our house. I do know where she has lived through the winter.

A pair of Wood Ducks eyeing the trees, and a pair of Mallards looking for their own nesting site under the bank hold promise of fluffy flotillas of ducklings...the next generations.

Hours later and miles away -- up really close -- a herd of horses. Horses and good friends!...Finding a fence down, bringing horses in through a muddy ditch with a noisy food dish, grooming Coy, holding Fanny, staying out of Bud's way -- a wise strategy as he did not like the farrier's shoeing him -- learning he can jump, waiting while the cowboys outlasted Bud, lamenting the cowboys' little cuts and bruises. Knowing we'll go back...

Phenology report...

Today the lake ice is white and shifting shades of gray and blue. Water fowl are congregating in an open area over the river current. In warmth and stillness the ice melts. It remains to be seen if an east wind will come up in time to pile the floes on shore.

Rediscovering radio...

The back story: Out here in the rural landscape, two tv stations' signals usually came in. They and we were prepared for the switch to digital on February 17. One made the switch, and reception was great for a very few days, then the signal vanished! Problem? The station did not wait for the June postponement, so was forced to reduce the strength of its transmission...only until June, I hope. Not that I watched it very much....

In meantime, I have greatly enjoyed my radio listening, tuning in at various times to five dependable broadcast channels for news, talk, music, entertaining features, thought-provoking commentary, and -- of great importance -- weather forecasts. This takes me back to an earlier time when there was no tv and no internet. I like this.

Piracy...it's not Jack Sparrow in Disneyland...

Stand up to aggression, and expect consequences. Give in to aggression and experience different consequences.

Lord, lead President Obama and all our leaders, I pray.

Historic heroism, historic silence

During the six-day captivity of American sea Captain Richard Philips, until and since his rescue today, I have admired and marveled at his willingness to give up his own freedom to negotiate the safe passage of his ship's crew! It might have cost him his life. Occurring over the Easter week as it did, I could not help remembering the words of Jesus:

"Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends."

What irony that the ship's cargo was food aide for Somalia and other African nations where people are hungry and even starving.

Ironic too is our President's silence on the standoff -- for days. I found it confusing and disheartening that he had no public reaction to the captivity of one American. No other President in history has failed in outrage, gut-reaction, heart-felt response of compassion, or threat...not when the situation was public knowledge to the whole world. There must have been confidential communications within the government, but to refuse a reporter's question in a "news conference", to issue no public statement? I do not understand the silence.

There is another one American in captivity under false charges in Iran. I believe she is to go "on trial" tomorrow. It's public knowledge world-wide. I pray she is released. Have we heard anything from the bully pulpit?

Change I do believe in...

"...when this perishable will have put on the imperishable,
and this mortal will have put on immortality,
then will come about the saying that is written,
'DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory
O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?
O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?'
The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law;
but thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 15:54-57

In Christ, I am a new person.
Old things are passed away,
and new things have come!
(reference 2 Corinthians 5:17)

Elapsed time...

...recorded in little spiral notebooks day by day. Perhaps it is fitting that the next post is written on Easter Eve.