Intermission: OldSouth On Downtime, And A Visit To Southern Indiana

It's midsummer, and finally, finally some time off can be taken. One child is home from his university far far away, and it's been a year since he's been home. It is a wonderfully sweet time, just hanging out at home, cooking, jabbering about school and life. It will be tough to drive away from the airport after putting him on the plane to his future. The young man has so wildly exceeded any expectations his parents could have had for him nearly twenty years ago, and most of the credit belongs to him, with a bit to his stumbling mom and dad, who mainly tried to stay a step ahead of him during his childhood.

Sweet as well the visit to take the young man see his new infant cousin for the first time, and to visit with his aging grandparents, now well into their 80's. Lots of pictures taken by everyone, knowing this may well be the final occasion with everyone still alive, well, and in the same room. The thought, of course, was left unspoken, but hung in the air: Don't let this day's happiness go uncelebrated. We've all worked a lifetime to get to this afternoon. Let's not waste a moment of it.

Business travel took OS to southern Indiana, through Jeffersonville, Scottsburg, Hanover and Madison. The Ohio River valley at this point is breathtakingly beautiful, both in its natural state, and in what the Hoosiers who settled and developed the area have done with it. Bucolic, pretty towns, beautiful farms. A sense of order, built within the context of the natural endowments encountered here. Genuinely friendly people, who seem aware of how blessed they are to live in this somewhat remote corner of the States, largely ignored by the GreatAndGoodAndGlamorous.

On the drive back from Hanover to Jeffersonville, through the farms and villages, on Highway 62, OS listened in on the news of the failure of the elites to grasp that they cannot spend money that does not exist, and found himself musing: What's wrong with these people? Have they forgotten what it's like just to drive through this sort of country and remember how wonderful it is here? Why would they want to kill this way of life off? Why do they hate these people so much? If they didn't hate these people, how else to explain the behavior of an Obama or Pelosi, who will simply suck the life out of this culture in order to have their own way?

OS also mused on what may await his son and infant nephew if we don't all eat a big serving of Humble Pie, and deal with the mathematical realities that now stare us in the face. Will they enjoy anything like the freedoms that allowed their parents to build their quiet and happy lives?

OS has been reading, keeping up with events, or non-events as it were. No need to repeat what is written more effectively elsewhere. (By the way, Monday morning will open with the news of the collapse of The Bank of Ireland and the default of Greece. No surprise there, except to those completely embedded in denial.)

And so, OS returns to his hiatus. The boy departs in a few days, and a vacation begins after that.

May Heaven bless us every one, and preserve the United States of America by divine grace.