As if the Sea should part

And show a further Sea –

And that – a further – and the Three

But a presumption be –

 

Of Periods of Seas –

Unvisited of Shores –

Themselves the Verge of Seas to be –

Eternity – is [These] –

 

Emily Dickinson

By Dr. Jim Ferguson

I used to be a New York Yankee fan, but not anymore. As a kid I was a pretty good baseball player; I was an average-sized fish in a small pond. But that was also long ago.

The world has changed and so have I. Now I cheer for the Atlanta Braves who swept the New York Mets this year. Similarly, The Bronx Bombers (Yankees) were swept by the Houston Astros. Texas Senator Ted Cruz was in Yankee Stadium to watch the final game of the series and waved to the crowd. But the Yankee fans gave him the Bronx cheer and their middle finger. Just like their baseball teams, Gotham is gone: lost to crime, lost to corruption and without class. New Yorkers even booed their own Aaron Judge, who broke Roger Maris' home run record before slumping during the playoff season. Fickle would be a kind word for such fans. Judge is now a free agent and I'll bet he will leave the Big Apple just like thousands of other New Yorkers fleeing Gotham.

Years ago, while quail hunting in South Carolina, my dad met Bobby Richardson, the legendary second baseman for the New York Yankees. Later a starry-eyed boy shook Mr. Richardson's hand and thanked him for an autographed baseball signed by the 1963 world-champion Yankees. The signers included Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and the rest of the team. That coveted and invaluable baseball went missing when I went off to medical school. Little brothers have a way of misplacing things.

Among the many news sources, I read is the New York Post, the oldest newspaper in the country. So, I hear of Gotham's crime, drugs, and homelessness which is driving New Yorkers to friendlier climes like Tennessee and Florida. Recall, it was The Post that broke the news story of Hunter Biden's laptop, a story suppressed by the NY Times, other elite media and Big Tech's "Fake-Book," Google, and Twitter. Too bad, because this helped elect Joe Biden, an incompetent POTUS. And we are all paying the price.

Choices have consequences. Biden's debility provided a perfect facade for his radical handlers and Democrat apparatchiks. Their destructive policies have led to the highest inflation in 40 years – inflation taxes everyone. Similarly, our absent southern border has promoted a tsunami of four million illegals since 2021, whose first act is to violate our laws. Supply chain issues now abound, gas prices have doubled and now our country has less than a month of diesel fuel under Biden and the Democrats. Chinese fentanyl and death stream across the southern border as Mexican drug cartels are enriched. Democrats defunding the police have caused crime to flourish, as leftist DAs release dangerous criminals back into our neighborhoods. Lastly, China is on the move and may invade Taiwan as we fight a proxy war with Putin in the corrupt country of Ukraine. At least we're out of the Middle East after Biden rearmed the Taliban.

It's hard for me to be optimistic, but ultimately, I am. As a Christian I believe good will triumph, but perhaps not in my lifetime or in America. However, there are signs of a revolution; Americans are sick of what the Democrats have done to our country in just two years. Honestly, I don't know how a rational person can vote in this election cycle for any Democrat. As Dan Bongino once said, "The Republicans may not fix all our problems, but the Democrats have certainly caused them."

The Democrats cannot run on their policy failures so their mantra is hatred of President Trump, promotion of unlimited abortion, child gender lunacy and the Jan 6th political show trial. None of these issues are important enough for national, state or local races. Remember, James Carville (aka Skeletor), Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign chairman? He said, "It's the economy stupid." He was right and it still is. The Democrats have produced inflation, recession, damaged 401Ks and are waging war on our energy sector. If we lived in a just world not a single Democrat would win this November.

My life is different in retirement. I no longer have a medical on-call schedule or office practice. In fact, if I didn't have small group meetings three days a week, a Focus essay due every Friday and worship service on Sunday, I might forget what day it is! Actually, I've done this momentarily, just like I once awakened in a strange hotel and struggled to remember where I was.

I am staying busy. I've cut and stacked firewood for the winter, the garden, orchard and vineyard have been laid to rest and I'm working on the final novel of my Stellar Trilogy.

I admire C. S. Lewis, a classicist, Christian apologist and author of The Narnia Chronicles. You may be surprised to learn he also wrote a science-fiction trilogy which inspired me. I have an idea where my novel is going, but since I don't write from an outline I don't know where it will end up. I sometimes surprise myself. That was true of the first novel of the trilogy, "Epiphany," and was certainly true with the recently published second novel, "Mantis." Both are available at Amazon and "Mantis" is also available from my publisher at store.bookbaby.com. The cover of "Mantis" may be Halloweenesque, but it is not of the macabre. It is a story of revelation and redemption made possible through unique means of communication. If you like my essays, try my novels. Great stocking stuffers!

Emily Dickenson is my favorite poetess. I consider her a visionary. I especially love her pithy perspectives of the world, other realities and eternity. Strangely, Dickenson was quite reclusive and never traveled far from her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. But perhaps she nonetheless traveled in her mind as evidenced by her poem about distant shores, seas within seas and transcendent time. Perhaps she was also an imaginative writer of science fiction. Food for thought.

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