Thoughts

Well, there are certainly a lot of things going on "out there." Enough to keep a body upset and battling high blood pressure every day, every minute. People are tempted by paranoia on a lot of things, but there was that episode of The X-Files in which the woman, just before she went missing, advised, "If you think you're too paranoid, you probably aren't paranoid enough." My grandson and I read To Kill a Mockingbird together. Atticus Finch says courage is doing what you know is right, even if you know you aren't going to win. And I know that must be one of the reasons why the book is on the Banned Book List. And would I teach my grandson from anything else than banned books that are banned for a reason and we are darned well going to know why? Atticus wanted his children, Jem and Scout, to know that "courage is more than a man holding a gun." I'm looking for the movie version with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. And our next read will be Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's also on the banned book list. (Ref. above remarks.) For the same reason. Am I dangerous? A threat to homeland security? No. But I am a patriot. (To me that's different than patriarchy, but to some it is not.) I will exercise my right to free speech when I need to speak up. I applied for a job. Didn't get it. I'm thinking politics has something to do with not getting it, but that's OK. I'm remembering a conversation I had with someone who works at village hall. This person retired but stayed on at the position so she can collect her pension and still pull a paycheck. "Why shouldn't I? Everyone else does it!" Well, I didn't go into it with her, but I thought about how my mother taught my brothers and me that two wrongs do not make a right. And double-dipping is wrong. And it's destroying the tapestry of America. It's dishonest. It's greedy. It's an abuse of the taxpayers and it eliminates job opportunities for others who could really use paychecks to take care of their families. But, well, it's all about #1, isn't it?

Do we really wanna go there?

What make a woman caustic? Maybe we don’t really want to go there. Lately I think I’ve been pretty critical. And though I say, “Please, God, don’t let me be like my dad in that respect,” I have seen my father’s daughter of late. It seems that people just don’t have any common sense any more. Doesn’t anyone think further than the ends of their noses? Use their heads for something besides hat racks? Consider the consequences for actions BEFORE the actions are done?

I remember when life was good, and a lot simpler. Anyone who wanted to work had a job. If you went job hunting first thing in the morning, by the time you got home you had a job…the same day! A young man and a young woman could get married, buy a car, a house, have a family and put food on the table. One full time job for everyone. A chicken in every pot.

Families—four generations—gathered together to celebrate holidays with big dinners or cookouts, and children actually knew some of their relatives, extended families included.

I don’t know if we have the world by the tail or if the tail has us. Who are slaves? What are we slaves to? (OK. Grammatically correct: To what are we slaves?) Do we own our possessions or do our possessions own us? Are all of those things WE THINK WE NEED more important than the things WE NEED? What DO we need? When we are on our death beds breathing our last, what do you suppose we’ll think about? What will be most important then? Why isn’t that what’s most important now while we can live the gift of life?

What do parents teach their children? What did our parents teach us and their parents teach them? And what will our children teach their children? What do we want history to say about us? Or are we so fatalistic that we don’t think it matters because the world will end 12/21/2012? When will the floating stop?

A Woman's Duty

Women do what needs to be done. We see with our eyes what needs tending to and we do it because it has to be done and someone has to do it. When we're looking for something we move things to see if what we're seeking might be behind. But children and husbands will insist the thing they are looking for isn't where you say. And when you go and move something, there it is behind. "Where did you find that?" they ask.

Women make do much of the time. How can we do anything but make do when we don't have resources to do more? We do the best we can and, often, hope for the best.

Sometimes there are rewards. And is there really any satisfaction from the knowledge that a husband who thought his wife might not be very good at budgeting but discovered she was much more efficient with what she had to work with than he?

All any of us can do is our best. That's all there is.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy. Until I went back to college in 2007 I hadn't thought about its application to the Patriarchs, Old Testament variety. And when I think about how women are to be treated with the respect such as Jesus addressed women, when I think about how women are to be, I think of the Noble Wife in Proverbs 31. I consider the stories of Naomi and Ruth, Esther and Martha. They were strong women who commanded the respect of the men in their lives.

Problems arise when men don't respect and appreciate their women. They have difficulty understanding that God made man, both male and female, in his image. Each is a part and when two parts are joined they become one whole unit, equally-yoked and working toward the same goals. Men do not own the market on Intelligence.

When one of the parts isn't working properly, that part is hurting the whole unit. When a part on a machine fails to do what it is supposed to do, it is replaced by a new part for the machine to work properly. Many husbands have been replaced. The work or job is not the only obligation of the worker.

In thinking about how, as a nation, we moved from an agricultural to an industrial society we need to look at the whole picture. Prior to the Industrial Revolution husbands and wives worked together on their farms to produce what they needed for their family's survival. WORKED TOGETHER. When Pa took a job working in the factory for a paycheck, everything at home fell on the shoulders of the wife. And eventually we have evolved to where we are today...Ma is working for a paycheck and too many of us have all the burden of responsibility at home, too.

Take a look at good, old Benjamin Franklin. Who ran his business and kept the home fires burning in Philadelphia, Pa. USA while he lived with another woman in England and spent the last 12 years of his wife's life living in Europe? He came home only after Debra's death and only because she wasn't alive to run his business ventures for him. She waited for him all of those years.

For centuries men have abused the meaning of a woman answering to her husband. Jesus said the man is to be the head over his wife, as Jesus was the head of his church. He loved his church (the people, not a building) so much he was willing to lay down his life for it. The OTHER part of that? The part so many seem not to recall? The husband is to love his wife just as Jesus loved his church. He never intended that women not speak what they thought, rather, that there would be peace in the household when the husband and wife discuss things and make the right decisions together. Husbands are to be responsible, to stand up and be men rather than place blame for all bad things on their women.

Does that sound like women get a fair deal with their men?