It's been a long 7 days...

Well, it's been an eventful seven days, that's for sure.  Last week I really thought I'd comment on what I watched at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, but I wasn't blown away by any of it, and I just kept waiting.  Michelle Obama gave a nice speech for her husband, I liked it.  Hillary gave a pretty good Hillary speech, it was better than I expected.  Bill is good when he speaks, but not sure I believed it.  Joe Biden was Joe Biden.  Barack's finale was grand.  75,000+ people gathered was quite a spectacle.  I was however disappointed that he spent the first 1/3 of his speech doing what he's convinced many of us that he wouldn't do - typical political bashing of the other candidate.  The back 2/3 I thought were good, but in the end, I thought his 2004 speech was better and his speech last spring when his former pastor made the idiotic remarks were both more inspiring speeches.  DNC 08, in the books.

Friday brought another whirlwind with the selection of Alaskan governer Sarah Palin as John McCain's VP candidate.  Wow, that seemed to come out of left field.  I am neither for her nor against her, for I know her not.  It was pretty funny watching all of the media scramble on Friday because it seemed to catch everyone off-guard.  I like some of the things I hear about her, but I am concerned about other things.  I definitely think that it makes the next 60 days much more interesting.  I'm still liking the Meghan McCain blog.

Saturday came and an email from my mom changed the course of the weekend.  She asked us to come visit her and wait there until we determined where Gustav was going to make landfall.  Rhonda and I had already decided we weren't moving until the storm made a shift toward us, but when mom's ask, sons pretty much go, right?  We packed up and went west to Ganado, Texas.  We played a little golf, I got sick, was laid up all day Sunday, then played a little more golf on Monday, then headed back home.  I must say that being at my mom's was the best place to be sick, though.  Not for her and Dad, but for me.  She hooked me up with some meds that kept it all to a minimum.  

We watched Gustav push through Louisiana and heard about Gov. Palin's family situation.  I really wish her kids were grown and out of the house, because I know how valuable she is to her family right now and I think it might be more than the value she is to our country.  That's just me, though and I could be wrong.  I also happen to think that she just might make a great vice president.  I was proud of the political parties for their stances over the weekend with Gustav and I was proud to see Senator McCain request a tone-down of the convention-as-usual affairs for yesterday.  I am however looking forward to tonight and hopefully something will wow me enough to write about it in the morning.

Either way, I'm back and planning to be here every morning this week.  For the record, my blog is not a political blog, but rather a blog about how we are embracing the Christ-life in every place, with everything every day and one of the most exciting presidential elections of my time just happens to be falling in the middle of my "in every place, with everything everyday."  My apologies if my views don't line up with yours and you think they should.  Don't celebrate if they happen to line up anywhere today, because tomorrow might be a whole new story.  I'm not a journalist, so I am not always trying to be unbiased (though they aren't very good at it either).  I just want to spur those of us who follow Jesus to be more willing to listen and discuss with each other.  We may not always like each other's positions but that doesn't mean we can't have meaningful, intelligent conversation does it?  Have fun, don't take yourself or others too seriously.

DNC08

Two weeks of Olympic competition on television, to be followed by two weeks of political competition.  Wow.  I don't know where you fall in the political spectrum, and I often don't even know for sure where I fall.  Like many of you, I am listening and learning about the candidates as time goes.  I wanted to let you know that Larry King is doing something pretty cool for the next two weeks.  During this week's DNC, he has a reaction panel of Republicans on his show discussing the evening's speeches.  He will flip that and have Democrats on next week during the Republican Convention.  It's a lot of poli-speak, no doubt, but I must admit that I like the layout.  Positioning is obviously part of the process, whether we like it or not, so once you look around that, you just might find a little information that will help you cast a well-informed vote in November.  I am much more concerned that we all exercise our right to vote, than I am who we vote for...really.

I've posted some of what I thought were good speeches by Barak Obama this year, and so it's only fair that I let you know about a pretty cool little blog that I found.  Meghan McCain has a campaign trail blog that is really cool.  I really like the set-up.  It's edgy and sometimes irreverent, but that made me even more interested in it!  Have fun with it.