When it's man versus lots of water, you know the water's often going to win. Oh, we've built dams and levees and water management systems. But sometimes - like now along the Mississippi - there's just too much water.
It all depends on the levees now. So many Americans have been watching record high flood waters rising all around them this week. Hoping the wall between them and all that water is high enough to hold it back.
It would be crazy for some town to suddenly say, "Uh-oh. We'd better build a wall here. Fast." No, it's too late when the waters are surging. You've got to build your walls high before the flood comes.
I still remember at least one line of poetry from high school. "Water, water everywhere." For lots of folks, that's not poetry right now. It's their town...their neighborhood...their house. The rivers are overflowing and backing up into every creek and stream they're connected to. It's a mess.
Honest, we didn't mean to be in northern Kentucky on Kentucky Derby weekend - but obviously thousands of people did. In trying to avoid flooding as we traveled, that's exactly where we managed to be. So there we were in the middle of rampant Derby Fever. No, I didn't bet on anybody, and I refuse to wear one of those floppy hats.
There's something about a princess.
I know our granddaughters sure think so. They've got princess dolls, princess sheets, princess tiaras - you get the picture. But they're not unusual. So many little girls, from so many generations, have grown up with dreams of being a princess. And what's at the center of Disney World's Fantasyland? Cinderella's Castle, of course.
The Royal Wedding has undoubtedly captured the fascination of millions.
The British royal wedding is big. But God's ultimate Royal Spectacle will be the biggest news the world has ever known!
Ron Hutchcraft weighs in with a powerful video blog: "The Ultimate Royal Spectacle."
Please view and share Ron Hutchcraft's "The Ultimate Royal Spectacle."
I was excited to learn that they'll be serving beetroot blinis at the Royal Wedding breakfast. And there will be edible flowers on the wedding fruitcake. Oh yeah - and there are 32,500 stitches in the waistcoats they're making for the footmen. Yes, the news folks have gone a little "daft" (British-ism) over the wedding of William and Kate.
I'm having some flashbacks today. Of some very special Easters Past. Often at a sunrise service. Like the Easter in Miami, with the sun rising over Biscayne Bay as I spoke about Jesus rising from the dead. Or the Easter morning, celebrating Jesus with Native Americans in a public park on an Idaho Indian reservation. And the one on the mountaintop near New York City.
Wow. One severe weather system behind us, another one coming. Welcome to Spring in Tornado Alley. Looks like our children will once again have their young children in bed with them before the night is over. And I'll be waking up during the night to the annoying alarm on our weather radio and that robotic voice of NOAA radio. But that's OK. There's a reason all those weather guys strongly urge you to have one of those life-saving radios. And why I strongly urge me to respond when the warning comes!
When the tornado sirens went off in town, I suddenly found myself huddled in a closet with two of my grandchildren. Oh yeah, and the local radio station on real loud. I'm not particularly thrilled about the style of music they play (which shall remain nameless), but they had the scoop on the storms.
As I'm reassuring the kids, I'm thinking, "I hope this closet will do it." Thankfully, we didn't have to test it. The tornado went north of us. At our own house, we've carefully thought through the safest place to be if we're suddenly on Twister Expressway. Our other children have basements. We're glad.
