Yawn. Stretch. Tumble down the hallway, turn on the gas burner for the water kettle, wait for the scream of the steam to alert you to its readiness. Place water into cup with strong black tea; steep until dark enough to ruin your teeth; add raw sugar and cream; stir... Sip, then dip back into your cavern of a bedroom to savour the remnants of a morning's awakening.
Sigh. It's cloudy outside. Shall I snuggle or brace for an outing in several hours when I'd rather stay home for the tease of rain showers?
That's right. No coffee for me. Not since 1986. I once had to pull myself off of ceilings after drinking decaf. That wee bit of coffee-based caffeine sent my adrenalin pounding like drips of Meth in a darkened drug-enhanced stupor. So why then am I able to drink dark, black tea riddled with additions I didn't need or use when I was drinking fresh-ground coffee in the days way before Starbucks even knew it would exist without bouncing off the walls? Dunno. It's just so. I can drink 10 cups of strong tea every day without the effects of one cup of regular or decaf coffee. Odd. "Studies show" that black/caffeine-riddled tea is stronger than many Lattes strung out within the same time period. Gawd. I may as well lend my body to science one day...if they will have me, that is.
While I wait for that fateful rejection that I assume will arrive after I'm no longer alive, due to all the jive my material self has faced on the shelf of true medical and non-medical experimentation, along with inadvertent radiation from exploding microwave ovens in my face and other twists of fate, I'll simply sip with the lip of my quipish nature to further infuse my decadent behaviour on a day in which Christians bow down to their Saviour.
Oh Sunday, the one day, that the kind of heart go to church; hypocrites go to perch; ministers wail and search for something to say that will save the day of the many who may want salvation to sway the willows of their pillows of comfort in the void of the ever-flowing torrents of all one warrants in the promise of a grander land beyond the hand of what this earth has granted its grandiose "Netherland" - do you understand?
What just happened? Was I a-rappin'? Am I graspin' for some kind of truth? Is this real or did I steal the rhythm of the hoodie seal of approval that I'm a "real one", a bone-fide "chill" one, not an ill one, just your true blood or no tribe or pride-won. Hun? Or huh?
Well, from the sound of my voice today, those with whom I will brunch may say I either lit up the field or created a shield for true conversation to move on a course oh-so-smooth - within or without the innate groove.
Yawn.
How pithy.
Music may be the only salvation right about now, yes?
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
A Woman's Work is Often "Done"
It's Saturday, and I'm preparing to stubbornly remain in a rut: on Saturdays I tend to stay home, away from the teeming masses, and watch vapid movies on "Lifetime", "The Hallmark Channel", as well as other cable channels where escapism by made-for-TV movies or direct-to-DVD projects are paraded for our mindless pleasure. It's within many of these films that I've watched too many powerful female characters packing boxes in their offices to move on into the wild blue yonder with a perky smile on their face while the credits roll on.
What's up with so many little films floating around on TV where working women with successful careers usually pack up at the end to go off to either marry the man of their dreams or to leave the stress of success behind after solving a major crime or winning the coveted client? Am I missing something? How many male characters go into retirement when they've made their mark? In a film, I mean. Not on the network series screen.
I haven't been a marching card-carrying "Feminist" at any point in my life. I simply lived a liberated life by nature, and if I liked a guy I had no problem asking him out. I also opened a door or two for them, and sometimes I would drive. I didn't join NOW although I have friends who have been at the head of that organization in one capacity or another, as well as one who started Ms. Magazine with Gloria Steinem on the campus of Harvard. I respect what all of these women and organizations have done over the years. For me, in a print interview many years ago, I explained that I was for "human liberation" first and foremost. In truth, I loathe being part of any organization unless it's job-related.
Based on good timing and having "the right stuff", in my 20's I was fortunate to slip into the men's locker rooms and play with guys in careers where many women barely existed, such as a DJ in the early days of "Progressive radio." Even then, however, I was aware that my job was made possible by the "Feminist" climate of that era. At one radio station our program director (who was a liberated male, a member of NOW, and quite irked at me for not joining) made a comment one day as a woman in our news division and I were walking down the hall together. The PD remarked, "There go our tokens..."
After over 30 years of the "modern" woman's movement, wouldn't one think that by now popular culture would embrace women's rise in all areas outside the typical role of "mother", "wife" and/or going off to soothe one's spirit in a quaint little town to open up a cute B & B after slaughtering corporate lions?
Examples, you might ask? Oh, please spare me the title research and trust that I've seen enough. Perhaps you have as well. Yes, there are many films out there where the female character remains on the job despite the odds and is supported in her venture by a male partner, be it her husband or another testosterone-based entity. All is not always a walk-away. It's just that I have seen too many of these "moving on" themes cropping up in the past few years.
The message that the films are sending harkens back to an underlying belief system that our American values are out of order, eroding the foundation of the country when women place career above family. Arguments and debates rage on over the subject of how women who work take on two roles while their mate saunters home from his burdensome work day to go directly to the refrigerator for a nice cold beer or to the home bar to mix that perfect martini as the children run wild through the house in their latest costumes and the wifey is cooking up a tasty roast as sweat trickles down her pasty face, resentment building with each baste.
I'm serving-up an observation of what many have found to be a great disappointment in the continuing stereotypical roles of men and women in our culture. Nothing more. Nothing less. As my fingers begin to itch to pick up the TV remote to initiate the search to numb my overactive grey cells for the day, I thought about what I may be viewing, which is why the subject has rolled off the keyboard of my laptop this morning. And sure, I have a choice to watch a marathon of NCIS or, if lucky, stumble on a charming English mystery... But then, for today only, what fun would that be? I wouldn't have a reason to flog, would I?
Of course, this topic is merely the tip of the melting icebergs of our dubious climate, and deserves a bit of depth in another post, don't you think? It will happen. Just not today. I can't wait to watch another successful woman character be written off to go to a desolate ranch and live with that hunky cowboy and his horses.
Yee-Haw, y'all!
What's up with so many little films floating around on TV where working women with successful careers usually pack up at the end to go off to either marry the man of their dreams or to leave the stress of success behind after solving a major crime or winning the coveted client? Am I missing something? How many male characters go into retirement when they've made their mark? In a film, I mean. Not on the network series screen.
I haven't been a marching card-carrying "Feminist" at any point in my life. I simply lived a liberated life by nature, and if I liked a guy I had no problem asking him out. I also opened a door or two for them, and sometimes I would drive. I didn't join NOW although I have friends who have been at the head of that organization in one capacity or another, as well as one who started Ms. Magazine with Gloria Steinem on the campus of Harvard. I respect what all of these women and organizations have done over the years. For me, in a print interview many years ago, I explained that I was for "human liberation" first and foremost. In truth, I loathe being part of any organization unless it's job-related.
Based on good timing and having "the right stuff", in my 20's I was fortunate to slip into the men's locker rooms and play with guys in careers where many women barely existed, such as a DJ in the early days of "Progressive radio." Even then, however, I was aware that my job was made possible by the "Feminist" climate of that era. At one radio station our program director (who was a liberated male, a member of NOW, and quite irked at me for not joining) made a comment one day as a woman in our news division and I were walking down the hall together. The PD remarked, "There go our tokens..."
After over 30 years of the "modern" woman's movement, wouldn't one think that by now popular culture would embrace women's rise in all areas outside the typical role of "mother", "wife" and/or going off to soothe one's spirit in a quaint little town to open up a cute B & B after slaughtering corporate lions?
Examples, you might ask? Oh, please spare me the title research and trust that I've seen enough. Perhaps you have as well. Yes, there are many films out there where the female character remains on the job despite the odds and is supported in her venture by a male partner, be it her husband or another testosterone-based entity. All is not always a walk-away. It's just that I have seen too many of these "moving on" themes cropping up in the past few years.
The message that the films are sending harkens back to an underlying belief system that our American values are out of order, eroding the foundation of the country when women place career above family. Arguments and debates rage on over the subject of how women who work take on two roles while their mate saunters home from his burdensome work day to go directly to the refrigerator for a nice cold beer or to the home bar to mix that perfect martini as the children run wild through the house in their latest costumes and the wifey is cooking up a tasty roast as sweat trickles down her pasty face, resentment building with each baste.
I'm serving-up an observation of what many have found to be a great disappointment in the continuing stereotypical roles of men and women in our culture. Nothing more. Nothing less. As my fingers begin to itch to pick up the TV remote to initiate the search to numb my overactive grey cells for the day, I thought about what I may be viewing, which is why the subject has rolled off the keyboard of my laptop this morning. And sure, I have a choice to watch a marathon of NCIS or, if lucky, stumble on a charming English mystery... But then, for today only, what fun would that be? I wouldn't have a reason to flog, would I?
Of course, this topic is merely the tip of the melting icebergs of our dubious climate, and deserves a bit of depth in another post, don't you think? It will happen. Just not today. I can't wait to watch another successful woman character be written off to go to a desolate ranch and live with that hunky cowboy and his horses.
Yee-Haw, y'all!
Friday, December 3, 2010
To Flog or Not to Flog
With the weekend at its beginning, Han-ee-kah dinners, date-nights, more travel flights and shopping galore, let’s pause for a moment to ponder the concept of flogging vs. dancing on magical clouds of accepting all that is as it is with no complaints. That’s right: the difference between living in an energy field of constant positive energy or snarking through life hissing and dissing.
First of all, there is a middle ground between walking on air and digging into the compost bin. Even when you catch that falling star and put it in your pocket, something usually pops up to rip that darling star from its comfy home in a silk-lined safety net. Or cotton. Maybe wool. It doesn’t matter, really. You may be living on a material high, following a spiritual path of one sort or another that provides uplifting feelings and thoughts that have attracted good fortune your way - and yet, that dark little moment, thought, feeling or incident, will slam you against the ropes until you no longer see lovely stars in the sky but stars swirling through your head and in your eyes from the unexpected punch.
Whoa…. I just felt punched. I glanced over to the TV only to see another politco “talking head” from the GOP indicating that America is “rotting” from “dependence on the government” - meaning, of course, Social Security and Unemployment Benefits. Sure, Mr. GOP, that’s why we’re a bankrupt nation, right? A corrupt administration/Wall Street/Investment bankers/Ponzi-schemers/War-mongering leaners, had absolutely nothing to do with where our economy now sits? Or squats? Or plops?
Social Security became the “law of the land” in 1935; unemployment benefits also began in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act to balance the nation’s suffering during “The Great Depression” in order to stabilize the economy. The US of A had its ups and downs before and after these “perks” were set in motion, but it’s only NOW that these extremely helpful benefits are “rotting” our nation? It’s only NOW that the obstructionists want to send more people to the streets while the other half feasts? Shall I faint or paint or shrug my shoulders and slink away in oblivious ignorance to the potential demolition of a system that has saved millions of lives for over 80 years?
Was the well-seeded amnesia of who and which administration brought the economic mess into the country “in the first place” brought on by the stinging realization that there is a man of colour at the helm, not to forget that he’s also a Democrat? Sour losers they are. Worse, they are devious hypocrites.
Let’s go get him! Damn national security. Damn how dumping unemployment extensions will create more crime, more emotional and physical hardship to those who least need the stress. Damn those who have no money. Too bad. It’s their fault they lost their jobs and can’t get work because we say NO to everything the president wants to do to boost the economy and avoid deeper chasms in our nation’s structure.
Ahem.
Believe me, the minor rant was not planned although it does serve my purpose in the overall point of today’s post. Anger may not be an energy most of us care to live with every day, but it exists in the best and worse of us no matter how kind, loving and forgiving we may want to be. To ignore this truth in our human nature leads to illness of the mind and body. To live in constant anger is also not healthy. I would prefer to travel on a beam of golden light leading to the pot of material and spiritual gold at the end of the glowing and glistening rainbow - it can happen. In my life, at times, it HAS happened. I truly believe in miracles; I also know that repressing a supposedly “negative” emotion/attitude can be a very deadly force.
To Flog or not to Flog? There is no question.
First of all, there is a middle ground between walking on air and digging into the compost bin. Even when you catch that falling star and put it in your pocket, something usually pops up to rip that darling star from its comfy home in a silk-lined safety net. Or cotton. Maybe wool. It doesn’t matter, really. You may be living on a material high, following a spiritual path of one sort or another that provides uplifting feelings and thoughts that have attracted good fortune your way - and yet, that dark little moment, thought, feeling or incident, will slam you against the ropes until you no longer see lovely stars in the sky but stars swirling through your head and in your eyes from the unexpected punch.
Whoa…. I just felt punched. I glanced over to the TV only to see another politco “talking head” from the GOP indicating that America is “rotting” from “dependence on the government” - meaning, of course, Social Security and Unemployment Benefits. Sure, Mr. GOP, that’s why we’re a bankrupt nation, right? A corrupt administration/Wall Street/Investment bankers/Ponzi-schemers/War-mongering leaners, had absolutely nothing to do with where our economy now sits? Or squats? Or plops?
Social Security became the “law of the land” in 1935; unemployment benefits also began in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act to balance the nation’s suffering during “The Great Depression” in order to stabilize the economy. The US of A had its ups and downs before and after these “perks” were set in motion, but it’s only NOW that these extremely helpful benefits are “rotting” our nation? It’s only NOW that the obstructionists want to send more people to the streets while the other half feasts? Shall I faint or paint or shrug my shoulders and slink away in oblivious ignorance to the potential demolition of a system that has saved millions of lives for over 80 years?
Was the well-seeded amnesia of who and which administration brought the economic mess into the country “in the first place” brought on by the stinging realization that there is a man of colour at the helm, not to forget that he’s also a Democrat? Sour losers they are. Worse, they are devious hypocrites.
Let’s go get him! Damn national security. Damn how dumping unemployment extensions will create more crime, more emotional and physical hardship to those who least need the stress. Damn those who have no money. Too bad. It’s their fault they lost their jobs and can’t get work because we say NO to everything the president wants to do to boost the economy and avoid deeper chasms in our nation’s structure.
Ahem.
Believe me, the minor rant was not planned although it does serve my purpose in the overall point of today’s post. Anger may not be an energy most of us care to live with every day, but it exists in the best and worse of us no matter how kind, loving and forgiving we may want to be. To ignore this truth in our human nature leads to illness of the mind and body. To live in constant anger is also not healthy. I would prefer to travel on a beam of golden light leading to the pot of material and spiritual gold at the end of the glowing and glistening rainbow - it can happen. In my life, at times, it HAS happened. I truly believe in miracles; I also know that repressing a supposedly “negative” emotion/attitude can be a very deadly force.
To Flog or not to Flog? There is no question.
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