Does this qualify for the Matt Elliott no-fly zone for prejudicial comments?
(you may have to scroll through some irresistably cute pics before you find Matt's post on August 7.)

I was conversing with the small business owner (for whom I manage administrative details) as he was driving to the campus where he counsels students.

I mentioned the traffic being lighter today because of the
governor's moratorium on diesel bus fuel for two days this week.
We chatted a bit about the last minute decision to close Georgia schools for two days and it's impact on educational issues. Then my young friend began comparing our current governor to the previous two men to hold that public office. He called the official a good ol' boy Christian, getting fat giving jobs to his friends.

I said that if his was an accurate description, then the label Christian certainly didn't fit the behavior at all.
In fact, it reminded me of what I've heard described of Pharisees.

My good-natured Jewish friend was speechless and quickly changed the
subject.

Did I shine light on a truth?
Or did I exchange one bigoted remark for another?

Giant drainage pipes were delivered to my front lawn this morning.
A sinkhole had developed near the storm drain where coincidentally the school bus stops. The city determined that
the fix was to replace the pipes that run from the drain to the creek on the other side of my yard.

It was interesting enough to watch the truck unload a dozen pipes.

But as I closely inspected these rolls that look like hollow caterpillars, I had the vision of my boys, as youngsters, camping out in the tubes, walking across them, playing hide and seek. And I imagined that once installed, they would have found a way to climb in one end and scurry through the tunnel to the other end.
I smiled as I thought about how, with sticks, shovels and probably even the kitchen spoons, they would re-arrange the mound of bare earth laid in a ribbon though the grass.
what a shame! This little boys' dream of adventure is being wasted on my property!
Then, my youngest man-child, outgrowing his 17 years, emerged from the basement bedroom, his eyes rounded, "Did you see those big pipes they left in our yard?"

I was watching TLC to get a break from the relentless news.
Doug gleefully demolished a so-so kitchen to make it something
spectacular or at least, irritatingly different. Then Stacy and Clinton
interviewed fashion victims to learn how their lives had changed since
renovating their wardrobes.

The Gulf Coast has been plunged into a weird reality series--cosmic power has devised a truer than true version of anything the entertainment industry could produce.

WaterWorld, Perfect Storm, Survivor, Fear Factor, Wife Swap, The Batchelor, directors have tried nearly everything! A local radio station ran a contest to see who could live in a car the longest.

Ever since the actors union got uppity, the ordinary viewer has
been willing to trade anonymity for fame and fortune and gamble in high stakes through all kinds of humiliating scenarios.

Watching the relief workers roll in to New Orleans, I had the same choked up feeling I experience when the Extreme Makeover bus pulls up to the curb of a deserving family and Ty raises his bullhorn.

HolyWord trumps HollyWood every time.

Watching the desperate events on the Gulf Coast unfold like a unedited surreal film, I try to imagine myself in the midst of such challenging circumstances.
The closest I come is from what Ive heard of the government program to protect high profile witnesses. My identity would be drastically altered and my life would be forever changed. Sounds like Christian conversion.

After days of numbing news coverage, I notice that the people in peril are mostly of a different race and social status than me.
Will I acknowledge the differences in order to rationalize a response to the dilemma?

In a comfy chair in front of the TV, it is easy to judge others (instead of me) who failed to prepare and heed advance warning.
How is my pity for others and a faith that is compelled to action hampered by the temptation to be impatient with stupidity?

Extravagant compassion is necessary to minister to those who do not exercise common sense and and who face certain impending disaster with an attitude of stiff-neckedness (come hell or high water)? denial (it won't happen to me)? paralyzing fear? helplessness (woe is me)?
Sounds like a Christian's job description.

One of my best choices is I married smarter than me.
(Coincidentally, we honeymooned in New Orleans and Gulfport.)
A few years ago, this gallant genius was stranded in a Dallas hotel room during an ice storm. While many barely got themselves from point A to B by slipping and sliding and breaking body parts, my inventive husband asked a hotel worker for thick rope and then fashioned it around his power wheelchair tires like a chain. He was featured on the WFAA local newscast when reporters spotted him as he steadily gripped his way through the glazed street to the business convention center.

On that day in a frozen Texas metropolis, nature leveled the playing field.
Everyone was handicapped in their mobility.
Limitation only enhanced the resourcefulness of a creative mind.

One thing I know for sure, no matter what,
as long as life and love endures,
I'm holding on to my man's hand!