Memories

So many places

Visited and seen

So wonderful

Too good to be true?

How I’d rather be there

Rather than here.

Is my memory playing jokes

Or was it real?

Probably was for vacation

But for life? 

13^th July 1996, North Acton, London, England.

I've been thinking about labels.   We hear them all the time:  Liberal, Evangelical, feminist etc...  It makes me think.   Would I like to be in a box all the time?   Everything I say or think fits into that box?   I don't think so.    I think it is part of the problem, especially here in the US.  If you say you are a Conservative everything you think has to fit in that "box".   If you are Liberal everything you think has to fit into that "box".   It creates more and more division and extremism.    What is wrong with looking at every issue on it's merits and shock horror it might not fit into the traditional view that your party might have?   Free thinking is disappearing engulfed by constant indoctrination of the biased media.

The label that I have the hardest time coming to terms with is "Conservative Christian".   Why?   To me the two words just do not work together.   A definition of a Conservative is: Keeping to traditional values, not changing .   Back in Christ's days they were called Pharisee's.   Ultimately my problem with the term is that Christians are called to grow, mature throughout the Sanctification process to Holiness.   By definition this is a changing process.  A thoughtful process.   A process of acceptance and love.   This may means one changes one views in a "right wing way" or a "left wing way".   There is nothing wrong with that as long as it is done with a view to the teaching of Christ.   

I fear in the modern, Church in 2015 we have lost this and are looking more and more like the legalistic Hebrew religion of the time of Christ.

-Richard

End of the Tunnel?

I sit surrounded by darkness

Everywhere I look.

I try to see the way out

I try to see the light.

The end of the tunnel is there.

I know, I just can’t see.

Wait………

Yes, I see a glimpse

It’s getting nearer and nearer

I seem to be approaching

Not by my own strength

As if…. I’m being carried.

I look down and see

Friends, family, those I love

And those who care

Carrying me, taking the weight

All the time I thought I was alone

I only I’d looked earlier

I’d have seen the light at the end

And those willing to help.

16^th May 1996, North Acton, London, England.

Top of the World

Sitting on top of the world

Or so it feels

Looking down on valleys and trees

And houses e’er so small

People like ants

Milling around.

The only noise a rustling breeze

Or distant drone of aeroplanes.

I feel how God must feel

Looking down on His world

Thinking what beauty surrounds

Until a derelict mill

And a man-made quarry

Juts into sight:

The proverbial “blot on the landscape!”

I could sit here all day

Away from the city and smog

Until in the distance

I spy the expanse

Of Manchester smoking away.

Oh well! I can only dream

About sitting on top of the world!!

  

5^th May 1996, Macclesfield, England.

Summer Nights

Quiet!

Silence!

Long summer nights

Clear blue skies

Stars twinkling.

No cars

No pollution

No bustle

Just birds singing

And hearts beating.

Peace!

4^th May 1996, Sutton, Macclesfield, England.

The Telephone

Dialing the number I know so well

Hearing the voice I love to hear.

What more could I ask?

Our love declared through cables

Holding an impersonal machine

I hate the bloody telephone!

I want to see her face,

Hold her hands

Feel her lips.

How can I express how I really feel

To an inanimate object?

Is it all we've got to bridge the miles?

We've got our love

We've got our prayers to cover us

But, I still need to tell her:

“I love you”.

So like it or not

I need that bloody telephone!

1^st May 1996, Uxbridge, England.

An Open Letter to my Congressman, Rep Kevin Brady in response to a card he sent in the mail about The House Leadership going to file a lawsuit against the President.

Dear Congressman,

I received your new report postcard, dated July 31st in the mail today.

I read it with disbelief.  (For full disclosure I am a true Independent and have never voted on party lines only on issues.)

My problem with what you wrote is we have a Congress and Senate that are more concerned with party politics, what lobbyists, Super-Pacs, donors want etc.   We are in sore need of leadership and legislation to help the average working man or woman.  Did the President do the right thing is definitely open to interpretation, but, wasting time and our money on this rather than fixing what really matters is an absolutely ridiculous. As you correctly stated the President does not make the laws, but, if the legislative branch doesn't, can't or won't surely he has some responsibility to the people?

As far as the Affordable Care Act is concerned I don't think it is good legislation, but, it's a start.  The Health Care system needs to be fixed desperately.   It is a disgrace that in the 21st Century, in the World's Largest Super Power millions of people cannot afford to go see a doctor.   I implore you to put aside party politics and re-focus on what the founding fathers wanted Government to be:  "For the People, by, the People".   Unless I am mistaken if does not say "for the lobbyists" or "for the largest donors" or for "any particular special interest group" etc.. etc..

I look forward to hearing about a new Congress that is focused on what they are supposed to and that my Congressman is leading the charge.   If I hear this you will absolutely get my vote.

With Respect,

Richard Coull