Tuesday, January 20, 2009

A new day, a new look

Brian and I watched the Inauguration this morning, a momentous occasion in history no matter your political inclination. I was thankful to see President Barack Obama sworn in safely, and pray with the official "invocators" for his continued safety. The crisis our country and the entire world would be thrown into should he be assasinated would make the L.A. race riots look like a daycare squabble. I am not naive enough to think that mere mortals, no matter how intelligent and idealistic, can fix all the problems in our country. Indeed, the Bible says things will continue to go downhill until Jesus comes, destroys Satan and all those that cling the devil's principles instead of to God's, and recreates our world into a peaceful paradise. Still, I believe that while we are here, we are to follow Godly principles, the greatest of which is the kind of love described in I Corinthians 13, and do our best to combat evil in all its obvious and less obvious forms until "all these things pass away."

In honor of Inauguration Day, I have jumped on The Cutest Blog of the Block bandwagon. I've admired other blogs which have used their backgrounds, but the website was down for awhile. How fitting that it worked this morning! I am not a person who is always looking to "mix things up;" I put my furniture where I think it works best and leave it there, for example. And I consider decorating my house for every holiday and season too big an investment of time, money and storage space - although I certain enjoy the homes of others who do. But decorating my blog takes no money or physical storage space and very little time, so expect to see occasional changes of background scenery to go with my photos and ramblings.

That's it for now at . . .

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I changed my background as well using The Cutest blog on the block backgrounds as well but I chose a Valentine theme which I'll change again soon when my 1st nephew is born :-D

Pamela said...

Nice new look you got going there. About every two weeks or so, I think I'm going to change my over to one of the Cutest backgrounds. Wind up spending a couple of hours or so looking at all of them and trying to make up my mind. Then it's time to go feed so I give it up. (Perhaps this is why I rarely have time to do anything....you think?)

Jenny Holden said...

Like the decorating job! I decided to change mine too and opted for a Scottish theme.

I thought that Obama did a good job of his speech. I hope that he is everything that everyone hopes he will be, but I don't envy him that pressure one little bit!

Anonymous said...

Very pretty digs you have now, sophisticated. :) Sure wish it worked for wordpress blogs!

white_lilly said...

I love the new look.
They say a change is as good as a holiday, I think I might change mine again soon :)

I hope good things happen for America with their new president and that it will ripple to the rest of the world.

Kathleen Stoltzfus said...

Michelle,
Your blog is beautiful! And by the way, for being a good sport and playing along with my "what is this" post, I'd like to send you a token of appreciation. If you'll send me your snail mail, I'll get it out to you.
Thanks!

MaskedMan said...

I find all the talk of assasination of Obama to be rather insulting - Frankly, I find it racist - the assumption that he'll be shot because of his ethnic background? Or is it an issue of world-view? That he'll be shot because he's not right-leaning? Either way, it's illegitimate, and unrealistic; It's a left-wing fantasy that the right wing hates more strongly than the left - Dommestic terrorism in modern times started on the left, after all. Yup, the right has a higher body count, but it's only a matter of luck that that is so. Obama is at no greater risk (and no lesser) than any other President. I also find the cult of personality to be revolting - He's done nothing of note in his political career except to get elected. Show me his great accomplishemnts? There are none - And getting elected is frankly not that big a deal; There was ALWAYS going to be the first black President, just as there will always be the first female President - It was (and is) only a matter of "when."

Get off the paranoia wagon; it does you no service and poisons the political dialog. Maybe Obama will be a great President - I certainly hope so; we could use a great President about now - but save the adulation for when he's actually done something.

Michelle said...

Well, Masked Man, I don't know how you gathered that I adore the man, because I don't. It IS refreshing to have our highest official SOUND worthy of the job in the way he talks, but that is simply a refreshing change, not adulation - nor proof of ability. And I will respectfully disagree with you on several of your points. Yes, I DO think SOME on the right hate more strongly than MOST on the left. I think, generally speaking, the left can be characterized by the word tolerance (some think so much so that they tolerate ANYthing, no matter how deviant). The right, at least the large segment called the Religious Right, generally believes they have God behind their beliefs, which can breed the most stubborn and violent of responses (cases in point: the Crusades, the Israeli-Arab conflict, Muslim extremists). I have personal experience to back this up. Finally, concern and prayer do not equate with paranoia. There are lots of things I COULD get paranoid about, but faith in God preempts paranoia.

Kathleen said...

Wah. I tried the background thing and all I ended up with was the little logo that said "I jumped on the Cutest Little Blog Bandwagon..." Phooey. I know I've missed something but can't figure it out yet.

Michelle said...

Kathleen, wait a bit longer; it takes the background awhile to load. That little logo is what appears first.

Dave said...

I would have agreed with your assessment of tolerance left versus right up until this election cycle. From my own little knothole I experienced MUCH more intolerance esxpressed from folks on the left than from those on the right. This includes the "neutrality" of today's media...

Deborah Niemann said...

Nice new background. I'm feel old and outdated.

Deborah Niemann said...

Just a couple of notes about Obama . . . I'm from Illinois and was screaming at the television when Sarah Palin said at the RNC that he had sponsored no legislation as an IL state senator. That was a blatant lie. He sponsored a lot of legislation, including a bill that required police interrogations to be videotaped. Unless you get Chicago news, you don't know how important that is. (Lots of lawsuits on police brutality.) I won't clog up Michelle's comment section with a list of things he's done, but he's done at least as much as Bush II had before taking office.

As for personality -- some traits can be very important, such as having a cool temper. I've never heard of him losing his temper, and I've seen him in person when he was just a peon senator in downstate Illinois, which is hugely Republican. It was not a friendly crowd, and he responded to questions with respect and calmness.

If you disagree with his policies, that's fine. But a lot of stuff was said during the campaign that was just untrue, and sadly, it's made a lot of people worry now that he's elected, which is sad.

Michelle said...

Thank-you for these facts, Deborah. I have had the utmost respect for how Obama conducted himself during the campaign, and think that bodes well for how he will conduct himself as our president. We visited Factcheck.org quite a bit during the campaign to verify if what this person and that said was true. The record speaks far better than some policitians!