Oh those New England Patriots. No, not the football team, I mean the one’s who run the gift shop next to the Old North Church in Boston. Seems they are a little ticked off at the Patriot Act which nullified various parts of a slightly earlier and more righteous document— the Bill of Rights, all in the name of that phantom called ‘national security’.

Well while I was doing a shoot for a series called Deeper Connections for Zondervan this week, I paid a visit to the gift shop next to the Old North Church, but only after climbing to the top of the steeple where Sexton Newman hung the lanterns (no it was not Paul Revere who hung the lanterns) signaling one if by land and two if by sea– the Red Coats are coming (next stop Lexington Green and Concord Green). I wanted to do my patriotic duty, and besides my founding fathers would have been pleased– Old North Church is also a church where the Rev. Charles Wesley preached in 1736 and 1737.

Sitting there in the gift shop was a wide assortment of coffee mugs and other sorts of the usual brickabrack and trinkets. But one thing stood out– it was the coffee mug which had the complete Bill of Rights engraved all around its outside edge— in disappearing ink! You see, when you pour hot coffee in this cup, the various numbered rights begin to disappear from sight one by one.

Its a little parable you see– thank’s to the Patriot Act, when things get hot around here, we can watch our rights disappear one after another. So you can see now why I say– Oh those Boston Patriots! What’ll they think of next to protest infringements on their rights and freedoms? I’m thinking maybe use another potent potable in some sort of protest in Boston— tea anyone?