Today I am thinking about brown recluse spiders. They can be deadly you know.

In fact, deadly is exactly what they were this week here in Indiana where one man died in his sleep after what doctors have suspected was a spider bite.

There is a woman in a local hospital as we speak recovering from a brown recluse bite.

Okay to be fair, the first guy had been camping a few days earlier and knew he had been bitten by something and did not seek medical attention. Who is that fair to? The spider genus I guess.

In Haiti last month there was a torrential downpour in the interior of the country. Three men who were working on a construction site were recounting to me a few days later that the rains filled up the spider holes and brought the little ones scurrying to the surface for drier land. These were not brown recluse spiders but tarantulas. Hundreds of them, dime-sized still because they were young. This story was backed up by video of the scene. Watching dozens of the skittering arachnids on the screen made ones feet reflexively lift from the floor.

Everyone so often a friend, mentor or spiritual guide asks me what is the first question I will ask God when I get to heaven?

Hands down it will be what was he thinking when he created spiders? And that's what I'm thinking.

Today I am thinking about yesterday but not the picnic with the family, which was indeed fun even with the torrential rains that came off and on.

I am thinking about all those who celebrated a day off work but not much else.

Every day, whether one reads a printed paper or sees news on-line or through the television, war is producing casualties. And not just in war zones, but producing casualties in 'peaceful' places where war has not been declared but skirmishes occur.

So yesterday was a day for millions of families with a day off work but also with a family member missing. Some permanently.

Perhaps we do a disservice to the military to have only one day a year to remember. Perhaps that keeps us from having to think too deeply about the daily sacrifices being made as we plan an outing with friends or complain that a blocked parade route has slowed us down from getting to our activity.

Keeps us from thinking that daily husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters somewhere, miss someone every hour of every day, every holiday, every graduation, every wedding, every anniversary, every life event that the rest of us may be taking too much for granted.

Freedom has never been free.

And that's what I think about it.

Graduation week is upon us. Tuesday we sat through a three hour awards ceremony at the high school where close to two million dollars was awarded in scholarships to deserving young people.

When I think back at my own high school graduation I remember not thinking very deeply about the honors given. Some received them; most did not. But when I look at achievements of my class over the past several decades it is those students with high grade point averages, high moral character, commitment to volunteerism and community service and most with some faith base who have succeeded.

Sitting in the gym, on the bleachers (and they are even harder than I remember) for three hours listening to teachers, administrators, community leaders extol the virtues of this particular class of 2009 has restored my faith that things are not as bad as I read. We are indeed in good hands.

And that's what I think about it.

I wonder what the people in Borneo are doing right now. I mean the ones who live deep in the Rain Forest and whose grand parents are in government reclaimation programs to rehabilitate them from being head hunters.

What are they doing?

Are they sitting in their thatched huts looking fondly at the little shrunken heads hanging on their walls like stuffed fish trophies hang on ours? Do they wonder about the one that got away? Do they ponder whatever happened to the good old days?

Times change and we must change and adapt with the times that change we are told. The thing is, sometimes times change and we don't. We either don't want to, don't see the need to or don't have the energy to. Change your ways we are told. Do it, whatever IT is, another, better, my way. Keep up with progress.

I think the shrunken heads of Borneo dens and family display cases are keepsakes like locks of hair and baby teeth. I think somewhere there must be a Ripley's Believe It or Not entry listing the person who has the most sets of dentures from departed relatives.

This blog post makes no sense and that's what I think about it.