Labor Day News

I write this from Audrey's house in Knoxville.
She is taking a Sunday afternoon nap - after preaching this morning. It was a good worship service. Her church - First Christian Church - is a very old building in downtown Knoxvile and you can tell it once was very grand. There is a balcony that goes al the way around the sanctuary which empty at least this morning. I bet this church could hold 400 people, but there were only about a hundred in worship.
it was a very nice worship service. Very meaningful to me and Audrey's preaching was intelligent and authentic and actually made me cry. i think I cried because it is so clear the God is working through her - and it awes me. The congregation obviously loves her and that certainly makes a mother feel good.

yesterday Chuck and I drove to Hendersonville north Carolina to see my Uncle Jim. A long day with driving almost 6 hours back and forth but still it was good to see him. Uncle Jim lives in a beautiful house on top of a mountain and he is still - at 85 years of age - able to keep it up. His friend, Marion, was visiting and we all went out to lunch together. I learned about Uncle Jim's politics and his health and his life in North Carolina. Most of all I learned that it meant a lot to him that Chuck and I took a day and spent time. In the morning before I went I felt like I herd my parents approval of a day like today. it had been 3 years since I saw him last. And it was time. this is what family does.

As i am writing this, I am watching a "Presidential Campaign Focus Group" on C Span.
they are watching snippets of speeches from Obama and McCain and reacting to what they are saying. It is fascinating. As this whole campaign is fascinating. Now that the democratic convention is over I am looking forward to the republican. this woman from Alaska is going to be interesting learn about - she seems so conservative - how can McCain think he is going to pick up any of the Hillary women? I wonder.

Speaking of Hillary, I just finished reading American Evita by Christopher Anderson. It describes her ambition and her fighting nature. I always knew that i viscerally reacted negatively to hillary the fighter. As i read this book I can see that she has been a fighted - no holds barred fighter - her whole life. She is also the master of compartmentalization - being able to put unpleasant things in a box in her mind and then not think about it. I believe that enabled her to say things that were not true with such conviction that she herself believes them. Thursday I watched her give the final New York votes to Obama and I kept wondering "how does she do that?" How can she - after fighting this fight to become the democratic candidate how can she laugh and smile. Isn't her heart absolutely broken? But what I really got from this book was has incredibly ambitious and strong she is. She is not done - I am sure of that. But I, for one, am glad she is not the democratic candidate.