I don't know if twitter is reinforcing my natural tendency to write laconically, or if my brain is just exhausted from all the political and religious and personal stuff that has been battered about in my mind lately.  Whatever it is, I cannot bring myself to string together a well thought-out post.  And yet, its been a few days since I have posted, and I need to keep myself writing.  So, for your reading pleasure annoyance tolerance whatever, here are some of my current disjointed thoughts.

Three things I am tired of:

• Hip celebrity videos like this one (disclaimer, includes the f*bomb)
• Politicians that say "nook-yoo-ler"
• People who are so partisan that they automatically take things said by members of their political opposition in the worst possible way instead of trying to understand, think critically or give people the benefit of the doubt. This is done widely on both sides, and it is starting to sicken me.

Three things I am excited about:

• My niece's wedding
• Autumn and all the Halloween activities coming up - pumpkin patches and costume parties and bonfires!!!
• This movie:
  

What are you tired of?  What are you excited about?

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I will be participating in this year's Blog Action Day on October 15th.  Along with thousands of other bloggers worldwide, I will be posting about the topic of poverty.  The aim is to inform, discuss and inspire each other about this complex issue - and the more of us that participate, the more effective this conversation will be.  You may have a perspective on this issue that no one else has.  So I encourage you (yes, you!) to participate in changing the conversation about poverty.

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo

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It might take me a while to get to my main point, but please bear with me.  I think this is an important post.

If you could get inside my head, and could see the way my thoughts have gone over the past 6 months of presidential campaigning, it would look something like a tennis match - back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  I think I share with many other people intense frustration at the fact that no one candidate shares my views on all subjects.  And having to prioritize the issues sometimes just seems impossible - what is most important?  The economy?  The environment?  The right to life?  Poverty?  Security? Seriously, I should not have to choose among these things!

For anyone reading this (anyone? anyone?) not familiar with my ideas, I pretty much fall into the "Crunchy Con" microtrend.  In other words, I hold an odd-mixture of views that include social conservativism by way of Christianity, a fierce committment to being pro-life, a slight (very slight) slant towards libertarianism by way of thinkers like Burke, Hayek and Chesterton, and a high level of concern for things typically associated with the left (the environment, poverty, sustainable communities, and other social issues).  So basically, my ideal candidate would be a mashup of McCain, Obama and Ron Paul.  What is a crunchy con to do???

Thus far in my young political life (this will be my third presidential election in which I am eligible to vote) I have voted with my conservative ideals; the more bleeding-heart aspects of my political philosophy have only developed in the last 3-4 years or so.  The thought of straying from voting Republican is not an easy thing to even THINK about, let alone actually do.  For most of the current presidential campaign my assumption has been, despite the occasional flare up of conflicted feelings, that I would be voting for McCain and any other Republicans who are on the ballot.  Despite the sweet sounding rhetoric of Democrats, my political ideology tells me that government is not the answer to our problems.

But a conversation I had last night at weekly prayer group has caused me to question these ideas again.

Margaret and Charlie (not their real names since I have no idea how comfortable they would be with me blogging about them) are an older couple in my church that my husband and I have grown to love.  They are role models to us of loving, caring, dedicated, humble Christian living.  Margaret and Charlie have a middle-aged adult daughter, Mary, that has serious developmental disabilities.  Our pastor for the last two weeks has been preaching on Christian attitudes and ideas regarding the disabled, so at prayer group last night, the topic came up.  Of course, Margaret and Charlie had more right to say something about this issue than anyone else.

In 50+ years of being not just church-going Christians, but missionaries and even time as a pastor and wife, not a single one of the churches or church ministries that Margaret and Charlie have been involved with has ever taken any sort of lead or even assisted in the care of their daughter Mary.

Let that sink in.  NOT ONE Christian church has ever helped them in any significant way.

Individual Christians have reached out to them, but usually not with much more than a word of encouragement.  There have been a rare few that have gone further, such as one lady in our church that has taught Mary Sunday school EVERY Sunday for years now.  But no one has ever been able or willing to actually give Mary the kind of care that is needed day in and day out.

On the contrary, it has been the government that has taken care of Mary, and Margaret and Charlie testify that the goverment has done a marvelous job.  Mary lives in her own home with another disabled woman, with needed 24-hour care, daytime activities, health care, etc - all through government support.  Without that government support, Margaret and Charlie have no idea how they would have survived.

Unfortunately, if Mary were 10-20 years younger, and they were just now trying to get her into a program like this, she would not be able to receive this care. There are no new admissions to such programs except for orphans, because all funding for disabled people in the state of Missouri has been slashed to the bone.  By our Republican governor and state congress.  Margaret not long ago spoke to the Republican representative that represents her, advocating for the disabled.  His response was that local charities and churches should be doing that sort of work, rather than the government.  Margaret's angry reply was, that sure would be nice BUT IT DOESN'T HAPPEN.  After listening to her for a while, all he could say was that he would have to think about it some more.

You see, as much as I think that things are ideally left better in the hands of private citizens, what are we to do when no one, not even the Church, is stepping up?  What is the more Christian thing to do - hope that people's hearts change, or vote in leaders who will take up the slack where the Church has failed?  Are there enough Christians willing to step up and meet all the needs of the poor and disabled in our country?  Or does it make more sense to commit our tax dollars to working with our non-Christian fellow citizens to meet the needs of the least and most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters?

Barack Obama has support for Americans with disabilities as a central point of his platform.  McCain doesn't even mention it on his website.

Being pro-life is about more than just being anti-abortion.  It has to involve action and good policy, not just the overturning of one court decision.

I have no idea how Margaret and Charlie are going to vote.  They are very pro-life, economically and socially conservative.  For all I know, they are going to vote for McCain, it really didn't come up.  All I know is, I am just not so sure anymore.

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In the light of the times in which we are living, my pastor wisely preached on Psalm 146 yesterday.

Psalm 146

Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.

I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,

the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,

the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.

The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.

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George Washington wrote a letter to the American people as the end of his presidency drew close.  It is a remarkable letter, and I wish with all my heart we had a civil servant like Washington to vote for in this presidential election.

Washington beautifully emphasizes the immense importance of our national unity, something which many of us, myself included, rarely think about or cherish.  Even though Washington was primarily refering to the first inklings of the problems that would lead to the Civil War, I think we can still take these warnings as relevant to us today, not only with regard to literal political, governmental unity, but also to unity of spirit - something which is definitely severely threatened, if not totally lost, to our present partisan divisions.

excerpt:

The unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

another excerpt:

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

So what do you think?  Is the struggle between parties a necessary tension to keep our democratic country from moving towards a dangerous monolithic extreme?  Or is Washington correct in saying that partisanship threatens our vital national unity?  Would the destruction of the two-party system by the rise of additional parties solve both problems?

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Just a reminder that tomorrow is Blog Action Day.  Along with thousands of other bloggers worldwide, I will be posting about the topic of poverty.  If you would like to participate as well, get on over to their website and sign up!

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For all my fellow Missourians, make sure you vote YES on Proposition C on November 4th! Twenty-six other states have already successfully passed similar initiatives.  This bill will:

• Be a big step towards energy independence
• Create new jobs for Missourians and boost our economy
  
• Help keep our air, water and environment clean by burning and excavating fewer fossil fuels.  86% of Missouri's energy comes from burning coal which, despite advances in technology, still releases tons of pollutants into the air every day.
  

Visit the website of the Clean Energy Initiative for more information.

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Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

My husband met Kenny (not his real name) in a park on a Sunday evening, a little over a year ago.  It was immediately clear to my husband that Kenny was homeless.  For some reason, Jim knew in his heart that he needed to help this guy out.  So, my husand brought him home that night, and thus began our long journey with Kenny, a journey which has yet to come to an end.

Without getting into too many details (because that could take all day), let me just give you a snapshot of what life for Kenny is like.  He was sickly and abused as a child.  He suffered a severe brain injury as a teenager, which caused mental and physical disabilities; he is also hearing impaired, and he has other health issues which require medicine and equipment and add complications to an already difficult life.  Kenny has been homeless off-and-on, wandering the country for at least 13 years. 

Kenny is about 30 years old, but he has the emotional maturity of a 7 year old and the intellectual maturity of a 13 year old.  He is an endless talker, and he talks loudly.  He has virtually no social skills whatsoever, and very little sense of boundaries or what is and is not annoying.  Kenny calls my husband several times a day, and at least one of us goes to see Kenny to help him with something at least once a week. While I have come to care about Kenny very much, it would be an understatement to say that he is a challenging person to be around.

What I can say about Kenny is that he is the hardest working, and most enthusiastic person I have ever met.  He gets up early to attack his days, and if he has to be somewhere, he is 20 minutes early.  Kenny is one person that you cannot say that laziness is the source of his problems.  Kenny is also completely clean - he does not ever drink, smoke, do drugs, use cuss words, get violent, or say suggestive things.  He is trustworthy.  Kenny is also very thoughtful, often leaving little gifts and voice messages for us - too often in fact. And I am sad to say that they cause annoyance in me more often than appreciation.

I have witnessed first hand how difficult life is for someone who is impoverished.  He has to rely on public transportation or a bike to get around, which makes running errands in a sprawling city a complete and total pain in the butt.  Travel time is greatly increased, making his days inefficient.  Kenny has had a string of social workers, many of whom were burnt out and unhelpful.  He currently receives government assistance and food stamps, but it is barely enough to get by with rent and the bare essentials.  Long lines, extra fees, paper work - EVERYTHING is more difficult and complicated if you are not in the mainstream system of credit and commerce.

I have no idea how things will end up for Kenny.  There is only so much that my husband and I can do for him.  My prayer is that we will have made a positive difference in his life.

When I really think about it, I am amazed and grateful that my husband has been so determined to be a brother and a friend to someone so needy and difficult as Kenny.  I certainly would not have chosen to do it at all. And this whole experience has taught me many things which only experience could possibly have taught. 

I know not to romanticize the notion of helping the poor.  You can go down to a homeless shelter and ladle out soup once a year and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  But try to spend day after day with troubled people, and the warm fuzzies will often get replaced with annoyance, frustration and sadness.

I know a new level to my sinfulness and impatience.  There have been times when I have been cold-shouldered to Kenny at best, angry and snappy with him at worst.  I am often not magnanimous towards him, but instead I mull over every inconvenience and aggravation he has brought into our lives.  I avoid seeing him and talking to him many times, when I know that just some friendly attention from me would make all the difference in the world to him.  I have no illusions that helping Kenny and bringing him into my life somehow makes me a good person.  I know that in many ways, I am not a good person at all.  I am a sinner that has been given the grace to be able to do some little bit of good despite my sinfulness.  That is not false humility or false piety. That is what I really think, what I REALLY know.

I know that there are no easy answers.  I want more than anything for Kenny to be accepted, to get a job, a good apartment, to make friends, to be happy and healthy. That is not too much to ask. But I know the chances of that ever happening are very slim.  Kenny freaks people out.  Kenny can get on your nerves like no one else can.  Kenny is incapable of doing lots of things that are essential to a "normal" life.  There is a reason that people are chronically homeless!!! And money or education or the right program are sometimes just not enough!  And there are not enough people in the world willing to let someone like Kenny into their lives (which is completely understandable, don't get me wrong), and so people like Kenny will continue to fall through the cracks.

My religious faith tells me that this world will never be perfect, that there will always be poverty and injustice until Jesus comes back and makes it all right again.  But, in a seeming paradox, my faith also commands me to fight poverty and injustice, to take care of the orphan and the widow, to give food to the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick and the imprisoned, to reach out to the least of my brothers and sisters.  If I do not do all this, then my faith is in vain. 

That is why, even at times when I wanted to scream that Kenny get out of my life forever, I bite my tongue. HE IS the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the least of my brothers.  How can I turn just him away to a life of hardship and loneliness, and then expect my God to accept me?

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There are tons of organizations which are working to solve poverty issues that you can support with your time and money.  Just some ideas:

• The Hunger Site - Just a moment of your time will feed a hungry person.
• Heifer International - You can literally buy an animal to provide food and income to an impoverished family
  
• The One Campaign - An advocacy organization working to raise awareness on issues of poverty, hunger and disease
  
• International Justice Mission - An organization that steps in takes action to stop injustices like sex exploitation, slavery and human trafficking when local authorities cannot.
• Kiva - You can personally loan money to an entrepreneur in a developing country.
• Catholic Charities - They provide help for thousands and thousands of poor, elderly, refugee and homeless people all over the country, regardless of race or creed.
• Blood:Water Mission - They are building wells in Africa to provide clean drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people that would otherwise not have access to clean water.
• CARE - They are fighting global poverty, primarily through education and assistance for women.
• Compassion International - A really great and legitimate child-sponsorship organization.
  

But, you know, if we are really going to make a significant difference to make poverty history, it will take more than nice words and monetary donations.  We all have to participate; we cannot leave all the work to someone else.  We all have to get in there and get involved in the often ugly messiness of other people's lives.

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So, as you may have heard by now, Christopher Buckley, son of the great William F. Buckley Jr., has declared that he will be voting for Barak Obama.  He writes about why:

McCain rose to power on his personality and biography. He was authentic. He spoke truth to power. He told the media they were “jerks” (a sure sign of authenticity, to say nothing of good taste; we are. . . jerks). He was real. He was unconventional. . .  I thought at the time - this guy should be president someday. . .

But that was—sigh—then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

All this is genuinely saddening, and for the country is perhaps even tragic, for America ought, really, to be governed by men like John McCain—who have spent their entire lives in its service, even willing to give the last full measure of their devotion to it. If he goes out losing ugly, it will be beyond tragic, graffiti on a marble bust. . .

Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.

So, I wish him all the best. We are all in this together. Necessity is the mother of bipartisanship. And so, for the first time in my life, I’ll be pulling the Democratic lever in November. As the saying goes, God save the United States of America.

I completely sympathize with Buckley's thoughts and feelings, I really do.  Watching McCain in all three debates has been at times very painful.  Watching Palin has been even more painful.  The campaign did change McCain - before, I was excited at the thought that he would be president. I thought that he alone amongst Republicans could still win against the Democrats following eight years of Dubya.  I no longer think there is much chance of him winning at all.

But what I would ask Christopher Buckley is why he doesn't trust that, once elected, McCain would go back to being the kind of politician he always was, the politician that engendered his admiration and respect?  Maybe the campaign has brought out the worst in McCain - but what about when the campaign is over?  Does he really think McCain is spoiled forever?  Why on earth should that be?  I think if you really are a conservative, a vote for Obama makes no sense, however much he exudes greatness. Unless you really do think there is a place for big government and a "New" New Deal.  In which case, are you sure you are a conservative?

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Oh geez, I just noticed that I have written almost exclusively about politics for the last two weeks or more.  But this is not a political blog! 

What kind of blog is this anyway? 

The blog where you get a snapshot of my little world through the cobwebby maze of my convoluted mind!  Wheeeeee!

This weekend I will be putting polyticks completely out of my mind, thank heavens.  Tonight, I am going to the wedding of my lovely neice (I am only 26 years old, thankyouverymuch, but I married the baby of a HUGE family). Tomorrow morning I am leading a hike in St. Charles, and then in the afternoon/evening I will be crafting the night away with my bestest bud Rachel.  My goal for the evening will be to sew something for my halloween costume - which I will post a picture of when it is all done.  Unless it sucks, in which case you will never see it.  Sunday I will be at church, in the nursery during worship.  Church will be followed by meeting up with my mom for lunch at my favorite place to eat and a visit to the craft fair being held at the Shrewsbury City Center.  Then I have a first birthday party for the beautiful daughter of some good friends.  The evening will either end with a dinner party at our pastor's house, or if that falls through, vegging out on the couch and knitting with my husband.  Who will also be vegging, but not knitting.

Whew, busy weekend!

In the meantime, here are some NON-political links:

Cake Wrecks - A new favorite of mine.  It had me guffawing out-loud with tears streaming down my face.  I recommend exploring throroughly.  This post is particularly good.

A Chimp and a Babeh Tiger - Gah! So flipping anorabuhls.

Free Carnivorous Plant Calendar download from A Print A Day

Uh...Hoot?

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I recently listened to an interview on NPR with Michael Pollan, professor of journalism and author of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.  Pollan recently wrote a letter to the next president arguing for a new direction for US food and agriculture policy.  This letter, published in the New York Times is REALLY worth reading.

For most of us blessed Americans, food is so omnipresent in our lives that it is easy to take for granted.  For a long time we have not bothered to think much about where our food comes from or how it gets to our mouths.  But the way we grow, buy, process, purchase and consume food is vitally and essentially important to our economy, our national security, our environment, our health care system, our ethical treatment of humans and animals, our communities and our culture - food is not just important to feeding our bellies! 

Why our food matters to our health care system:

Four of the top 10 killers in America today are chronic diseases linked to diet: heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. It is no coincidence that in the years national spending on health care went from 5 percent to 16 percent of national income, spending on food has fallen by a comparable amount — from 18 percent of household income to less than 10 percent.

Why our food matters to the environment:

Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. This state of affairs appears all the more absurd when you recall that every calorie we eat is ultimately the product of photosynthesis — a process based on making food energy from sunshine.

Why our food matters to national security:

The impact of the American food system on the rest of the world will have implications for your foreign and trade policies as well. In the past several months more than 30 nations have experienced food riots, and so far one government has fallen. . . When a nation loses the ability to substantially feed itself, it is not only at the mercy of global commodity markets but of other governments as well.

For decades now, it has been federal policy to shrink the number of farmers in America by promoting capital-intensive monoculture and consolidation. As a society, we devalued farming as an occupation and encouraged the best students to leave the farm for “better” jobs in the city. We emptied America’s rural counties in order to supply workers to urban factories. To put it bluntly, we now need to reverse course. We need more highly skilled small farmers in more places all across America — not as a matter of nostalgia for the agrarian past but as a matter of national security. For nations that lose the ability to substantially feed themselves will find themselves as gravely compromised in their international dealings as nations that depend on foreign sources of oil presently do. But while there are alternatives to oil, there are no alternatives to food.

For thousands of years, people only ate food that they grew themselves, or that was grown by a close neighbor.  Modern technology changed all this, and there have been some benefits. I can buy oranges any time of the year I want, even though I live in the midwest - I guess that is pretty nice.  However, the promise of being able to feed millions of starving people and improve the world's diet through technology has proven to be an empty promise.  Famine is proportionately worse worldwide now than it has ever been in human history.  And the American obesity problem has for the first time ever created people who are both overfed and malnourished.  American diets have become almost entirely based on food transported from hundreds or even thousands of miles away, often processed and packaged in factories before making it onto our tables (or through drive-thru windows), consisting all too often of nutritionless calories coming from corn and soy products, made artificically cheap by US government subsidies. This is deeply problematic.

The largest, most obvious problems to tackle in the American agriculture system are farming subsidies and dependence of fossil fuels.  Until we address and fix those two issues, nothing will change.  But there are other steps we can take to change the culture as well.  Some of Pollan's most interesting ideas to address these problems include making food stamps worth double when used at farmer's markets, to give scholarships to culinary students who work for at least two years in public school cafeterias, and to turn part of the White House lawn into an organicgarden.  I think these are great ideas!

I am also deeply concerned about the loss of small farmers and agriculture for social and cultural reasons.  Many people are realizing how gardening, farmers markets and both rural and urban homesteading add so much to relationships, community and quality of life.  The kind of personal, earthy contact created by local food is just not possible from commercial farming.

Personally, I have a long way to go myself when it comes to this issue.  I still buy and eat processed foods, I don't grow any of my own food, I am addicted to Diet Pepsi, and I still go to the occasional fast-food joint. Though I do try to buy almost exclusively organic and I belong to a CSA, the fact remains that my diet is still largely unsustainable.  But I am commited to eating better, step by step.  (Next step - I am looking into raising chickens!  Urban homesteading, here I come!)  My hope and prayer is that our next president will make that commitment to step by step help us all to eat better.  I pray that our whole country will make that commitment - and that if you haven't already, YOU will make that commitment too.

(Source)

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Bah, I really hate these filler posts, wherein I apologize for not writing in my blog for days and days, and then promise that I will write something very very soon.  That is your cue, reader, to wonder, why you taking the time to write this, if you are so darn busy, and why not instead write something worth reading?  Good point.  The thing is, I really have been very busy, and not just in my schedule, but also in my head and in my heart.  I do have lots to say, but I've got to get it all straight.  So, note to self, get through this week and then get back to writing.  And then take this stupid non-post down.

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Today most of us will be celebrating Halloween, more formally known as All Hallow's Eve!

For my Protestant brethren (and sistren?), today also celebrates Reformation Day, commemorating when, 491 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of a church. (I will have more to say about Reformation Day in the next couple of days.)

But probably most significantly and most solemnly, today also marks the birth of that great American entertainer, Mr. Robert Van Winkle, otherwise known as Vanilla Ice. 

Happy October 31st!

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