Hope and Change

I would like change.  I wish I were thin.  Really, what I would love, is to wake up one morning in a new body.  Convinced that I could maintain a healthy weight, if only I could start over again.  Isn't that what we all would like?  A clean slate.  A new start.  There is only one problem - me.  I am who I am.  It was me who got me into this fix, and it will have to be me who gets me out.  A new body wouldn't make a bit of difference.  Oh, for a few months, everything would be great.  From the outside, I would look like a whole new person - but the reality of who I am, the real me, wouldn't have changed.  As time went on, that would become evident in my new body.  A few pounds here and a cookie there and I would be back where I started.

I have seen this replayed over and over and over.  Friends have moved great distances for the lure of more money.  When they have more money, they reason, they will no longer be in debt.  No more living paycheck to paycheck.  With more money, they will control the beast they have created.  Much to their dismay, however, maybe even to their demise, the beast is not conquered, it only grows.  With more money feeding it's every desire, the beast of their creation not only grows, but quietly consumes them.  Thinking they could change their circumstances from the outside in, they were lulled into a false sense of security.  "If only we could start over, we could beat this thing....".

I have known people who live in squalor, garbage piling high, a veritable epidemic waiting to happen.  They think "If only we had a new home, then we would keep it clean", only to find that wherever they go, there they are.  Their new home soon takes the shape of their old one.  Why?  Because they didn't change themselves from the inside - they only sought a change of address, not a change of heart.

Our leaders are selling hope and change. They are encouraing us to attempt to change ourselves, our neighbors, our cities and our nation from the outside in.  We give more money to the schools in the hopes of improving education.  We enroll more and more and more people on food stamps and medicaid, claiming to battle ignorance and chronic health problems.  We pour money into impoverished neighborhoods and move the underprivileged into "better" homes.  We make ourselves feel better because we are "doing" something for our fellow man.  But, the truth of the matter is that we are doing worse than nothing.  We are crippling people.  We are lying to them.  We are telling people that mere money will change their lives, but we are leading them down the path to certain failure.  The truth is that only diligence, hard work, and perseverance will change people's circumstances.  Only when people see that they are living wrongly can they begin to live rightly.  Giving mortgage assistance to someone who doesn't pay their mortgage doesn't make their lives better, it only extends the period of time in which they can avoid the inevitable.

Interestingly, when we get into the business of "helping" our neighbor at the expense of their own growth, we are the ones who end up paying the price.  Not only do they blame us for their predicament, they expect us to fix it for them.  After all, weren't we the ones who said this would work?  Think about it - we have, as a nation, attempted to fix the unemployment situation with government assistance.  That, of course, didn't address the real problem.  Now, we have unprecedented numbers of people applying for Social Security Disability (because their 99 weeks of unemployment ran out) and we are expected to cough up more money.  Why?  Because we told them we could fix their problems with other peoples money.  It didn't work.  In fact, it took away their incentive to work and robbed them of their self-reliance and pride.

The reality of life is that it is hard.  It takes work, disappointment and the guts to walk forward.  Life means making sacrifices and doing things you really don't want to do. But in the process, you change.  And then, an amazing thing happens.  As you change, so do your circumstances.  After years of diligently working hard and spending your money wisely, you find that you have a comfortable cushion - no more living from paycheck to paycheck.  After denying yourself the foolish cravings of your stomach, eating only what you know to be good for you, you wake up one morning with energy beyond your wildest expectations and clothes that are 4 sizes smaller.  Picking up the clothes on the floor and the garbage in the yard, even when it would be far easier not to, rewards you with a tidy, well kept home that you are proud to call your own.

We need to change our nation by changing ourselves.  We have to learn the value of diligence and suffering and sacrifice.  We have to the do the hard things in order to realize true change.  We have to quit putting money where our mouth is and instead encourage and value the work and character required to make us better people.

Offering hope to our nation requires work, not money.  We are going to have to get our hands dirty to change our lives.  Only when we quit trying to effect change from the outside will we have hope on the inside.  And then, only then, will we flourish as a people, a culture and a nation.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

The Wisdom of our Fathers

It has been said "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (Santayana).  The same could be said about the wisdom learned and accepted from one generation to the next.

When I was a little girl, I hung on every word my parents said.  In my child-like mind, they knew absolute truth.  I never questioned them.  I had complete faith in their decisions.  There were many times that I didn't like what they had to say, but I never questioned that it was right.

As I grew, my parents continued to speak truth into my life.  When I would come home from school, crushed from some bully's unkind remarks, my mother would gently console me - then she would teach me how to discern the real nature of the hurtful remarks and how to respond to the bully in the future.  She was always right.

The older I became, the more wisdom my parents poured into me.  They taught me, through their years of accumulated experience and searching for the truth, how to view the world.  They taught me right from wrong, good from bad and how to see through a facade of deception to grasp the truth.

And then I grew up.  Suddenly, as a young woman  making my own way in the world, I knew more than my parents did.  My once wise parents became back-woods bumpkins, knowing nothing about the modern world.  They didn't understand this new, modern world into which I had stepped.  My conversations with my parents, although still frequent, became disrespectful and condescending.  When they would express doubt about my chosen path, I would spurn their concerns, knowing that they just didn't understand "my generation".   In my youthful arrogance, I was convinced that the world had changed, and my parents knew nothing of the world in which I lived.

As worldly wise as I was, I was too foolish to realize that the problems of the world never change.  They appear different, but the root is always the same.  True wisdom transcends the ages.  Only the foolish believe that their experience in the world is new.

By the grace of God, my prideful, disrespectful attitude was quickly humbled by failure.  And, also by the grace of God, my parents bore my arrogant pride with long-suffering and unconditional love.  To this day, because of the wretched embarrassment it would cause me, they never mention my foray into omniscience.  Through the love of my parents and the grace of Almighty God, I learned, once again, to trust the wisdom of my parents.  Not only my parents, but my grandparents, my aunts and uncles and all of those who have walked before me.

I learned, from being prideful and arrogant, that I knew nothing.  I learned that, although not perfect, my elders knew more about life than I did.  I learned that I had so much to learn.

So, what, other than being a charming little anecdote, does this story have to do with the price of tea in China?   It has to do with looking to our past to determine our future.

We live in a society that has forgotten the wisdom of our fathers.  We behave like spoiled, prideful children, spurning our parents advice.  We are certain that our fore-bearers, who, incidentally, managed to build the most successful country in the world, were nothing more than back-woods bumpkins.  Systematically, we are dismantling what our fathers built and are replacing it with politically correct, pseudo-intellectual facades doomed to crumble under the pressure of reality.  Our prideful arrogance will fail us.

Our fathers knew things that we have forgotten.  Right is right and wrong is wrong.  Life is hard, but the the hardships temper us, making us stronger.  Circumstances don't make the person, rather the person defines the circumstances.  Life isn't safe.  Hard work isn't something to be avoided, it gives us purpose.  Life is bigger than just me.  One of our greatest gifts is our right to live how we choose - we give that up when we allow someone else to be responsible for our lives.

It is time for us to regain the wisdom passed on to us by our forefathers.  Our rebellion has brought us nothing but weakness and failure and unhappiness.  We need to reclaim our history, learn from our mistakes.  Only when we remember the wisdom of the past will we have a straight path for the future.

The Beauty you see

 

I am a hopeless romantic.  It's not my fault - I was born that way.  When the day wanes, nothing speaks to my soul like a cup of tea and a biscuit.  The first snow always elicits a flurry of cocoa making followed by snuggling in front of the wood stove reading books or playing games.  Candle light defines our winter evenings and linen curtains hallmark our summers.  I see beauty everywhere.  If I stumble upon an unlovely sight, my mind quickly puts things to rights, arranging things so their natural beauty shines forth.  The older I've become, the more I am able to find beauty in most anything, but it hasn't always been that way....

When I was a child, my family lived in one of the most spectacularly beautiful locations God created.  Forests, streams and grassy fields were my playground.  Mountains rose majestically against a backdrop of sub-irrigated alpine meadows.  Moose ate in crystal clear, glacier fed ponds and mountain lions drank from our swiftly running mountains streams.  Even the sunsets shone with the very fingerprints of God.  Unfortunately, the beauty that enveloped our lives was marred.  It was marred by people who chose to live differently than we did.

We moved when I was eight.  I was accustomed to mowed lawns, painted houses and tidy gardens.  People took care with their appearance - wearing dresses to church and skirts to town.  Cars were washed, hair was cut and purses matched shoes.  And then suddenly, in a whirl of boxes and packing tape, we were transported into another world.  My new world, while full of natural beauty, was rife with ugliness.  People piled garbage in their front yards, burning it in the spring and fall (whether they needed to or not).  The dress code, allowing for flannel shirts and Levi jeans only, was strictly enforced.  Shoes were considered quite wearable until the last of the duct tape wore off and hair-cuts were an unheard of luxury.  It wasn't the least bit unusual to see 20 cars lined up in a row at the edge of a property line, ensuring the owner the perfect part should the need arise.  Tarps (usually blue) regularly served as roofing material and more often than not discarded appliances provided the focal point for the garden.

My romantic sensibilities rebelled.  While being ensconced in beauty at home, I detested the lifestyle choices that surrounded our neighbors in squalor.  I equated country living with ignorance and poverty.  I longed for the day when I could escape my beautiful country home and could take my rightful place among the enlightened people of the city.  Finally, after years of pridefully living among humble country folk, I left to seek the refined, intelligent people of the city.  I drove away - knowing I was destined for much more than country life - watching the beauty of the mountains fade in the distance.

At first, I gloried in my new life.  The city was exciting - energizing.  The homes and yards were glorious and the people dressed with elegance and style.  New cars were everywhere and people cared how things looked.  The beauty that had alluded me in the country was around every corner in the city, bursting forth in manicured gardens and tailored suits.  I was home!

Then the strangest thing began to happen.  An odd longing developed.  I had the greatest desire to dip my toes in a creek.  Truth be told, what I really wanted to do was put bread in between my toes and feel the trout fingerlings nibble the bread, tickling my feet in the most indescribable way.  The longer I waited in traffic, or in line at the mall or sat behind my desk filing, the more intense the desire became.  Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer.  I had to run barefoot, splash through a creek, or wade through a meadow resplendent with flowers before I exploded.  I found a quiet little park not far from where I worked, with a sweet meadow and a bubbling creek and promptly thrust my bare feet into it's cold depths.  

From that moment, the cool mountain meadows and alpine peaks began to sing the siren's song to me.  The manicured lawns and tailored suits seemed to lose their luster.  The pretty houses and elegant clothes suddenly seems empty - soul less.  What once had seemed beguiling now seemed shallow and make-believe.  Years of scales began to fall from my eyes.  I began to see past the tarp roof's and garbage strewn yards.  I realized that although my childhood neighbor's were rough and unpolished, they were uncommonly gifted with loyalty, self-sufficiency and country wisdom.  They were the people you wanted covering your back when things got tough.  They lived life to the fullest, for themselves, not to impress other people and when push came to shove, they could be counted on irregardless of their own personal hardships.

After years of living in the city, searching for true friendship, only to encounter people too busy living their own lives, I came home to the country.  I came home to tarp roofs, junk cars and garbage strewn yards.  But this time, I came home with humility, not pride.  I came home with the realization that God gives us the ability to see His beauty everywhere.  I found I had to see past the outward appearance, into the heart of the matter.

I grew up in the country, but gained the wisdom of country life in the city.  In my pride an arrogance, I was blinded to the beauty of simple country living.  God, in His wisdom, brought me to the city so that He could gently strip my pride and open my eyes to true beauty.  He taught me that beauty is not defined by what you own, how you dress or how you keep your yard - true beauty is defined by how you see the world, and yourself and God.  True beauty is found when God opens your eyes to His creation and His children.

Armchair Survivalist - Addendum

After re-reading my post on armchair survivalists, I thought I would take this opportunity to clarify my position.

Some of you may have thought I was scoffing at your level of preparations or didn't think people should research or talk about preparedness.  That couldn't be farther from the truth!  In reality, all of us have different resources from which to draw on as we prepare for an uncertain future.  In a perfect world, we would have unlimited time and money and could build zombie proof bunkers that would see us safely through World War III.  The world just isn't perfect, and nobody (at least nobody that I know) has the time or finances to accommodate such a plan.

The real world dictates that we go to war with what we have.  My entreaty to all of you is to make sure you know how to use what you have.  If you only have a can opener and some canned goods - make sure you know how to use your can opener.  If you only have a Buck knife, don't leave it in the box - use it so you know how to when you really need it.  If you are fortunate enough to have an AR-15, don't let it become a safe queen.  Sight it in, put it through its paces, oil it - prepare it to stand at the ready.

We all learn from one another, but we can't rely on the "experts" that have never done it.  Seek out people that have skills that you don't have and learn.  Ask questions.  Be prudent.  When push comes to shove, only the skills you have learned will be of any use to you.  All of the research you have done and information that you have garnered will be like so much rubbish unless you have put it into practice.

When Sir Knight and I were preparing for Y2K we read every magazine, book and article we could get our hands on.  We drank in stories of living off the grid with nothing more than a China diesel generator and a few Aladdin lamps.  We "knew" that you could run an entire household, including freezers and refrigerators, with a few gallons of diesel and a little ingenuity.  We read product reviews and researched energy systems.  We talked and planned and bought.  We smugly waited for midnight on December 31, 1999.  We were ready.  And nothing happened.

As 2000 ambled into fall, we moved into Little Shouse on the Prairie.  Unexpectedly thrust into pioneer life, we were confident that we would have no problems with our new normal.  As we put each new skill to the test and each new tool into service, we were awakened to the fact that we were ill prepared for our new life.  Nothing worked the way the "experts" said it would.  The China Diesel leaked like a sieve.  Refrigeration was an impossibility.  The Aladdin's burned up one mantle after another and the Petromax caught the kitchen table on fire.  Cooking everything from scratch in a wood cookstove was time consuming and hard and the romantic notions of gathering in the evenings to read out loud were marred by freezing temperatures and shivering bodies.

Through the school of hard knocks, we learned that many "experts" were, in reality, armchair survivalists.  They talked a good story, but they had never lived the life.

We do need to exchange ideas.  We need to know what works and what doesn't.  But we need to be prudent when we are acquiring information.  Do we ask the guy that has written the book on off-grid living, or the guy who has lived off-grid living?

You don't have to spend a million dollars to be prepared.  You don't have to live without electricity and do your laundry on the wood stove, but you do have to know how to use what you have, whether it is a kerosene lamp or a 5KW solar system.  Preparedness is going to look different on each of us.  What it looks like doesn't matter, how it functions does.

Us against them

It is so easy to blame all of our societal ills on our duly elected leaders.  Us against them.  "They" just keep spending money.  "They" raise the debt ceiling.  "They" protect the banking industries and mortgage companies. "They" are evil.  We are merely innocent pawns in their multi-billion (or is that trillion?) dollar chess game.

Not so fast.  The reality of life is "the squeaky wheel gets the grease".  The more we yell about how tough life is, the more they throw money at us.  The more money they throw at us, the more we yell.  And on it goes.  We are so concerned about getting what we want for ourselves that we have  forgotten that you don't get something for nothing.  There is a price to be paid for everything, whether it is a "free" lunch for our children at school or a low interest rate on a mortgage we can't really afford.  We scream for the government to supply us with a paycheck when we are unemployed because it's not our fault we can't find a job.  We scream for the government to "help" us with our grocery's because times are tough and we can't provide for ourselves.  We scream for the state to pay for our hospital stays because medical costs are too much for an individual or family to bear.  We want subsidized housing, agriculture and education.  We want the state to pay for schools, special needs programs and youth sporting events.  We expect special services provided by the state when we have children with hearing problems, chronic medical issues and mental health concerns.  And then we wonder why our country is going broke.

Ultimately, all change begins with us.  We can keep voting one person after another out of office, but not a thing will change.  Nothing will change until we quit putting our hand out.  Nothing will change until we take responsibility for our own lives and our own choices.  Nothing will change until we choose to care for our own children, our own parents and our own selves.  Until we are ready to do the hard things, we are willingly putting ourselves at the mercy of a corrupt government.  Until we are willing to pay for our own hospital bills, our own mortgages, our own children's lunches and our own children's hearing aides, we are responsible for destroying our own country.  We are responsible, not "them".

We will live.  We will live without a constant influx of other people's money.  It will hurt.  It will reduce our standard of living.  But so what?!  It is during times of famine and times of want that truly great people are molded.  It is during adversity that character is built.  Be that person.  Choose to be a standard.  Choose to take responsibility, regardless of what Fred, down the road is doing.  It starts with one person, with one family, with one neighborhood.  It starts with you saying "no".  No to a free lunch.  No to welfare.  No to medicaid.  No to a corrupt government.  Say "no" to a handout and "yes" to true freedom. It isn't really us against them.  It is us against us.

Debt, the economy & Lentil Burgers

Daily, new headlines jump off the pages of websites and newspapers, shouting the demise of our great nation.  "S&P downgrades debt", "Deficit hits new highs", "Gas prices spike".  Everywhere we turn we are confronted with the fragile nature of our economy and livelihood.  And it just keeps getting worse.  The debt is bad enough, but our inability to right where we went wrong is the real tragedy.

Years ago, when Sir Knight and I decided to move to the country, live in a shop with no electricity, running water or flushing toilets, we were faced with our own, personal downgrade of economy.   Before we moved, we had a beautifully planned budget, a dream and the energy to make everything happen.  Then reality hit.  None of our expenses fit within the tidy confines of our budget.  Our dream gave way to real life circumstances and our energy waned under the shear volume of work.  We had knowingly piled ourselves with high payments in order to make short work of our debts.  We had a property payment, a well payment (the well had cost about $12,000.00 more than we had budgeted), a car payment (I had foolishly thought we needed a larger vehicle), monthly auto insurance, phone, medical bills and the list goes on an on.  When all was said and done, we had about $70.00 every two weeks of "disposable" income.  When I say disposable, I mean money that wasn't being spent on bills.  That $70.00 had to cover food, fuel for oil lamps, toiletries and everything else a family of five might need.  We were in a crisis.  We had no one to tax and increase our revenue.  We didn't believe in welfare, food stamps or medicaid.  We had to find our proverbial boot straps and give them a good yank.

After meticulously tracking our every expenditure, cutting out EVERYTHING that wasn't a NECESSITY and discontinuing our welfare programs (the children didn't NEED candy bars or NEW shoes - thrift store fodder would have to do), we inventoried what other cuts we could make.  Ultimately, we had to pay off our debt first - everything else was secondary.  The only way we could do that, was by not buying food.  By the grace of God, we had stocked up for Y2K when we had plenty and now, when we had nothing in the way of money, we had lots in the way of stored foods.  I hauled out my trusty More with Less cookbook, poured over the pages and planned our menu using foods we had stored.  No more New England boiled dinners or pizza on Friday night, we now ate things like 11 bean soup, whole wheat bread (we ground the grain by hand) and lentil burgers.  From time to time, I would save enough eggs from our hens to spoil the family with potato soup and rich egg dumplings - a real treat.

For two years, we struggled, eating our way through our stored foods supply and then, little by little, our debt began to fall away.  A medical bill here, a car payment there and soon (although it felt like an eternity) we had escaped the crushing economy of our own making.  We had waded through the muck and had come out on the other side.  It was the right thing to do.  We could have begged, borrowed and stolen, but instead, we worked, denied ourselves and learned to live within our means.

Just like our country should.

Nowhere in my experience, has anyone ever gotten out of debt by borrowing.  It just doesn't work that way.  It has been proven over and over that you spend what you make.  If you make more money, you will spend more money.  If you borrow money to pay off your credit cards, you will end up with a payment for the loan, and, in very short order, you will have a credit card payment to make.  Again.  It is human nature.

It is well past time our country learns to eat lentil burgers.  We have gone from a country that ate Filet Mignon once a month, to wanting to eat Filet Mignon every day.  We need to get back to basics, with only an occasional splurge.  We need to deny our government more money and the ability to borrow money in our names.  We need to demand that, as a country, we live within our means.  It will hurt.  Denying ourselves always does. But it is worth it.  As a family, we were willing to eat lentil burgers in order to balance our budget.  As a country, we have to be willing to do the same.


Lentil Burgers

Combine in a bowl:
2 C. cooked, cooled lentils, drained
1 egg
1/2 C. cracker crumbs
1 small onion, minced
Tomato juice
Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together using just enough tomato juice to hold mixture in shape when pattied.  Fry like hamburgers in small amount hot oil, shortening or bacon fat.  Serve in buns to complement legume protein.

The truth of the Welfare State

My Grandfather sent this to me, and the irony struck me.  Maybe we should reconsider the way we dole out welfare!

Like most folks in this country, I have a job.  I work, they pay me.  I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.  In order to get that paycheck, in my case, I am required to pass a random urine test (with which I have no problem).

What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test.

So, here is my question:  Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?

Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet.  I do, one the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their BUTT-----doing drugs or whatever they want while I work.

Can you imagine how much money each state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?

I guess we could call the program "URINE OR YOU'RE OUT"!

"Victim" Clarification

A reader just wrote a comment to my post When does a "victim" become culpable?, and I knew that it deserved a thoughtful answer.

The comment is thus:

We may reap what we sow, and his actions may be inexcusable, however that does not render the other party inculpable. Anyone who can transfer a death sentence of this type has an obligation to disclose that fact to a partner, of the same or opposite sex, married or unmarried, it should make no difference. While the object of unmarried persons is having sex, or homosexuals is engaging in their acts, if one partner fails to disclose a situation which could cause another person's death then they are guilty of either manslaughter, 2d or (in cases where the partner has died and the transfer was intentional without the partner knowing) 1st degree murder. Would you say the same thing if, for example, a man was infected with HIV by let's say unclean medical practices, knowing of his infection but being a virgin, then married a virgin woman but did not tell her of his condition, then infected her - would your opinion change? There are facts and there are facts.

The facts are:

Unmarried adulterous relationships are not condoned by God.
Homosexual relationships are not condoned by God.
Perversion is not condoned by God.
Infliction of pain or death on other people is NOT CONDONED BY GOD. 
It is not for us to be so judgmental. We educate our children, so they know better, however let us not forget compassion.


______________________________________________


The truth of the matter is that I do not believe that the other party is not culpable.  I believe that he is.  However, evil loves the dark.  How would you ever expect a person who is actively engaging in an immoral act to do the morally right thing of telling the truth?  In reality, I believe that he deserves the death penalty.  But his culpability does not lessen the culpability of the person he engaged in immoral acts with.  Just because he left out certain truths, does not mean that the other party was a victim.


I did not articulate my opinion regarding a person contracting an incurable disease through no fault of their own.  I think those are totally different situations, even if the end result is the same.  


Many people have died of communicable disease that they had nothing to do with. Contracting HIV through a blood transfusion, or from an unfaithful spouse, getting Hepatitis from working as an EMT on a local ambulance or getting an STD from being raped are just a few instances.  Do I believe those are consequences of sin?  Yes and no.  Yes, they are consequences of someone's sin, just not the person who contracted the disease.  And no, because the victim was not a willing party to the original sin.  These people truly are victims.  


God is a God of mercy and grace.  He is also a God of judgement.  It is not my place to judge man.  That is God's task alone.  However, as you mentioned, God has spoken to the acts of sodomy, adultery, fornication and everything else we humans can think of to degrade ourselves.  I am merely agreeing with God's judgement.


We are to call sin, sin.  Yes, we must have compassion on our fellow man.  But when men are drowning in a sea of sin, what is more compassionate - to be "non-judgemental" and let them die in their sin or to throw them the lifeline of truth of the Word of God.  


There are consequences for our actions.  By God's grace we can be forgiven and by God's grace we are allowed to walk through the consequences of our actions so that we may be conformed into the image of His Son.


________________________________________________


Dear Reader;


Thank you so much for making me think.  And thank you for making me dig deeper into the Word of God so that I can rely on His understanding rather than my own.


Yours,


Enola Gay

When does the "victim" become culpable?

I just read an article in our local paper of a man who will be serving a five year prison sentence for not disclosing to his "sex partner" that he had HIV.  For omitting this crucial piece of information, he will be spending a few years behind bars.  My questions is this.  Was the man he had sex with truly a victim?

First of all, doesn't your Bible say that men are not to have indecent relations with other men?  Mine does.  Second, the "victim" was a married man with children.  When you are behaving foolishly and living sinfully, are you truly victimized by the consequences of your foolish sin?  Or are you living out the consequences of your sinful choices.

So many times, we feel like victims or that the world is unjust, when, in reality, we are suffering the consequences of our own actions.  When our truck engine seizes after we have driven it with an oil leak for eight months, it's not unfair, it is the consequence of poor engine maintenance.  When a teenage girl falls pregnant after months of "married behavior", she is not a victim of circumstance, but rather, she is experiencing the consequences of sinful activities.  

God is the father of mercy.  When we repent, he forgives us our sins.  But that doesn't mean that He takes away the consequence of our sins.  In fact, He uses the consequences to draw us to Him.  He allows our pain in order to bring salvation to our souls.  If we let Him, He will turn our mourning into dancing, but not if we don't acknowledge that our sin, did indeed, bring about the consequences that we are experiencing.  If we blame someone else for our predicament, we have learned nothing, and Christ cannot do His finishing work in us.

When we are breaking the law (moral law) and we reap the consequences of those actions, we are not victims.  We are receiving due penalty.  We need to see sin for what it is.  We need to learn from the consequences of our poor choices and not make those choices again.  We need to stand up and take responsibility.

When we engage immoral activities we are not victims.  We are active participants in our own destruction.

Quarantine: A Preparedness Essential

I was reading a lovely old book the other day and was charmed by the romantic notion of a sick room.  The picture in my mind's eye of a tender little mother nursing her dear child back to health amidst fluffy white pillows, crisp sheets and stories read in hushed tones made me desire to be just such a mother.

When I was growing up, the sick bed was most often the living room couch, where blankets were alternately piled high or kicked to the floor, depending on the temperature of the patient.  Lots of liquids were offered (if we were very lucky, it was 7-up) and my mother's cool hand was frequently laid upon fevered brows.  Tissues were strewn about the room along with throat lozenges, books and whatever diagnostic tools my mother deemed necessary for managing the illness currently troubling us.  And more often than not, one or all family members came down with the offending disease.

As I was reading my lovely old book, I saw, for the first time, beyond the charming scene of the domestic sick room.  I saw the wisdom of old time common sense.  Of course the mothers ministered to their sick in their own room.  It was her way of keeping the rest of her beloved well.  Only Mother visited the sick.  Mother ministered to their every need.  Mother wiped brows, gave sponge baths, read stories and kept watchful vigils -all in the confines of the "sick room".  This sick room, was in actuality, a quarantine.

As preppers, we may want to revisit the ways of our wise forbearers.  They knew that their survival depended on their health.  They knew that to minister to the sick in the public areas of the home would, at the least, subject the family to illness and at the worst spread death through the entire home and perhaps the community at large.

We have lost our respect for disease.  We live in a time of readily available antibiotics and other life saving medications.   No longer do we fear influenza, whooping cough or typhoid.  We think we have beaten these diseases. We are in control.  Not so, I say.  Our control is an illusion.  What if....  What if we don't have access to antibiotics.  What if Strep no longer responds to the antibiotics we have at our disposal.  What if diseases we thought we had eradicated come back in full force.  What if....

Practicing the forgotten skill of quarantine could save your life and the life of those you love.  When you have limited or no access to life saving medications, it will be essential to take a proactive role in stopping the spread of disease.  Quarantine is the essential, common sense approach to stopping disease in its tracks.

Although, initially I viewed the sick room through the lens of romantic, girlish notions, I have come to view it as a preparedness essential.

Specialization is for insects

Years ago, I stumbled across a quote in a classical education book from which I was gleaning wisdom to enhance our homeschool.  It stuck with me like a burr.  The truth evidenced in its words was such a contrast to our current education system and culture, that I saw, with new eyes, the crumbling nature of our society.  It comprised the authors thoughts on what it meant to be human....


A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein


When our children go to State schools they are tested to see what their propensities are and they are then directed toward studies and jobs encompassing those strengths.  If they are good at English, they are encouraged to be teachers or journalists, if they are academically weak, they are encouraged to go to trade school, if they are good in math they are encouraged in the sciences.  Or, perhaps, they are just encouraged to specialize in current societal voids.  In other words, their energies are directed to one specific area rather than to developing themselves as a whole person.

As we all know, there are people with God given gifts in the arts or languages or sciences.  Of course, we should encourage those gifts, but not at the cost of the whole person.  We should be encouraging our children to be true "renaissance men" and renaissance women".  We should be training them not only for academic excellence but also real life, nitty gritty living.  


Sir Knight and I make it a priority to see that our children are well-rounded.  They learn reading, writing and arithmetic along with canning, hunting, running a household, computer skills, land navigation, shooting, sewing and anything else we have the opportunity to teach them.  We listen to classical music, memorize poetry and read classic literature.  We gut and skin deer, butcher chickens and hogs and render tallow.  We provide first-aid and minister to the elderly.  In other words, we live life to the best of our ability and try to provide comfort and encouragement to those we meet.

Our country used to be populated with people who could do anything.  They did what needed to be done and they did it with skill and grace.  The west would never have been won had we waited for people people with a specific skill set.  It was won on the backs of well-rounded, can-do type people with vision and the ability to get things done.  That is what I want for my children.


We can not rely on the State or anyone else to raise up our children to greatness.  We must be active in their education.  God gave us the job of educating our children and nobody else has greater influence in their children's lives than parents.  What an awesome and wonderful responsibility with which we have been entrusted.  Here are the thoughts of another Patriot regarding our children and who they ought to be...


We are steadily asked about the age at which to teach young people to shoot. The answer to this obviously depends upon the particular individual; not only his physical maturity but his desire. Apart from these considerations, however, I think it important to understand that it is the duty of the father to teach the son to shoot. Before the young man leaves home, there are certain things he should know and certain skills he should acquire, apart from any state-sponsored activity. Certainly the youngster should be taught to swim, strongly and safely, at distance. And young people of either sex should be taught to drive a motor vehicle, and if at all possible, how to fly a light airplane. I believe a youngster should be taught the rudiments of hand-to-hand combat, unarmed, together with basic survival skills. The list is long, but it is a parent's duty to make sure that the child does not go forth into the world helpless in the face of its perils. Shooting, of course, is our business, and shooting should not be left up to the state.”


-The late Jeff  Cooper


We are complete beings created in the image of God, not animals created with a solitary purpose. Living a full life is for human beings, specialization is for insects.

A Nation of Beggars

Destroyer of the human spirit

1 in 6 Americans are availing themselves of government assistance.  Yes, you read that correctly.  1 in 6.  The assistance comes in many forms - Medicaid, Food Stamps, Cash Benefits, WIC, Welfare and Unemployement.  Apparently Medicare and Social Security don't count because they are not considered "assistance" but rather "entitlements".

Let me tell you a little story.  When I was growing up, my parents decided to jump off a cliff and follow their dream.  This dream led them from a home, surrounded by family and friends and a wonderful support network to 25 acres of raw land in the middle of nowhere (quite literally) with nothing.  Really, we had nothing.  We knew no one.  Neither of my parents had a job.  Our property was beautiful but devoid of any infrastructure.  There were no buildings, no well, no septic system, no power.  Just rolling fields, tall timber and two creeks.

As I said, my parents moved to this secluded wilderness with no jobs and no prospects, but with an intense desire to live their dreams and the internal fortitude to achieve their quest.  It was no walk in the park.  We spent the first month and a half living in a tent, taking baths in the glacier fed creek and working.  Hard.  We built an outhouse, fenced 25 acres, hand-dug a spring and lined it with cedar, put in a septic system, had power brought in, moved in a single-wide trailer, cut and split eight cord of wood and hauled a winters worth of hay for our five horses.  We accomplished all of this in three months, quite literally by the sweat of our brows.

Fall rolled around and my dad had to find work.  There was very little to be found - nothing in his previous profession of iron working.  There were not a lot of skyscrapers in the backwoods!  He eventually found a job pushing a broom on the night shift of a local saw mill.  He hated every minute of it, but he did it, and was thankful for the work, because he needed to provide for his family.  After working there a short time, he was hired to mechanic for a logger.  This logger was busy, so my dad spent much of his time on the ground under huge logging equipment.  It was a terrible job.  Cold, hard, back-breaking work it was, but it was better than being a janitor at a saw mill, and he did it without complaining.  Our very first Thanksgiving was spent with my dad at his job.  We all lay on the cold November ground beneath a skidder so that we could have Thanksgiving Dinner as a family.  And you know what?  We were truly grateful.

The first winter was the hardest.  We had not lived in our new place long enough for my dad to be able to hunt, so we had no meat.  Money was non-existent, so we had to make do with little or nothing.  By the grace of God, our pastor had connections in farming community about 8 hours away and brought home a truck load of apples and a truck load of potatoes and gave them to families in the church.  We went into winter with some jars of canned goods that my mom had canned from her large garden before we left, a couple hundred pounds of potatoes and about a hundred pounds of apples.  That was it.  Nothing more.

Our nearest neighbor (about a half a mile away) took pity on us and brought a rabbit to grace our dinner table occasionally.  Another neighbor gave us extra eggs from time to time.  As a rule, we didn't eat breakfast or lunch, but my mom always found something to make for dinner.  We never went hungry.  A cause for great excitement came when my Grandma would send a "care package".  It was like Christmas in a box!  She sent breakfast cereal,  cans of soup, toilet paper, toothpaste and all kinds of goodies.  We had never felt more blessed.

We kids never knew we were poor.  My brother and I both have the BEST childhood memories of anyone we know.  Neither one of us ever felt deprived of any good thing.  We had our parents, a roof over our head, food in our bellies (such as it was) and a God that loved us.  What more could children want?  Nothing. 

You may ask what this little story has to do with the price of tea in China.  Everything!  While we were busy being poor, we were learning the most important lessons in life.  We learned that hard work really does pay off and that good things are worth waiting for.  We learned that there is pride to be had in a job well done.  We learned that going without wasn't a bad thing.  It wasn't something to be avoided, but rather something to be embraced as it built our character.  We learned to stand in the face of the impossible and, through sheer grit, make it possible.  We learned to stand on our own two feet and never admit defeat.  Our parents taught us to be adults.  They taught us to be responsible, to fight our own fights and to stand up after we had been knocked down.  They taught us independence.

Our government is destroying what is best in the human spirit.  By always "bailing" people out our government is crippling its' citizens.  Just like a parent that continually provides money and shelter to their drug addict adult child or the parent that lets their adult children live in their basement, eat pizza a play video games all day "just until they find direction", our government is creating generations of "adult children", dependent on them for their daily bread.  It is stealing our independence, our self-esteem and our very individuality.

It is not bad to suffer.  It is not bad to struggle.  Hardship and strife do not produce hopeless, helpless shells of humanity, rather they produce vital, strong, merciful human beings capable of changing their world.

Our government should not be in the roll of indulgent parents.  They should be facilitators of freedom, justice and independence - none of which are dependent on the almighty dollar.  By constantly "assisting" people, our government is destroying the human spirit.

If my parents could make it through years of hardship to realize their dreams, I daresay the majority of the American public could benefit from a little "character building" themselves.

Not so common sense

Have you ever noticed that common sense is not so common?  It seems to be missing from the hallowed halls of academia.  It is nowhere to be found in the marbled galleries of our public servants.  It is absent in the luxurious enclaves of the corporate giants.  Common sense seems to only thrive in the domain of the humble, the independent, the "simple".

Common sense thrives in simple country folk.  It has to.  Country people don't have the luxury of running to the store for parts when the baler goes down and it looks like rain.  They have to find the quickest route between point A and point B.  Typically the quickest route is the simplest route.  The more complicated, the more time it will take and the more money it will require.  Simple is best.  Common sense.

Contrast that with your typical Washington bureaucrat.  Faced with a broken baler and imminent rain, they would form a committee, commission a study and question the EPA about potential ill effects to the environment fixing the baler would cause.  Foolishness.  They try to get from A to B by driving to S, P, Z and F.  No common sense.

Recently, I read an article in our local paper about the fact that the high school drop-out rate in our area was about 29%.  People were earnestly seeking signatures of concerned citizens so that the powers that be would realize there was a problem and funnel more money to public education.  Today, I read two letters to the editor that addressed this drop-out rate and different thoughts on how to deal with them.  I was struck by the disparity of opinion.

The first letter was simple and to the point.
"If a high school diploma or a GED were required to get a permanent driver's license, the dropout problem would evaporate......As a retired university professor who witnessed a steady decline in student attitude and performance, I long for simple solutions.  We need clear-cut rewards and goals that register with students and actually work."

The second letter had a much more convoluted answer to the dilemma.
"The first option is service learning, connecting service in the community with academic skills.  Youth change from being regarded as consumers of crisis-management resources to community assets civically and academically engaged.  The second approach is that by infusing curriculum with art, music and philosophy (i.e., the humanities), students gain confidence in their ability to learn, and "to see the world and themselves differently in the (ancient) Greek sense of reflective thinking, of autonomy."

The simple solution would work.  The solutions offered in the second letter would cost time, money and ultimately be ineffective.  Common sense would dictate that a solution to any problem would be quick, cost effective and most importantly, produce the desired results.  Foolishness, on the other hand, would place more value on the steps taken to achieve the goal rather than any discernible results.

Common sense is simple, but it is not so common.