Before this election fiasco, I doubt if one out of ten thousand would have had any idea what “chad” was. Hey, doughnut holes have taken a back seat to paper holes down here in Florida! I wouldn’t be surprised if chad eventually finds a place among Florida “Facts and Figures” - after State Bird, State Flower and State Tree. We could have a new category called “State Hole”. Yes, yes, chad ranks much higher than any other hole in all of Florida. It gets MY vote, that’s for sure. Unless hanging chad keeps it from getting recorded accurately. You know, I think those little pieces of paper are getting more attention than both Bush and Gore put together (BTW, I listed them alphabetically - this is not a political endorsement). But chad isn’t the only news around here lately, we’re examining “dimples” now. Today’s paper had some photos of people scrutinizing ballots every which way to see possible indentations made by the hole-punching stylus. Here’s my condensed version of the controversy: Is a dimple really a chad that should have been, or is it a chad that was never going to be? The side that has nothing to lose will go to any extreme to gain the victory, while the side that has nothing to gain will do whatever it takes to keep from losing it. Wisdom is justified by whichever side is doing the talking, and it all sounds so doggoned moral and righteous. You can always find a law or a precedent to support your position. Believe me, I know, I’ve got quite a few up my own sleeve. Straining gnats and swallowing camels! We can get hung up counting pieces of chad and examining dimples “all for the good of the country”, while at the same time tearing it down individual by individual, or maybe, group by group. We can do the same thing in our homes and in our churches. How can we be so right and yet end up with such destruction and misery? Could the fact that the law brings hostility have anything to do with it? If we think this whole chad and dimple situation is ridiculous, it would do us well to step back and see the similarity in much of our everyday lives. To what extremes do we go to prove our position, or to prove how right we are? How much time and energy do we spend trying to defend and justify ourselves only to end up accusing and hurting others? It’s all chad and dimples. Don’t we know that Christ has already delivered us from such a meticulous bondage? Don’t we know that we have already been made to be victorious in Him? If so, why are we still counting ballots as if the verdict hasn’t been finalized? Until next time ….. scoopfully yours, the shovel (aka “Jim”)