Opinions

At the local golf course, which is beginning to resemble an old folks home, we’ve been playing Scrabble since “women of a certain age” shouldn’t be golfing in heat index temperatures exceeding 110 degrees.

Do you ever feel like we are just too busy? That there is too much going on? That we just need to slow down a little bit? While it seems like our lives have been sped up because of technology and other advances, the issue of being in too big of a hurry has been around for a while. In fact, over fifty years ago there was an interesting study done by a group of sociologists about busyness. That study, back in 1973, was called “From Jerusalem to Jericho: A Study of Situational and Dispositional Variables in Helping Behavior.”

I’ve been waiting a long time for my book, “Loon Point,” to sell.

If I have a much-anticipated trip on the calendar, I wring the joy out of it by making a long list of what to wear, what to take and what to accomplish before I leave. It’s exhausting.

There is more than enough humor in politics to fuel the late night comics, though they roast only one side. They have worked overtime in support of the liberal elites since the forced exile of presumptive presidential candidate, Joe Biden. When Karine Jean-Pierre had her 50th birthday on August 13, her pants caught fire. Her blatant lies saying Biden was sharp, in great shape, and does more in three hours than most Americans do all day was a cover.

His name was Thomas. He wasn’t a Philadelphia lawyer, but I wouldn’t have loved or admired him more in a threepiece suit. His fluorescent vest with silver stripes was charming enough.

I have been blessed with many cousins. My two cousins closest in age were both boys, Brian and Dane. We went camping and hiking together and stayed in the cabin up north. We all remember the day we made tea from red sumac berries, and -- after we’d drunk about a gallon each -- my Uncle Mike told us, “You know that stuff is a laxative, don’t you?” (For the record, it is not.)

I read a book years ago by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale called, “The amazing results of positive thinking” and I recommend it as an inspiration and encouragement to your spiritual life. He explains that our mind is constantly bombarded with all types of persuasions and each of us are held accountable to manage them. We have the ability to resist and ignore the negative influences that distracts us or we can pray and seek the Lord for a stronger discernment and sensitivity to deception. It was during this time of studying how the mind is considered the battlefield of spiritual warfare, that I had a powerful dream. I do not always place a lot of credibility in dreams, but on the other hand, the Bible reveals that some dreams are used by God as a way of communication. Anyway, here was my dream.

I haven’t gone camping in a tent in a long time. I grew up camping and, for much of that time, it was in a tent. My parents would take my sister and me to the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Canada for about a week. We’d paddle our canoes from one lake to the next. We’d listen to the loons at night. We’d build a fire. We’d eat dried food -- which miraculously tasted better the farther we paddled from civilization. We’d drink water right out of the lake, before we needed expensive filters. We’d use the latrine deep in the woods. I still vividly remember the time I felt flies landing on my behind -- only to look down into the latrine and see a whiskered woodchuck looking up at me!