Silence Is Not An Option

Bigoted, deceitful, sinister predators achieve positions of power by playing on people's basest instincts and worst fears, using fear and the associated anger to divide people.
I don't want to play into that agenda. We are all human--so much more alike than different. At the same time, racism, bigotry, misogyny, and hatred must not be allowed to stand. Ever. So, remaining silent is not an option. And having to explain to my children that this kind hatred exists...What. The. Hell. They "hate" bedtime, you know? They have nothing in their hearts or in their lives to even begin to compare to this level of utter malevolence. And yet, there it is, threaded into the fabric of the nation in which we live. This has to be a line in the sand, or we allow our nation to become what Trump and his gang value--which has nothing to do with love, kindness, or equality. His actions/inactions should be unacceptable to every single human being who values love and respect, freedom and equality for all.
And yet, there are people who *still* support Trump. Just how much are their stocks and commodities and Supreme Court justices and Confederate landmarks and dreams of unregulated gun ownership worth?
Other people's rights?
Other people's freedoms?
Other people's lives?
What does it take for his supporters (for who he cares nothing) to draw their own line in the sand and refuse to stand with him? You'd think they'd at least draw that line out of self preservation....because, eventually, Trump and his gang of bigots will run out of "others" to condemn and will starting turning on their own flock. That's what bigoted, deceitful, sinister predators do.

A Mint for Your Thoughts...

This is a golden memory from childhood: an Andes Mint wrapper folded into what looks like a tiny version of a paper hat. Growing up, one of our Fam's go-to restauratns was Olive Garden, especially when dining out with our Memere and Papa and Gramps. When the server would bring the mints with the check, we kids would revel in making these little shapes. We dubbed them "Spock ears". One of us would don the Spock ears and we'd giggle. I haven't thought about that in a long time.

We don't go to Olive Garden much these days. ($18 for Chicken Alfredo? Come on...) But, my Hubby was recently given some Olive Garden gift cards at work. Gift cards tend to burn holes in our little ol' pockets, so we went today for a late lunch. When the server came with the check and a treasure trove of those Andes Mints, I was immediately transported back in time. Seeing those little mints made my heart smile at the memories of those golden years. Before I knew it, I was making two Spock ears as I told our kids the story. They giggled and asked if we really wore them, and giggled some more when I confirmed that we did. Our son then tried out the ones I made in tribute. Both our kiddos pondered how they'd never encountered the pure glee that is an Andes Mint until today. And additional golden memories were made.

Live & Let Live

In my profile, I share that I am a "believer in Love, Family, Nature, Equality, Peace, Kindness, Diversity, and Lifelong Learning". That list is the gist of what I feel in my heart is universally true and right in this experience we call life. No doubt there are those who'd read my profile and think there's something missing from her list of what she believes in or I'm sure her belief in God or Jesus is meant to be assumed. Meh. Not so much. I am genuinely happy for those who find joy, strength, comfort, peace, and whatever else they need through believing in a god or Jesus or in attending a church. Truly. I'm happy for anyone who genuinely experiences all of those. The truth is that worshiping a god or Jesus or attending a church does absolutely none of that for me.

"Oh, you must have had a bad experience at a church..." has been uttered more than once by well-meaning folks who just don't want to accept that I don't believe as they do. No, my disassociation with religion (organized or otherwise) is not merely about having a "bad experience" at a church. I grew up going to church on occasion--those experiences provided nothing more than lessons in how to taking mental vacations and other means of quietly entertaining myself for around an hour.
I've read the Bible--that overly wordy, poorly written, edited and reedited repeatedly over history, grossly contradictory of itself, largely misogynistic book; and it provided me no golden light of belief. No Ah ha! moments. Nada.
I attended nearly a decade of Catechism classes--truth be told though, I was the kid who was regularly getting into trouble in class because--brace yourself--I asked questions. Lots of questions. And when I didn't agree with the answers, I'd press for more meaningful answers. And when there were no meaningful answers (which was usually the case), I'd expect to have the line of reasoning behind those answers explained. And it turns out that those folks were not into providing such reasonings. "Just believe it because you're supposed to!" Ugh. I'm not so good just following something or someone because you're supposed to. It was about a decade ago when I finally admitted to myself that this whole religion & god thing wasn't doing it for me. Since that moment 10 years ago, I've regularly given great thought to what does bring me joy, strength, comfort, and peace... ... ...Ta da! Hence the list in my profile.

What perplexes me about those who want to explain someone like me away with "Oh, you must have had a bad experience at a church..." is that anyone who has talked with me on the subject at any length has certainly heard my reasoning for no longer believing in all that jazz. It's about so much more than having had a bad experience.... it's about religion and dogma and all their trappings making zero sense to my questioning mind. It's about no longer being able to subscribe to a belief system that actively discriminates to varying degrees, depending upon the denomination. It's finding it ludicrous to look up to some magical dude who supposedly has some grand plan that we humans are too moronic to understand. And when those "plans" by this supposedly all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving being involve violence, illness, suffering, and (depending upon the denomination) vengeance... well, hell no. I want no part of any such plan, thanks. I happen to think that we humans are more capable and more connected to each other than religion would have us believe. My rejection of church and religion and all its trappings is about realizing that we humans are so much more alike than different, and we need to look to each other for comfort, help, joy, strength. Instead of looking up for someone to solve our problems, let's look to each other. In looking to each other, we can find a little common ground. We can learn to live and let live.

When Politics Inspires A Language Arts Lesson...

Counting syllables. Practicing rhyming. Word meanings. A recent, impromptu language arts lesson:

Trumpty Dumpty bragged on a wall,
Ranting at rallies, on Twitter, and all.
All of his lackeys and fam and yes men
Couldn't keep Trumpty from acting insane.



(Artist: Sam Sisco, Mad Magazine)