It happened a few weeks back, before my ailing leg caused me to be housebound. I was out in the barn feeding the animals. I had just finished spreading hay beneath the run-in shed so the horses could graze out of the cold wind and I paused for a short rest.

Leaning on the center support beam of the shed, I let my eyes wander across the landscape of the ranch, settling at last on the far pond, a place of singular beauty on the ranch where deer come out of the forest to drink.

The surface of the pond rippled gently, teased by the North wind and the Willow trees on the bank swayed slowly…so peacefully. It was at that exact moment that the vision came to me. Like looking through a glass darkly, an indistinct shape taking form until it came fully into view.

I am hesitant to admit here that this is not the first time a vision has come to me. Indeed, ever since I was a small child, I have gotten these glimpses of what was to be or what could be. To be honest, many times the visions were wrong, but sometimes….a few times…they have been right on the money. Regardless, I have learned, over the years, to take heed and remember them for future reference and a couple of times they have saved me a bit of trouble by the knowing.

So on that Winter’s day, as I rested under the run-in shed and stared at my lovely pond, I saw it all unfold like a picture, a mural painted by a Master. I saw this Nation, this country I love so much, ripped apart in violence and this peaceful place I call home swept away in fire and blood.

Civil War.

I saw it all there, what we were rushing toward. A Nation, a People so severely divided that we see no middle ground. There is no longer many voices, there are only two…Left and Right. Both sides convinced that theirs is the right path, both sides unwilling to give in to what they see as evil. People rush to join one camp or the other while the real evil, the politicians and power brokers of Washington callously play upon the basest fears and prejudices of both sides to solidify their hold on the country.

This is the real cliff we are rushing toward. You can not keep three hundred million people scared and angry for long before that fear and anger spills over into the streets.

Violence, once let loose and spilled into the streets, will grow like a snowball rolling downhill and we will find it impossible to stop. Everything good and decent about this country and its people could be blasted away in a self-righteous orgy of destruction.

But like I said….it was only is only a momentary vision visited upon an old man out feeding his horses…what do I know.