Sometimes it is the confluence of two separate, and seemingly unrelated,things or events that produce the most interesting results.
The two things that I am talking about today are the upcoming release of another Star Wars movie and me reading last Sunday’s Terre Haute (That’s French for, “May the Force be with you at Walmart”) newspaper.
LIKE IT OR NOT, and I’m not overjoyed about it, but Halloween is coming up fast and spurious. What started out as part of a religious observance has been turned into…I’m not quite sure what. A Candy Corn coated excuse to give children gingivitis? A promo for several TV shows about people in bad makeup stumbling around, snarling like Charlie Sheen on a good day?
![news_3456[1]](https://johnkraft.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/news_34561.jpg)
THIS PAST SUNDAY MORNING was different than most Sundays, but an absolute delight nonetheless.
SOME DAYS START OUT BADLY. Little warning signs are dropped in your path that tell you, “Go back to bed. Stay there until tomorrow. Save yourself.” Yesterday morning was one of those days.
Let me explain.
EVERY WEEK ON FACEBOOK I see people posting old pictures of themselves or their kids – or even their dogs and cats. The pictures of themselves invariably show them looking pounds slimmer and without any gray hair. The dogs and cats look about the same – just smaller.
Young woman plays with a albino burmese python
I SAW A NEWS STORY THE OTHER DAY datelined out of South Africa. It appears that a young American woman was visiting a Wild Animal Park – one of those places where you drive through the area where the animals reside and you take pictures. She didn’t follow the rules and ended up as the Blue Plate Special for a pride of lions.
IN MY NEVER-ENDING SEARCH for knowledge and interesting current events I check several major news outlets daily: NY Times, The Times of London, and of course, The Baxter Bulletin of Mountain Home, Arkansas.
Who among the Cognoscenti does not?
IS IT SOMETHING I SAID? Did I cross some obscure interspecies wires somehow? Why is that darn mini-horse/dog taking over a part of every day in my life?
Zeus: The dog that could eat Chicago if he knew where it was.
I LIKE DOGS. I LIKE CATS. I like most animals. Some I like as pets – others I like as an entrée. There are several in our neighborhood that are blurring those lines for me.
Today’s posting is a short story I wrote about ten years ago
“Lightning bolts are all around, but don’t worry folks. I’ll land this plane. I can’t see because of the clouds and one engine is about to breakdown, but I’ll get us home.
Co-Pilot Smitty – radio my Mom and tell her I might be late for supper.”
Co-Pilot Smitty barked in acknowledgement and wagged his tail as the jetliner disappeared into a froth of dark clouds.
Danger was everywhere and only the best and most courageous pilot could get them down safely before Daddy got home.
***
THIS MORNING I AM VISITING The Chapel of St. Arbucks of the Field in Bloomington, Indiana. Dawn and I like to come to Bloomington to just get away from it all for a few days. We come here two or three times a year, put our brains up on blocks and just relax. Actually, we lax first and then we relax. It seems to work better that way.
While we are here we sleep in, visit the bookstores, and try not to do anything that goes beyond maintaining basic life signs.
GIVING A GIFT, whether it is at Christmastime, or for any other occasion, can be a tricky business. If gift giving was easy there wouldn’t be closets filled with truly ugly sweaters, neckties and the questionable objet d’ art.
We’ve all been on both ends of this process, the receiving of gaily wrapped packages filled with inedible fruitcakes, and the sending of a gift to a distant niece or nephew who would rather slit their wrists than be caught dead in the sweater you thought was just lovely.
I can innocently say that I was just a spectator when the Worst Gift of All Time was presented.
Down the Hall on Your Left 