Address to the Nation

So 30,000 more troops to go to Afghanistan;

While $30-billion a year will be required to fund this endeavor;

The U.S. Military commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended;

The President of the U.S. has spoken!


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All of this December 1st news is bewildering on a month when "Peace on Earth" is celebrated. So I've just thumbed through last year's Christmas cards desiring some thought that will soften this dismal, if not devastating, news. I found this inside one card -- Referring to Bethlehem's Babe:

He Came
From a mansion to a manger.
From streets of gold to a stable cold.
From royal robes to swaddling clothes.
From His Father's world to a Jewish girl.
From the angels' praise to the shepherds' gaze.
From that city afar to a wise man's star.
From perfection to rejection.
From the throne room of God to the stable's sod.
From all that's good and pure and holy
to all that's base and vile and lowly.
~~written by Pastor Willard Thomas

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So we've arrived at the first day of the last month. It's December. It's the end of the concert, the last act, the dessert, the year's reward; it's the goodbye.

This month I want to live each day slowly, wide awake, so I don't miss a moment. I want to feel the sadness and the joy. I want to see the sparkle in a small child's smile, but I also don't want to miss the tear in an elderly person's eye. I want to be fully alive.

And surely this month will serve us the herb of exhaustion which supplies its own version of confusion. Maybe exhaustion is what I'm experiencing now as I round the corner to head toward the checkered flag of this semester. Maybe that's why the President's news this evening has brought me down. But mostly, I just hate war. I don't understand "fighting" for peace. I do pray for the soldiers who have given up home and family to protect us.

What a mixed-up journal I have composed this evening.
Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol