Translating a World on the Edge

My husband.
Myself.
Our five children.
In–not a ship–but a blue and white van.

High Tide Coming.

A beach on the coast of  Saint Augustine, Florida.

STUCK IN THE SAND!!

Tide comes in. We can’t move.
Funny at first. One of the children teases, “How high’s the water, Mama?”

Except, it becomes serious.

We try everything. But…the wheels keep spinning and that beautiful wet sand won’t let them go.

And then…

A man walks toward us, zigzagging down the beach. Reeking with whiskey.
“Eeeew!” say the children.

The drunk man drawls, “Let the air out of your tires.”

“You’ve got to be kidding!” is the unanimous reply.
Follow this man’s advice? No way!

The drunk shrugs his shoulders. Continues his zigzag swagger down the beach.

My husband and I look at each other.
We look at the saltwater swamping the wheels. We could be shipwrecked if we don’t do something.

So, we act…

We let the air out of the tires.

And…well, if you’ve ever had this happen, you know that letting air out of the tires WORKS.

Moral of the story? It doesn’t take a perfect person to give good advice.

In fact, you’ll never get good advice from a perfect person—because there are no perfect people. All of us are broken in some way. This goes for those who would like to be our President, as well.

The flawed man in our very real story knew what was wrong and tried to fix it. If we hadn’t listened, the worst might have happened.

Every imperfect person, every American, knows his/her country, at this very moment, is walking a dangerously sharp razor blade. This is due to the failure of so-called ‘progressive’ politics, which has taken us backward, not forward. Taken us to a place of uncertain safety, of economic disaster, of squashed religious freedom, of no respect for human life. This is a place where only the self rules, where lies are accepted for those with power, but never for those without it, and where the future of our America as a whole is forgotten. What’s in it for me? is the primary concern.

Make no mistake, the dangerous and raging waters intent on destroying America as we know it, are rising higher and higher.

And we are absolutely STUCK in the sand without a leader, a leader who is unafraid, who will speak the truth regardless of political correctness. A leader who’s proven advice we can trust.

There will be no escape from the SAND if we continue with another administration exactly like today’s.

Unless we release the stale hot air that keeps us immobile, and replace it with a strong, fresh–and yes, imperfect– new voice, we will remain stuck in the sand until we drown.

So, I ask, are you ready to act?

Each of you has one vote.  Are you willing to cast it on the side of America?

This is not the time to forget or ignore the legacy of the American Revolution. Today, more than ever, it is the time to remember that our forefathers fought and died in a revolution for freedom helping to create and build an America based on The Constitution of the United States. Originally, the Constitution was comprised seven articles delineating the national frame and constraints of government.  After 1787, The Constitution became America’s legacy, a legacy which speaks of virtue and morality — a legacy that has been the basis of our government for nearly two hundred and fifty years.  And yet, today that legacy is in jeopardy.

What sort of legacy will be left by today’s administration to the people they leave behind–our children, and our grandchildren? How many of America’s present leaders actually realize their purpose is to be an example of  virtue to America’s citizens?  How many of them ever even speak about VIRTUE?  And yet, virtue is essential to what it means to be a real leader and a truly human person. Anyone seeking a role in leadership must have the moral purpose of making our country and her people better, not worse.

Any legacy is built over time, not overnight. It is often thought to be money or property willed to a descendent. But the legacy any of us leave to our descendants will be much more than material; it will be spiritual as well. We will pass to those left behind a legacy built on genuine truth, or a legacy of falsity whereby we have attempted to destroy genuine truth most often out of personal greed.

Our country’s spiritual legacy–its moral virtue–affects many, many, people, not only those related to us. For those who lead our country, this should be of special concern. Why isn’t it?

The moral virtues are attitudes, dispositions, and good habits that govern one’s actions, passions, and conduct according to reason; and are acquired by human effort, which for our leaders means the effort of putting the nation above one’s own selfish purposes. Why don’t they?

The cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. How are our political leaders–from the top down — showing us those virtues? Where is the prudence, the fortitude, and for heaven sake, where is the temperance?

In 2016, we elected a president who, like each of us, was not a perfect person–but was, and  still is, a real leader.  He began building a legacy for America built on truth and common sense.  And he succeeded where others have failed miserably.  But the legacy President Trump built flies in the face of many on the left who have their own selfish, even immoral, agendas, and so they seek to bring him down by division, distraction, and falsifying the facts with astounding hypocrisy–even imprudently employing our Department of Justice to do it. Do we want this type of leadership?

Is this the sort of legacy we want for America, for our children and their children? The present anything goes attitude in society and in government is more than dangerous; it can destroy us. This TIME in which we are living is crucial for each one of us. We must be prudent, we must seek justice with courage and thoughtful self-discipline. Because at this moment in time, we are creating the husk of  a legacy we will pass on.

Right now our beautiful country and many of the people who love it are being tarred and feathered by unscrupulous politicians who use their positions in government for their own gain, not ours. They must be stopped.

Soon, we will have a golden opportunity to finally Make America’s Legacy Great Again, but only if the lack of prudence by some of our leaders is outweighed by fortitude from the majority. To re-establish America as the great country she is, the election of a president who is devoted to America and her Constitution cannot come too soon. And we cannot sit back and think it will happen without each of us. We ALL have a part to play in Making America Great Again. So, stand up today and begin.

I know some of you are not Trump supporters, but I know you LOVE your country. You do not want our American rights to be cancelled. You do not want America to have no borders, to have women and children abused on the border in heart-breaking ways, to have alien criminals allowed into every state in our union, bringing their drugs with them to sell throughout out country causing the deaths of so many. You do not want to to be energy-dependent again on the Middle East, to have no right to free speech, to have no right to bear arms. You do not want our American heritage dragged through the mud by lies and hypocrisy. You do not want your religion threatened. You do not want GOD demeaned. You do not want your America to cuddle-up to China like a sick puppy. You do not want your rights as parents to be taken over by the government disguised as a school board. You do not want men to be able to compete in women’s sports. You want TRUTH not LIES from the government and the media. And most specifically you want a government you can TRUST to put the PEOPLE FIRST, and not ITSELF.

I sincerely believe that this man, Donald Trump, is the ONLY person who can and WILL make America Great Again. Give it a listen, and then SHARE. https://www.youtube.com/live/X_ik069yLlQ?feature=share

We cannot remain SILENT when our country is literally being cancelled.

ABSENCE by Kaye Park Hinckley

Reviewed by Courtney Guest Kim

Genre: Southern Gothic

Year Published: 2020

Now in Hardcover

Audience: wives and mothers

Absence belongs to the Southern Gothic tradition because the secrets are dreadful; the stubbornness is perverse; and children play with a human skull in bed. Yes, there is a version of incest too. But if it were possible to reclaim a genre in the tradition of Sidney Lanier—one of whose poems provides both the epigraph and the title of this story—Absence would rightfully be called Southern Poetic. This novel with intense resolve excises every trace of trashiness from its postmodern Alabama countryside. These peanut farmers are poor, but they have a quality not usually ascribed to them: dignity. And because they have dignity, when they fall into evil ways the outcome is not merely horrible, but tragic.

When you close this book, you will feel an anxious impulse to confess your sins, lest they fester and warp the lives of everyone connected to you. More surprisingly, you will have learned to associate the peanut plant with the redemption of man. Kaye Park Hinckley returns to country life what we have long since ceased to expect of it: beauty and meaning. At every level her story reaches roots into the deepest origins of this nation. But apart from explaining a few Creek Indian words, she does not afflict her characters with peculiar dialogue or bizarre impulses. Nor does she try to render local speech patterns into idiosyncratic spelling. Her story utterly rejects every facile trope of a throwaway culture. It hones in on the most important thing this country has trashed: human souls.

James Greene is desperate, but he is not vulgar. His fall into evil is the age-old tragedy of man. He does not do evil because he wants evil, but because he wants the good that has been denied him. Like Adam in the Garden of Eden, he reaches for a fruit that is good in itself, and he does it for the sake of the woman he loves. Like Cain, faced with disappointment, he does not turn toward God in sorrow but away from God in anger. And if you are tempted to shrug off these choices as minor ones, Absence will chill you with the stark reminder that human beings are not just bodies, but souls, whose spiritual influence cannot be suppressed, even when the bodies have gone missing. It’s not just that the ends do not justify the means: the evil means will work their poison through every aspect of your life. So beware, reader. When you enter this terrain of red soil, you leave behind every escape devised by an escapist culture. There are only two alternatives–hell on earth, or redemption through suffering.

One definition of the word “situation” is the way in which something is placed in relation to its surroundings. But often, when people talk about being in a situation, they usually mean that something important has gone bad in some way.

Not every day is a good day. We each have our personal situations. Some are social situations in which we don’t have enough confidence in ourselves. Maybe we are shy about conversing with others, afraid someone might be too critical of us.

Maybe our situation is that we’ve had a financial fall-out, and don’t know how to fix it.

Maybe there’s a person we love, who doesn’t seem to love us. Or maybe we have an addiction, such as drugs or alcohol.

For many, there’s the situation of betrayal by a friend, or spouse.

Or it could be that we’re lonely, or sick, or even dying.

Especially in the turbulence of today, we are confronting so many situations that can harm us! Some are self-imposed, because all of us have choices, and often we choose wrongly. Some are thrust upon us through no fault of our own, and we feel helpless for ourselves, our friends, our families, and our country.

So how do we handle these harmful situations? Can we do it on our own?

Well, the answer to that is that we don’t have to do it on our own. Not if we have God as our partner in life. Not if we turn to him in all those situations listed above and more. Even if they are situations we caused ourselves. God will help us through, if only we ask him.

Will our problems be solved every time in the way we want them to be solved? The answer is not always.

But if God is involved, if we give our situation to Him, if we let Him carry us, we can have peace, trusting that good will come from it in a way we may not anticipate.

I honestly do not know what I would do if I did not have God to turn to, and I’m sure many of you feel the same.

You’re my safe place, my hideaway
You’re my anchor, my saving grace
You’re my constant, my steadiness
You’re my shelter, my oxygen

I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You
Thank God I do

I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You
I’d probably fall off the edge
I don’t know where I’d go if You ever let go
So keep me held in Your hands
I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You
Thank God I do

Each of us have gifts, God-given talents. The gifts of some may seem more apparent than others. For example, in those who appear on our televisions, in our movie theatres, on our radios—the so-called “stars.” But the value to God of each individual’s gift is the same, because God does not discriminate.

Early on, when I lived in Birmingham, my neighbor and I shared a babysitter, an older woman we’d met at a nearby Garden Nursery. Her name was Mrs. Hays. Anything she put into the ground, grew. There wasn’t a plant or flower or tree she didn’t seem to completely understand. She knew what each needed to flourish. And she handled our young children the same way. Whenever she came, they did indeed flourish. The gift she gave our children, and my neighbor and I as mothers, cannot be measured. Mrs. Hays wasn’t on the big screen, or the radio, or newspaper, but she made a lasting imprint on four young children. She had a gift and quietly used it. No fanfare, just solid intention driven by a love for all things growing.

Sometimes those—not all, but some–in the spotlight seem to want only that—-the spotlight. Is this the purpose of their gift?

What would happen in our world if everyone had a common purpose for the use of their gifts? What if every singer used his/her voice to further the better instincts of a human being rather that the basest instincts? What if every actor, artist, writer, politician, or talk-show host used his/her talent to expose the true reason God made man?

Of course, it wouldn’t take away their, or our, fallen nature; we’d still have one. We’d still have our pet addictions, our meanness, our selfishness, our frequent disregard for others.

Still, a true and correct mindset behind use of our God-given gifts might remind each of us that we do have the ability to strive for higher things. And sometimes a reminder is all it takes to change.

By Ranbud, 2016, MorgueFile.com

None of us like controlling people. None of us like to be under the thumb of another, with their weighty opinions imposed upon us. None of us like to be ridiculed for what we believe, and forced to do what we don’t believe.

And we shouldn’t have to put up with it. We live in a country founded on our personal freedoms. We are not told what to do by some king and his council–are we?

Well. . .hmmmm.  Let’s take a look at controlling people

Controlling people are self-centered and immature. They think they are bigger than they are. They don’t like your independence, only theirs, so they’re likely to make sure you don’t rule yourself.

How? They take away your choices, usually through manipulative propaganda, and if that doesn’t work as well as they would like, they enforce laws through some kingly, or executive, power they perceive they have been given.

But . . . . to take away a man’s freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person.” — Madeleine L’Engle

We are not puppets in our personal relationships. Neither are we puppets  to be used by those in control of our government. Yet, we are. And people are angry.

Not only at our president, but political parties. As controllers, they are also self-centered and immature, believing they are bigger than they are. Besides that, they may be too filled with avarice and pride to use typical common sense.  Their words are used to tickle ears, to get the vote. But are they sincere? Or are they only using huge segments of the population to get what they want for themselves.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.–2 Timothy 4:3

We need people, rich or poor, with guts and gumption enough to stand up for the sound doctrine on which our nation was built. Because the major issues we face today have not been soundly dealt with.

Now, it is our turn to decide. We can restore America. We can get rid of the pompous King Kongs already in our lives, and in our government who say one thing to secure a vote from others, but do something entirely different for themselves.

Nobody crowned them Kings, or Queens, of anything.