Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

The other day, as I drove toward our county seat, about 15 mi. from my house, I was marvelling at the interesting signs that regularly are present along the way.  Of course election time is usually the most interesting but on an average weekend I can usually find at least a couple of things to ponder.

I first pass a church whose marquee, until a couple of days ago had, "God is the start of wisdom," written on it.  This is a modification of what it said a couple of weeks earlier, which was, "Fear of God is the start of wisdom".  The original message was apparently too irrational for even the deluded fundies. Or, maybe the sign was changed because, according to their book, God made a tree that would give wisdom to anyone who ate the fruit, but if Eve had really feared God, she wouldn't have eaten the fruit and wisdom would never have started.

My favorite message on that marquee was a while back.  It said, "There can be no America without God."  I'd really like to see someone try to prove that.  It seems to me that, even by the most conservative Xian estimate of the age of the earth, there were people living here who knew nothing about their god for 5000 years, and they were doing just fine until Europeans showed up.

Up the road from the church is a farm market.  Below the farm market sign is one that says "Jesus is Lord."   I'm guessing you won't find a lot of kosher food there.  Oh! It also has "Elect Ron Paul" written in huge letters on the building's side.  I'm guessing you won't find a lot of democrats there, either.

Further up the road is a modest private home that one day had a sign that said "Impeach the imposter!"  All I could think when I saw it was: that delusional person's vote counts the same as mine.  I went back later to take a picture, but the sign was gone.  Perhaps, it was only there while the residents hosted a tea party.

A few miles on, at the outskirts of Mount Vernon, there was a large portable sign that stood next to the road for about the whole first year of the Freshwater fiasco.  It read; "If the bible goes the student should follow."  Those were the good old days, when the bible was gone and the student's family had yet to been driven out of town.

The last special sign sits in front of what looks like a typical ranch house, on a lawn that seems never to get mowed.  The sign consists of a Xian cross tilted toward the road at about 30 degrees from verticle.  Nailed to cross is a white depiction of an amputated human hand with blood running from its palm where the nail pierces it.  I'll bet the neighbors love what it does to their property values.  Other signs near the cross identify the building as a house of worship whose name seems to change frequently.  Most recently, these signs said something about Mogen David Tabernacle. Maybe they worship sugary wine.

Going back the other way, heading home from a motorcycle ride today, I noticed the church marquee held the question, "Where is your journey taking you?"  I was going home, thanks for asking.  As I was about a half a block my house, I noticed a bumper sticker on the back of a neighbor's car.  It was one of those that says "Coexist" spelled out in symbols of various world religions.  It reminded me that things aren't so bad.