Rain today, tomorrow storms. Life in Southern Illinois. We carried our happiness with us. We wore a cloak of peace. We held an olive branch in our hands. Our Vice President insults our greatest allies. Many of them have died in our wars protecting us. This passes for wisdom among the potsherds.

The smallness of our actions reveals our diminished role on the world stage. We march headlong into the battle for the soul of America. Which soul are we reflecting? Is it the soul of life acceptance and diversity, or is it the soul we seek the destruction of all who are in our way of achieving our goals?

Job scraped himself with a potsherd when his boils erupted with pus. He sat among the ashes. Job cried out to God. So it goes when we forget who we are. We lose the plot. A story as old as time. Give us a Golden Calf that we may worship, the Israelites said to Aaron. They got weary of waiting for Moses on Mt. Sinai. Perhaps God forgot them and became preoccupied with more interesting pursuits. Maybe he found little people he liked better. What if it was nothing but a big tease?

Addiction is hard to quit. Smoking kills as people puff merrily to the grave. We seek those who will fill our itching ears with a balm that validates our fears and conspiracy theories. Unemployment is at historical lows, so let’s fire thousands of people…that will make the economy boom…

‘Why is life so complex?’ The woman asked the Preacher? ‘Leader tells us to trust him and that he represents God…but the things he asks of us are bizarre,’ the Woman continued. ‘Is it true that only a few humans are predestined for Heaven while the rest are chaff upon the thresing floor,’ the Woman asked with tears in her eyes?

‘People across the Earth are suffering and sit among the potsherd hungry and hurting, yet all aid for them has been withdrawn in favor of better government,’ the Man said. ‘The hopeful have become hopeless… is this how it should be with God?’ The Man asked. ‘To take from those who have nothing and give to those who have everything is an abomination,’ the Man said as he spat upon the ground!

‘This is how nations devolve,’ the Preacher said. ‘Faith in God raises a nation until it becomes rich…then it seeks exclusively what money can buy,’ the Preacher admonished. ‘The greatest gift life…is here one moment and gone the next yet men and women believe how they are today is how they will always be,’ the Preacher said. ‘A dream shaded in a foggy mirror is the promise…many can not see it,’ the Preacher quietly said.