What Color Is Your Map?

Our map is hot!  It looks like it's going to burn right off the page.  Just looking at it makes me hot.

Sounds like I'm complaining, doesn't it?  Okay, well maybe I am a little.  At least I'm aware of it and I try to remember that as hot as it is here in Jacksonville, Florida, it's even hotter in Fort Worth, Texas where my sister is.  It seems all last week their temperatures were between 104 and 110.  Yes that's One Hundred and Ten BEFORE the heat index!!!  I know a lot of you are out there suffering these dog days of summer.  And Lord be with those who work outside in it. 

When I think of whining again, I stop and think of our many men and women serving our country in a foreign land.  Tuesday's forecast for Iraq is 115 degrees!  Can you imagine?  No, our service men and women won't be at the beach or at the pool.  They will most likely be covered in head to toe clothing and helmets and bearing what I consider the unimaginable. 

God bless our troops. 

I have an endless amount of gratitude to them for doing the job that no one wants to do.  War is ugly.  No one wants this great country of ours to be in the midst of a war.  No one wants the world to be in a war.  The loss of life.  The monetary cost to the world.  I mean really, think what that money could do to accomplish an end to world hunger, to strengthening our economy and so much more.  How amazing would it be to be in a peaceful world, where everything worked in together for the good of mankind.  Yes, I realize that's a idealistic view of life.  A little Disney-esque.  I'm picturing the original Cinderella animated movie with bluebirds dressing her.

Our service men and women do what so many of us can't imagine doing.  They do what so many of our country men and women have done before them........They serve.  They serve because they know that wars happen and whether right or wrong our country needs to be protected.  They serve because they believe in our in our forefathers vision of responsibility for the least of mankind.   Those being abused by dictators and maniacs.  They serve because they were lucky enough to have been born in a country with so much when other countries have so little and they were raised to know that those who have much are responsible to help those who have little.

My prayers go out to the families and their communities who lost their loved ones, our hero's, in the lastest tragedy that took 30 of our soldiers from us.  

GOD BLESS THEM.  GOD BLESS AMERICA.