All my pity and prayers

Goes out to Mr. Barack Hussein Obama, who, when he wakes up this morning, will be handed one of the crappiest and most overwhelming To-Do lists in the history of the Earth.

And I complain about cleaning out closets! Ha!

Perfect Paradox

Deep Thoughts, with Jen Dandy.
Installment #2
a mere 10 months after the first episode.

I played a ceilidh last night. Mar is dual dom, I managed to omit supper from my getting-ready regimen. So I stopped at a grocery store that was on the way, and thought, I'll grab something quick. I found a little serving bottle of chocolate milk (they didn't even have the plain milk I was hoping to get), and a little insta-lunch of Stackers.

I don't usually get this kind of stuff. As much as possible, I try to not eat processed food, except for flour and dairy products. I had never had one of these Stackers things. Somehow I managed to turn it into a philosophical experience and an opportunity to pontificate.

It was so perfect. I'm not at all saying that I enjoyed it that much, rather I mean that I was amazed by this hermetically sealed, formed plastic, formed cheese, pre-prepared insta-meal. Everything was perfectly counted out; there was a perfect number of crackers to pressed meat rounds and cheeses, sitting neatly in their perfect little divided plastic sections. Not a cracker was broken, nor crumb astray. They were all formed to stack on each other in perfect little piles. There was no evidence of the stink and squawk of the turkey who gave his life for my lunch (this isn't a post about animal rights, if you were getting worried).

We also like things like this lovely shelf. I evidence this fact by the booming business of organizer products and proliferation of Neat shows on HGTV, TLC or whatever.

We have manicured lawns, impeccably mastered music recordings, tidy rows of matching boxes/baskets in our basements/closets/shelves. We all have antibacterial hand wash that so any bacteria that manages to float over and touch us will get the KO. Lets have perfection on the molecular level! Lets even program our sperm-egg combos while we're at it.

We want perfect teeth (bleach 'em, paint 'em, align 'em), perfect skin (treat it, cover it, shave it), perfect moods (we'll drug you if you're not), perfect partners (we'll divorce you if you're not).

Everything! From the font and finish of a book cover to a woman's Perfecting Concealer, everything has been thought of and somehow "improved" from its natural or former state.

And yet...

We are a bottomless pit of desperate filth on the inside and more or less content to deny our state of tarry blackness.

It reminded me of this verse, Matthew 23:27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.

I heard this quote, and will sum it up like this:

Isn't it ironic that at the end of the bloodiest century in the history of world, namely the 20th century, where we've seen the Holocaust of 6 million Jews, 20 million in Ukraine under Stalin, 50 million in China under Mao Zedong, 20% of Cambodian population under Pol Pot, 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda, just to start, that you find in the universities now a denial that there is anything called evil? And still people will maintain that one doesn't need salvation, just education.

I'm gonna go out on my uneducated limb and say that I bet most of these perpetrators were educated people.

We need Jesus. Plain and simple. We are hopeless left to ourselves. We are whitewashed tombs of rot and stench with no good of our own. Our pretty facade deceives only ourselves.

God is not fooled.

If there is a moral to my story it is that.

My primary observation in writing this was the pure irony of how perfect we hope to make our immediate world, or own personal environment and situation, and yet how deathly horrid we are under our bleached teeth and ironed shirts, to the end that we have a murderous and suicidal love affair with sin, and the denial we live in about this hypocrisy.

what I see

Incredible injustice.

I watched one of those unsanctioned bootleg online videos of the opening ceremonies in Beijing, and all I could think of the whole time, was the money, the money, the money, burning and gone with every amazing and gorgeous display of fireworks, millions more in costumes and manpower. There must have been a zillion individuals involved in performing. Then there is facilities, power consumption, you name it. All these people attending these events are not hurting for money. They are not going hungry.

Watching the huge explosions and grandeur, I could not get the picture of a small hungry child out of my mind. Blame too many Compassion infomercials if you want, but it is a reality. How many could have been fed, given medicine, shelter, education etc. with the mad money expended at this kind of stuff? Maybe this is wildly oversimplified, but picturing the laughing, indifferent affluent, partying and having a great time while another suffers hopelessly and helplessly is just desperately sad to me, and I do believe justice will be served on the other side.

O Blogger, Where Are Thou?

I am back.
One thing that kept me away lately was having my phone line yanked from my house by a passing tractor trailer. Crazy eh? Now we are back on the grid, connected to the interweb. Yeehaw!

Does anyone else find patterns in their life to be self perpetuating?
For example: When I am doing well, I seem to just get better. I am on the ball: the house is sparkling, I bake and cook up a flurry of culinary varieties, I speak Irish like I'm smart or something, read to my girls so they will be smart or something, exercise, juice, take time outdoors - and all with a big smile. I feel confident because I'm accomplishing all this stuff, and things are going great. With this confidence and good energy, I can just keep accomplishing more!

Then these times happen when I'm not doing well. My brain seems to be on slow motion, I can't manage to think of Irish, and start to feel stupid. I am exhausted, so I don't clean or cook, so the house gets messy and we don't get nutritious food prepared. The mess then gets overwhelming, so I eat 'comfort food' [read: chocolate], I don't spend any time in the sun, can't find the strength/gumption to juice or clean, and my response to the under-achieving ends up perpetuating the exhaustion, stress and discouragement.

What happens to break these cycles I'm not sure, but they seem to spontaneously turn around. One day you are Mrs. Over-Achiever-Cleaver, the next, you feel you are barely hanging on.

Weird.
Just life, I guess. Life, and hormonal fluctuations, likely.

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I have been really preoccupied by world issues lately: hunger, poverty, disease, injustice. One evening in particular, Niamh had been playing on the floor happily, but then the fun ran out, as it does, and she started crying. It took me a minute to get to her, but as soon as I was there to talk to her, she was smiling again. Just wanted someone to talk to her and engage her.

Then it just struck me, the countless orphans in the world, and all they are doing without. They aren't any person's #1 priority, there isn't anyone that they know will always come for them, or for whom there is that feeling of security and familiarity. Most are probably in the care of some nurse, state employee or volunteer, many of whom are great I'm sure, but it is just not the same as the one Mommy or Daddy all the time, who loves you like nobody else. I just thought how very fortunate my girls are to have both parents, in the same home, who adore them. It is just so sad to think of the baby out there just like Niamh, who doesn't have a mommy to come smile at her when that might be all she needs, to know you are there.

There now, aren't you glad I came back so I could depress you? Better luck next time maybe.

Fun and Games?

Hey, sorry, been a while. I was waiting until I had something more interesting and pleasant to say than, "Man, I wanna puke.." which has been about all I have had to say for the last while. So I was sparing you. Aren't I generous? :P what a lady, I know, I know...

Kids amaze me. They have this passion for play which is not often found elsewhere. Adults in general are more lackadaisical about most things, no? I was changing Anna this morning, and immediately when I was done, she LEPT up and RAN out to continue her play like a shot. MAN! Don't make me miss a SECOND! There's serious playing time out there, I can't miss any!!!

What drives you that way? What makes YOU jump up, and RUN out of desire for something? Is there anything? What is it, if anything, and what does is say about you? Would you like to do that sometimes but are afraid to show that much enthusiasm? Why?

Another issue has been simmering with me, but I haven't the time or initiative to really research it, so it won't be more than a big rant, but hey. For a really informed argument about stuff you'll have to read Joy Eidse's blog.

It is the total mis-appropriation of funds globally. I was looking at movie and tv industries, which I see as largely useless industries (I welcome your input/challenge on that comment) and the TREMENDOUS amount of money expended in them, and for what? So people can make money.... off of what??? People wasting time? People entertaining themselves? Entertainment, that I would argue, that is by and large (if not almost completely), detrimental to the viewer. Look at the term AMUSEMENT . Does that not mean to NOT think? (A-muse)

The average blockbuster movie costs something around $100 million, but upwards to $200 million (Titanic). What about all these reality shows? I heard about one the other day where as a surprise they flew EVERYONE on the show to Paris for a day or something retarded, so, this includes filmcrews, lighting, whatever mess goes along with all the contestants. Now you think the airlines gave them a break on price for doing some on the fly? (no pun intended) Ya right. So there was a good many thousands there, in one episode... but the Amazing Race does that every episode. I am just incensed and utterly dumbfounded at what I perceive to be a total lack of conscience on the part of these people. How many hungry would that feed? How many sick might it restore, how many homeless could have a home, how many impoverished could have their debts paid? We are so rich, we are numb with self-satisfaction. It is repulsive to me. I can hardly watch a new movie or such now without getting maddened to myself, thinking, how could this money have better been spent? One mustn't have ever KNOWN hunger, to turn such a blind eye to it, when one has the means to end another's suffering. What if people would pool these insane resources which are obviously OUT there, or Titanic would never have happened, and what if these people had more altruistic hearts... what might happen in the world? Remember, as you read, the power and beauty of a need fulfilled, the impact on a person's life. One doesn't even need to go to Africa to find truly needy ones. I know people very close to me who often lack sufficient grocery money.

A question I heard: What do you not realize you've got until it's gone? Your health.
I would add, most blessings westerners enjoy, especially as children.

One a similar note, we were watching Beauty and the Beast the other night with Anna, (yes, movies still happen in my world, go ahead, laugh at me) and one of the opening lines made me laugh. "Although the prince had every luxury he desired, he was cold, selfish" etc...
I would re-write the text, "BECAUSE the prince had every luxury he desired, he was cold and selfish.." Just an idea. I laughed at the popular imbedded-though daily-proven-untrue view of money buying happiness/goodness etc. You might condemn that notion at first glance, but if you examine yourself further, you might be surprised at this insidious principle lurking in your heart somewhere, unbeknownst to you. I know I still find it sometimes, it creeps up, rears its ugly head, to my repulsion, and I must face my own Department of Corrections. :)

Some thoughts this morning.
Hope you all are well, enjoying autumn, whatever it looks like, wherever you are.