Living in the World
Indian Summer 2008

Last week we had some horrendous winter weather…snow, wind and cold. I was stuck on US 322 Wednesday 29 October, because the snowy conditions lead to a traffic accident that turned the highway into a parking lot. The snow melted and the weather has been quite nice since. Since a week ago, the high temperatures have been creeping up and up. The last two days have seen middle sixties. We are experiencing a magnificent Indian Summer. Last week was Squaw Winter which must occur before Indian Summer.

Recently, I mentioned this Squaw Winter/Indian Summer relation and a person to whom I was speaking never heard such a thing. Like most concepts in a post-modern world, Indian Summer is whatever and whenever you want it to be. Well, guess what? That ain’t so. The meaning of Indian Summer is a concrete and absolute here in the Eastern Continental Divide. To understand the objective, true meaning of Indian Summer unsullied by contemporary mushy, subjective views of this world, read the following:

I have a little something that I would like to pass on to you about weather. Call it a bit of weather wisdom. I know you have heard of a period of weather in the Fall of the year called “Indian Summer”. Now some weather men refer to it as if they may hve invented it. They refer to any period of warm days in the Fall as Indian Summer. Now, let me give you the truth about Indian Summer. Native American Indians and old timers for many years know there is no timetable for Indian Summer. There’s no month or any specific time period for it. It is a time in the Fall that the weather is warm and hazy. But first, there must be a winter episode where snow falls and accumulates on the surface of the ground. The first snow that lies on the ground is called “Squaw Winter”. When the snow melts, the first day or period of days after that the weather is warm and hazy, that’s Indian Summer. You may have it or you may not, but warm days without having Squaw Winter is not Indian Summer.

Clarence C. Kriner, Grandpa: His Life at the Old Home and Beyond, [Clearfield, PA: SGM Press, 2006], p. 31.

Around these parts we are enjoying “real” Indian Summer because we have had Squaw Winter. I hope you too are enjoying Indian Summer, or you have it to look forward to if you have yet to experience Squaw Winter. If you do not have Squaw Winter, or winter of any kind, too bad, you will never experience Indian Summer. The weather forecast indicates a return to normal fall weather this weekend. So, the temperate weather will come to an end, but it has been a thoroughly enjoyable Indian Summer of 2008.

Election 2008
The Day After

Some initial musings on Election 2008 on the day after:

1] It truly is historic that America elected a black man as POTUS. I am long enough in the tooth to remember the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s. From the assassinations of 1968 to forty years later, a black President…truly amazing and a statement of how the Republic works. I am sure the gushing and fawning will be over the top, especially from a media that so desperately wanted to see BO win, yet it is a milestone in our history.

2] I am always impressed by split party voting. Most American voters make decisions on respective candidates, not their parties, and that is a very good thing.

3] BO was as liberal a state and federal senator as they come. And, he has had no stomach for standing up to his party. I hear post-election pundits say he will govern from the center. But, there is no evidence to believe that. Will he resist the left leaning policies of his party that he so openly embraced now that he is POTUS? He certainly ran his election as if he was now a centrist. We all must watch carefully what happens for that will indicate who BI really is…what we could not discern during the election campaign.

4] As we ponder the historicity of the moment, some big questions remain. Will the race card forever be jettisoned since a black man has won the big enchilada? Or, will all objection to the new President’s policies and positions, warranted and unwarranted, be met with a racism charge? Will BO be subject to the same withering vitriolic and mean spirited attacks Bush had to endure? Or, will BO be insulted from that because he is the first black President? Will the skin tone of the President be used to silence all opposition to the liberal agenda if in fact the real BO is the far left senator he has been known to be not the centrist he held himself out to be during the campaign? The debate permitted over coming governmental initiatives will tell the tale.

5] Finally, BO will be my President, and Scripture directs that we pray for him as the civil magistrate who leads this country. That, all Christians must do whether you agree with him or not.

It will be an interesting four years.

Election 2008
Election Day

It is finally here…3 cheers! Go to the polls and exercise your franchise…your vote. In the history of the world few have had the opportunity to choose their leaders on the local, regional and national level. Do not take that right for granted, it has been paid for in blood. But, also remember you are voting for mere fallible men or women. They hold no key to your ultimate destiny or wellbeing. Every politician is a sinner, some saved by grace, others not. Their plans and ideas are temporal, perishable and incapable of eternal or permanent change. For Christians, our trust is not in McCain or Obama or the hundreds of others running for public office today.

It cannot be said better than Psalm 146:

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob;
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

So, vote for the candidates; put your trust in the Sovereign of not only the US but all the earth!