Since my inner clock was still set on daylight saving’s time I curiously found myself driving to the office an hour earlier this morning. It’ll take a few days for me to get adjusted, so I’ll just have to live with getting up an hour earlier than normal. For sure I’ll be ready for bed all the sooner tonight.
Since it was rainy and dark this morning, I decided to attend a church Service here in the City. There were more people in attendance than I’ve seen before which got me to wondering why. Perhaps all the many more felt in need of a little spiritual up-lifting, but unfortunately I didn’t get much out of it other than the Scripture readings because I was forced to hear one of the worst sermons I’ve heard in many months.
In these times of near continuous audio/visual entertainment people are getting, I believe it’s time the elders of our main-line churches to encourage their pastors to get themselves brought up to speed with their styles and subsequent deliveries of their sermons. Unfortunately, times have changed and those very churches that have survived for hundreds of years and beyond, are under attack by all these new-age religious sects that are keen on providing fine-tuned visuals and dramatic sermons so to keep their brethren captivated. Believe me, I’ve heard a few of them, and they’re definitely a force to be reckoned with. Don’t get me wrong, I believe everyone has the right to attend any religious service they see fit, but the aggressive proselytizing they do is something I’m very much against, and only because I’m nearly 100% certain real faith comes from within, which is why I’ve always had a soft spot for the contemplatives.
I can think of the number of times when I’ve been openly approached by members of our growing alt-right religious groups who were in hopes I’d become one of their flock, but what’s always torqued me, is when they’ll nearly never let go of their persuasions, and even when after I’ve said, “Thank you, NO. I’m perfectly happy with my own religious affiliations.” The most laughable, is oft times finding them being of my age group which makes them look and sound all the more embarrassing when knowing they weren’t brought up to conduct themselves in such fashions. They sometimes remind me of political and/or religious zealots, and especially when they bring up “Rapture”, which sends me walking away all the faster. I’m hoping and praying this tribalism which is running all the more rampant in our country will stop because when you step back and look at the whole picture, you’ll find it’s going to create the greatest dis-unity in our Country since our Civil War, and look what that did to our country.
My day was de-railed by a happening at one my listings where it was discovered that someone with muddy shoes tracked all over the house. Since the owner lives out of State, I took it upon myself to clean up the mess, and of course, once I got started, I didn’t want to stop until the home looked far better than it did before I appeared on the scene. Thank goodness our Iowa mud, when fully dried, will vacuum up as long as one is in possession of a good machine. The one from my office is an older model, but it does a markedly better job than I’ve seen even with those newer models. I always make sure its filter is cleaned and its canister emptied often. If something ever happens to it, I’ll for sure be searching the web for one just like it.
While over at that house today, the doorbell rang, and thinking it was a curious neighbor, I quickly went and opened the door. To my surprise there was a young lady with an arm-full of political pamphlets. I could see one of the politician’s names, and before she said anything I said, “I don’t live here and the owner’s not around.” She paused a moment while giving me a questioning look and then finally saying, “Ok thanks”, and walked back to her car. The strangest thing about her being there, was when I looked at her license plates as she was driving off, and noticing her plates being from Massachusetts, which was not the first time I’ve recently seen plates on vehicles owned by political workers. I can’t help but wonder what’s making our local races so important to where we’re getting them out-of-State. Just this morning I noticed a young man and woman crawling out of a car with New Jersey plates and carrying political paraphernalia who looked like they’d just stepped off the runway of a fashion show. Has politics in North Iowa become a beauty contest?
One of my well-knowns called today asking how things have been on my side of the fence. We had a good chat which covered a number of subjects, but it became all the more intense when the subject of jealousy and hatred was brought up. We’re both of the mind-set that such mentalities are the worst because they poison the dynamics of far too many families and sometimes even towns and small cities. We shared a number of instances where many wells have been polluted by such wicked mindsets. How did we leave it? Well, what we both mutually agreed, was that’s all we both can do is to send such evils down, consider such sources, and continue moving onward and upward with our respective paths of life.
I’m hoping you all had a delightful day in spite of how cold, wet, and dark it was. And please, don’t walk into your homes anytime soon and find “cat tracks” like I did this morning. When first seeing them, I was in near disbelief, and thank goodness nobody was there to see my jaw dropping in awe.
Tonight’s on-line is: Even a genius cannot resist the Zeitgeist, which is the spirit of one’s time.
