What I can’t control is the sense that Miss Harper, who taught 8th grade civics, would simply not be able to process the idea of making the voting process more difficult when the whole world knows that what you are really doing is making it harder for poorer and darker people to vote, since you are actually in the minority and want an oligarchy not a democracy.

What I can’t control is that there is a  pseudo-christian belief that life begins at conception, when scientific information indicates that fetal viability is at 22 weeks (5.5 month), and other religions indicate that the fetus is not actually human until the 5 month point, when the soul enters the body.

What I can’t control is that politicians can now call a female lawyer, former prosecutor, attorney General and Vice President of the US dumb as a rock and not be publicly shunned for life.

What I can’t control is that Evangelical Christianity can sink even farther into cultural and spiritual irrelevance by supporting an obvious heathen hedonist with no moral center of any kind other than a personal brand and wealth acquisition.

What I can’t control is the fall of the United States from any semblance of being the good guys, the shining beacon in a hill, i.e. – anything other than an isolationist opera singer warming up to the tune of me-me-me-me, while watching the rest of the world die off.

What I can’t stand is ignorance of the apparently lost verses of the Bible 

• Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD”, or the short version:
• Matthew 22:37-39: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself

I say this only because some neighbors may live on the other side of a border.

What I can’t control is a deep sense of dread as I watch my country enter a dark age where congressmen slap each other on the backs while planning for a smaller and crueler future.

But what I can control is

Being as kind as possible to everyone that I meet

Bringing a fresh alertness into every day

To thank the dear people that I know are doing everything that they can to

• Be more alive
• Be more rested
• Be more alert
• Be more conscious
• Be understanding
• Be compassionate
• Be considerate

And to thank the divine aspect of creation
By any name or concept thereof
For the miraculous human physiology
For gifts of intelligence both
Intellectual and emotional
And for these days, however many
To live and watch the
Consciousness to multidimensional
To subatomic to molecular
To macroscopic to cosmic
Parade of creation
Knowing it is all intrinsically
Both filled and unified
In Love.

Paul Stokstad 8/14/2024