This is a familiar question to most everyone and especially children. Often we we told to do something we did not like or agree with and our most common response was WHY? Forget the fact that as children we were challenging the wisdom, experience and ages of those that were providing for us, but we dared to ask WQHY anyway.
Asking why brings up this point. WHY is a question and without rhyme or reason or whether or not it is possible to even know the answer, is there an answer to every question? Leave aside any possible circumstance or context areounfd the question WHY and just answer the question.
We once children or children now, quite often have heard or hear the answer to ‘WHY’ as— “Because I said so!”
Another proposed answer to to ‘WHY’ has been suggested as— “Why not?” But actually answering a question with another question is not the answer to ‘WHY’.
The simpliest answer to ‘WHY” is “Because!”
Now we can go off into the weeds or with circustance and context or reasons for both the question ‘WHY’ and the answer, ‘BECAUSE’.
Since the mid term election are now just a few short days away, let’s add to the word ‘WHY’ with the word ‘VOTE’ forming the the question, “Why Vote?”
To answer, we need to begin with ‘BECAUSE’, but BECAUSE why?
Because Congress made this possible in 1845, making the first Tuesdays after the first Monday in November? Because Tuesday November 3rd, 2026 in the last day to vote in a national election this year? Because these are the midterm elections? Because this is the most important election in your lifetime? Because Democrat Socialists are on the ballot? Because historically, the party that is in power gets changed? Because you don’t like who occupies the White House and want to restrict their ability to govern the way they want. Because you want to see them impeached by having the votes to do it. Because you want to increase the number of Supreme Court judges. Because you want to get rid of the police, or ICE, or keep and add undommented cizens to vote and even criminals? I have heard all of these reasons to vote, but does it truly answer “WHY VOTE/?
I have heard and read new cizens and other answer “Because if you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain about the government?”
What about ths…”Because it it your right to vote?” HOw about this…”Because you have the freedom to vote.”
Call me simple or even simple-minded. But it seems to me that even beyond common sense, UN-Common Sense answers this for once and for all. “Why Vote?”
“BECAUSE SOMEONE DIED FOR YOU AND I TO BE ABLE TO VOTE!”
From the beginning of what we call the United States for America in 1776, this has been the answer. Perhaps the most succinct, clear and descriptive answer was delivered 87 years later, in the Gettyburg address by president Abraham Lincoln
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…”
Abraham Lincoln — Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
And thousands of years ago —
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christdied for us.
With the midterms elections almost here, AI dominating individual choices & applications, business, and politics, world governments and essentially everything now, it sees to me there is a race going on. It appears to my eyes as a race to replace.
If you and I are not going to choose for ourselves, something or someone else will. It is human nature.
It is easier to make something than it is apparently, to stop and ask, should I or we do this? It is not so much as can we do it as it is should we be doing it at all?
Perhaps if you have read anything I have written lately, you might assume I have given up on myself. Maybe I have given up on the human race? I assure you that neither of these are true.
For me, I am no longer driven to succeed with even what I have tried to do for the past some 60 years. Some may or even everyone may consider my giving up and getting rid of all my treasure, my accumulation of the past years or some legacy? I have considered putting all my works into the repository known as the Internet Archive. I have considered even sending or keeping something for my son that does seem to be interested in the stories of a witness. I am a witness. But now it seems that neither the Internet Archive or something for my son seems doable or important to me anymore. What was my treasure, like my child or children if you will, is not just baggage. It has now become a heavy weight that makes it even more difficult to breathe or move forward.
I hope anyone else that may read this can choose what is most important to you and your life. Our dog Lady is a beautiful example of what I am trying to write here. She is likely on her last leg (no pun intended). Lady is 11 years old (77 in human years). She has arthritis and is limping. She is all but deaf now. But the good news with that, she no longer shakes during storms or the car wash. She is beginning to lose her eyesight, particularly in one eye (the one blue eye). It seems to be clouded over as if a cataract. Dogs like Lady often become confused over the loss of so many senses used primarily for navigation, happening near the same time. I think her sense of smell/taste is beginning to diminish now. She has others things as well, but she wakes up every morning wags her tail, happy to see us and is still fond of and capable of giving and receiving love. It just doesn’t get much better than or simpler than this. I am grateful she does not seem to be painfully suffering, but I am unsure. She has always been friendly and glad to see almost any life form. Going forward, I just need to be as sure as I possible can that she is comfortable and it is not just my desire to keep her around as long as possible.
The following verse means so much more today than it did when I first heard it, some sixty years ago. It says to me, I don’t need to ever judge you or tell you how you should live. I don’t ever need to cram my beliefs down your throat.
The word salvation in the following verse means “wholeness.” You and I have to do what is right for us. For myself, I needed to let go of much I have been involved with, for these past 60 years. I needed and still need to get rid of many things that may be good for others, but not for me. I needed to return to the gym and this time, make it a lifestyle change not a just the formation of a new habit.
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation [wholeness] with fear [reverence] and trembling [awe towards obedience].
Philippians 2:12 Kings James Version of 1611
Wag your tail like Lady. And to this I have concluded. In my life sometimes I have walked with my Father. Sometimes He carried me. Most likely the rest of the time, He has never left me nor forsaken me while I was heading in some other direction.
There is a lot of sorrow in the world. It’s twin is joy. Sometimes they each seem difficult to deal with. Sometimes they seem so similar, it is hard to tell which is which.
I and I am sure, you have often sought happiness. I chased it with a net like some illusive butterfly. Just when I thought I was about to catch it, it would float and flee just far enough away that I could see it, but not capture it.
In 1996, the late great Jimmy Buffet released a song from what I believe to be his finest work: ‘Banana Wind’. The song is: ‘Happily Ever After (Now and Then).’ I was so taken by this the first time I heard it and I have often sent something like this to others on their birthdays or other special days in their lives. I had an idyllic image from something that would invoke some wishful, fanciful, or expressive desire. My text was:
Happily Ever After (at least once in awhile)
This is the best I could hope for in this life for myself or for anyone else.
I do not suppose that everyone believes what I do or what and whom I believe in.
I have a wonderful relationship with one that to my surprise, it a steadfast atheist, or he does not know if he is a Christian or not. Even he cannot find fault with what I am trying to do. – not to disappear, but to consider those things and those life forms that are part of my life – which are important DAILY.
I am not a prophet. I am not going to predict that these are the end times, because like the Bible says, “no man [woman or child] knows the day time or hour. I just can’t imagine the world surviving for much longer being so driven by so much strife-confusion-bribery-extortion-love of money.
There is some goodness in this world and I truly believe it holds back the evil which is surfacing more and more. This affects, effects, and infects all of us in one way or others. For me, I am just tired and seek peace and to try and live as peaceable as I can according to what is inside me and to all I may encounter, in my day-today living.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think this world can continue much longer on the course it is on. It cannot be sustained. For my part, this world is not my home. At my age, it is good to plan for one’s soon release from these mortal coils. I am doing this now, to the best of my ability.
I am reminded that just as John the Baptist did, so should I do for the duration of my life⏤
“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Matthew 3:1-3 KJV of 1611
I may not carry the ministries or gifts to the Church or the world as an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, pastor or a teacher [Ephesians 4:11], but if they are not around and God willing, I can “do the work of” any or all of them that is needed. In II Timothy 4:5 Timothy was not an evangelist, but he was told to “do the work of” one. God is not a prospector or persons, only conditions.
And finally, God so loved the world that he gave his only son, Jesus Christ. If I am one of His, can I not love like this? Jesus Christ laid his life down for you and I. What is the greatest love I can share— Preach [publicly expound or teach God’s Word]. It is the calling. It is the love. For now, until my death or God calls me home at the return of Christ, preach the word in season or out meaning, all the time. To say that I am a witness means, the real witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is within me. This is what I am to preach.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; “
II Timothy 4:1,2 KJV of 1611
How? Why?
“But sanctify [set apart] the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear [awe towards obedience]:”
I am reminded of the work of Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, a former senior policy advisor to the U.S. Department of Education who became a whistleblower. Her book, “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America: A Chronological Paper Trail” (1999), argues that the American public education system was intentionally altered to eliminate parental influence and mold children for a future dependent on a globalist, socialist-collectivist structure. Whether one agrees with Iserbyt’s specific conclusions on how the system was altered, it has been. Iserbyt did not mince words in her interviews, stating simply:
“If you cannot read, you are defenseless.”
I can only add to this in writing, if you will not read because you do not read, if it could have saved your life at worse or time and lessoned stress it cannot help. If you never comment how would the writer know you read it or be likely to continue such content, if it is not read.
It has been said that knowledge is power. I would only say to this it has potential, depending on what it is. You can look at it like a treasure in your pocket. How beneficial would it be if you never looked?
Are you too busy, depressed. oppressed or under some abysmal seemingly hopeless continual stroke? You should read Isaiah 14 sometime. It will reveal the cause of this, what is behind it and who is named for it. But the world today is driven by what has been written long ago. Have you read-
“For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”
James 3:16 King James Version of 1611
“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows”.
Please return for a special presentation celebrating our 250th year since publishing The Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776. Please return 7/4/2026.
Today, the Coming Soon page has been retired. It has been replaced with those you will find above. For more information, click on any page you may wonder about or have interest in.
I have many things to do where I truly live — for my wife Susan, for our dog Lady, for us, and even for myself — here at The Gathering Place.
All are welcome.
— Dahni
Image rendered by ChatGPT and the artistic Direction of Dahni
Today marks my final post across all my social media, websites, and blogs before canceling and ending all subscriptions, paid or otherwise, and automatic payments. For a time anyway — and if for no other reason than for myself — I will continue posting only here at gatheringplace.blog. If you choose to read it, only here will you find the complete post.
I do not feel I owe anyone an explanation. Consider this a common courtesy.
Talent, quality, insight, sincerity, and hard work are often not enough by themselves in the current environment. Visibility, stamina, distribution, money, timing, networking, algorithms, constant promotion, and the ability to endure long stretches of little visible return often dominate what gets seen.
There was a time when risks were taken on belief in someone or something important, and only lastly upon its potential for profit. Today, whatever a thing may be, it must immediately prove profitable and continue generating profit over a long and measurable life.
Not to compare myself or my works to my fellow Missouri-born Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) or to J.K. Rowling of the Harry Potter world, but those days of self-publishing and eventually finding someone who believed in you — someone with the means or connections to help your work be seen, even modestly — are largely gone.
Not to compare myself to the beloved children’s series author, Beatrix Potter or story-tellers of simple truths such as, Aesop or the staples of, the Brothers Grimm, but they each developed a following and I have none. Who would know my love for children or how much I love them?
The writers and ‘creatives’ or the expressives’ (my word) I mentioned, mostly dealt in fiction. Much of what I do is fiction as well. Yet to many, perhaps the greatest work of non-fiction ever written — while others believe it fiction — is the Bible. It took many writers to record the words of its single Author, and even that struggles to be seen, read, taught and especially, understood today.
I too wrote non-fiction and self-published in 2012: RESET — “An Un-alien’s Guide to Resetting Our Republic.” It was and remains largely unknown. I have spent years working on its revision, RESET- Revised & Expanded, a special FREE-B for readers of RESET (I call, light bearers)— RESET-Remedy. Intended for 6 weeks later, was the sequel to RESET, An Apple of Gold in a Picture [frame] of Silver. All of these were intended for publication in 2026 and with the help of two additional editors. While many sought to just sell something for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I sought to connect with us, WE the People. I wanted us to see what has been hidden and to see perhaps for the very first time, who WE the People truly are. I had intended a FREE gift of a recipe and a blend of coffee, that quite possibly, Thomas Jefferson might have enjoyed in the hot summer nights, while writing the ‘The Declaration’ in 1776. This was to coincide, with the pre-order date of July 4th, 2026. I wanted this published on the date of our 239th anniversary of The Constitution of the United States for America, on September 17th, 2026. And about six weeks later, ‘Apple of Gold’.
Talent, quality, insight, sincerity, and hard work are often not enough by themselves in the current environment. Visibility, stamina, distribution, money, timing, networking, algorithms, constant promotion, and the ability to endure long stretches of little visible return often dominate what gets seen.
I cannot promise that this blog will still be open or that I will post the specials I have planned, for the fourth of this July, 2026. You will just have to check back and see.
I have always loved music — composing, singing, playing, and performing — for as long as I can remember. I probably connect most to the old known, Cat Stevens and still little known, Shawn Phillips. There is a glut of musicians, artists, and what some refer to as “the creatives” and what I coin as the expressives’. Not far from where we live is Rochester, New York. For perhaps fifty years, it has produced an incredible number of gifted people in these fields of music, most of whom the wider world has never known.
Proof enough: they too often cannot be sustained.
Talent, quality, insight, sincerity, and hard work are often not enough by themselves in the current environment.
My bottom line is simple: this present environment cannot be sustained. I am living proof of that because, I must now end what I can no longer sustain.
So ominous? So foreboding? So final?
You may think so if you wish. You may call me a coward or believe I simply lack the commitment to see it through. You may think this is only another emotional reaction from the same old Dahni you may have once known and perhaps still think you do — rising like a rocket only to fall like a rock.
But I can no longer sustain what I have been doing for so many years.
Does this hurt? Of course it does. Am I angry about it? Yes, I am. But I am also at peace.
I have many things to do where I truly live — for my wife Susan, for our dog Lady, for us, and even for myself — here at The Gathering Place.
All are welcome.
— Dahni
Image rendered by ChatGPT and the artistic Direction of Dahni
Today, for this week’s Drink of the Week, I thought to do something a little different.
Below is a YouTube video featuring a drink that, although not in the present offering of Sips with Susan, could certainly find its way into a future volume.
Makes two libations, one to share and one for you.
ENJOY! 😉 Drink your “Sips” responsibly! 😂
From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion 🍸
Each week, we’ll share one recipe from Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion. Some will be simple, some a little more involved, but all are meant to be shared — one to enjoy and one to pass along to a friend.
We begin where many of the drinks begin — with Ginger Jazz. Drinks in Sips with Susan feature ginger liqueur — often shown using a familiar commercial bottle. Ginger Jazz is our homemade version, crafted right here at The Gathering Place.
Ginger Jazz is a bright, spicy house liqueur that brings warmth and character to your cocktails. Once made, it quickly becomes a favorite to keep on hand.
Ingredients
2–3 oz fresh ginger root (2 oz = milder | 3 oz = hotter)
1 whole vanilla bean
1 cup orange blossom honey
1 tsp cinnamon (ground)
1 tsp cardamom (ground)
Zest from ½ orange
1⅜ cups water
1⅜ cups V.S.O.P. brandy
¼ cup neutral spirit (190 proof grain alcohol = 95% alcohol) (see note below for substitute)
Directions
Peel ginger and slice thin.
Slice vanilla bean lengthwise.
Add ginger, vanilla bean, water, and honey to a pan and simmer about 20 minutes.
Strain through fine mesh lined with a coffee filter into a bottle.
Allow to mellow 24 hours before use.
Makes approximately 2½ cups of Ginger Jazz.
⚠️ Note on Neutral Spirits
Grain alcohol (190 proof = 95% alcohol) is extremely strong and should never be consumed straight. It is used in small amounts to help extract flavors during infusion.
If neutral spirits are unavailable or not preferred, substitute:
¼ cup mixture made from:
⅛ cup water
⅛ cup brandy
Finished Ginger Jazz averages about 56 proof(28% alcohol) once diluted.
ENJOY! 😉 Use your Ginger Jazz responsibly! 🍸 From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion
Sips with Susan — Volume 1 A Gathering Place Companion
Some books begin with an outline.
Sips with Susan began with a habit.
Not a business plan. Not a publishing goal.
Just an evening… a glass… and a willingness to try something a little different.
At The Gathering Place, drinks were never just drinks. They were conversation starters. Excuses to sit longer. Reasons to laugh one more time before calling it a night.
It started with a Moscow Mule — changed just enough to make it ours.
Then another variation.
Then another.
Before long, we were doing what creative people often do without realizing it — we were keeping track.
Not because we planned a book… but because we didn’t want to forget.
Names were given. Tweaks were made. Favorites were repeated.
And somewhere along the way, the number quietly reached one hundred.
That’s when the idea finally spoke clearly:
Maybe this isn’t just a collection of drinks. Maybe it’s a collection of moments worth saving.
That thought became Sips with Susan — Volume 1.
Not as a commercial product first — but as a memory preserved.
Today, the book exists. But more importantly, the gathering continues.
If you’d like to explore the finished collection, you can find it through I-Imagine Press, where it is available in both free and paid editions.
And if you’d like to see where the drinks truly live — where new ones are still being created — visit The Gathering Place, where the stories behind the glass are still unfolding.
Because in the end, this was never just about cocktails.
It was about connection.
And connection, like a good drink, is best when shared.
