partsofspeaking

Conspiracy stories rampant! We have three choices: laugh at them (and thus add to our cynicism), immerse ourselves in them (and thus add to our anger), or consider them distractions and wait for the truth to come out over time.  The 24/7 news cycle has to be fed; as I've often said, in the absence of information (and the information people want), things get made up or at least embellished wildly.  For some of us, we just wait for the next thing to stoke our need for distraction.   Traveling friend and I drove two hours to Murphy, NC, to visit an amazing place, the John C. Campbell Folk School.  I want to read about it some more before I post anything of depth, but I will say this: the folks that work there were hospitable and kind and excited about what they do, and that means a great deal. I interviewed some of them for my podcast.  Shout out! Also drove through beautiful north Georgia and Western North Carolina, stopped for peaches at Mercier's Orchard in...

Former President Trump shot at a rally.  Republican Convention.  J. D. Vance surprise VP pick.  A massive Internet outage. President Biden drops out of the race.  Kamala Harris becomes (maybe) the Dem nominee, what a match up.  Sheesh.  The pundit types have exploding heads.

 On Saturdays I do book events this summer. Today I will be at a market from 9-1 and at Barnes and Noble in Chattanooga from 2-4. I am writing this on Friday night after watching a good bit of the Republican National Convention and other news coverage, listening to many political podcasts, and thinking a lot.  Things I know:  1. President Biden needs to drop out of the race, and if he had done it earlier, he and his people could have controlled the narrative and made it seem like he was resigning from the race for the good of the country and party. Now that is too late; he just looks like an angry, deluded, and ill old man who can't or won't accept reality.  2. The media is not to be trusted in their portrayal of Donald Trump. I am not saying he is innocent of a lot of serious things, including disregarding the constitution, just that he is not what they present him as and they get away with the misrepresentation. The fascist narcissist is apparently a really human a...

It has been ten days since I posted last. The absence has been due to three reasons, in ascending order.  1. A friend and I took a trip to Clintwood, VA. This is not an auspicious place, but a good one.  It is the county seat of Virginia's "baby" county, which means it was the last one to be created in the late 1800s by take parts of two adjacent counties in Southwestern Virginia on the Kentucky border.  We took the trip because it is the setting of my latest novel and I wanted to visit it. The Director of Jonnie B. Deel Librarian, Kim Rose, probably wondered why this random woman from Georgia was calling her abut having a book event in July, but she set up a wonderful time. I met the ladies who run the Dickenson County Historical Society and they gave us a tour of their archives, and it is a labor of love.  We also stopped at my grandmother's home place and the "Natural Tunnel State Park," and I got to see how much the little town I visited as a child in th...

We sang this song yesterday and it was quite worshipful--no applause afterward.  Many say that worship songs today are not meaningful, but I disagree. Some are, some aren't. This one is. Recency of being published does not make a hymn good or bad. There are many old ones we do not know about because, I suppose, they did not resonate, and even worship songs have their fashions.  But all that is argumentative and somewhat negative, so listen and read.  Sometimes my posts border on the "wise guy," but not today and yesterday.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjB0mkj0XaM How I long to breathe the air of Heaven Where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets To look upon the One who bled to save me And walk with Him for all eternity   There will be a day when all will bow before Him There will be a day when death will be no more Standing face to face with He who died and rose again Holy, holy is the Lord   And every prayer we prayed in desperation The songs of fa...

14  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son [ d ] from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15  (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16  For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14-17).  We may not get much grace from other people, and some people seem bent on not granting any grace, probably because they feel stronger when others are weaker.   But from God we get "grace upon grace." How much grace is that, anyway?  The Bible Reference.com website states:  The ultimate expression of God's love for mankind is grace. Grace is best described as being given what you do not deserve. This is different from mercy, which means not getting what you do deserve, such as punishm...

  I have to admit, I laughed at this. The audacity. Trump is definitely entertaining. Wildly immoral and generally incompetent (not because he's incapable, but because his North Star is himself, his ego, his power) , but entertaining. I have heard him compared to Nebuchadnezzar, in the sense that God used someone like Neb despite his paganism and Neb eventually humbled himself before God. I think that's an insult to Neb.  Now I'm being a wise guy, and the one thing the world could use less of is wise guys.  Don't worry folks; not an endorsement of Joe. Update July 21: Joe cannot be endorsed any more. Perhaps he can rest now.