I started out today feeling rather blah about things.  The euphoria over reaching a milestone in the book’s progress had worn off, and I was not looking forward to another day at the office.  Neither was I feeling all warm and snuggly over the morning commute.  I really dislike the hassle of it all.  But duty and the paycheck called — to be honest, much more the latter than the former — so off I trudged to go through the hills and over the woods to cubicle land.

I’ve been wearing this the past few days during my commute and whenever I’m out and about.  Given how I live in the oversized hovel of liberal intolerance, bigotry and hatred that fancies itself as a bastion of progressive thought otherwise known as the San Francisco Bay Area where it’s currently impossible to sneeze without spraying an Obama bumper sticker, I freely admit there’s a bit of the up yours in my doing so.  On a more benign note, it’s also a reminder to myself not to lose heart in the face of babbling Obamabots too preoccupied with worshiping their paper messiah and mistaking delivery for substance to notice how he has nothing concrete to offer save the promise of ruinous tax increases along with a sniveling cowardly face for America to the world.  And how everything is George W. Bush’s fault.  Should he be elected, wonder how that will play in 2012 when most everything is crashing down around him and even the most devoted Barack believer asks why in four years time he has failed to make things better.  But that thought can wait until November fourth to see if it’s required.

Anyway, in the time I’ve been wearing the hat no one outside the office has said a word to me about it.  Considering the high level of self-worship in these parts leading oh so many to pontificate loud and long to anyone in the vicinity, I’m a bit surprised.  Not that I’m going out of my way looking for an argument.  I’m exercising the same right to support my candidate as the Obama supporters I see every day decked out in buttons and bumper stickers and t-shirts.  I don’t say anything to those doing so or shoot them dirty looks.  They have every right to be completely wrong.  That all said, I’ve been waiting for someone to say something.

Today, someone did.

While waiting in the Lake Merritt (Oakland) BART station for the first of the two transfer trains I take each morning I was hunched over my laptop working on the afterword for the book, headphones strapped on tight as the blessed power of Undercover roared.  I glanced up as I often do under such circumstances, for being aware of your surroundings is vital in such situations, and noticed a distinguished looking woman taking a step toward me and leaning over to say something.  Given how although I never crank the tunes past the pain threshold it was still loud enough for me not to hear what she said, I stopped being rude, pulled off the headphones and said, “I’m sorry; what did you say?”

“I like your hat.”

A smile and a thank you on my part followed.

Later in the day, I stumbled onto the elevator in order to go fetch some lunch.  The building where I work contains numerous offices, so one always rides with different people getting on and off at different floors.  A young man and woman were already in the elevator engaged in workplace conversation, so as I entered I politely stepped over to the other side so as to not give the impression I was crowding their space or eavesdropping.  Which for the record I wasn’t.  Then I noticed the young woman looking at me, which in and of itself is a rare occurrence.  She then burst out in a huge smile as she exclaimed, “Oh, I love your hat!”  To which I again smiled and said thank you.

Remember how after the prophet Elijah had demonstrated to all Israel that Baal was a false god, to which Ahab and Jezebel who were the king and queen at the time tried to have him killed, he ran away and cried out to God?

And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword.  I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.  And after the fire came a gentle whisper.  When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty.  The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword.  I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus.  When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram.  Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.  Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.  Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him (1 Kings 19:9b-18).”

It’s good to remember our Lord often whispers while the world screams.  And that no matter how dismal things appear, there is always a group of people not drinking the Kool-Aid.

Sometimes, all it takes is someone making a public stand for them to know they are not alone.  If you are a believer, never be afraid to say so out loud.  You never know when or where or from whom you’ll hear, “Hey — me too.  Thank you for saying something.”  And while not nearly as important, the same goes for expressing your views on social and political matters.  Speak up.  Speak up and don’t back down.

Good things happen when you wear the right hat.