Heaven or Hell?

THIS IS A NONPARTISAN JOKE THAT CAN BE ENJOYED BY BOTH PARTIES! NOT ONLY THAT-- it is POLITICALLY CORRECT!!

While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by
a truck and dies.

His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems
there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, 
you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the man.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."

"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in n heaven," says the
senator.

"I'm sorry,but we have our rules."

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him,
shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while
getting rich at the expense of the people

They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises...

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St.
Peter is waiting for him.

"Now it's time to visit heaven."

So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls
moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a
good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St.
Peter returns.

"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity."

The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: "Well, I would
never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but 
I think I would be better off in hell."

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down,
down to hell.

Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.

He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.
"I don't understand," stammers the senator. "Yesterday I was here
and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and
caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now
there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning.. .



Today you voted."

My House of Cards

This is the worst depression I have suffered in a long, long time. No it's not clinical so there is no magic pill I can take to make it all go away, it's just the little (and occasionally large) irritations of life that we let grow and build over time until one day we just kind of implode and collapse under the weight of it all. It's like building a house of cards, if you add one to many the whole thing comes tumbling down.

There have been several unpleasant events over the past few years that have contributed to my present state of mind, most were due to my own poor judgement, but some were beyond my control, things I couldn't change because doing what was honorable and ethical made walking away a non-option.

I guess my house of cards finally reached it's limit. Now I have to figure out how to start picking up all of those fallen cards to rebuild my house. The hard part is finding the positive cards and leaving the negative ones lay. It's not always easy to find the positive in a situation and all too often the negative is hiding or disguised as something we think we need to keep. Negativity is hard to corral, it is smart and cunning and works hard at avoiding our attempt at ridding ourselves of it's hold, making the job of rebuilding our house a substantial challenge.

As I sort through the cards looking for the life I need to rebuild, and the lessons I have learned from this collapse, I'll also seek out those lessons that have somehow slipped by me. Hopefully I'll be able to retrieve them and use them to add strength to my new house, learning as I go. No one ever said life was easy, but sometimes we make it much harder than is necessary. We humans are a sad lot... most of the time serving as our own worst enemies.