Do you believe in MAGIC?

When you get past fifty, something kicks in. You have a need to share the things learned in life with the younger generation-at least I do, and I like to believe I'm normal.
So, let me share, if you have a moment-and especially if you are youngish...or curious.

The two greatest lessons I've learned about the world are laughably simple: Everything you need or get has to come from somewhere; and everything you throw away has to go somewhere.
There's no elfin magic in life, no free lunch, and no getting away with misappropriation-at least not long term.
Take health care, for example, or even clean up of toxic sites. Money spent on these costly necessities will mean other costly things are NA-"off the table." We will not be able to fight wars all over the planet and take care of our own people and land. We may focus on major aspects of national security-so totally necessary-but not put out every global fire.
We will have to become more isolationist and self-reliant, which includes both positives and negatives (more jobs, less pay, higher quality work, better scientific output, increased productivity and exports, unity among Americans and tight borders.) For a time, we may have to rebuild our own house, limit immigration, and address our own economy and energy needs.
If this is "not possible"-why not? Let's start there in our discussion!
Again - resources are, in all probability, finite; and from what I've read, dwindling.

Now for the next truth: All we throw or wash away...goes somewhere. When I clean my house, I see this principle in motion.
A familiar Saturday morning routine: Clean your bathroom. ..Bacteria gets on your cleaning cloth, the cloth goes in the washing machine and dirt goes down a drain. Wash out a paintbrush in your backyard....The paint goes into the soil where you grow your vegetables or drains into the sewer, which may eventually deposit compounds in soil a mile away where your son wades in a creek. Throw away enough soda bottles and disposable diapers, and live atop a smelly landfill-or smell the breeze from the community mound. When toxic chemicals are involved, cancer will overtake a percentage of us.
You know. What goes around, comes around. It doesn't go away!
No vanishing act, darn it.

(Oh, I wish I had an inflated quarter for each item I mindlessly trashed in my youth; and each time I saw waste within my company and thought money grew on trees then reproduced into my budget. Yes, I was really that young and stupid once, and blog with total humility. But, alas, no elfin magic dollars for me or anyone else!)

Life is meant to be lived carefully if one desires a long, productive existence. When I read the Bible, I see and grasp this message; all of God's revealed plan begins with the creation of the earth, and pretty much ends with a new earth. THE EARTH IS VERY IMPORTANT as it's home plate for the human race.
So when you prepare to vote in the upcoming elections, please think about candidates' plans for the use of citizens' shared resources. Do not be taken in by poems, prayers, and promises about more jobs and inventions that may or may not happen. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst; make sure all resources go toward what is most important! (And I must add, since it's my thesis here..It took me a LONG TIME to realize how critically important the environment is. Be wiser sooner than I was.)

Within my church, we affirm that in God's economy nothing is ever wasted-all is used for the highest purpose.
We aren't God and can't see the future, but we would do well to follow His example in these tough economic and toxic times.