Kiss me.
Then take me away into enchantment.
Hold me with care,
As peace falls gently to the wild earth.
Love me
so I will be filled with courage to parade our dreams.
Magnificent passion
all in one moment yet a creator of more.
Although you're not yet here
and you may not even exist except for ignorant hope,
Just kiss me.
Late last Thursday night, a wind storm hit the Seattle area knocking out power to 900,000 homes, including our own. Trees fell down everywhere, even on houses and cars. Road signs were cut in half, windows were blown out and everything was kind of a mess. Also, we got a pleasant break from tacky Christmas decor on some peoples' homes such as these:
Because our fire stove and continuous water heater runs on propane, we had heat and hot water but most people didn't have such commodities. I thought about those hapless souls… but only for a few seconds. Gas stations were closed, all public buildings shut their doors, and the local grocery chain ran on minimal generator power to provide customers with unspoiled food items. But we had neighbors. Some of us got together and shared emotional support, barbecues, and alcohol aplenty.
When electrical power shuts off, one is encompassed by a foreboding, cold, dark feeling, especially if it goes out at night (obviously.) It sort of reminds me of the lights flickering just before they go off completely in a German gas chamber which is mistaken to be a shower facility. Okay, well maybe I don't really know what that's like, and maybe it's not quite like that but it really is spooky and the feeling that there is nothing we can do about it except wait it out can actually propel some victims over that mental edge.
Anyway, when our power went off I first wondered about how I was going to do my hair, and then I thought about how I was going to live without the internet. It was kind of nice to be free from that wrenching surge of bondage to my computer, although I have to admit that I was mostly sustained by all of those messages I was going to have waiting for me when the power went back on.
Except that there weren't any messages. On day three, I was able to check my email through our neighbor's dial-up connection which, if I had to spell out a word to describe that, it would have to be u-s-e-l-e-s-s. Still, many people depend on dial-up and in that sense we must respect it. But carve out my fingernails, throw me into an almost frozen lake or make me shop at Wal-Mart but please, please, please don't ever make me use dial-up again.
After about half a day, the fact finally sunk in that I had no messages asking if we were okay. No, not one. I wasn't expecting a chopper full of medical supplies or anything like that but a little, "Hey, how are you guys holding up over there?" would have suited that chemical function in charge of my ego just fine... Oh well. Except for some begrimed undergarments, a surplus of depressing darkness and a little carbon monoxide poisoning from the generators, we really were okay.
Speaking of power generators, I always thought they were the answer to all of life's power shortage problems. People say, "Their power is out but they have a generator" and then everyone says "Oh good" and continues on their way without a second thought of those underprivileged people who had built their lives on and around electricity so that it is actually part of their biological structure. In reality, depending on a generator would be kind of like having to switch from a blood-pumping heart to a pace maker (but in a weird, twisted kind of way.)
Generators are also highly temperamental and needy, so that if it is tipped just slightly off level or if you plug that one thing in, it will shut down never to return again to an autobiography of abuse and hard work. And boy are they LOUD. Imagine all of your neighbors mowing their lawns at the same time all day and through most of the night and then you will have a good idea of life with a generator. Still, we wouldn't have been able to play Xbox without it.
The three different generators that were loaned to us throughout the week were more contemporary than this one:
So, just in case somebody out there was wondering but didn't have time to crank out a note on your cable internet connection, we are still alive. No trees fell on our house and the Christmas spirit lives on within us. Even if you weren't thinking of me, well, I am proud to announce that I was thinking of you – even if it was just along the lines of how you might be thinking of me.
Well, may your holidays be happy, warm and bright and may your car not look like this:
As I was hanging our newly bought Christmas lights on the fence in our front yard last night, I noticed that one of the bulbs was out. Oh, and there is another… and another… and another. The last time I checked, about 75 percent of the bulbs were lit. I concluded that although the strings of lights didn't cost very much, they weren't even worth my time to glance at them in the store.
Why do we settle for so little? Something has caused many of us to give up and give in, no questions asked, to the things that profit the wealthy – the VERY wealthy – yet cost us our happiness and well-being. And even our lives.
Today I read all about the Codex Alimentarius, a trade commission funded and run by the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) and The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). These regulations for global food trade will require that all members comply to its standards by the end of 2009. Members will include over 160 countries or 97% of the world's population.*
And these regulations are scary. Nearly all foods must be irradiated. While irradiated U.S. foods are currently treated with 1 – 7.5 kilogray of radiation, the Codex would lift its already high limit of 10 kilogray – the equivalent of ca. 330 million chest X-rays – "when necessary to achieve a legitimate technological purpose."
Add this to the mandatory recombinant bovine growth hormone by Monsanto, required antibiotics for all consumed animals, the fact that genetically modified foods (derived from a GMO) will no longer have to be labeled, and it's going to be extremely difficult to find real food in the near future.
There is a way for the public to motivate companies to concentrate on the quality of their product over the quantity of their paychecks and that is through our demand. We don't HAVE to succumb to the things that cost almost nothing in order to possess something less than nothing as long as we can find better quality elsewhere. When we realize that the American dream has made us tired, depressed and sick, it's time to pick a new one.
Lifestyle changes are worth their weight in gold but they take time. We have been trained since public grade school to become weak, mindless consumers, especially around the holidays.
If we have any inclination for a change here are just a few ideas:
Spend the extra money and effort to buy local, chemical-free foods.
Purchase high quality vitamins and supplements instead of HMO health insurance.
Support local farmers and small business merchandise stores.
Read labels and learn the meanings of ingredient names intended to mystify us.
Find out the real manufacturer behind products purchased as well as their political and economic interests.
Plant a garden; join a cowshare program or CSA program.
Avoid big box stores to cut down on slave labor across the globe.
Lessen exposure and support of commercials and advertisements.
Refuse to finance anything and pay off existing debts.
Get more natural exercise. Breathe fresh air.
Etc.
Did
you know that it takes an average of eight minutes for a mobile home to burn
down in the case of a fire?
* Read more about the implications of Codex Alimentrius by Dr. Rima E. Laibow here.
The notorious door-to-door vacuum salesman... They apparently still exist because we had two of them show up at our house yesterday. I have to admit that I got suckered into letting them do a demo but only because I thought they were selling something completely different.
They offered to deep clean our carpets in one room of the house for free and I immediately thought of the area which has been pretty much used as a toilet by our puppy for the last year.
"Sure!" I said. "Enter at your own risk."
When I realized that they were selling vacuum cleaners and not a carpet cleaning service, I thought, "Darn. There goes my fun afternoon of blogging with the reward of new carpet." Fortunately, my husband showed up and made it clear that we would not be able to buy a vacuum from them even if we wanted it, although that didn't deter their strategies for one second.
As they were "cleaning" the carpet and doing their thing, I was studying the dynamics of the whole scam. These guys were easy on the eyes and could have been something in life. The way that they killed us with kindness made it clear it was all an act and well, yuck. It would have been worth my time if we could have had a real conversation about the meaning of life and why would anybody want to reduce themselves to such a repulsive kind of sell-yourself, misery-inflicting job anyway?
The vacuum would have cost us $1289.98 with tax at the beginning and just before they left, it would have been roughly $1600 or $69.72/month, no payments for the first three months. On eBay, the vacuums are selling for $300-$400 from people who bought them for the same initial asking price. When I tried out the vacuum, it was clear that it was a piece of crap and today, our puppy stains still exist. Here is another story by someone who had a similar experience: Kirby Vacuum Cleaners Will Suck The Life Out Of You And Your Marriage.
As any housewife will attest, there is really no such thing as a good quality vacuum, especially one that can shampoo your carpets without a lot of highly toxic poison cleaners. But from my short-lived experience, I can say that an $86 Eureka canister is GREAT for hard wood floors and we should all get rid of that ugly synthetic carpet anyway. Oh, and don't forget to support the small businesses. (smile)
After two hours, the vacuum guys looked tired. With our loud kids and neighbor kids frolicking in and out of the house, the puppy running off with one of their shoes, having to endlessly put together and take apart the vacuum, and the NO SALE, maybe we helped them to reconsider their careers. I have to say that I really did feel sorry for them, but maybe that was just part of their scheme.
Today I read in the news about the New Jersey Supreme Court decision to allow gay couples the same rights and benefits of heterosexual marriages but it did not say that their union could be called "marriage" unlike the ruling of the state of Massachusetts.
The Family Research Council worries that this implies the beginning of a threat to religious liberties, or churches being forced to bless and perform homosexual weddings. They also do not want the meaning of "marriage" and what that term means in the minds of Americans to be altered.
Advocates of the LGBT Social Movement want equal rights and a recognized civilized union for same-sex couples. They say that the first amendment would continue to provide the freedom of churches to either bless or refuse gay marriage within their individual church.
As with all controversial issues, there are reasons for both sides to speak out their concerns and desires and it is very difficult for one side to see the validity of the other.
Where do I stand? I feel that hot issues like this one are beyond my realm of full understanding, but with all of my personal beliefs, biases and influences like any other U.S. citizen, I would say that the religious do not have to fear the ramifications of legalized gay marriage upon our country and the children of our country.
My reasons are: 1) more is accomplished through freedom than fear 2) beliefs about homosexuality should not affect the rights of homosexuals 3) gay marriage does no physical harm to other citizens 4) it does not take away the freedom for a one man / one woman marriage 5) the church is not the state and 6) people should have freedom in moral decisions as long as it doesn't infringe upon the rights of others and 7) isn't the church fighting the wrong battle in this case?
What is your personal opinion?
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Have you read one of those Fifty Things About Me tags that are going around? If you haven’t, you soon will because, well, everyone is a narcissist and we just can’t help ourselves. Plus, it helps us all get to know each other a little better. Here’s my version:
1. I have been in 78 car accidents in the last 3 years. I was rear-ended in every single one. I wish people would learn how to drive!!!
2. My favorite food is anything that is living. I only eat food that is alive.
3. I am a direct descendant of a species that came from a distant planet. I couldn’t remember the name of the planet so I tried to get a hold of my great grand-pappy to ask him but he couldn’t talk to me. He said something about “them” finding him and locking him up in a holding cell in some underground lab.
4. When I drink a lot of alcohol, I am really funny!!
5. One time when I was young, I broke my neck, my spine, my elbows, my knees and all of my fingers while playing at a car wash. They tried to put me in this mechanical wheelchair, but I kept falling out. Then one day, I was completely back to normal. The doctors called it a miracle.
6. I love the outdoors. I rarely get out though. I mostly like to just look out my window. Okay, maybe I don’t really love the outdoors.
7. In my spare time, I pull loose threads out of sweaters, wrap them around my neck then pull really hard. My therapist said that I am a bipolar manic depressive schizophrenic hypomaniac.
8. I am a contradiction in terms. Nobody has ever been able to explain it. I’m ugly/pretty, dumb/smart and dull/exciting.
9. I think that President Bush is an idiot. Don’t ask me why I think he is an idiot. Maybe after I graduate from elementary school, I will be able to communicate properly.
10. My favorite color is Robin’s-egg-espresso-tan-blue.
11. The celebrities I have met are: John Smith, Jennifer Smith, David Smith, and John Smith Jr. Somehow I just happen to run into celebrities wherever I am! I have met a lot more, but this list would just be way too long.
12. I have brown hair.
13. I have takn lotz o differnt classes and I was a strate A studn’t.
14. One time I ate poisonous gecko lizard brains then jumped off an eighty foot cliff. I almost died. It was on a double dog dare so I had to do it.
15. I was shot at once - just because this guy caught me stealing his kid!
18. I don’t like beef, poultry, fish, vegetables, grains, fruit or dairy.
22. I support child labor, I mean I love shopping. I am in the red $300K.
24. I only do things that I believe in… So, when I am washing dishes, I believe in those cups, plates, knives and forks. I believe that they actually exist.
25. Someday I am going to write a book. The title of it will be “I Just Love Myself So Much!”
26. Some people hate to be alone but not me. Give me a week by myself and I would be happy. You would have to make sure I have email access, a cell phone, a fax machine, my blogs and some stationary and stamps – but I would be happy.
27. I only like guys who are HOT! I don’t know why – I just do. TEEHEETEE!
28. My real name is Methusela. My close friends call me Meth (it has sentimental value) but most people call me Elizabeth.
29. I actually only have one eye – thank God for Photoshop!
30. Almost everyone I know has died.
44. I have traveled all over the world with less than $10. I have slept under bridges, behind garbage dumpsters, in jail cells, in empty fields and on the back porch of my parents’ house.
45. I love to take surveys; I post at least ten of them every day as MySpace bulletins.
46. I have the same birthday as Ted Bundy.
47. My favorite flower is the Weeping Willow.
48. I say the F-Word a lot. My mama said that was the first thing that came out of my mouth right when I was born.
49. My favorite car is the Geo Metro.
50. My favorite thing to do (besides constantly look in the mirror) is make long lists that make me LOL!
In the Republic of Elizabeth, the world would be a place of estates, farms and cottages located on rolling, green hills, interspersed with livestock roaming freely. Everyone would compost their gardens of course. There would be no smog, no ugly, smoking factories en route and no hazardous nuclear power plants to blame for the contaminated water supply. People would drive their own horse and buggy to community Sunday picnics, before coming home to a warm fire in the hearth while reading classic books from their personal library. (All homes would each have a home computer however because I like those.) And we would all be happy.
Yes, well this might not exactly be ideal but we don't have to worry because it would never exist anyway, except maybe in Amish Country or in the days of Little House on the Prairie, minus the computer. I have seen something of the likes in rural communities of Europe but that is neither here nor there. The fact is that the American industrial revolution keeps on revolutionizing. What began as raw milk from a healthy cow has become a plastic container of ultra-pasteurized, homogenized water-like liquid hastily thrown into an over-loaded shopping cart full of brightly colored labels and other marketing strategies. But that's okay. This is modern life as we know it.
The mass discount merchandiser Wal-Mart typifies this scene. I would rather go without this subsidizing chain of 1,146 stores and 2,098 supercenters averaging at 200,000 square feet per store and opening at a rate of 250-300 new stores per year in order to uphold their promise to shareholders. But who can blame them really? Wal-Mart is the world's second highest-grossing corporation reporting a net income of $11.2 billion on $316 billion of sales revenue. They are obviously providing something that the public needs - or at least they instantly gratify our addictions.
Wal-Mart's ambitious founder Sam Walton seems to have had good intentions of making a profit the honest, hard-working way with considerations to his employees which he called "associates". Since his death (from bone cancer,) "Mr. Sam's" successors have not been able to carry on the spirit of the Wal-Mart Way however, resulting in law-suits galore filed by associates accusing the corporation of illegal activities, and protestors doing all they can (to no avail) to keep a store from taking over their town. Still, whatever it is, Sam Walton created this unstoppable big ... thing.
Where is all of this profit coming from exactly? Because Wal-Mart, as well as other big-box stores, are raking in all of the cash, they can expect to be scrutinized to no end but what are these complaining organizations and unions saying? Wal-Mart is utilizing the work force in China where 80% of their products are manufactured (think child labor) as well as low wages for their over-worked associates, not to mention their environmental irresponsibility. This is all done in order to receive from the pockets of consumers who are happy to save lots and lots of pennies with "Every day low prices."
When a Wal-Mart comes to town, numerous retail stores go out of business because they cannot compete with the convenience of a garden center, a pharmacy, a tire and oil change shop, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio and grocery store all in one building, nor with retail items that are cheaper than cheap. Wal-Mart is like a town in itself, with cult-like tendencies according to the way the company suppresses employee health care and labor unionizing, even if the benefits of unions are debatable.
Although Wal-Mart is an eyesore on my picture of rolling green hills, this is a free country and I have to say that if people want to work or shop at Wal-Mart, that is their personal choice which must be respected. I can relate to the lure of convenience and finding the exact thing that I want, although my last visit to our local Wal-Mart was quite an unpleasant one.
If a person does not shop at these mega super stores, where do we acquire our life necessities and luxuries? Those cute little main street shops with personable employees are rare but they do still exist and small businesses highly appreciate our support. We might pay more money, but the product actually lasts a while and without the overabundance of preservatives too. If that is not plausible, well then, there is always shopping on the internet. I really like those home computers.
I found a good book! For Rule #31 "Reduce Clutter" in Robert's Rules of Writing, Robert Masello says about "adjectival overload:"
And adjectives, like gang members, seldom ventured out alone. They went out in twos and threes and, God help us, fours, and piled up on any person, place, or thing that got in their way. "Look! It's a noun – let's get it!" … "The old red coach creaked down the long, winding, cobblestoned road and stopped before the timbered, mullioned, ancient tavern" – [and] the hapless, weary, encumbered reader goes stark raving mad.
Our family loves to read so every week we venture to the local county library – every Wednesday to be exact for all of you stalkers out there – after we have loaded up our hold shelf by reserving books online. This is quite fun actually, especially for people who don't have a lot of extra cash to throw madly into the air at Barnes and Noble. Old books and current books from every library in the county is an option for us, although we have to wait at least a few days to pick them up.
Still, this serves my random passions well. (See my previous blog Just Shy Of Psychotic.) One week I am interested in the connection of adrenal glands with the itching hives around my eyes and the next week I want to know about knitting. I started submitting some of my written articles to e-zines so I recently picked up about fifteen books at the library on the techniques of writing.
And now I understand why English professors teach that writers should never write about their favorite subject. All of the books that I skimmed through were written by experts. Yet so many opinions on what is acceptable and what is not, threatened to squeeze the literary passion right out of me. Writing, as in any art, requires freely flowing juices of creativity – not some irritable, fascist mother figure (who should have been a librarian) that prohibits the use of the word "said" in a dialogue.
And then, it happened. I was jarred from my seat.
Even a statement made by the writing establishment about the sin of writing about writing was proven to be too constrictive. I picked up the last book in my pile. Imagine the sun gleaming through the brooding clouds, the quickening pace of the music tempo, and my lips in an upward curve. The one book to rule them all...
The ironic thing is that this glorious book had the word "Rules" right in the title. However, the mid-section of the book, where I usually like to start in order to avoid catchy intros that don't hold up, didn't make me think of my twelfth grade English teacher Mr. DeFabio's grammar lessons (and the failed attempt to scream in horror as I run away.) Instead, it made me want to write a post for my blog. Rather than suffocating me, these particular rules inspired me.
"Burn Your Journal," "Pick Your Poison," "Skip the Truth" and "Call It Quits" were the first rules that sparked my interest. Robert Masello has good reasons for everything he says, but his claims are humorous too which I translated as, "Take it or leave it. I still love you." There is nothing like a good rule-breaking and feeling right about it yet that is exactly what this admirable author encourages people to do. And this concept fits perfectly with the great philosophy of Elizabeth's life.
I'll end with another "rule." There are 101 of them in this book and this is #56: Buy the Smoking Jacket:
… Real writers, you're to understand, want to write; they need to write. Phonies just think about sitting around in comfy armchairs, being interviewed about what they've already written, surrounded by leather-bound collections of their work, a faithful dog, and a worshipful spouse …
Well, pray tell, what is the alternative?
Should you imagine yourself, day after day, year after year, toiling over a cluttered desk, or wrestling a new ink cartridge into your printer? (If you're using an ink-jet, by the way, please consider getting a laser printer instead. It's better in the long run.) … No, I say go right ahead and dream away. Color in every square inch of your private fantasy. Savor every detail. No writer focuses on the image of himself writing any more than a bus driver dreams – except in his nightmares – of driving a bus.
Happiness happens when one realizes that there is so much more to life than what meets the eye, although what meets the eye will reveal that happiness.
Can you say "OBLIGATION"?
That is how you feel when you get tagged by another blogger like
Mr. Noah Tall. I really like this guy though so instead of
being an Ebenezer Scrooge, I am going to play the game for someone who so
thoughtfully picked me out of his readers.
Tag Rules:
1. Grab the closest book.
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next four sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't go digging for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet. I know you were thinking about it!
6. Tag five people.
Okay, the nearest book to me was The Adventures Of Pinocchio but it is an illustrated picture book so there are only 56 pages in it. The third closest book would have been any book from our overflowing bookshelves containing my all-time favorites. I would have broken rule #5 except that the second nearest book to me was the Holy Bible and I didn't feel right about lying.
So, opening up to page 123 and finding the four sentences after the fifth, I landed on Leviticus 25:50-53 NKJV:
Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption… He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight.
Leviticus is that book in the bible where people lose steam when attempting to read through the whole shebang. Genesis and Exodus are full of exciting stories and then you get to the priesthood, ceremonies and burnt offerings intended for the nation of Israel. Add to that the New King James version and you get to read words like "rigor".
Nevertheless, every part of the Bible serves an important purpose to the whole. I would like to point out that the Bible does not advocate slavery, which is why God sent Moses to free the Israelites from the labor of Egypt. The Bible actually distinguishes between servants, bond-slaves and captives of war. Servants were like modern-day employees while bond-slaves were usually very poor, indebted people who sold themselves basically. Jewish bond-slaves were not to be treated as property however but like hired help – used but not abused.
Everyone was required to rest every seventh sabbatical year for the good of the land and the people. All slaves were released every fiftieth year called the Year of Jubilee, although they still had to pay their debts. This was also a foreshadowing type of Christ who would free all people from the bondage of sin by paying the price through his death on a cross.
I believe that slavery exists today in ways other than child labor in foreign countries who are manufacturing American clothing or the minority doing dirty work and getting paid much less than someone else. Consumerism has made all of us some sort of a slave whether to a credit card company or our own lust; the proof is in the problems we see every day. I think that America could use a Year Of Jubilee but I am just a small voice.
Now I pass on the obligatory torch of the tagging game. You don't have to write from a sober perspective like me but you must be true to yourself and to your society, which includes me. (smile)
I tag:
Christian, Kenny, Cia, Lindsey, Lee, Erika and Lord Krommos
That is seven people instead of five. I just had to break one of those rules I guess.
