I told me so

One tax form complete. I filed the state tax return over the Internet. I had already filled out the paper form to get the relevant figures. I was surprised to see that it took longer to complete the forms on the Internet than it did to do it by hand. I am sure that there will be a complication as I think that the state made a mistake in constucting their form and one deduction occurs in two places and is counted twice.

This morning there was another very pleasant surprise. When I got up there was a sunbeam shining through a small gap in the cloud layer. The gap was between the horizon and the clouds. The Sun was as orange as the orangiest crayon in the Crayola box. The beam shone through the glass on the storm door, down the hall, and was shining on the living room wall, which is the West wall. It is remarkable how such a small thing can stop one in one's tracks and initiate contemplation of the wonder and power that the small things in life give to us. There is a fire in the sky. Without that fire L.L. Bean would replace Exxon as our most valuable resource. It reminds me of a movie I once saw where a traditional Navajo grandfather was talking to his grandson about the things that the grandson was learning in the mission school. The grandson eplained to the grandfather about the christian god. That god was more powerful than the sun that the grandfather worshiped and the sun was not a god. The grandfather asked "Have you seen this christian god?". The grandson answered "No.". The grandfather said "Have you seen the Sun?".

Persia and New Mexico, who would have ever thought that there could be a connection? War and peace, have you ever seen peace? Maybe it lived in the 1930s but that was long ago, in the time of the grandfathers. Washington warned of the dangers of involving the nation in the turmoils of other nations but what did he know? He wasn't a great military strategist, he was simply a man that had seen the horrors of war and knew that the constant bickering of the old world could draw us into the deluge. Washington, the man who would not be king. If not for his precedent, we might have had William Jefferson Clinton for eight more years and be wondering what to do with a ponderous surplus in the federal budget. Washington, a general who had seen war, warning of the dangers of war. Eisenhower, a general who had seen war, warning of the dangers of the military industrial complex. General Motors and Daimler looking for a handout from the government as they are too important to America to be allowed to fail. The only thing that they have in common is that they both made tanks in the Second World War, tanks for opposing sides. Ford, they are not looking for a handout. They are just an industrial complex that brought us the Model T and farm tractors and charcoal briquets for grilling in a peaceful backyard. In the military industrial complex, Ford is simply a four letter word.

This is what happens when you get up at sunrise and have too many cups of coffee. Today I will walk and see the snow and the ice on the river and the geese flying North for their tanning appointments. I will do my part for energy conservation by watching a low numbered channel on the television. I will do my part for reason amplification by watching channel 2.