I don't care much for Christmas, if I had my way we might just leave the whole thing alone. But this year I started having a yearning for it, and then I suddenly realized why everybody gets all Christmas Crazy.
Christmas makes you act the way you are supposed to act and it makes you hope that others will too. People give around this time of year in all kinds of ways and that feels good. People get together with family and friends, and even if your family is not your friend it is still something that should be done a little more regularly than most do. People get gifts from others which creates this sense that others were thinking of you, that feels pretty awesome. Finally, people eat food and get drunk and take pictures so they remember it all. Tim Ferriss says one of the keys to happiness is eating a meal with five or more people once a week. Sometimes I'm pretty excited when I can catch a meal once a week with somebody over the age of two.
The point of this is to say that it is a shame that we go in to credit card debt and take some of the precious time we have off acting the way we act when the "feel good" aspects of Christmas can be changed into a lifestyle. When was the last time you gave somebody a gift and said I love you, on a regular Tuesday in March? When was the last time you got together with friends and ate, drank and took pictures, because it was Flag Day in Zanzabar?
Sometimes I dislike Christmas because of how people act, but mostly I dislike Christmas because it shows us how we could be the rest of year.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
I'm Ruined
Last night I'm cooking a really nice cut of organic beef and as I shuffle through the fridge I realize that I am out of A1 Steak Sauce. I run up the road to 7-11 and, although I went there specifically for that, I was mortified to find out they actually carried steak sauce.
Much akin to my belief that placing people in a welfare state ruins them to ever be self sufficient, we have put ourselves in a consumerist welfare state. We expect everything we could ever desire to be available twenty four hours a day just in case I'm cooking a great steak at ten at night and don't want to drive an extra two miles to the all night grocery store. Shame on me, but lordy that was a good steak.
Much akin to my belief that placing people in a welfare state ruins them to ever be self sufficient, we have put ourselves in a consumerist welfare state. We expect everything we could ever desire to be available twenty four hours a day just in case I'm cooking a great steak at ten at night and don't want to drive an extra two miles to the all night grocery store. Shame on me, but lordy that was a good steak.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Worst Parent award winner
My daughter falls down a lot. She flips, flies, tumbles and takes naps in between. Her head must be heavier than I give it credit for because there seems to be a gravitational pull between her coconut and table corners, walls, dressers, etc.
The other day we are visiting the grandparents and my father in law goes to grab her from heading down the stairs. I say that she is really good with stairs and he looks at me like an idiot (ok he just looked at me like he normally does, but as I said). She cruises down the stairs, gets to the last one, trips, flips off the edge, hits her head on door jam. My father in law screams. Screams like when your watching a youtube video and someone is dancing stupid and you can't figure out why it has four million views and then whammo they get hit by a car. She looks up and can't figure out why people are screaming, shrugs her shoulders and heads off to go play, no whimper, no cry, like I said she falls down a lot.
My father in law says "See, I told you, you can do whatever you want at your house but here I'm going to help her down the stairs!" I shrug and tell him "That's fine, but you either have to be on her all the time or teach her how to handle things. If you choose to not let her on the stairs alone than God help you if she ever gets away from you. You can either baby proof the whole house and helicopter or help her learn how to navigate." My father in law looks at me again.
The point here is that we either have to figure out how to navigate our lives or protect ourselves from everything. If your a parent at some point you've got to let go. If you believe in God, at some point he lets go of you. If your a business owner, at some point the business needs to figure out that if you smack a two your old twice your weight your going to get knocked down and stepped on (when I refer to husky two year old's I speak of the government of course).
It is nice to be needed, but at some point we all want whatever we are putting our lives and love in to take off and be an individual. Don't go for needless risk, but let yourself fall down a little. Let yourself learn. Don't be afraid of the world, I can head up and down stairs like a champ now and feel pretty good about myself, thanks mom.
PS. I spent many hours working with her on how to get up and down stairs including one instance where she threw a fit mid way, flung her head back, hit one stair lower, bounced up in to the air but now upside down, and I caught her, mid air, upside down, by a leg. Oddly enough I never saw her throw another fit on the stairs again. She now scopes out the area, finds something soft, then screams, runs over to it and throws herself down in agony, seriously.
The other day we are visiting the grandparents and my father in law goes to grab her from heading down the stairs. I say that she is really good with stairs and he looks at me like an idiot (ok he just looked at me like he normally does, but as I said). She cruises down the stairs, gets to the last one, trips, flips off the edge, hits her head on door jam. My father in law screams. Screams like when your watching a youtube video and someone is dancing stupid and you can't figure out why it has four million views and then whammo they get hit by a car. She looks up and can't figure out why people are screaming, shrugs her shoulders and heads off to go play, no whimper, no cry, like I said she falls down a lot.
My father in law says "See, I told you, you can do whatever you want at your house but here I'm going to help her down the stairs!" I shrug and tell him "That's fine, but you either have to be on her all the time or teach her how to handle things. If you choose to not let her on the stairs alone than God help you if she ever gets away from you. You can either baby proof the whole house and helicopter or help her learn how to navigate." My father in law looks at me again.
The point here is that we either have to figure out how to navigate our lives or protect ourselves from everything. If your a parent at some point you've got to let go. If you believe in God, at some point he lets go of you. If your a business owner, at some point the business needs to figure out that if you smack a two your old twice your weight your going to get knocked down and stepped on (when I refer to husky two year old's I speak of the government of course).
It is nice to be needed, but at some point we all want whatever we are putting our lives and love in to take off and be an individual. Don't go for needless risk, but let yourself fall down a little. Let yourself learn. Don't be afraid of the world, I can head up and down stairs like a champ now and feel pretty good about myself, thanks mom.
PS. I spent many hours working with her on how to get up and down stairs including one instance where she threw a fit mid way, flung her head back, hit one stair lower, bounced up in to the air but now upside down, and I caught her, mid air, upside down, by a leg. Oddly enough I never saw her throw another fit on the stairs again. She now scopes out the area, finds something soft, then screams, runs over to it and throws herself down in agony, seriously.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Your more dead to me than your dead mother
I just went to nfl.com and opened an article. Up popped an add for a truck I think. The add was floating and moved up and down with my screen. It talked to me. It did not appear in the first half second to have an X button on the top right corner. I closed the entire window and will never go back to the nfl.com, and I freakin love football.
Imagine opening a newspaper and getting slapped in the face. Imagine turning on your television and right in the middle of your show they run a little commercial over Tony Danza's face. Imagine your waiting for a bus and instead of a smelly, possibly drunk, talkative citizen the bench itself won't shut up and you can't turn it off. Don't offer me free and then be rude. Don't entice me in and then punch me in the nads.
Imagine opening a newspaper and getting slapped in the face. Imagine turning on your television and right in the middle of your show they run a little commercial over Tony Danza's face. Imagine your waiting for a bus and instead of a smelly, possibly drunk, talkative citizen the bench itself won't shut up and you can't turn it off. Don't offer me free and then be rude. Don't entice me in and then punch me in the nads.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Why I'm a raging conservative feminist
In college I discovered I could take film classes as English literature electives, this winding road of work avoidance placed me in "Feminist Film Theory" where I found to my surprise I was the only conservative male (there may have been a conservative female, but if there was she really hung me out to dry). Three man hating months later I got a B, which would have been an A but I tanked one paper. The professor called me in to her office and told me it was a fabulous paper but written extremely off topic, I told her the topic was boring and I was Superman's chest to the boredom bullets of the world (ok, except the Superman part).
I just finished watching a two TED videos, one on passion from the eyes of a feminist author, the other on purpose from the eyes of uber christian author Rick Warren. It makes me sad that so often the conservative movement and progressive feminist movement fight and diminish their own good in a blood bath of differentiation.
Feminist usually side with abortion, which at its root, is the powerful killing the silent. Conservatives often side against environmentalism, which at its root, is the individual taking responsibility for their personal power and making the world better for future generations. Now are feminists right that we should not allow male governments to decide what women can do with their bodies? Sure, but what about when you are harming a beautiful baby girl in the process of your personal freedom. Should conservatives hold firm that people are in fact more important that plants and animals? Sure, but it is difficult to ruin an environment without hurting its inhabitants.
If we stop thinking with bullet points and start assessing. If we stop taking whole ideologies because they come as a package deal and start asking "what about this individual situation?" We should help every person who has no voice, whether they have not formed vocal chords yet or they are in a brothel in Africa. We should be good stewards of our money, personal talents, and the air flowing to and from our lungs.
The question was once asked, what could we expect from Thomas Jefferson when it came to slavery? Almost everyone owned other humans then, Jefferson disagreed with it, was that not enough? The retort to this was "Sure he was acting like the average Virginian of his time, but do we build statues of the average? Do we picture the mundane man on our money?"
Don't be an average feminist. Don't be a mundane conservative. I hope I see a statue of you someday.
I just finished watching a two TED videos, one on passion from the eyes of a feminist author, the other on purpose from the eyes of uber christian author Rick Warren. It makes me sad that so often the conservative movement and progressive feminist movement fight and diminish their own good in a blood bath of differentiation.
Feminist usually side with abortion, which at its root, is the powerful killing the silent. Conservatives often side against environmentalism, which at its root, is the individual taking responsibility for their personal power and making the world better for future generations. Now are feminists right that we should not allow male governments to decide what women can do with their bodies? Sure, but what about when you are harming a beautiful baby girl in the process of your personal freedom. Should conservatives hold firm that people are in fact more important that plants and animals? Sure, but it is difficult to ruin an environment without hurting its inhabitants.
If we stop thinking with bullet points and start assessing. If we stop taking whole ideologies because they come as a package deal and start asking "what about this individual situation?" We should help every person who has no voice, whether they have not formed vocal chords yet or they are in a brothel in Africa. We should be good stewards of our money, personal talents, and the air flowing to and from our lungs.
The question was once asked, what could we expect from Thomas Jefferson when it came to slavery? Almost everyone owned other humans then, Jefferson disagreed with it, was that not enough? The retort to this was "Sure he was acting like the average Virginian of his time, but do we build statues of the average? Do we picture the mundane man on our money?"
Don't be an average feminist. Don't be a mundane conservative. I hope I see a statue of you someday.
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