What Bald Spot?

         I don't think that I would look good if I were bald. Some of you might be saying....'Special Dog, you don't even look good with hair'....but that's besides the point. About a year or so ago I was attempting to trim my own hair so I had a second mirror out to see the back of my head and lo and behold there was a small patch of baldness at twelve o'clock high and it sent me into a little bit of depression.
         No one had mentioned this to me, not our son or even my wife, not even my co-workers who delight in ribbing each other with information like this, although my barber did comment one day that I might want to keep my hair a little longer on top and I wondered what he meant by that. For a few days and weeks after that I would occasionally get that second mirror out and check to see if the bald patch was spreading.
         I came up with the perfect answer to this dilemma. No, it's not Joe Biden hair plugs...and no it also wasn't just growing up and accepting what was minuscule in the grand scheme of problems that we face today. I just quite looking at the back of my head...problem solved! I ignored it. Until I can see scalp on top of my head while looking directly into a mirror there is no problem!
         Friends, I gladly relate this story to you, embarrassing as it is, if I can but turn this quirk of human nature to your benefit by pointing it out. There is really only one way not to see the impending disasters just ahead for not only America but the entire world, and that is that the evidence, both in the news but most importantly in the Word of God, has to be totally and purposely ignored.
         What is especially frightening is that I don't see this ugly total lack of respect for other human beings in Europe as much as here in the United States. We have bypassed them in abominations because Europe does not push the envelope on God as we do here. Police officers are being executed in our streets. Donald Trump certainly does not represent Christian values but those who put him where he is do. Thus we have this intensifying clash. Ignore what is happening if you want but cheering for Donald Trump cannot hide what is really taking place....it has to be purposely ignored.....which in essence is lying to ourselves.

Mr. Monk And The Missing Campaign Manager

         It's front page Internet news on Fox right now! The caption with the accompanying picture reads..."Girl captures chilling pic of 'child ghost' in mom's car." This is Fox News folks....."Fair And Balanced." Here's the story.....A mother and her 13 year old daughter are riding in a car...alone...on a sunny day, and the daughter is bored and begins to take selfies of herself. A month later the mother comes across the picture on her phone... and visible behind her daughter is a young child....but they were alone in the car!
         The mother then contacted an expert in the paranormal. The expert tells her that in using a special device, used also by the FBI and the CIA, that there was no color or temperature in the small child's face. Are you bored yet? There's a few more X-Files moments if you are interested but what I'm interested in is that the mother now thinks that "it's very important to the world to see that picture" because "So many people have hope for the afterlife and this proves it....." It should be noted that the mother, according to the article, "was not scared by the suspected haunting as she claims (her daughter) is a magnet for paranormal activity." Personally I think that's Megyn Kelly in the photo. She seems to be everywhere?
         Let's go over this again.....a woman who according to the article has been given thirteen traffic tickets for driving with her daughter not wearing a seat belt....this woman tells us that she thinks it's important for the world to see the picture that's on her phone. I could see if it was only seven or eight tickets...but thirteen? The mother describes the daughter as a 'magnet' for paranormal activity." The daughter has been told thirteen times to put on her seat belt and never does it... but the mother is also 'sure' that there was no one in the backseat? Might I suggest that the young girl may have snuck someone along for the ride? Nah...that would be disobedient! The mother says that this whole thing is a 'positive' thing.  What then is a negative thing....no ghosts in the picture? They were on their way to a junior beauty pageant...nothing unusual here!  The mother sent the photo to the ....Director of Parapsychology, Afterlife and Paranormal Studies. I'll bet you she had his address in her contacts.  This whole episode might encourage the producers of Monk to bring the show back into production...

Monk.............."Let me get this straight....you were sitting... here?
Mother.....       "Yes, that's where the steering wheel is."
Monk.......       "And your daughter was sitting... there?"
Mother.....       "Yes...and the ghost was sitting in the back seat."
Monk........      "And your daughter didn't have her seat belt on even though you have had
                         thirteen traffic tickets for her not having her seat belt on?"
Mother............."I'm going to catch her one of these days."
Monk turns to Captain Stottlemeyer....
                         "There's something strange going on here."
Capt. Stottlemeyer rolls his eyes......
                         "Why...because there's a ghost in the back seat?
Monk.......         "No...because this is front page Fox News.....Fair and Balanced."
Monk eyes get very bright................
                          "I've solved the case."
Capt. Stottlemeyer....."Monk, there's no case here."
Monk................."Oh yes there is. You see Hillary Clinton was supposed to win
                            the election. If she catches Robby Mook, her campaign manager,
                            she may strangle him! That 'ghost'... that ghost...
                            was Robby Mook hiding in the back seat!"
Capt. Stottlemeyer.....
                            "Well it does make sense....and it is her modus operandi?"

Aaah Bach!

         I retired six weeks ago...or was it six years ago....no, it was six weeks ago. "I think that I shall never see...A poem lovely as a tree".... I relay this verse not because I love poetry....although I used to be Rod McKuen's biggest fan...but because had I not at least two weeks of raking leaves so far I may have gone crazy. By the way...did you know that Joyce Kilmer was a guy....Joyce was his middle name as his first name was Alfred. Alfred?...I guess I don't blame him.  Anyway, in desperation for things to do I have recently thrown myself into Bach as a last resort! My mini-boom is at my ear as I type. I don't know fugue from fudge but I must say these tunes are every bit as good as everyone has always said.
         I write semifacetiously here. I do know the difference between fugue and fudge. I just prefer fudge. And I have indeed 'thrown myself' somewhat into Bach. And his music is as wonderful as it is acclaimed to be. The following is part of a post from 2010. The last paragraph is the key. We can throw ourselves into many things...politics....fitness....and music... there are important responsibilities and wise pastimes  and good deeds and enjoyments....but there is only one thing that should be all-consuming....only one thing that is  'living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning (of) the thoughts and intentions of the heart.'

Aaah Tabletalk

         There was a movie a few decades ago, a comedy, where a man was trying to impress a young lady who was very cultured. Advice given to him was that if the topic of classical music came up, just say Aaaah...Bach and that may get him by. If Old English Heroic Epic Poetry is ever brought up to me in a conversation, I may just say Aaaah...Beowulf.  I read Beowulf in high school. It was a great learning experience. I learned how to read thousands of words straight through and not understand a single thought they conveyed.
         I once held a fancy for a young lady in college who was very cultured, in fact she taught Theater Arts 101 as a grad student. This may have been the beginning of my actually... studying....for I signed up for the class and devoured the textbook to impress her. I even took an acting class and went to plays....Aaaah...Moliere!  The peak of my impressing her was when I cleared up a long standing mystery at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. We were working there for a few weeks, actually just rummaging through the stored old materials of the historic Playhouse for anything that the Pitt library's Special Collections could use. During a tour of the building I correctly identified King Edward VIII out of a dozen characters in an old Al Hirschfeld caricature mural, an answer that had up to then eluded even the director. This young lady looked at me in amazement and said..."You're Smart!" But alas, I'm not cultured. I guessed correctly for I knew it was either the king, later the Duke Of Windsor, or Dagwood Bumstead....Aaaah Blondie!  I'd rather go to a Three Stooges marathon than a ballet. I read everything I had to through high school, but I didn't really read it. But I've since had a metamorphosis, Aaaah...Kafka!   
         Reformed theologian, pastor and teacher R. C. Sproul, through his Ligonier Ministries, publishes a monthly devotional/Bible study called Tabletalk, the name taken from Martin Luther's work of the same title. This booklet comes to our house early so I'm usually a little bit ahead of schedule. Today I was reading the July 15th offering and the Bible verse to be considered was Joshua  1:8.... This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous....