Starting the Brainwashing Early

I went to my daughters 4th grade Open House at school last night. They sang a song entitled "A little Hoosier I am Proud to Be" or something to that affect. They then backed that up with a poem about Hoosierland that contained a line about the Wabash river winding through paradise.

I've seen the Wabash winding through something but the word paradise never crossed my mind. I began to wonder if Indiana was experiencing a massive outflow of young people and if this was a state sponsored attempt to get the kids to stay. I suppose if you tell them enough times that this is paradise a certain percentage is bound to believe it. Even more worrisome, my daughter didn't seem to doubt it for a minute. Where have we gone wrong.

I suppose in the end (or maybe I should say the beginning) this whole earth was God's creation, including this little slice here. Maybe I should hold back on what I think of it just a bit. Maybe it isn't so bad after all.

I kind of felt bad when Dan had a musician from Nashville give a concert at his church. The guy was originally from Illinois and he kept remarking about how beautiful the bean field behind me looked. I thought I must have missed something so I turned around to have a second look myself. Lo and behold, it looked just like.... a bean field. Apparently when you grow up around this neck of the woods you develop an attachment to it. I wonder if he sang songs about bean field paradise when he was a kid.

I can't say I really get it but I do think I should try to appreciate it more. I have a strong feeling that God has led me to this little corner of the world so in that sense I suppose it is my promised land. At least for now.

I think I'll go take a walk in paradise and see what I can see. I sure hope the meat locker isn't making jerky today. It would be nice if it smelled like paradise too.