“Political correctness is tyranny with a happy face.” ~ Charlton Heston

****** My wife chastised me for using an illustration where I said something about ladies undergarments. It was an old joke and play on the term Freudian Slip. I explained it to her, but, I wanted to make sure everyone knew I had not gone over to the dark side. ******

Don't look so surprised. We made it to Friday. This one lands itself on October 27, 2017. I suppose none of us really could grasp how totally disconnected we as a nation have become with this political correctness out of control. College students when surveyed indicated they should be within their rights to oppose, disrupt, and shut down any speeches on their campus they disagree with. Freedom of speech to them means to only listen to what they want to hear. They are so lacking in an appreciation for the fundamental principles that have made this country different than others, they even think violence is okay if that's what it takes to stop someone speaking things they do not want to hear. That is a bad sign since these are the people who will be assuming positions of influence in the future. It is a coast to coast issue as the educational world becomes more and more freewheeling in their pursuit of liberal ideology. One would think the university administration and those teaching in these institutions of higher learning would step in and try to stop this runaway train that will eventuate a dismantling of the freedoms we all hold dear. These are not liberal or conservative values. They are our moorings upon which this nation was founded. They say President Trump has caused this development since he is so divisive. Hogwash! These rights like freedom of speech are not up for interpretation, regardless of who occupies the Oval Office. Alarmist talk? I will not apologize because I think it's time for us all to be worried.

We had us a really promising weather forecast in the works for tomorrow and Sunday but the experts are beginning to waver just a tad. They had originally said we might be in the mid to lower 30's and that could be record setting. I checked a few minutes ago and now they have Saturday pegged at mid to upper 30's and Sunday is all the way up to mid to upper 40's. The potential for record-setting lows for this time of year made for some good soundbites and headlines for a couple of days. Just so you know, I was pulling for the mid to low 30's. We all enjoy our version of a nice weather day. Here's a paragraph from a letter written in October 1841 by the highly respected female author, George Eliot, “Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonize. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." At the end of it all, I will, Lord willing, get up to whatever the weather is, and enjoy myself a cup of Community Coffee to get my day started.

Looking in the week's rearview mirror tells me I've done my usual clamoring on about this, that, and the other, often with little rhyme or reason, but hopefully, always including a testimony based on the life one can have as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I often have wondered how I will think about mom and dad as the days continue. Everyone knows how often I think about my grandparents and especially Paw Paw Mac. With mom and dad, it may be slightly more subtle, but, they were a part of who I am, and that continues to this very moment. It goes beyond missing them. And, while their passing from this life to the next took its natural course, the fact they are no longer with us catches me off guard from time to time. I suppose that happens because they were embedded in our 24 hour day. Disconnecting from that has not been altogether easy or smooth. However, we all are left with remarkable sweet memories and for that, I am both thankful and grateful to God. I am so glad they lived and loved in such a way as to have made that possible. As for those who have wondered how I would use all the time now available that was once used in interacting with our parents, well, just like everything else in this busy world, it has been absorbed. Funny how that works. Now it is on to the previously forecasted record lows which have now been adjusted. Enjoy your Saturday and may Sunday find us all in the gathering place to honor and worship God. Amen. ....More later.