2020 LOCKDOWN LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Cousins 2019, Emporia, KS

“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.” —Albert Einstein

People enter our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. 

It’s on us to determine if they’re a blessing or a lesson.

This family reunion photo last Labor Day weekend documented the first time most all of us cousins that had grown up together in central Kansas gathered together in many years.  Given the social gathering restrictions this year, it was fortuitous that we scheduled this reunion last year!  We all got together individually off and on, but Sunday afternoons at our grandparents’ home was one of the principle gatherings that united and defined us.  We didn’t always get along all of the time, but we always prayed grace together around the dinner table under lots of loving supervision.  Destiny and divine blessings, not merely coincidence, brought us cousins together for a lifetime.

And although we didn’t know it at the time, those were critical developmental years in a child’s life and my lingering memories over fifty years later are all good.  Our generation has followed our bliss out into this great country like so many others, but we hold onto those cherished memories, especially on this unique 2020 lockdown Labor Day weekend where folks are instructed NOT to gather together!  There’s no question that we humans keep those pleasant memories within our grasp while the unpleasant ones drift out of mind.  I’m certain that no one left the late-in-life gathering with nothing but new and resurrected pleasant memories that will now sustain us this year and into our own grandparenting years, even if it’s often on FaceTime!  

 

SELF IMPROVEMENT

Regional Tennis Medal, Emporia, KS

Life isn’t about being better than anyone else except yourself. Perfection may not be possible, but improvement is always there for the effort. We may get beaten in the game, but if we got better, we were victorious.  We often don’t know what’s possible until we encounter a higher standard.

I still recall a state doubles tennis match when my partner and I were waxed by superior opponents. Our coach told us after the match on the KSU campus that one of the players on the other side of the net was the son of the university tennis coach.  But the tough competition ranked it as the best tennis I had ever played and I still think positively about the experience!

 

BLITZ SPIRIT!

Air Raid Shelter, London

Germany’s primary offensive strategy at the outset of World War II was their use of the blitzkrieg or “lightning warfare”.  After defeating France and establishing a foothold by the North Sea across from Britain, they initiated a bombing campaign now known as The Battle of Britain.  Their intention was to break the morale of the British people to acquire a quick capitulation by pressuring Churchill.  It lasted from 1940 into 1941. 

A total of 300 German bombers attacked London on September 7, 1940, in the first of 57 consecutive nights of relentless bombing.  The bombing sent the people into underground shelters isolating with their families every night.  By the end of 1940, over 15,000 civilians had been killed.  But the bombing did not accomplish its desired objective, rather it had the opposite effect by coalescing the British people to face a common enemy with a steady resolve!  A Gallop poll revealed that 97% of Britons expected to win the war, volunteers increased, longer shifts were worked and contributions for “Spitfire Funds” increased as the Britons out produced the Germans in aircraft.  And they turned the blitzkrieg on its ear with their self-proclaimed “blitz spirit”!

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of folks that have been intently observing all of the blitzkrieg initiatives in our country for almost four years, starting with the relentless first two and a half years of a sham impeachment of our duly elected President.  This included a special investigation costing millions of taxpayer dollars followed by no evidence of impeachable wrong doing.  The entire fiasco distracted the nation from the release of a worldwide viral pandemic which has sent all of us into an attempted economic and morale buster.  Politics in America seems to have reached a new low in divisiveness.    

As the 2020 “infection election” draws nearer, most of us around the country have sat in our living rooms dutifully trying to slow the spread of the virus while watching protests in the streets being hijacked by criminal rioters.  And we have watched as mayors of many of our largest cities stand by and let them destroy the safety and property of their citizens—and our country!  Now we’re even hearing “Chicken Little” screaming about the Post Office and a six-foot meteor that has less than a one-half of one percent chance of hitting our planet close to election day.

Political polls were totally wrong in the Presidential election of 2016, perhaps because of the Silent Majority that loves this country and its foundational beliefs.  This country is not perfect and it’s imperative to make it better.  Even Martin Luther King, Jr understood that the majority of Americans and people all over the world like the 1940 Britons also understand that a systematic blitzkrieg of violence and deception is not the ultimate way to victory. 

And that can stir a Blitz Spirit in response!     

 

CHICKEN KARMA

Roosting Chickens, Internet Domain

A lot of the old country wisdom the human race acquired during the agrarian age is sadly slipping into the dust bins of history.  My parents were part of a declining generation to grow up on a farm in central Kansas, so I still have distant echoes of this wisdom every now and then as the situation arises.  And some childhood memories still remain on a short leash, depending how much of an impression they left on my psyche at the time. 

Once I received a birthday bicycle, I rode that bike all over the neighborhood and even occasionally strayed beyond the outer forbidden fringes.  I also tested the boundaries of how fast I could maneuver it over the city streets and sidewalks.  On one very memorable day, I had almost reached warp speed on my bike as I made a sharp left turn onto a neighbor’s concrete driveway scattered with gravel.  The bike shot out from under me in an instant and the resulting fall left both of my exposed knees and elbows bloodied from sliding across the oversized sandpaper!  When I limped back into our house on that sunny summer day, all that my unsympathetic mother could say was “Well, it looks like the chickens have come home to roost.  I told you this would happen!”  It always excessively smarts when someone is chastising you and you know they’re right.

The consequences of our deeds generally catch up with us and “what goes around, comes around”.  That goes for both good and bad deeds.  It’s also been said that doing good is like scattering bread on the water.  Sooner or later it circles back around to us.  Kinda’ like karma.  Generally speaking, if you’re mean-spirited, bad things happen and if you’re kindly, good karma happens.

So it was with some neighborly texting today.  I was just made aware that someone I knew had contracted the Covid virus.  A neighbor sadly reported that a weekend beach trip resulted in being surrounded by people everywhere that were not social distancing or wearing protective masks.  We humans are relational beings, so we like to be social.  And it was noted that we’re all beginning to experience “quarantine fatigue” after months of isolation from one another.  After watching the feature group in the Scottish LPGA get put on the clock for slow play yesterday, I had texted earlier “let’s put 2020 on the clock, get a vaccine in play, and make the turn to toast 2021 together again!” 

And the hope is that we will all once again freely gather on the beaches, at sporting events, in our places of worship, at the mall, in airplanes, hotels and restaurants, etc.  But if there are still those who do not respect a very contagious virus among us, then “chicken karma” will be visited upon us and “the chickens will have come home to roost” once again.  

 

REMEMBER THE COYOTE!!!

Don't ever forget to stand just behind the social distance X's

X      X      X      X      X      X      X

on the floor at check out stations during these pandemic days!

 

GOOD OL’ COUNTRY WISDOM

Vine-ripened Tomatoes, Colfax, NC

I swung by the local Farmer’s Market this morning on a carantining drive to pick up some vine-ripened, summer tomatoes.   A good ol’ country woman was just checking out a customer as I approached her scale.  I overheard her saying “This’ll all be over after the election.”  And then she wryly looked me in the eye and concluded “And we’ll all be over if we don’t vote right.”  I wasn’t about to get her riled up and ask who she was voting for in November!

And just for the record, good ol’ country knowledge is being aware that tomatoes are a fruit while good ol’ country wisdom is knowing not to put them in a summertime fruit salad.  But really, good ol’ country living is knowing how to make a ‘mater sandwich and mix them in a Bloody Mary for an appetizer!

 

CLOUD IMAGES

Teddy Bear

Centaur 

Jamestown, NC

Bored with the lockdown? Boredom frees our brains to be less focused and be more creative. 

Remember your bored times as a kid looking for images in the clouds? 

Summer afternoon skyscapes with Centaurs and Teddy Bears are fertile grounds for curing COVID boredom.