I Don't Care

Once you label me, you negate me
~Soren Kierkegaard~
 

I don't care if you're gay or straight.  I don't care if you're black or white.  I don't care if you're christian or Jew.  I don't care if you're male or female.  I don't care if you're fat or thin, beautiful or ugly, old or young.  I don't care if you're single, married for a long time or divorced. I don't care about anything one might be that would be considered a label.

I hate that people can't be who they are without having to be lumped into a category.  Back in the 50's and beyond, women who stayed home, took care of the house and raised the children were called 'housewives'.  During the women's movement of the 60's and 70's, that became a derogatory label.  For a couple of decades, those women (and I was one) didn't know what to call themselves.  Now, they're called 'stay at home moms' or SAHM for short.  Why is one label unacceptable and the other perfectly ok?  Could it be that one label is okay and the other not because one clearly includes raising children whereas the other does not?

In some ways, I liken labeling to profiling in that you lump people together based on certain demographics and then assume (this word fits PERFECTLY here) certain things about those people.

What do I care about?  I care about the kind of person you are and the way you treat other people.  I care about the choices you make that tells me you know the difference between right and wrong.  I care about having respect for all people based simply on the idea that they are a human being regardless of any label they might have.

Maybe that's what it's all about.  Labeling gives some a reason to not respect another person and for that reason alone, I will never like labels.  But, of course, that's just my opinion.

Stop The Madness

We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's never a candidate.
~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard~

Oh my God, I'll be so glad when the campaign commercials finally stop!  They wouldn't bother me so much, I think, if the things they "quote" weren't taken out of context or misconstrued to mean something the speaker wasn't saying.  I mean, seriously, who among us hasn't misspoken a few times in our lives?

"You didn't build that".  "Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax and are dependent on the government". "The private sector is doing fine". And now we have this: "Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military's changed...We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines".  If I hear one more time that the Marines and Army still use bayonets, I'll scream.  Point made. Move on. (By the way, I watched the debates and when Obama made the comment about the 'underwater ships', I knew he was talking about submarines. It never occurred to me that it might be a 'gaffe'; rather, I thought it was a condescending remark meant to make Romney look stupid.)

We expect our politicians to be perfect and make no mistakes in what they say or how they say it.  We expect them to say what they mean, mean what they say and never misspeak or say something that isn't exactly right.  When they do, the media jumps all over it as though the 'gaffe' is a true picture of who the candidate is and what he stands for.  Like puppets, we follow what the media says and repeat it over and over again to anyone who will listen.

Americans need to learn to use common sense when politicians are running for office.  Instead of jumping on the gaffe bandwagon when the candidate they oppose says something stupid (and, Lord, don't they all at times!) why not put it in perspective and concentrate on what's REALLY important?  Where do the candidates stand on the issues that are important to you?

I don't care that Obama said he campaigned in "57 states".  I consider myself pretty smart but I once told someone that our current flag had 48 stars.  Of course I know our flag has 50 stars just as I'm sure Obama knows we only have 50 states.  I misspoke.  I would hate for someone to take my gaffe as an indicator of my ability to be a leader.  I can tell you one thing for sure - my vote will not be based on who made the fewest gaffes or said something less stupid than what the other guy said.  My vote will be based on which candidate I feel will do the better job in leading our great nation.

The best quote I heard today was from Dean Obeidallah.  He said "the American public is smarter than most political campaigns give us credit for. We may not be geniuses -- me included -- but we intuitively grasp when a politician has merely slipped up or when he or she has revealed something much more significant."  I think he's right.

I Love You

A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.
~Max Muller~

I say "I love you" a lot.  I say it to my husband and our children every single day.  I say it to my aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters-in-law whenever I talk to them on the phone.  I say it to my friends whenever we've spent time together or had a conversation on the phone.

I noticed today that it's a conscious choice on my part.  It's not an automated response that I'm not even aware has been said.  It's not a simple comment like 'have a nice day' that I toss out casually.  When I say it, I mean to say it.  Not only that, if I have ever said "I love you" to someone, it was said honestly and was a statement of my real feelings.

I have a cousin (I love you, Doo!) who takes it a step farther.  She is always adding "I appreciate you" to the mix.  How awesome is that?  Love is a feeling, an emotion, that we really have little if any control over.  But appreciation?  Wow - that's a choice.  That takes some thought.  You know what else?  When someone tells you that, it's an amazing feeling!

There's no real purpose to this blog except to express, yet again, how lucky I feel and blessed I am that God has filled my life with such beautiful people. Thank you, God. I love you, too.

The Root of All Evil - Enough vs Not Enough

Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
~Erich Fromm~

I was thumbing through a magazine the other day and saw an article about a mansion that caught my attention.  It was beautiful to be sure but what tickled my 'need to know' gene (doesn't everyone have one of those?) was that the mansion had 168 rooms. Really? What does ANYONE need with that many rooms???  I've seen buildings with that many rooms before but they're usually called HOTELS.

Which is another thing I thought about - how many of those rooms were bedrooms?  Who has a family that big???  Even my highly prolific 3rd great-grandfather who fathered 19 children and wore out two young women in the process would have had a hard time filling up all those rooms.

Now here's my thinking - who needs a home with more than a kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, maybe an office or even two, a bedroom for husband and wife, one for each child and a bedroom for granddaughters and and another for grandsons when they come along.  This is assuming that the children will grow up, move out, marry, have children of their own and then come back to visit for holidays and other family gatherings.  People live in much smaller homes and do just fine so, again I ask: what does anyone need with 168 rooms???

Then I thought, what about money?  Who really NEEDS billions of dollars to survive?  I mean, seriously, how can you spend all that money and how many generations below you do you plan to support?

I've heard that Bryant Gumble has a gold plated toilet with a warming seat and sprays you with warm water after you've finished what you went there to do - and then it flushes itself.  That must have cost a pretty penny but then what does he do with the rest of his millions or billions?

I'm pretty sure that Donald Trump pays more for one suit than I spend on clothes for an entire year - for both me and my husband.  I can't imagine that kind of money.  I would guess that neither he nor his children will live long enough to spend all of his money even if they never make another dime.

It's not just individuals.  Think of the corporations that make hundreds of  millions of dollars in profits each year.  Yet they still want more!  Wouldn't it be amazing if the highly paid executives at the top cut THEIR salaries while increasing the salaries of those at the bottom?  I doubt that this is what those who are in favor of "sharing the wealth" meant but, hey, why not?  Would it really be financially hurtful if the Trumpster only made $50 million this year instead of his usual $60 million?  And that's just his salary.  I'm sure he earns more from investments.  Much more.

Oh my gosh, can you imagine the dent in the National Debt if every single multi-millionaire and billionaire donated just one tenth of their net worth to help pay it off?  What if they donated even less to food banks and homeless shelters?  Suppose they all allocated a small portion for education?

Yes, I know, none of this is reality.  There are flaws - LOTS of flaws - in what I've said but can't you just imagine it?  What if greed no longer existed?  I'm not suggesting that people and companies can't make a profit.  I'm just asking why does it has to be such a HUGE profit?

Money is NOT a God.  No good can come from worshipping it.