What Do We Own?

Was just thinking about the word Own, and how little it's being used today, unless it's describing possession.


When I was a kid, there was a local pond, which, during cold winters would freeze over and the crowds would go and enjoy their days skating on the ice. All sorts would be out there... families with small children, those kids that would claim a section for their hockey games, the elderly. It was a cross-section of the community enjoying a simple wonder of nature, frozen water. I remember skating on lit full moon nights with a group of friends, when the ice appeared lit up from the sky. It was magical.


Of course, I also remember seeing a sign for years that was faithfully posted at the entrance to this pond that read "Skate at Own Risk". So, there, on the ice, was a large number of people willing to share this risk. Risk of falling through the ice, getting cold, wet, possibly losing one's own life, knowing all the while that the responsibility was ours. Ours alone.


When did places like this change their signs of ownership to take away the risk, not allowing us to even enter the game? "No Skating" signs replaced the old. So now, if you were brave enough to go out on the ice, not only were you fully assuming the responsibility of any consequences, you were also breaking the Law.


This may seem small, but I believe it weakens our power of self. Our control. We become followers, waiting to be told what we can do and what we can't. And, some of us, if we do take risks or injure ourselves, don't own it. We go after someone else for restitution. Instead of learning from an experience in our lives, we somehow believe if we shift the blame elsewhere, we can gain from our "bad luck".


Now, I'm resisting the temptation for a disclaimer here. One that says, "of course, I'm not talking about reckless behavior that puts myself or innocents at risk"... We all know the phrasing. I won't use it. I will try to operate under the "old" way of assuming you are reasonably bright and intuitively know that I am speaking within a reasonable range of possibilities. That way, you may own your opinion... I don't have to structure for you how you should receive my opinion. I own it, and now you own it.

amuse bouche'

amuse bouche'...just discovered this word and was very curious about it.

Now, I don't watch alot of Top Chef or those kind of programs to have already known what this was, and was leafing through a magazine and saw the term accompanied with pics of tiny mouth-size bites of delicacies. So, I did the french/english translation thing online, and was amused (no pun intended) to see the literal translation, haha, yes.

amuse - adj. amused

bouche - n. mouth, facial feature above the chin and below the nose

haha...amused mouth...who comes up with this stuff? It's actually very appropriate for what this is, a tiny morsel of taste. I guess french is still the preferred language of food... :)

gay?

o m g...I am so disgusted with the media and who the f*ck cares about a person's sexual 'preference' (like it's really a choice?)

opened up AOL this morning and one of the flashing "headlines"...I see a pic of Alena Kagan, the Supreme Court nominee playing softball. Softball...jeezus. LIke, of course, we all know that if a woman has short hair and plays a game like softball, she's got to be (excuse the pun), pitching for the 'other' team.

The fact that this bit of information is being hashed over by the media at all is so annoying to me... Why do we need to know everything that can possibly be dug up on a person these days? we don't.

If it be true, and I don't really care one way or another, unless this would affect her judgement in her capacity as a Supreme Court Judge, it has nothing to do with the story at all. If she happened to be gay and also was what might be called a "lipstick lesbian"...what could the press show us then? A lithesome, tall blond, looking sexy at the bat, somehow might not make much fodder for the media...

When is this going to stop, if at all? Will we ever get back to just the basics, or will this go further, to the point of pics of nose-picking, booger-eaters?

enuf is enuf. How can a reasonably intelligent person weed through all the crap that is constantly being hurled at us and make a clear determination of how we really feel about something?

Not easy, takes a presence of mind and conscious effort. Most of which the average Joe does not possess or really cares to put the effort into...

2010 Census

Okay. I am curious why I seem to be in a such a minority in feeling that the Census form seems so blatantly unbalanced in it's request for information.

I was almost expecting a Spanish version first, then English, but gladly, was not presented with that choice...

But, what is up with Question 8? Wanting to know if I am of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin, and if so, what country do I originate from. This is not a race, but a place of origin.

Then, Question 9...concerning race. First one is White. Second, Black, African American, or Negro. I found this staggeringly obvious in it's omission. If our dark-skinned citizens require three different racial descriptions, how is it that White is only one? Last I knew, White was a ridiculous term laced with a history of all kinds of negative connotation, with Caucasian actually being the correct racial term as Negroid was the original correct term... I personally don't like to be called White and always write in Caucasian, if it is necessary for me to state "what I am". White is the color of a sheet, or a clean piece of paper, not me. If language and proper names and terminology are so critical in these days of political sensitivity, then why and how does the term "White" still stand so singularly?

It's like trying to find that old crayon color, "flesh tone", a pasty pinky color with the implication that everyone's flesh is that color... Crayola no longer makes that one.

And, as for Question 8, why is it that only that "group" is being asked for their origin? Why is it not important where my "Whiteness" comes from? Germany, Ireland, Poland and Holland all had a part in what makes me "White".

So, in the end, there does seem to be a certain agenda to this year's Census form and I am choosing not to participate. This form's original purpose was solely to determine how many representatives each State would be allocated in Congress. That purpose and that purpose only. I will give them that, my body count, and that's it.

As for all the other questions on this form, one can only wonder, where is the outrage over these requests for information?

Where is Reverend Al when you really need him?

life's question

In all my fifty-eight years on the planet I don't think I've ever had a clear picture of where I should be going... What direction am I destined to take?
What 'purpose' was I created to fill? Never gave it enough thought to actually cause a change in direction, or have the confidence that I could make that choice.
I feel different now. Feel as if the person I was meant to be has come into power, risen above all the other small voices that silence that soul.
There can always be regrets of lost opportunities, different paths that could have been taken, but I won't allow myself to go there. That serves no purpose in enjoying the current time of my life.
I want to live my truth. And there are so many parts of myself that need further exploration and experience.
The part that is the work in all this, is the effort to not allow the mundane chores of life be an excuse to not venture further into personal growth. This is easy for a child of Depression era parents. Work, work, work, don't waste time, save that, fix that... This is so ingrained in me that I feel I'm 'wasting' time if I sit and read during the day, take time to meditate, anything that might be personally (that is, just something done for my person)enjoyable.
Conciousness is the key. A human being, not a human doing...

diversity with labels

Just read an article in the local paper about a guy with three daughters raising them alone. His wife died from cancer a couple of years ago, and he was just talking about the adjustment to single parenting from a male perspective. One of the points he brushed upon was the bias concerning men "mothering" children, and how general opinion assumed he would be incapable of doing the job right. Beginning with the cleaning, cooking, all that household chore stuff generally relegated to the female of the house, then on to the emotional aspect of a man raising three daughters.

I won't get into his story that much, because that's not what really hit me about the tale.

I am fed up with the labeling that is put on everyone in our society.

As a free nation, we struggle with, but purport that we celebrate the diversity of all our inhabitants. This is a fabrication of wishful thinking. Ooh, yes, America, a melting pot of immigrants from all over the globe...came to escape oppression, and feel the thrill, to live and work in the land of the free.

I see more and more, the need to put a name on everything. And everyone. Seems to be, that the list of labels has expanded to include even the smallest deviation from the "norm", whatever that is. Why do we need to know some one's sexual preference, racial heritage, career choice, college or tech school, familial status, eating habits, religion, physical condition...the list goes on.

In a country that should be growing to lower these walls of differences between us, we really seem to be setting up little boxes and sorting everyone out, like a pile of laundry. Maybe this has become our unique heritage, because we are a nation compiled from many. A new group surfaces, and we eye them up and down, put them in the right box...maybe they'll need to be moved around alittle till we get it right, but we are determined to find the right box. And, to top it off, we must be very sensitive to what the label may be and that we use it correctly, or be accused of not being "politically correct". A term that originated to indicate religion or race, but is now all inclusive.

This has become so ingrained in our society, that we fumble for the right words to label even ourselves. Struggle with what might sound more impressive, or less one-sided, so as not to exclude inclusion into any one group. We want broad appeal. This is where the Celebrate our Diversity trick comes in. Slap it all together, put it on a poster in Third Grade, and that is sure to have us all holding hands in no time. Ha.

When Did Crazy Get So Many Names?

When I was a kid back in the 50's everything was just simpler. Anyone in our town, which was on the in-the-country kind of small side, who was off the beaten path, as they say, was, just plain considered crazy. Now, I know there were some distinctions on the level of crazy, like really crazy, looney crazy, like really nuts crazy, or just plain, alittle crazy. Everyone, regardless of your background on any level you'd like to choose, was all lumped together. And if a person required taking a break from the "real world" and "going away" for awhile, of course, they went to the Nut House or the Looney Bin. How nuts ever became equated with crazy, I don't know, but it seemed fitting to me. "Man, he was really nuts, they had to put him away in the nut house...probably in a padded room somewhere..." maybe the relationship was how squirrels look when they're running around the yard so erratically with no seeming direction, and since we all know their main preferred food is nuts, well... Or crackers, that's another one. I think crackers was on a milder level than nuts. Maybe that neighbor we used to see on her hands and knees every day with her little pointed tool digging dandelions out of her lawn, she was considered alittle crackers. Not quite certifiable, but not quite right either...at least in our book.

Today it's very complicated. Can't just say somebody's nuts, need to know the correct psychological diagnosis...bipolar (which used to be manic-depressive, I think I liked that one better), borderline depressive, multiple personalities, anorexic, psychotic...the list goes on, and on. Almost seems like there are more crazy people now than ever before, like putting everyone in all these slots has made room for more in the "nuts" category of humanity. Now, I know it might be considered insensitive, but I kind of prefer to use the word "whacked" these days. Seems to fit a large group and it kind of has a nice ring to it. Kind of like they're whacked in the head and not just quite right...

Okay, you might be thinking what an idiot I am, how insensitive to the pain and suffering of thousands of people and their families struggling with their fine-tuned disorders. But no, it's just a simpler way. In this day of such extreme PC attitude, I refuse to join the crowd. I reject using the correct terminology, sure I respect the mental illness diversity out there, but it just seems alittle kinder to just lump everyone together under one umbrella. And, in case you're thinking, ah, she just doesn't know what it's like...well, yeah, I do. I've had immediate first hand experience with crazy people in my life. Grew up dealing with mental illness in my family of origin and know closely people affected today. And, as much pain as all this causes everyone, I like to add a little levity in terminology...kind of takes the edge off the reality of the day-to-day.

Here's to all the crazy, nuts, crackers, looney, whacked people of the world. Hope you can find some peace in this lifetime...and maybe, just maybe, it will come sooner if you're not looking for the correct label...