The Plumbline

It is almost election time in the United States.  The next President will be selected in just a matter of a few days.  The course of the next four years is held in the hands of those who will make their ways to the polling places, casting their ballot for their "favorite" candidate.  Note, I did not say the "best" candidate, but their "favorite" candidate.  After all, isn't this what the debates, campaign speeches, and advertisements have been devised to produce?  They were all put together in such a way so as to "sway" the voters to choose either one or the other - plain and simple.  I have heard many say, "Well, I guess we will just choose the lesser of two evils."  Nothing is sadder than having to choose a candidate who comes "close" to your beliefs, sort of close to the way you'd vote on issues, and marginally "inside" the values you adhere to as your own.  Yet, in many cases, we don't get the choice ...

As a kid, we'd play games like hide and seek.  The goal was to find such a good hiding place that absolutely no one could find you.  There was no prize or medal at the end, but there was some "unwritten" acknowledgement of your "awesomeness" as a great "hider".  I had this one friend you didn't hide so much to win the honor of being the best hider, but he wanted to be the best "scarer" in the group!  He'd hide just around the corner, cleverly hid by something, then when you were gawking around trying to find him, he jump out and shout loudly, "Boo!" - we'd all get caught up in celebrating the shrieks of his unknowing "victims".  In time, if anyone played this game with him long enough, they'd get to be know his plan!  But...no amount of knowing what laid ahead made us ready for the moment when he jumped out into our path!  We still were startled and sometimes could not help but "shriek" at the mom...