Mr. Swing
Freedom
Freedom was the one word she thought of when she thought about Mr. Swing. Freedom to be flying over the clouds, looking down on the pastures and rolling hills of green and gold as if from a birds eye view, sitting on the swing of her front porch, surrounded by her sisters, friends and neighbors. In that “swing”, Filly would tell her imaginary stories of her dreams of a handsome prince who would carry them to a place un-imagined beauty and perfection, where they each had everything their hearts desired. Filly took great care to describe for each child, on the swing, what treasures they would have and they listened and swung their legs, for hours, the swing going higher and higher, and farther and farther.
The way to “get there” according to Filly, was on “Mr. Swing” a wooden front porch swing that was large and slatted and long enough to hold about seven or eight children, who would listen in rapt attention to the life described by Filly, who then was also a child, about eight or nine years old. She loved telling stories and she loved the swing on her front porch. No matter their dirty play clothes or their old beat up red station wagon car with the hole in the floor that she and her sisters would look out at when they were driving, Mr. Swing took them to the prince, who was full of wonderful things that were very desirable.
The swing was a great “transport” into the future of a good life and good times. Filly grew up in Goldsboro, North Carolina, a town much like Mayberry and her Mom and Dad were much like Andy Griffith and Helen; conservative, hard working, family oriented, and easy going “little people” who went to church, paid their bills and followed the law.
But the swing did not just provide a good life to people in North Carolina, took them to other states as well, like Virginia, where Filly’s sisters and her parents all actually visited. Williamsburg had been fascinating and Filly had learned about the early colonial life, where people who arrived in the USA to avoid the oppression of the British government, had obtained freedom, and lived and worked and formed much of the early constitution. Her sister had gone to college in Williamsburg at William and Mary, accepted because she had been valedictorian of her senior class.
Or the swing flew them to Nevada, a place where Filly had lived and worked as a personal trainer and also in marketing for Gold’s gym. Filly’s husband had moved the family there after the oil industry caused him to lose his job. Together they had worked and Filly had home schooled her children because the school system there was at the bottom and they could not afford private school.
It was funny to Filly that now after all these years later, these were called “swing states” when it came to elections. Because Mr. Swing had existed long before this and freedom happened when the people who were in the swing, aligned with Jesus. Filly thought that for years, some people in Mr. Swing, had been living in a false dream, where freedom meant being able to kill your own baby, but that was not freedom, that was being enslaved to evil. The swing and the prince had nothing to do with murder ever, not in any of Filly’s imaginations or stories while on the swing.
Freedom exists in the understanding that evil is a choice that enslaves. Turning away from evil and choosing to do good maintains freedom.
Filly lovingly looked at the recent letter that her Mom, now in her nineties, had sent her sisters and grandchildren, regarding the family and the swing state of NC.
Dearest Family,
With the upcoming election right around the corner, memories of elections past have heightened memories of many years ago. Below is an article in a newspaper announcing Herbert Howell’s declaring his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representative, 3rd District of N.C. in 1968..
He did not win that year, or two years later, in 1970, when he ran again in our overwhelmingly Democrat Congressional District. But his dedication, and hard work, are still alive and well.
In the picture below, you’ll see the youngest of our 5 daughters, Tina…. who now resides in Briar Chapel (in Chapel Hill), just minutes away from me, and who just completed the Training required to be a judge, which she will be doing at her Precinct during Early Voting as well as Election Day.
Her Dad is smiling down on her, I feel sure. And I am so very proud of her!
I’ll be volunteering outside of the nearest Early Voting site, at the GOP Red Tent, from 2–5 on 5 different dates. Have cut way back as I am just not up to doing much more!
What motivated me to send this clipping and email was that the only grandchildren who knew “Big Man” were Jonathan, Erik & Stephanie (the twins were too young to really know him, but I have pictures of him with them), as well as Adrien. All the rest of our grandchildren were born after their granddaddy’s untimely and tragic death. And I just wanted them all to know of his love of our great USA.
With a world of love,
Mom/Cleta/Cleetsie/Mema/Meems/Mimi
Filly’s mom said it all… Great love, great sacrifice, great redemption, great role models. Her home state was a place of great love for the USA and the constitution and they would prove it.
Filly now knew that the prince she could count on in her life, (that Mr. Swing was all about), was Jesus, the prince of peace. Her mom, who wrote the letter, who was a life long Catholic, was working at the red tent, because it was promoting Christian values. Her sister was a Republican Judge. Her other sisters were praying and involved in a writing campaign to fellow Christians, to encourage Christians to vote with morality. Filly herself had worked as a poll watcher.
There was no swinging back and forth moral uncertainty. People recognized that this was about a moral code of conduct, not about women, and people on both political parties knew what was good and what was evil. The snake who spoke with forked tongues had been revealed. There were good people who were afraid to call out evil though, even people like O’Reilly, who tiptoed around the morality of abortion, it seemed because he was afraid of offending women. What he did not seem to understand was that standing up against a moral evil and aligning with Christian values, was what had put people on both political sides, in perfect alignment. Both sides were Christian, and wanted to be obedient to the laws of God…because we are one nation under God…INDIVISIBLE with liberty and justice for all…including babies. It is of course anyone’s right to believe that they should be able to kill someone else, but they better be able to defend that choice in a court of law in front of a jury of their peers, because God says to choose life. Freedom means the right to choose good or evil. One nation under God chooses good, for themselves, and that choice is also understood to be given to innocent ones including every baby, individually.
People who had made mistakes were forgiven if they, like the bible verse for the day, said “get behind me Satan”, when it tried to convince people to think life was not everyone’s “right”. to “choose life”. Those who continued to justify abortion, because they were afraid of losing the “support” of evil ones, were, sadly, still brainwashed. There was moral fortitude and straight red for all of these swing states. Filly was positive of this. People wanted what Jesus offered and promised. They trusted in the freedom that comes with obedience and humility to God’s laws. That freedom did not include evil. And to gain freedom, mankind had to choose to do good, not evil, in spite of the tricky words of Satan, a forked lying tongue.
The bible warns people that if the trumpet blower warns them, and they choose to ignore the warning, then they will be held accountable. People who know the truth, that murder is wrong, are bound by the words of the bible to speak this truth to those they know. They must blow the trumpet, so to speak, and sound the alarm, when they see their fellow man falling victim to the words of evil. They cannot ignore.
The sound of the trumpet was employed as a means to convey important messages and warnings from God. It served as a call to repentance, an alarm to wake up spiritually, and a reminder of God’s impending judgment. Blowing the trumpet was an urgent declaration to turn away from sin and return to the ways of righteousness…
Is it any surprise that the candidate who people were aligning behind, to get back in step with moral fortitude and righteousness, had a Trump in his name. Filly’s randomly chosen bible verse for the day …
“And Jesus answered and said unto him, “get thee behind me Satan, for it is written, “thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.”