One of the last rides my mother and I took was down a county road past an old house. It was late afternoon, and we watched as a woman drove her milk cows across the road to the barn. She had a little stick in her hand, but once started, the cattle knew what to do and where to go. My mother watched and saw that the house had no electricity. It had kerosine lamps.
She said to me sadly, "I made a mistake trying to be so modern." She had worked to upgrade our home which was already very nice. I loved it when I moved in at age six. My mother continued, "I think this woman is very happy living simply."
Not long after that Mother was dead. She had been caught up in the frenzy to be modern. Her absence from home when I was a little boy traumatized me. I thought she didn't love me. What a price we have paid for carpeting and window treatments, and other non-essentials.
I once saw some poor people with their children playing in the dirt. They had made little wagons from tin cans. Their mother was nearby in case they needed her. These people were forced by poverty to live as they should, close to one another. These children had a better life than I had lived.
Soon, if only a small part of the predictions come true, the people of this proud country will lose their god of money and modernity. Their lives may be lowered to the living standard that Jesus lived, if they are allowed to live at all.
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