Waking up

I used to get angry at individual people for their ignorance; sometimes I think I would even get frustrated at their lack of insight on issues of sustainability.  I've finally gotten to the point where I understand the time that it takes to move through life toward enlightenment of a sort--seeing things for what they are without all of the rhetoric and advertising that surrounds them.  You have to wake up and start the journey to this place, and that is not easy to do.  First you have to wake up when everything in our American culture works to keep us sleeping or not thinking about the issues that really matter:  Television, hollywood, keeping up with the neighbors, advertisements that tell us who we are or who to be, thoughts of getting ahead/racing to the top, buying more stuff, all of these work to pacify us and lull us into a false security.  Even if a person manages to wake up, she has to sift through all the clutter of this American shattered dream to figure out what really matters.  That process could take years.

While I am angry still at our systems and processes and the propaganda of those seeking to remain in power,  I have some empathy for the Americans who are still trying to wake up.  I also realize that we can't always stop our government from creating wars and making terrible decisions about the welfare of our own people or the people of other countries.  We can speak out, but that isn't always enough.  We can demonstrate that there are other ways to live.  We can start change in our own communities.  We can create a sense of real community and caring based on things that truly matter to those living here.  We can choose to be done with the things that someone else says should matter to us, and instead we can reprioritize.  I'm not really sure what this might look like but maybe it means we need to tell the schools what we want them to teach instead of listening to some test designer in Washington D.C.  Maybe we need to create a community garden or some other shared cooperative.  Maybe we need to demand better work hours so that we can contribute to our local communities rather than being a slave to a company that doesn't really care about us or our neighbors.  Maybe not participating in the traditional economy that benefits stock market gamblers is the best thing we can do to regain our sense of self.

Shopping Local

With all of the talk about buying local food,  I began to think beyond that and to identify other ways that we shop local and support the real local economy.

I was overjoyed to realize just how local we really are.  I mean we try to shop the farmers market and we get a farm box from Farm Fresh to You, but other things are really difficult to buy local (or so it seemed).  Here's my list after I thought about things for a few minutes:   We get our haircut less than a mile from home at locally owned and operated Silver Star Salon--Tammy and her sister are great!  Thanks to my friend Colleen for the referral.  We get our exercise locally at Cerezo's martial arts ( the guys take Karate and I do cardio kickboxing with a great bunch of women).  Our daughter takes dance at Encore Studio of Performing Arts.  We have our car serviced at Hal's Auto Care.  We shop Green Acres Garden Supply.

When we were thinking about buying a new car, we finally came to the conclusion that we would have to give up all of our activities in order to make the car payment.  If I think about things beyond just the activities, those local business that we are supporting have employees who are supporting families, so we are giving up more than just our activities and interests.  I'd much rather keep the old car (at least until someone comes up with a better fuel option) and support my local economy and get the great personal service that goes along with using a locally/family owned business!

Now I've just got to find some good local places for clothing, shoes, etc.

some news this morning: "Iran has 'proof' scientist US killed scientist"

link to news article scientist in Iran assassinated

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0114/breaking6.html

There was no doubt in my mind that either the United States or someone close to them had done this.  After all we assassinated Osama Bin Laden, why wouldn't we take out another threat?

This callous disregard for reality (we are not the good guys and they are not the bad guys) is disgusting.  What right do we have to take this man's life or set up for someone else to do our dirty work.

On the edge of living off the grid

When I say living off the grid, I mean it in the sense of Weeds Season 6 where they are in a broken down Jesus slathered motorhome parked in a ghost town in the midwest because they have no where else to go.  I don't necessarily mean it in the green sense of turning off your electricity and utilities, although the lack of services and utilities is a distinct possibility.

While I've been through domestic abuse, overwhelming debt, job layoffs, chauvanistic bosses, death, and car accidents, it's somehow different to be in the position of not having a job (the dream job that you love) because there's not enough money in the state's budget and the college can't pay you anymore, and this on top of your spouse not having a job.  The prospect of no healthcare, draining our retirement accounts, and eventually losing it all looms in the distance.  But what about people who don't have retirement accounts to drain?  What about those who have already "lost it all" or never had anything to lose?

Why exactly do corporations need bigger tax cuts?  Oh yeah, that's right, they're going to create more jobs (overseas).  That way we still won't have jobs and we won't have any tax income to provide basic services to the people of the United States.  Even if I get a good job tomorrow, can I really forget what this nation is doing to its people?  Can I really go on blindly with "I'm ok.  My family's ok"   I just don't think that's enough anymore.  Too many people are suffering while the superrich get away with it all.

Christmas is once again driving me to the brink

A disclaimer:  Please know that once I write something--it is out--there is no reason to worry that it might really happen because the thoughts are gone once they hit the paper.

While driving to pick up the kids from school to day, I felt nearly suicidal--to the point that I pondered the idea of driving off into the ditch and wrecking the car.  There were telephone poles or trees that could be hit. The ditch was deeper in some parts.  How much damage would I do to the car and myself, I wondered.  Of course, all of those considerations happened in the less than a minute it took to go from the stop sign at Elder Creek to half-way to Fruitridge. 

Every year my husband and I have the same disagreements over buying things.  Every year I get called a scrooge.  Every year, I find no joy in giving.

I remember when I was a kid watching Eight is Enough.  It was a Christmas episode.  The mom had died, so the dad and kids were trying to get used to life without her and he had the new younger girlfriend "Abby."  All that aside, what was really cool about that episode was the idea of gift giving.  Apparently the mom would shop throughout the year to get one very special meaningful gift for each child--she would put great thought into it.  She would buy these, wrap them, and hide them somewhere for a long wait until Christmas.  The episode ended with the "touching" story that she had only had time to buy a gift for Tommy that year.  But I just thought the idea of actually getting something special and taking the time to get it was cool.  It makes for more meaningful gift giving that randomly scrambling at the last minute after school lets out and before Christmas arrives.

I've calmed down since I began the post, but I'm still a fucking scrooge.  Scrooge is afterall the one who has to, through self reflection, rediscover the meaning of Christmas and giving.

Intelligence and our society

I was reading an internet article yesterday that was reviewing some study that found vegetarians had higher IQs than ominvores. As  a vegetarian I was curious and read the article to find out that this 8-10 point IQ difference was only found in England, not the U.S. and the IQ was measured when the subjects were children.  So I began wondering why our society has such a static view of intelligence.

People claim that the IQ tests actually measure intelligence, but they really only measure a certain kind of intelligence, and they certainly don't work for all kinds of people.  Yet, we still continue to view them as some definitive measure of a person's intellectual value.  I think about my childhood and how I was tested multiple times for the gifted program before I got in.  Suddenly my IQ was high enough.  What about me had changed?  Had I suddenly learned how to take the tests?

 I also think about how the experiences we have in life changed me and expanded my ways of thinking.  Is that intelligence or wisdom?  What is the difference?

I guess what it comes down to is that someone in our society has decided that once you're labeled as intellgent or less intelligent  that's it you're stuck with it for life.  Maybe it's this same ridiculous static worldview that leads to things like the tea party and other people who are unwilling to see a larger world view.  Maybe these people need a static view of intelligence because if we didn't have one, their stasis would reveal how unintelligent they really are--they are the ones who haven't expanded, who haven't grown, who stay stuck with an IQ from grade school.

It's time to move on and recognize how people expand their intelligence every day, every experience, every bit wiser.

More authors for this blog

So I've finally taken the time to invite some more opinions.  I figure that we are all women with strong opinions, we won't necessarily agree, is this starting to sound like The View???

Ok so I'm not Barbara Walters....

Anything you want to rant about is fine....go for it.