MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS - ENOUGH EPIC WEATHER ALREADY, CONRATULATIONS CARDINALS, GLOBAL ECONOMY IS A REALITY

Landisville late Saturday morning (photo by L. Kilgore)

As I begin writing this post for Monday publication, it is Saturday morning and I am sitting in the breakfast area at the Hampton Inn in Hanover PA. I was scheduled to teach a Bridgebuilders Seminar at a church in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. My wife and I had stopped here for the night to enjoy a night away and to reduce this morning's trip. The Seminar has been cancelled because of a winter storm warning that is already a reality at my final destination. The Weather Channel is trumpeting an epic winter storm for October in the Northeast.  I, for one, am not happy. (My wife who has gone back to be to sleep later on this Saturday is happy.)  Enough epic weather, already!  Where I live in central Pennsylvania, we have been hit by two hurricanes, one earthquake, and a century-level flood since August.  This is the second major training event I was scheduled to teach that have directly collided with the weather.   It's enough to make me start blogging about global warming.  I am hoping the snow goes away quickly.  I still have work to do to prepared my house and yard for winter.  Snow in October is just too soon.  Enough!

Side Note:  I don't usually do weather or sports teams in my prayers.  If I did and God chose to answer my prayer, it would be 70 degrees and sunny 12 months a year and the Detroit Tigers would be the 2011 World Series Champs.

Speaking of World Series Champions - congratulations to Tony LaRussa and the St. Louis Cardinals.  Two months ago no one really gave them a chance to make the playoffs, let alone win the Series against a slugging team like the Texas Rangers. But they closed the gap to be the NL Wild Card Team, overwhelmed the Milwaukee Brewers and then took the Rangers to a 7th Game that reflected the whole series - aggressive base running, closers who couldn't close and home runs galore from both sides.  I have many friends from my chldhood in the Midwest who were "rabid" Cardinal fans and their hour-by-hour agony filled the newsfeed on my Facebook for the past two weeks. Now they can be at peace.  For my money David Freese deserves the World Series MVP.  He saved the Cardinals in Game Six and I think broke the spirit of the Rangers. (I'd have loved to see a rematch of the 2006 Series between the Tigers and Cardinals given the power that has been added to the Tiger batting order in the last year.)

The eyes of the world have been on Greece this week where a highly troubled economy was undermining the European Union.  But the American stock market remained volatile this week as investors agonized over the impact of Greece's economic woes on our global economy.  Despite the protectionists in every nation around the world, we do have a global economy that really cannot be undone.  But the reality of that economy is in the impact on all nations when one nation does not keep its final house in order.  This is another reason why the US must get its own final house in order.