A Windy Morn

Thursday has arrived, blown in with the wind. No rain yet, but the wind is definitely here. My wind chimes are ringing wildly and at this early hour that’s my only indicator for storms. It’s far too dark to be able to see the trees whipping back and forth.

What is new and exciting? Not a lot. But as I said, it’s early. And since it’s supposed to be stormy, I may do some interesting “inside” things this morning. I have my watercolor class homework to do and I’m working on my first gourd project as well. At 10, I have to attend a Friends of the Library meeting.

We went to the Ash Wednesday service last night and although it was sparsely attended, it was fruitful for us. As it is intended to be. Attending the Federated church brings us some surprises as the services are a mixture of Presbyterian and Methodist styles. Whenever we experience something new; something we have only heard about before, we assume it to be from the Methodists side. And we don’t remember a Presbyterian tradition of Ash Wednesday services? Certainly not from the PCA church, as they would have condemned it as a sign of papacy.

So the 40 days of Lent have begun…and that has to remind us of New Orleans. It must be pretty easy for the citizens of that poor city to give something up. All of the things they want, they can’t have anyway. And you don’t read a lot of headlines about the success stories in New Orleans. Are there any? In fact, you rarely see New Orleans mentioned in the news at all. New Orleans is a political time bomb for the Republicans and no one wants to mention that it is ticking. Speaking of clocks and bombs; did you know that the hurricane season is about to begin once again? June 1st is the official date; but hurricanes can’t read.

And I read that Bush’s popularity has slipped once more in the polls. Why couldn’t those people have seen this coming back in 2000? And again in 2004? Why are they just waking up now?

One of the books I’m reading, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, makes a great deal of the fact that Lincoln quite purposely selected his presidential rivals for important positions within his cabinet. He wanted smart people to advise him and he wanted people with opinions that differed from his own. Do you see the comparison? What if Bush had selected McCain as his VP?