From hunter to hooray! It’s over!

There he was, right where he is supposed to be. I had been looking for him for several weeks because he usually seems to show his face … well, not his face, about this time every year. And now that I had spotted him, too, I introduced myself to his sisters. They reacted like they always have by winking.

Somehow those meetings from long ago haven’t changed a bit. For heaven’s sake, you’re probably thinking, “Hasn’t the old ‘cuffer really lost it this time?”

That’s partially true because I had missed him for several weeks and, finally, I realized he couldn’t show up through the leaves of that huge oak tree which even hides the smile of another old friend.

Now we’re getting somewhere, aren’t we? You’ve probably figured out that old friend who is rolling around in the sky is none other than the Man in the Moon. But what, or who, is that other guy who’s been hiding? Just think back a few years, say, like the times you looked up in the sky while trick or treating on Halloween and following you around was that big hunter in the heavens. Remember that name, Orion? and also, remember not too far away in a cloudless sky were those Seven Sisters just twinkling away? And while we’re on the subject, do you remember being awakened to go out to the porch and watch an eclipse of the moon or lots of shooting stars on certain times of the year? I wonder if kids today look skyward and miss a few fireflies that were part of the summer fun for little kids? Didn’t we call them lightning bugs? And where were they this past summer?

Let’s get back for a few sentences to remember a little about that Orion guy. He was a mighty hunter in Greek mythology, and he still marches across the heavens straddling the celestial equator with bright stars outlining his body as he carries a club in his right hand and grips a lion’s skin as a shield in front of him. A real way to spot him is still those three bright stars on his belt.

This was going to be a conglomeration ‘cuff, but it hit home that even though the old Smith needs a new ribbon, today, the day this is being read, is the first day after that special event that hopefully will calm things down from the top of the skyscraper to the dungeon under the whatever. The election is over, hooray or … daggum it … or there the old ‘cuffer goes again, sitting at the typewriter several days before. Let’s just use big letters: IT’S OVER!

Let’s make it short: Isn’t it time for everybody to quit calling each other bigots or racists or liars or figure stretchers or whatever? It is time to be thankful that America is still a Republic that has provided freedom to a free people. Somehow the republic has edged over to democracy, a type of government that has to work hard to maintain that freedom for more than two centuries. It hasn’t been perfect, but common sense and thankfulness for what we have has become the government of the people, for the people, and by the people, in spite of attempts every once in a while to upset the apple cart. And it takes a hard time, hard thinking and hard living for good old common sense to prevail.

Haven’t we seen before, and are seeing today, how nations that have or are trying to be democracies fade off into some other type of government? It happens when people allow all kinds of ideas and try to do just that, try to make it better, and it falls the other way. Anyway … thank Americans who have voted to maintain our democratic republic. Now let’s live and let live and hope and work for good or better times until two years hence when … you know what’ll take place. Get ready with patience and prayers.

‘Till next time.