Got Purpose?

The 2004 post-election political commentaries that ensue from the media are familiar echoes of a Shakespearean line uttered on stage few hundred years earlier:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries

Julius Caesar

Act IV, Scene 3

With the election results settled, the political pundits are now dispensing the "render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" advices for governance. Some are even contriving a social-political agenda on "render unto God the things that are God's." The latter prospect is promulgated by the minority political party for its failing to anticipate the rising tide of the so-called "moral values" gathered at the exit polls. Whether the perceived moral values had contributed to one party's election victory and another's defeat are still being debated.

One ought to be so careful when considering a religion makeover for the purpose of political expediency. God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7).

Faith, hope, and charity are and because of God (1 Corithians 13:13; James 1:27). They can not be grafted on by political motivations nor attained by looking to self-help gurus.

Lest one cirlces or drifts aimlessly, faith and charity are a two-oar endeavor to one rowing in the river of life. They are borne of a contrite heart, with faith and hope placed in God (Psalm 51; 1 Peter 1:19-23). The direction to row comes from an abiding heart in response to Christ's love. All because it was He who loved us first (1 John 4:19).

We see a heart of service poured out from this faith-based poem, “I Shall Not Pass This Way Again.” This poem is an eloquent expression of a Christian woman who seeks and finds a life with purpose. A comfortable and idyllic existence is preferred but not purposeful. The Canadian poet and composer, Eva Rose York (1858 - post-1935), writes in these excerpted passages:

O God, forgive

That now I live

As if I might, sometime, return

To bless the weary ones that yearn

For help and comfort every day,-

For there be such along the way.

O God, forgive that I have seen

The beauty only, have not been

Awake to sorrow such as this;

That I have drunk the cup of bliss

Remembering not that those there be

Who drink the dregs of misery.

I love the beauty of the scene,

Would roam again o'er fields so green;

But since I may not, let me spend

My strength for others to the end,-

For those who tread on rock and stone,

And bear their burdens all alone,

Who loiter not in leafy bowers,

Nor hear the birds nor pluck the flowers,

A larger kindness give to me,

A deeper love and sympathy;

Then, O, one day

May someone say-

Remembering a lessened pain-

"Would she could pass this way again."

To read the complete poem:

I Shall Not Pass This Way Again

Autumn in Modesto, CA 2004

A View from Woodrow Park - E. Rumble Road


Taking advantage of a respite from the rain on this Veteran's Day, I went to Woodrow Park and took some digital photos of the fall color.

This park is a stone's throw from our house. In fact, Woodrow Park is one of three large public parks in our neigborhood. It's rare these days for a neighborhood to be situated within a radius of less than a mile from large parks such as these (pictures not shown).

War and Remembrance - Part II

Arlington National Cemetery, October 2003

Tell them of us and say,

For their tomorrow,

We gave our today.

~John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958)~

War and Remembrance - Part I

Red Corn Poppies/Flanders Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)

Next to the entrance at the Raley's supermarket on Tully, an elderly man sat quitely next to a table with a sign draping over the front which read "VFW...". Over the white table cloth laid a number of delicately hand-made red poppies. A stack of pamphlets. Near the edge of the table stood a 5-lb coffee container donation canister.

I pressed a bill into the canister and greeted the veteran. The soft spoken man who donned his service cap smiled, and handed me a poppy. He was borne in 1938. He asked if I were a veteran. I said I was a baby-boomer. We touched upon the wars of the past and present.

Many today, he said, didn't see war and remembrance like the "old ways." Before we parted, he asked if I were married. Then he gave me a second flower and a VFW pamphlet explaining the "Buddy" poppy. *

This soft spoken senior I met two Saturdays past was once a young soldier who fought in a war. Many years from now, how would our veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars talk about their "old ways"?

I lost one of the two poppies inside the store. The other one I tied it inside my truck behind the rear view mirror.

Today is the US Marine Corp's 229th birthday. Semper fi!

Suggested readings:

In Flanders Field - John McCrae
A Reply to "In Flanders Field"

In remembrance of a Modesto friend's brother, Justin Wood, along with others, gave their lives for duty, honor, and country on June 25, 1996, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

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*VFW poppies are assembled by disabled, needy and aging veterans in VA hospital, state veteran's homes and domiciliaries across the country. The majority of proceeds derived from each campaign conducted by VFW Posts and their Ladies Auxiliaries is retained locally to provide for veteran services and welfare.

Buddy Poppy proceeds represent no profit to any VFW unit. The money contributed by the public for Buddy Poppies is used primarily in the cause of veterans welfare, or for the well-being of their needy dependents and the orphans of veterans.

The U.S. Congress by Joint Resolution in Many 20, 2004, honoring past and current members of the Armed Forces and encouraging Americans to wear red poppies on Memorial Day.

Autumn at Monticello, 2003

Monticello, Fall Foliage, October 2003

This picture was taken on a warm October month at the Thomas Jefferson's world renown Monticello in 2003. As I recall, the temperture at Charlottesville, VA, was in the sunny 70's.

We have our Central Valley Fall Color.

If the weather permits (rain is in the forecast), I hope to get a few photos along the tree-lined Rumble Road near our neighborhood.

The Providential Election

There is a plethora of postmortems why Senator Kerry did not win the 2004 presidential elections. They are all very similar in diagnosis. I like to entertain heretofore an unexplored explanation. Senator Kerry was not destined to win this presidential election. Only God could have written, produced, and directed the implausible screen plays for George W. Bush's winning the two presidential elections.

Our United States, once founded upon Judeo-Christian principals, is now drowning in a sea of discontent and ever angry secularism from within. It now also facing the rising tides of post 9-11 Islamofascism from abroad. The country is treading precariously in a roiling sea of hate.

Christianity always seems like one generation away from extinction. Yet God never fails His own. He has a way of passing the baton to the next chosen one to race ahead of Satan in this pre-ordained contest. I am inclined to think George W. Bush has walked and is walking in the light of God's countenance (Psalm 89:15-18). His presidency is an act of Providence. His faith and moral clarity could be viewed as a beacon of hope, purpose, and anchor for the world's last and strongest bastion of Christianity.

In Ephesian 1, verse 10, Paul speaks of how God is a good steward with the history of His creation, which includes man. He manages this world well, not only as it relates to people in general, but most important, how it relates to our salvation. God has a plan for this president (and all believers). Perhaps God's purpose for this president is to take on a pivotal role in the on-going spiritual warfare with evil (Ephesians 6:12), thus ensuring the message of salvation goes forth still.

Suggested readings:

On Secularism in US Politics:
Read Here

On the Isalimzation of Europe:
Read Here

On Islamofascism Rising in Holland:
Read Here 1 of 2
Read Here 2 of 2

Fair and Balanced on PBS

I suppose PBS has discovered by doing "fair and balanced" news commentaries other than showcasing Bill Moyer and his ilk could improve its image and rating. The syndicate is now featuring the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal to a weekly 30 minutes roundtable news discussion as The Wall Street Journal Editorial Report.

This group is the braintrust of the Wall Street conservatives. I am not going to look at this gift-horse in the mouth. I welcome the program while it lasts.

Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune

Last evening was a hectic time. I ran my own election decision desk for the states Ohio and Florida. Brit Hume et. al at Fox News Channel were biding their time in calling these two states for incumbent President George W. Bush. The ghost of the year 2000 Florida state election mess still haunted the networks. Notwithstanding the lesson of the Florida electoral projection debacle then, I thought it’s time to crunch my own election return numbers for these two swing states.

My election decision desk consisted of a Window XP PC, a television tuned to Fox News. I had several IE browsers windows opened and multi-tasked the following sites: The Drudge Report, The Fox News on-line electoral count, the Florida State on-line return tabulation, the Ohio State on-line return tabulation, and the Republican Red State blog.

I called both races for President Bush by 9:30 PM PST (12:30 AM EST). Nevertheless, I hovered about the television set waited for the validation of my projections. The confirmation finally came from Brit Hume near or at about mid-night (3:00 AM EST).

My able assistant, Irene, had provided this learned observation of the popular vote. The nearly four million popular votes President Bush received over Senator Kerry could very well have been cast by voters with strong religious and moral beliefs. (Note: The Republican top strategist, Karl Rove, estimated in the 2000 election, four million Christians did not vote.)

From under the vitriolic mud-slinging and accusations, the President had endured and won the election for a second term in office. The fringe Democratic Party elements are so despondent and outraged that the fortunate-son, President George W. Bush, has won - again. The President's resounding victory gives rise to a new meaning of the oft quoted phase, “Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune.”*

*Wiliam Shakespeare - "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" Act III, Scene 1.

Vote!

Consider King David's last words when you vote.

Thanks to Richard and Ginger Colla for this Randall Thompson's inspirational chorale piece at Sunday's service.

The text for "The Last Words of David" is based on verses taken from the Book of Second Samuel:

"He who rules over men righteously, Who rules in the fear of God, Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, When the tender grass springs out of the earth, Through sunshine after rain" -- II Samuel 23:3-4 NASB)

Listen to Randall Thompson's "The Last Words of David"

Presidential Election Predictions

Frank: Bush 56; Kerry 44

Irene: Bush 53; Kerry 47