Down

‘Tis the season to be jolly, except I’m not feeling it here lately. I suppose I’m partly to blame. There are things a person controls and some things he doesn’t.

After last evening’s outing at Cheekwood was marred by the mask Nazis, we received word that an uncle had passed. It didn’t come as a surprise. We weren’t especially close; I saw him maybe once a year. But there are only a handful of individuals I can honestly say I’ve known my entire life, and he was one of them, and now there is one fewer. Plus, I understand what the family is enduring with a funeral looming.

We had discussed wandering over to the Opryland Hotel before Christmas to see the lights and decorations there. They always go over-the-top with their lights and decorations. But after last night, I am loathe to set us up for another disappointment. The Opryland Hotel tells you up front that masks are required, and I prefer not to deal with mask Nazis again. We’ll stay home and enjoy our own surroundings. Plus, we have a family gathering of our own planned the week of Christmas that we’re very much looking forward to. So we’ll stick to the things that we control.

I don’t know what’s going to happen with the election. The evidence is overwhelming that it was stolen. I’m trying to remain optimistic that justice and fairness will win over cheating and scheming, but every day that passes with no resolution, my optimism dims a little. So I’m preparing myself for the possibility that the other side will assume the reigns of power next month AND that the two Senate elections in Georgia will also be stolen. Who’s to stop them?

I’m not a pessimist or a fatalist. I mean, there’s still hope. But there’s also the possibility that the other side will succeed with their stolen election. So it’s up to me to not let them steal my peace and joy, too. Christian people have too much to rejoice over to let these earthly demons take from us what God has freely given. After all, the early church was persecuted far more than we are, and they flourished and spread rapidly and nothing stopped them.

But in the meantime, yes, I’m bummed. Yet I know it won’t last long.