Sarah Palin and Witches

This morning I was reading a news article about Governor Palin's church in Wasilla, Alaska. Seems to be quite the conservative, Pentecostal, "we must convert you in order to save you" kinda place. In fact, as Governor she gave a speech to a class of newly minted missionaries (you know, those who are destined to go forth and convert the rest of the poor world to their one and only TRUE religion) telling them "that our leaders, that our national leaders, are sending [soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we are praying for -- that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."



Well, I suppose it's reassuring to some to think that this unwarranted, illegal mass murder going on in Iraq is God's plan. That then makes it all okie dokie and we can sleep well at night knowing we're only murdering in the name of God ....... oh yes, and to keep us safe from those nasty Iraqis (Muslims, you know .... can't trust 'em).

Now don't get me wrong here ...... I have absolutely nothing against praying, meditating, concentrating or just plain giving life a lot of focused thought. As far as I'm concerned, their God IS my God in a roundabout sort of way ...... even though I see spirituality in a bit of a different light. You see, my Goddess does not tell me to go out and murder people. She doesn't speak in tongues (unless you consider the loving sounds of nature to be tongues) and in fact has never instructed me to go about any type of violence. Given that, perhaps my God is a different Goddess from theirs. At least her attitude is different.

But I digress, as that discussion will be a different BLOG.

What I got to thinking about this morning was the far right wing fervor over this Pentecostal Mrs. who was chosen as the Republican running mate to "the maverick." What makes us in any way assume that her (and her church's) type of thinking is anything but WAY over the line, off the board, and into The Twilight Zone any less than say, the Moonies (remember them?), the Hale-Bopp Comet followers (I hope they're up there somewhere) or our Haitian neighbors who dance with snakes and stick needles in dolls? The difference is that there are more of the Evangelicals ....... many more.

Before you jump to conclusions, know that I believe that there is validity in almost every choice of religion. I believe that there is a high power. For me that power is nature itself. Can you imagine anything which is at the same time much larger than any one of us and yet still reactive to the actions of all mankind?

Mama Nature amazes me every single day. Today I am loving her choice of gentle rain, dark skies and contemplative mood. She tells me what I can do on any given day (if I don't wish to get soaked): work in the garden, stay indoors and read by the fire, sweat like a marathon runner or bundle up in my fuzzy knee boots. On the other hand, we have made her quite angry and she is reacting in response to our overuse of modern day technology by giving us warmer temperatures, increased rain, more tornadoes, flooding and more and harsher hurricanes. Yes, I am willing to take responsibility for our part in this weather transition and think that THIS is what our leaders should be talking about: the reality of the world's climate change and what we can do about it, rather than leaving it to our children and grandchildren to fix once nature's wrath has gone to much higher levels and they are left to suffer the consequences of our actions.

Once again I digress. Here's my point (and thank you, Ellen, I do have one). What if we put a nature-based believer into office. Someone you might call a Pagan or a Wiccan or a Witch. Someone like me who believes that there is a higher force in everything: within every human being, in the animals, plants and every living thing. How would this person be received by the masses? Would we find ourselves with another Pope Gregory IX, burning people at the stake because they did not believe that the Christian God was the ONLY God allowed? Just how enlightened are we today, I'm left wondering, if our separation of church and state is so defunct that we have this Evangelical Christian running for the second highest office in the country and thinking that the Iraq war is "God's war"?

I am scared by this woman. You may laugh, but it's true. I am scared by anyone in a potential leadership position who wants to tell me what God I should believe in, what God is telling us to do, and what choices I need to make with my very own body and soul. THAT is terrifying. THAT is what we came to this country to escape, is it not? Well, that and drinking tea and paying taxes all the time.

We already have the taxes, which will increase substantially in order to pay for this debacle of an Iraq war. Do we want to add a Religious Dictator to the mix, also?

A Lesson in Toilet Hubris

Upon returning from Harley Fest in Milwaukee (but that's another BLOG), I discovered that my toilet wasn't flushing properly. After waiting two days to see if my hubby was going to notice this all on his own (he didn't), I ASKED if he had noticed the problem. He hadn't.

Of course I found myself mildly irritated because when things go wrong in our home, shouldn't my husband automatically notice and immediately fix them? I readily admit that my early lessons on what men do came from my Dad, and he was Mr. Fix-It. Mr. Can-Do. Mr. Done-It-Already and Did-It-Right. My brother didn't fall far from that tree, so I figure that all men are like that. And generally when I figure that way I figure wrong.

But I digress. Rather than be mad at my husband for not noticing and fixing, I decided to take the job on myself, plumber that I'm not. So when in town taking my Mother on her errands and out to lunch I stopped at one of those enormous home supply stores and checked out all the new toilet handles available. Zowee - what a nice array of incredibly cheap ($4.29 for cheap plastic just like the one that broke) all the way up to $15.50 for the best.

I decided that since I was going to fix this myself I would get the best, most expensive one. It WAS the nicest looking, after all, and just accidentally happened to match the sink faucet handles rather well. I'll take credit for that happenstance but I hadn't planned it, as I forgot to remind myself what the sink faucets looked like before going into town to get the new parts. Don't you just love it when an accident turns out well?

Upon returning to the ranch that night I started my new toilet job. Figured this would be a piece of cake. After all, I only had to unscrew the current, broken flush handle (which I had completely broken, by the way, trying to fix it in the first place) and screw on the new one. Easy, right?

Nope. The old part was one of those incredibly cheap things made completely from plastic. This would be why it didn't last long in the first place. First it wore to the point of bending and when I straightened it, it broke off entirely.

So I start to unscrew the piece inside the tank that holds the toilet handle on. Nothing. Won't move. I get a pliers. Still nothing. It turns, but does not release. I keep wrangling with the pliers, turning this thing, and it simply will NOT release the toilet handle. Nothing goes anywhere. I get angrier and more frustrated. I call my husband, telling him how frustrated I am and asking if he had replaced this part already at some point (imagining that it MUST be his fault for putting this part on too tightly). I don't say so, but I know he can hear in my voice that somehow, some way, this must all be his fault for not fixing it in the first place or at the very least, doing it wrong sometime in the past.

Finally I decide, after trying a dozen more times to release the dang nut (not my husband ..... the toilet handle), to go to bed and sleep a frustrated sleep over my attempts to complete what should have been an easy task.

So, you know how you have those light bulb moments occasionally just as you're waking up? Must have been bubbling around in your settled down mind overnight and if you're lucky, it bubbles up again during your morning grogginess just before getting out of bed.


So here it comes: my great idea. My light bulb moment. My AHA! I only turned the nut on the toilet handle one way. What if I was supposed to turn it the OTHER way to release the handle? Hmmmm. Obvious. Stupid. Moronic. HUBRIS!

The toilet handle had just taught me a great lesson. The worst part is that I've learned this one before, but obviously it has not stuck with me well enough to cease repetition. One of my life lessons was obviously meant to be to stop assuming. Stop assuming that someone else should do it. Stop assuming that possibly someone else ALREADY did it and must have done it wrong. Stop assuming that it's not my responsibility. Stop assuming that it is someone else's responsibility to fix a toilet which I use as much as they do. Stop assuming that every man is or should be like my Dad; we're all different, with often equally good and negative qualities, just different good and negative qualities. Just plain stop assuming!

To this end I am aware that to assume means making judgments. Making judgments based on our past experiences (sometimes a worthy thing to do, but not always), making judgments biased by our own early life learning experiences (often a rather nastily ingrained and unfortunate trait), making judgments in general as the starting point of our thinking rather than its final resting place. Each single experience often needs to be what brings us to our final judgment of that experience, not some preconceived and often erroneous assumption.

Who knew that a toilet tank could be so instructive?

Just in case you doubt my ability to plumb ...... or to learn ....... here are pics of the finished product:

My kitty bath, full of original black kitty art, is happy once again.

Impeach the SOB

Another day of interesting, albeit disheartening, news. Ron Suskind's book, entitled "The Way of the World." Among other things, his basic accusation is that Bush WANTED the war in Iraq and manipulated information in order to make a case for going to war against Saddam Hussein. This is hot news?



Is there still a handful of folks in this country who believe that Bush is a wonderfully upstanding president who has, all along, wished to do the right thing? OK, I'm aware that there is that handful of sorely, sadly misguided soles. I'm even related to some of them. Please don't hate me because I used to be a Republican and had to learn to be a liberal via my life experience.

Just to be fair, the White House (who knew it could speak?!) has called this book "gutter journalism." I'm shocked. Is Tony Snow still with us or is that just a redux of his typical terminology used against facts he wished to refute? Condoleezza Rice has said "no one wants to go to war." Oh really? Has she met her boss? She says that such claims "get under her skin." Well it's good to know that accusations get "under her skin" but 3,000 dead American soldiers, 300,000 dead civilians and 50,000 maimed American soldiers have little effect on her lovely skin.



I'm going to get right to the point here and not go into all the details of the book which are intriguing, in particular the news that Bush cut off intelligence with Habush, one of the highest ranking of Saddam's political entourage, when the information he was getting did not promote his desire to go to war. Most importantly, that Iraq did NOT have WMDs, as we now all know. Also, that the White House ordered the CIA to write a fake letter from the Iraqi intelligence chief, Habush, claiming that Mohammad Atta (9/11 criminal) trained in Iraq prior to 9/11.

I won't lay out the entire book here because I want to make a point, as always. WHY ARE WE NOT IMPEACHING THIS PRESIDENT? We impeached Nixon because he broke into a friggin' office! We spent millions trying to impeach Clinton because he got a blow job!! But we let a president slide who has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of people via his wanton abandonment of human empathy and his narcissistic drive to be a "war president."

This man, George W. Bush, was charged with the guardianship of the United States of America when he stole the office of the president. It is not beyond comprehension at this point that he was also behind 9/11. I've not wanted to get to this point of believing conspiracy theories, but the more we go on with this war, the more we hear about Bush's wanton relinquishing of ANY fact which would have kept us from war, the more I am pushed to the belief that yes, this man would do nearly anything to get his way.

Where this idea at one time seemed far fetched to me, one needs only now to watch this man speak, see the irritation in his face when he is questioned on just about anything, watch his isolationist body language and read the facts. Yes, the facts. There actually ARE facts, much to the White House's chagrin. Hey, if the White House can speak, it can also chagrin.


But back to my point. My point is, WHY ARE WE NOT IMPEACHING THIS MAN WHO HAS BROUGHT SUCH DISASTER TO OUR COUNTRY and made hs hated around the world? Are we that apathetic, that wrapped up in our daily myspace and facebook lives, THAT politically stupid, that we just cannot sit ourselves down and figure this out?

Please. Do the right thing for this country and for yourself. I'll make it easy for you. Help to impeach this fraud of a president by going to this site. Read what Dennis Kucinich (a good man) has to say. Write a letter or at least an email. If any of this information touches you ....... write ten letters and ten emails!

Millions of us can do this. We can. I want to be a proud American once again. Right now that's impossible ... but we can fix this. We can.

Don't we need to take this country back?

Check it out:
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer

We Can Fix Our Infrastucture. We can!

We have reached another anniversary in this country. Yep, another reason not to celebrate the state of recent developments in the good ol' USA. It's the anniversary of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis one year ago, where 13 people lost their lives.



According to the news this morning it would cost this country a whopping $140 billion to correct the infrastructure sufficiently enough so that you and I can venture across bridges feeling reasonably safe in the knowledge that we will stay suspended above the water rather than plowing engine down into it.

$140 billion. Pretty steep price to keep our families safe, eh? Oh wait a moment .... we're already keeping our loved ones safe, I forgot! We've spent almost $600 BILLION to date keeping safe from Iraqis. This has also cost 90,000 civilian lives, 4127 US soldiers lives, 4,439 coalition forces, and 53,000 US soldiers maimed . . . . to date. I sure feel safe, don't you?

Heckuva job, Bushie!

The money clock is ticking. Too bad it's the wrong money clock:

###
Iraq War Cost ... can you keep up?

Nuts, anyone?

OK, I admit it. I admit it. I'm confused here. So now, the new "N" word is ..................... NUTS?

Just heard on the news this morning that indeed, Jesse Jackson used the "n" word. Now I ask you, how ridiculous is it to hear a professional, national news anchor saying "the 'N' word". Are we in grade school?



When I watched the Jesse Jackson tape, rerun multi-gillion times in case we missed it the first 2295 showings, I heard him say "nuts." Shocking. Next he's gonna say cashews and the national gasp will be heard on Mars.

I'm not denying that Jackson's sentiments are nasty, uncalled for, out of place and well ...... just plain stupid. I mean ...... in his eyes there's a problem with asking Fathers to step up to the plate and act as Fathers? Bill Cosby has said it, now Barack Obama is saying it. If you don't like what they're saying, step up and be a Father (and a good, non-cheating husband while you're at it) and maybe you won't hear it anymore. Leadership is the stepping stone to change.

But I'm not writing this BLOG to soap box my personal feelings about responsibility. I want to talk about nuts. Really. I do.

I'm wondering if now that the "N" word means nuts ....... will we move on to the "F" word meaning ........ um ....... figs? The "S" word will mean (heaven forbid) ..... squash? CARAMBA!


I'm all over this!!

See you in my next "B" ...... or maybe on "FB".

"LG" all my "F"s out there in "B" land.


PS - I'm really "J"ing here. This "B" was just for "F". I know what the "N" word means.

A Zen Way of Life?

I've been thinking about this for quite a few years and it has always bugged me. See ..... I can't quite figure out the rationale here. Maybe you can help me.

There has been this "New Age" attitude going on for quite some time now. Hey, I have no problem at all with New Age, I feel as though I'm fairly New Agey myself, I just consider it "Old Age" because the ideas are not new.

Anyhoo, what I've noticed is something going on with men and their adaptation of the New Age idea of a Zen lifestyle. Again .... nothing new about that. Here's the problem as I see it: it seems to have more to do with a lack of responsibility than a true Zen lifestyle. Zen, from Zen Buddhism, is a school of Mahayana Buddhism which emphasizes the value of meditation and intuition. A valuable addition to anyone's life.



However, the idea of "Zen" has nothing to do with producing children and then not supporting them, either emotionally or financially. It also has nothing to do with dropping out of the responsibilities of life which include but are not limited to supporting oneself, being a positive addition to one's community, and being responsible to the family that one has created.

Speaking here from personal observation over the past 30 years, I've had male friends who feel that they must either "find themselves" or "do their own thing" whenever this thought might occur to them. Interpretation: don't expect them to support the children they've created and left behind with their ex-mates. They have the important work of "finding themselves" on their plates. When these men stop supporting their families both emotionally and financially, they wonder why their children end up wishing to have nothing to do with them. Gee .... must be something wrong with the kids, right? WRONG!



This trend also seems to include men who must move in with others, as they cannot (i.e. refuse) support themselves. Something cosmic brings them to the needy or blindly sympathetic (OK, been there myself, done that twice), and they find a wonderful woman/friend who already owns a home (it's magic!) and takes them in as a roommate. Suddenly life is good! They can do what they want every day, until the mate/roommate catches on. Sleeping all day (it's just SO hard to be conventional), wandering around (I must take my walk), playing on the computer (that new best seller is right around the corner!), taking photographs that never get sold ("Hey, I'm gonna be famooose") all are de rigueur for the New Age Zen Man. Income producing action is not, because that generally insists on at least a modicum of resolute activity.



What you all have found, you irresponsible boys out there, is the bottom of the barrel of your life. If your kids no longer care about you, you're middle aged and don't have your own apartment or own a home, someone else is supporting you, you spend your days commiserating with other men in the same position who have miraculously, finally found their perfect partner" (read: someone who will work her butt off full time to support you so you can be "Zenned"), believe this: you are not enlightened. You are fooling yourselves with your rationalizing. It won't work forever.

Yes, I know there are women out there in our world who abandon their children and depend on others to take care of them. Personally observed statistics say there are far fewer ....... but that's another BLOG, isn't it.

You may be wondering ...... why this subject ... why now? Well, yesterday I got to thinking. I got to thinking about a former friend's current lifestyle and got to wondering what lead him to this unfortunate point in his life. His sad/needy circumstances reminded me of the past 30 years during which time I've had a few male friends (I could count 'em on all my fingers and toes, but that's quite a few to have known who were in this sad and similar lifestyle situation) who managed to turn their irresponsible, self-indulgent, self-righteous attitudes into a rationalized "Zen lifestyle."

Bill Cosby and Barack Obama have spoken recently about the responsibility that Fathers have or should have in the Black community. While at this time there may be more instances of male parental irresponsibility in the Black community (these statistics are not at my fingertips and it doesn't really matter), this trend is certainly not limited to any particular ethnic group.

Here's the bottom line:

- If your kid(s) don't have much to do with you, there's probably a good reason and it's not THEM.

- If you are middle aged and have virtually nothing to show for the past 30-40 years of your life, there's a reason, and it's not someone else's fault. You and your choices are the reason. Being able to sit around all night and sleep all day because some sympathetic roomie has taken you in for the time being is not a fine example of a life well lived.

Oh ya, I know: "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose." Two ways of looking at that, right. However, "nothin' left to lose" is not Zen .... it's not good (you've lost it all, get it?) ...... and it's not cool.

Get a job supporting yourself and supporting your family. Your free Zen ride is not really freedom, and you know it. The soul's comfort of knowing you're doing the right thing ...... now THAT is Zen, and that is freedom. Freedom from having to rationalize who you are and the way you live and freedom from those niggling little thoughts around the corners of your mind telling you that you have taken wrong turns in your life and it's time to shape up and ship out into responsibility. That would be daily responsibility. Dang I've been wanting to say that for quite awhile. Thanks, yesterday's catalyst .... and you know who you are.

That's what I think ...... unless someone changes my mind. But I doubt it.

MoJo


~Dedicated to my Dad, who always tried to do his best in life, and had a helluva lot to show for the way he lived. His spirit and knowledge lives on through the people he taught and all those he helped teach that doing your best and always trying to do the right thing was the way to live one's life.~

Father's Day Will Be a Sad Day

I am stunned, not only to hear of Tim Russert's early death, but to realize how much this has affected me emotionally. There are some people we feel we know even though we've never met or spoken with them. I watched Tim Russert hundreds of times not only on "Meet the Press", but throughout these interesting political times as he was, hands down, my favorite political interviewer.



My third reaction, after being shocked and sad, was to think that this was not a personality that the world can stand to lose right now. Try right now to think of the person you know who epitomizes strength of character, joy of living, integrity, intelligence and knowledge. Quick ...... how many people popped into your mind?

It seems to me that what we need more than anything else right now, particularly in our nation's political arena, is a huge dose of integrity. Yesterday we lost a good person, a prime example of the best of humanity, and a leader.

Everything I hear about Mr. Russert tells me that he was also a fine example of the best of Fatherhood. Gone two days prior to Father's Day while I'm already missing my own Dad, I think how the world has lost two men who seemed always to try to do the right thing in their lives.





My heartfelt condolences go to Mr. Russert's family, friends, colleagues and to the rest of us who felt that via that big screen on our walls he had actually become part of our lives.



My Dad's first skydive at age 72. I miss my Dad. 8/10/14 - 12/23/07

Blog Blast for Peace

Today is the 4th annual "Blog blast for peace." Kind of a cool idea, I thought ...... but then I enjoy thinking. It's something I can do while sitting peacefully in my birthday chair holding my laptop and watching the birdies and clouds roll by. Or while staring at the full moon ..... which is another of my favorite pastimes.





I guess the idea is that if we all start thinking more about peace instead of war we might actually have more peace. This makes quite a bit of sense to me, actually, as I believe that what we think is what we manifest. You know ..... kind of like when I think about getting my butt out of my birthday chair and going out to pull weeds, I often do it. Well, for a little while, at least.

Sometimes it can take awhile to turn these thoughts into action. For instance, it took me 30 years of dreaming that I might some day like to live on 30 acres in the country to actually getting to the point of plunking myself on 30 acres in the country. Not sure why it took so long, but I suppose that life got in the way, as did earning a living and raising children, as did a considerable amount of indecision. I'm trying to not to be so indecisive these days ...... well, I think I'm trying. I'm not sure.







This concentrated thinking thing just works better collectively, don't you think? I mean, if we all concentrated on my garden being completed this summer ...... maybe I'd actually get there. Of course if concrete action is more your style, you're welcome to come on down here and start digging. No problem.

Anyhooo ........ this is what creative visualization and "The Secret" are all about: focus your thoughts, settle your brain, hold the reality of PEACE in your mind, and it will appear!



I'm all for whatever works. Practical is my middle name. So "hello" out there all my friendly, peaceful people. Peace is definitely a cool focus today ..... and every day.