“ … Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I love my hometown of Knoxville for many reasons, but especially because we have four distinct seasons. About the time I get sick of one season, another rolls in. Fall is perhaps my favorite. Spring is also great, mainly because we’re so tired of winter. And being an aging Southerner, I actually like summer’s heat, as long as I have AC. The Euros may reconsider AC after last summer’s heat wave. I even like winter for a while with Holiday cheer and cozy fires. But I have little tolerance for February, when winter refuses to loosen its grip.
The leaves have begun to change in Knoxville so I would not need a calendar to tell me it is October. However, a husband, father and survivor appreciates a bit of help with the birthdays of my girls and the actual day my life was saved.
January is a cold month, fit for snuggling. Perhaps this is the explanation that both my daughters and my wife were born in October. And the end of October marks the date in 2015 when a skilled surgeon removed the cancer threatening to end my life. The picture above shows Autumn’s aspen trees in Colorado, which I wanted to experience before my “last chance” surgery. So, you see, October is especially meaningful for me.
I am now on my 76th revolution of the sun and it has been a rewarding, though sometimes challenging, ride. Ancient Romans had a goddess named Fortuna, from which we get the word fortunate (lucky). I often wonder why I’ve been so fortunate in this life.
I cannot imagine that I have earned such blessings and salvation. Right now, I have two friends dying of cancer and several others being treated for this scourge. So, why was I spared in 2015 and why am I still alive?
The most plausible explanation for Earth and the cosmos is the creative force and sustaining will of the Creator. This concept is called intelligent design. As a scientist and a Christian, I have spent my life studying this reality which we inhabit. And I can honestly report that it is both mysterious and wondrous beyond my imagination. In his dialogue with God, the ancient prophet Isaiah (55:8) quotes God as stating the obvious: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”
There is a beautiful story in the Old Testament book of Esther. The Jews were being persecuted and threatened with extinction by the government. A young Jewish woman named Esther was challenged by her uncle to use her influence with the King to save her people, saying that perhaps “you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”
I have no “royal” position, but perhaps my Focus essays are timely. So perhaps there is a purpose and plan obscure to my limited faculties.
On a less philosophically and theologically lofty plane, the 10th month is notable for the so-called “October surprise” of political skullduggery (unscrupulous behavior, trickery). And like biased political polling, it happens in fall’s election cycle.
This time, President Trump’s diesel deal with Russia may be the Republican October surprise. However, the predictable slate of RINOs and Democrats playing checkers have again joined forces to oppose Trump’s 3D chess moves.
Notably, the hypocritical and feckless Euros have been buying Russian oil and gas for years, obviously supporting Putin’s war. Could the diesel deal be designed to help Americans, while offering an off-ramp for Putin in his disastrous Ukraine war and encouraging Zelensky to make a deal to end the conflict? I don’t know, but doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is foolish. Perhaps a different approach is warranted.
And even if the war were settled, Trump will not expect a Nobel Peace Prize. The 2026 award was already given to a UN antisemite and judge on the so-called International Court of Justice. Like the UN, this court is a joke.
The election season has already begun. I hasten to point out that in 2024 Republicans won because they turned out to vote in sufficient numbers that Democratic skullduggery was not able to overcome. If Patriots show up and vote, America wins. If they don’t, socialism wins.
Since Congress could not get its act together and pass the SAVE Act, United States Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department are at work investigating and arresting illegal voters. Already 100s of illegal voters in 15 states have been indicted, and many more are under investigation. If I were an illegal voter, I certainly would not vote and risk being identified, prosecuted, jailed and deported.
Last week on Instagram, a list of the Trump Administration’s many accomplishments appeared. Similarly, I’ve been doing the same for the last several weeks. Like many of you, I dislike negative campaign ads. But unfortunately, positive messaging is often less impactful than negative sound bites and snapshots. Candidates who run as Democrats or Republicans must accept and be judged by the positions of their party affiliation.
Republicans are far from perfect, but the platform of the Democrats and the socialists who now control that party is dangerous. I will be voting against “transing children,” packing the Supreme Court, reopening the border to illegals, blanket citizenship for illegals, men in women’s sports and bathrooms, no limits on abortion, resumption of impeachments with government paralysis, and I could go on, but I won’t.
So, as you go to the polls and vote (and you must!) consider that, like Esther, you are there for a time such as this.
