TODAY

Our high temperatures went from the 80s F to the 50s rather suddenly. Our normal high for today is 71 and the normal minimum is 51, according to my weather calendar. We have had a pattern this year, where we will have a few days 10 degrees above normal, then a switch to 10 degrees below normal. Perhaps that is normal for this area, as I remember commenting on it before. Averages are averages. It is supposed to be in the eighties again before the week is out.

We don't have home delivery of the newspaper in our area, no newspapers. No Minneapolis paper, no St Paul paper. We can get them in the mail a day late, I have thought about that; but instead, I drive to town, rain, shine, blizzard, whatever, so I can pick up the current Minneapolis paper. I like reading the funnies and doing the crossword puzzle. I, also, like reading the bridge column. I played bridge every day, at lunch time, when I worked in Anoka. It has been 17 years since I played bridge. We had our own bidding system called the Anoka convention. It was kind of an outcrop of the old Goren and Culbertson systems. I don't recognize much of the bidding illustrated in the newspaper column.

I glance through the rest of the paper and read much of it. I like getting my news this way, rather than have it blared at me from the TV. I can ignore the propaganda pieces easier. I have to mute the sound on the TV and still I have to watch the tanks and goose stepping soldiers every time they mention North Korea. It is obvious, who the Empire is trying to demonize, because they drag out the same old film strips designed to strike terror in our hearts. They are not very subtle, some of the film strips are over ten years old, and some may have been produced in Hollywood. That is especially true, of propaganda stories of those countries and groups, of the Middle East.

Oh well I shouldn't be paying attention to the news anyway. It is so nice to go to town and have good solid conversations with folks that one meets. One wouldn't know, that a faction of government, is doing everything in its power, to convince folks we have enemies and we need to go to war. The war mongering is amazing. But when I visit town I hear none of that. I don't think we are paying attention to the war mongering folks. I see folks, of all religions and shades, shopping together, laughing together, smiling and full of life. I come home and look on the internet and see invitation after invitation to judge some individuals and groups.

I want to avoid divisiveness. I don't want to judge the judgers. As our society declines the crazies float to the top. This current administration has encouraged the emergence of the crazies. Reacting to them only validates their existence. They are only harmful if we make them harmful. There are forces that are into promoting divisiveness. They use fearfulness and divisiveness for ultimate control. Let us not fall into their trap by being outraged at every spectacle created by the crazies. We want peace, we need to find peace in our being and extend it. We will change the world through peace and Love.

The sane folks outnumber the crazies by a huge margin. The vast majority only want to love and be loved. I can see that wherever I go.

So let us smile at whomever we see and hug the ones we know. The world is a much better place than the media pictures. I can feel the love growing in the world. LOOK- it is there- every where.

Happy Monday!

Love and Peace, Gregg