Painted Arches In the Sky

Gosh, I see that Pope Benedict has canonized six new saints.  What a guy!  According to that, there must be more bureacuracy and hierarchy in the life to come. 

Now that I'm in my 60's, "the next life" definitely gets more daily thought and a whole lot of confusion.  My curious mind continues to dig and search, and I should be smart enough to know that if the Great Minds haven't figured life out yet.....well, how dare I think that I might.  Oh, well, it's what I do and I'm not gonna stop.

I do have to confess that I don't believe in a hell.  I just don't think there's such a place as has been depicted with fire, pitchforks, devils, and all sorts of other horrid and horrible elements.  Personally, I think the concept of hell was conjured up to scare us into behaving ourselves.  It wouldn't be possible for me to trust in a god who would create a place such as hell.  Nope, I couldn't do it.

Two things we know we should never discuss--religion and politics.  Both, to me, go into the same category.  We are told to believe one thing, only to be let down.

The sky is a soft blue this morning, and the air is crisp.  There are combines, wagons, semis, and tractors in the fields trying to get the corn harvested while the weather cooperates.  Farm machinery these days are gigantic, and we watch these metal monsters crawl back and forth, gathering gold dust in their paths. 

Technology has transformed farming from the days I lived on a farm.  Actually, I don't even know what some of these new-fangled huge machines do.  I remember back in the 1950's the day our family got a frantic phone call from our neighbor after he had gotten his arm caught in a shredder.  The four of us dropped everything, piled into our car and flew over to their house, only to find their kitchen floor covered in blood.  My mother shooed me into the livingroom to stay with the kids and keep them away from the kitchen, my dad and brother drove the neighbor and his wife to the nearest Catholic Hospital, and poor mother scrubbed and cleaned the blood off the floor with a mop and buckets of water.  Since that one day, I cannot help but be frightened of farm accidents.  The neighbor lost his arm, of course, but he courageously went on with his life using a hook for an arm and hand.  What choice did he have but to accept and adapt to such a cruel beating of fate.

Somewhere.......

We can never take for granted all the preciously simple things, because they can be taken from us in one split second.  It's a give-and-take life.  We give and we get and we lose.  I know it's an old cliche, but thank heaven that a window will open out of the blue when one is closed to us.  Don't ask me how or why that is, but it is.  It's one of those mysteries that we can't put a finger on, yet we know is true.  It's sorta like knowing that morning follows night and that rainbows follow the rain. 

Today's Trivia:  It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.