in your own SHOEBOX- SKO LADA ( with a dot over the first A)

as much as I complain about sweden...in all fairness I can safely say, I'm glad  I'm not back in the US anymore....( please understand that my view of WHAT the USA is lies somewhere to the WEST of the Hudson RIver....)

Like many of us, i have some dear old friends that I've re-connected with on FaceBook- gee! who hasn't? You reconnect with High School chums- and oops! something has disconnected in the 30 years since you last saw them. Well, maybe you disconnected - or something.

(As you can tell from my happy pix here - this is going to get a bit religious and a bit political.....)

Being originally from Texas, I have a lot of my old chums back there. Texas was a land-of-the-Born-Agains.....heck, I'm even Born-Again myself. There was something that said you couldn't even walk out your door in Lubbock,Texas if you hadn't been dunked under the water there. I got dunked. yep. and that "saved" me- or so I was told back then.

I carry my God with me to this day. He and I - we got a thing goin' on.....OUR OWN THANG. Leave me alone about it. I'll leave you alone about your thang.

The viewpoints of some of my old buddies absolutely stymies me. Christians railing about wanting to have Prayer in Schools ( yes, in PUBLIC SCHOOLS) . Carrying on about how Obama is the EVIL ONE-and ANYONE who voted for him , is headed straight to HELL in a handbasket.

Railing about how Health Care reform is EVIL- the work of the devil practically. 

And my favourite FaceBook from one of my buddies back in the HEMLAND-so far:     " Healthcare wasn't in the US Constitution" - so why should we support it?!?!?

Really! 

REALLY!

And this spoken from someone that I believed to be intelligent.

....neither was MANDATORY WEARING OF  SAFETY BELTS in CARS or BABY SEATS in the Constitution.... which I suppose therefore means that we shouldn't have to use them??

All in all, it's a bit frightening- and all I have to say is- thank God , I live in Stallin's backyard now--none of this stuff flies here. And although some ( probably some of my friends if I bluntly asked them) would tell me I am living in HELL ITSELF-in a country full of UNWED PARENTS- all of us doomed to go to HELL for our evil ways- I just don't see it that way.....

What is it about stepping outside of your SAFE ZONE ( Lubbock, Texas for example?) that inspires thought- that inspires actually thinking outside-of-the-box? Is it simply THINKING outside of the Box that dooms you to hell? Or is actually believing those things that you find outside of the box that dooms you to hell?

yes, I went to school in Lubbock, Texas( look that one up on Google maps in the middle of nowhere land, will ya?) Right next to Buddy Holly's grave if you will. But they got something very special going on there- in the middle of nowhere I found some of the very FEW of us- that are apparently the lucky ones going straight to Heaven.

The thing that chased me out of Texas as fast as my little airplane ticket would carry me can be summed up in a  singular episode that occurred to me there once...

I had an Evangelical Boyfriend back then.We went to an Evangelical Church. We went to said church one fine Sunday morning along with the yes- several THOUSAND others that marched into the HUMONGOUS auditorium there every Sunday. And we listened to our PERFECT pastor with his PERFECT HAIR tell us how we were all wonderful ,saved and blessed by the Lord Almighty,etc. every week. WOW! Weren't we special?! Had me goin' for a while there ,too, until....

this one morning- After some time praising all of us- (himself included, natch!)- He began to urge us on to be the Missionaries that God had wanted us to be. And then it came- as if to drive home the point that we had all better pack our bags right then and there and go spreading the Good Word.....

He-of-the-Perfect-Hair spoke to us of China. He told us HOW MANY people lived there ( even back in 1983 ,it was quite a few !)Then, the Pastor of the Bleached Blond Shellaced Hair in the Poly Suit told us- If ALL OF THESE PEOPLE did not accept (OUR) God as their Lord and Savior -and this is the kicker- even if they had never HEARD of him- (were living in some remote section and had never HEARD of Him) that - you guessed it- They were all going to go to Hell  ( and trust me-there was no mincing of words here on this point)

UNLESS- and this was it- UNLESS- we all personally went over there and made them know and accept  ( OUR) God- and fast! ( They were losing souls over there every day!)

Now,I'd never been to China at that time- but the thought of almost a billion souls going to hell through no fault of their own- because they hadn't heard about MY GOD and accepted MY GOD -was a little too much to bear. 

As I recall I got up and walked out.

I'd had enough. Revolting.

(speaking of revolting- that Perfect Pastor of the Perfect Hair "revolted" shortly after that too- Took off with a teenage boy or two to Arizona on a private plane or something- abandoned his family- was never heard from again- just POOFED-gone. I 'm not sure who or what he was off to Arizona to save other than the teenage boy or two that he took with him...hmmmm.....)

All in all, it was philosophies like that that caused me to question how dare I assume that I was so fortunate to be one of the few that had come to know God with this perfect group of perfect people TRULY IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE that apparently were some of the few lot of us on this planet destined to go to Heaven? Something just didn't figure to me.

Needless to say, I got the HELL outta HEAVEN THERE on the fastest plane I could find.

And as you see that "fast plane" has landed me here- living somewhat happily in Stallin's backyard,- if it ain't HELL -as I am sure that some of my friends would have me believe that it is-or at least the Gateway to It.... what with all these evil bad people over here that live SAMBO and having children out of wedlock- even if they are in a committed relationship...., that have free healthcare- and use it, that are SOCIALISTIC in their voting patterns -many of them-, that have blond hair and copulate endlessly.....( or so the reputation goes..)

This is the Gateway to Hell indeed. 

Food for the Soul today: God grant me the patience to endure FaceBook somedays! Or the WISDOM to get the heck off of there- if it derails my day! Grant me the patience to understand that the only reason a lot of these people continue to believe the exact same things that their parents told them to believe 30 years ago-is because they are still in Their  Own Little Shoebox- and for them- it's safe in there.

Swedish Word of the Day- SKO LADA ( with a DOt over the 1st A)- SHOE BOX-may you enjoy your own ..and let me enjoy mine,too!

the next time I complain about HERE- my SHOE BOX for now- a.k.a.- HELL's GATEWAY- I need to remind myself, that I once lived in LUBBOCK, TEXAS

- and THAT was HEAVEN....

right?.....