RECAFFEINATED MONDAYS: You Can’t Get There From Here

Historic Martin’s Station, Lee County, Virginia (That’s Kentucky in the distance)

I have returned.

Last week involved a long trip for the day job which provided an opportunity to stop in my hometown for a visit with my Mother who continues to recover from a fall at the end of December.

It was a good trip.

It was a long trip.

While driving, and driving, and then doing a little driving, I had a lot of time to think.

Mugshots

While not driving, I had a lot of time to read.

I managed to start and finish both my cousin’s memoir as well as Sean Dietrich’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

Part of the visit involved an evening at the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Interpretive Center.

In the display there are several quotes by Bishop Francis Asbury.

“We ate no regular meal: our bread grew short, and I was much spent.

Bishop Frances Asbury: ca 1790.

The center talks of those who traveled the Wilderness Road and of the expansion into the west through the Cumberland Gap.

Many moved up through Kentucky.

Bishop Frances Asbury was a circuit rider who traveled through the American wilderness.

Asbury was selected by John Wesley as a traveling lay preacher to help spread Methodism in the American colonies. Asbury’s work was part of the Second Great Awakening.

Let’s make the connections.

I went to Asbury University. In Kentucky.

My great grandfather was a Methodist circuit rider in far Southwest Virginia.

And so I spent much of the windshield time thinking about what this mean and about what I needed to do with it.

Naturally, I came up with another project.

A project that will require more research and one that I have currently put on the back burner.

It’s late on Sunday evening as I write this. Much later than I had hoped.

That, as they say, is another story.

One day, I’ll write it for you.


THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

‘These Are Not Bright People’: Bill Maher Rips Nina Jankowicz, ‘Disinfo Governance Board’
Daily Caller
Maher stated that the Department of Homeland Security board had a “creepy name” and argued that the new initiative itself is “even creepier,” Fox News reported. “Yes, they’re right to compare this to Orwell in the ‘Ministry of Truth.’ That’s exactly what it sounds like,” he continued, according to the outlet. Read More.

Biden doesn’t ‘actually care’ about Americans amid inflation surge, Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain warns
FOX News
Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., told “Fox News Live” that the Biden administration doesn’t “actually care” about Americans and continues to play the “blame game” instead of finding solutions amid rising inflation. Read More.

BORN ON THIS DAY

1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
1912 – Studs Terkel, American historian and author (d. 2008)
1919 – Liberace, American pianist and entertainer (d. 1987)
1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer
1955 – Debra Winger, American actress

BENEDICTION

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121:7–8

The Longest 15 Days

“…political correctness jeopardizes more than it should the human capacity to speak the truth,”

Dogmatics in Outline

Swiss theologian and author, Karl Barth, was born on this day in 1886 (d. 1968)

Roughly two years and two months ago, we were told that we had to go home and stay home because we needed “fifteen days to slow the spread.”

You know the rest of the story.

We went home. We shut down.

We destroyed businesses. We closed theater companies. We put out children behind. We destroyed our economy.

We let them inject things into our bodies. Those who didn’t lost their jobs, and their right to speak out.

I’m double-vaxxed and boosted. Once. I will not be getting another shot.

Your maskage may vary.  But I was never “deathly” afraid of the virus,  and I’m no longer worried about it.

Studies are showing now that perhaps the vaccines were rushed. Perhaps it was more about profit than protection.

The Write Side Shop

Perhaps one day, historians will determine whether it was worth it.

My view? The virus was serious, but we also overreacted. I posted the same sentiment on Facebook at the very beginning.

But now we’re coming back, or we’re trying to. At least we’re trying to do that in the destroyed economy, and you know how I feel about that.

I write this today because my day job is sort of returning to normal.

I’m heading west for a business-related trip tomorrow. The first “real” one since the comeback.

Without going into painful details or the awful morning I had yesterday, it’s taken us a while to remember how we did things.

On top of that, it’s been in the news and if you know, you know. My day job is also returning to the office.

I know many of you have already done that. But telework is ending. Well, the blanket policy is ending. Now you have to apply to telework a certain amount of days.

I’m not sure what I’m doing yet.

I’ll think it through on my drive. I’ll get a lot of windshield time this week.

A lot of windshield time.

Siri will get tired of me saying “Hey Siri, remind me to…”

All this to say that, I hit the road early tomorrow morning.

I know it will cause a disruption in your morning scrolls through the Interwebz, but I won’t be posting the rest of this week.

I’ll be back on Monday.

Perhaps with more brilliant ideas and writing.

Perhaps not.

If you really are having withdrawals, you can always follow me on Facebook and Instagram.

Have a good rest of the week.


THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

‘What A Double Standard’: Former Wisconsin Governor Slams Police Chief For Response To Vandals Burning Pro-Life Clinic
The Daily Wire
“Do you think the Police Chief would have said this if someone did this to a Planned Parenthood building?!? They’d be out of control,” Walker asked in a tweet. “What a double standard. Violence is violence and it should condemned, period.” Read More.

There is No “Middle Way” in Dobbs
First Things
As recent legal scholarship shows, a Dobbs “middle ground” would actually destroy Casey and Roe in the name of preserving them. So the Court faces a binary choice: Strike down the Mississippi statute or overturn Roe. Read More.

13 Signs You Grew Up Going To Church Camp
The Babylon Bee
Not everyone grows up going to a church camp over the summer. For those special few who bear the honor, consider how blessed you are—you may not be aware of how it has irrevocably changed your life. Read More.

BORN ON THIS DAY

1838 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865)
1899 – Fred Astaire, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)
1902 – David O. Selznick, American director and producer (d. 1965)
1909 – Maybelle Carter, American autoharp player (d. 1978)
1922 – Nancy Walker, American actress, singer, and director (d. 1992)
1958 – Rick Santorum, American lawyer and politician, United States Senator from Pennsylvania

BENEDICTION

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121:7–8