The Keener Way

      In 2016, the world watched as American politics turned into a cage fight between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In 2020, they watched a second fight between Donald Trump and Joseph Biden.     Those last two elections had a way of bringing out the worst of some people--on all sides of the political spectrum. It was a tooth, nail, and claw free-for-all as people strove to prove why their candidate was the country's savior and the opposing candidate would be the nation's rapid demise.  In the midst of the madness, there was an overwhelming increase in non-voters, people who recognized that the real problem wasn't in the two candidates and how unfit either of them were for the office of president, but in the society and culture that led to such individuals being presented as the sole candidates. And they realized that so long as society remained so broken, it really made no difference who held the office. Those who dec...

 I shouldn't have to say anything about 2020. It was a mad and crazy year. Period. 2021 has its own level of craziness, but at least some things seem to have calmed down. For now. In my personal life, though, 2021 has been one of the craziest years of my life. Ever. Where to even begin? I guess in January. I left my job.     I worked for a construction contractor for half a year part time, then five and a half years full time. But at the end of December, I left. My family was moving two states away, and after much deliberation and prayer, I decided to go with them. My truck broke.     As the only person in my family with a tow hitch, I was nominated to haul a load of stuff in a borrowed box trailer from our home in northeast Ohio, to our new home in Hagerstown, Maryland. My truck made its maiden towing journey beautifully. But on the way home with an empty trailer, I suffered catastrophic engine failure. My truck spent a month in a engine shop in centr...