Easy things and difficult things

Some things are easy and others are difficult.

And then the difficult things get easy and the easy things get harder.

Do they go back? When do we stop mourning the loss of the old easy things and just get on with it?

I fight the impulse to drop the things that used to be easy and wait it out. Slog it out, as it were, till the tide turns.

I try to focus on the things that are easy now and enjoy them. But I miss the old easy things.

Why can't everything be easy?

Oh, yeah, humans.

Peace.

Still thinking about hate speech...

I just read this great quote in Roger Ebert's blog comments (a blog I highly recommend!):

Dostoevsky knew that *129 years ago*, as his loathsome Fyodor Karamazov said:

"... it is rather pleasant to feel wronged -- don't you agree? So a man may know very well that no one has offended him, and may invent an offense, lie just for the beauty of it, or exaggerate what someone said to create a situation, making a mountain out of a molehill. And although he is well aware of it himself, he nevertheless does feel offended because he enjoys doing so, derives great pleasure from it, and so he comes to feel real hostility toward the imaginary offender."

Emphasis mine. I certainly felt the hostility directed toward me last week. I hope the hostile person derived some pleasure from it. Otherwise it really was without value.

Peace.

WWJE?

Cross-posted from my blog at www.burbankfumc.com

I'm sure you've seen the buttons and the bumper stickers designed to make us think: WWJD?

What would Jesus do?

But I have a variation.

Who Would Jesus Exclude?

Wayne's sermon this week was so on point to where I was in my head, it was like he read my mind, seriously! And that list of people that the newspaper forum pastor would leave out of heaven:

"It would include liberals overall, homosexuals, couples living together outside of marriage, anyone who supports abortion at any point, most all people of other faiths, people who don’t interpret scripture literally, those who think we imprison too many people in our country, leaders of countries with different governance systems than the United States..."

Funny thing is, I am or have been in six of those categories! So either I'm out of luck, or that guy is wrong. I know which one I hope!

Funnier still, or maybe just odder, I don't think Jesus would exclude anyone. Really. I mean, he included tax collectors and Philistines, prostitutes and thieves. Jesus certainly accepted people of other faiths, and sympathized with the imprisoned. We know He never said anything about homosexuals at all.

At any rate, acceptance of others, not just tolerance, not just politeness, not even just cold civility are enough. Acceptance. Even love. Remember the sermon from long ago about agape love? Agape has been defined as "an intentional response to promote well-being when responding to that which has generated ill-being." That might be a bit convoluted but seems to be saying, wish well even upon those who wish us ill.

It would be nice if no one wished anyone else ill will, regardless of differences of opinion, but that is an awful lot to expect, isn't it? If we could all peacefully coexist, that would change the world. Ahem.

Change the world.

That sounds awfully good to me.

May peace prevail upon the earth.

This is my response to a really odd experience I had at an event last weekend. The Pastor couldn't have been more on point if he had been sitting next to me at the time (he was not present).

Why is it so hard for some people to co-exist with others who disagree with them? Why must they lash out? Why must they act like poorly adjusted schoolyard bullies? Why do some people who profess to be Christians continue to behave as though they are "those without sin?"

I am determined to be open and welcoming to all. However, I do retain my freedom to express my opinions in a civil way and to protect myself and those I love from abuse and attack.

May peace prevail upon the earth.

My letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama:

I have been so proud to have supported you. I have been a huge fan, a campaigner one-on-one, a wearer of hats and shirts and buttons.

I cried when you won, I cried when you took the oath. I cried when you spoke to us about "our moment."

When you said, "This is our moment, this is our time," I believed you. I believed that what you said during the campaign was true, that we were going to take our country and turn it back into what it was meant to be: by the People, for the People. Our civil liberties would be restored, our country's shame ended, our dignity rebuilt. Yes, we can, we said, because we must.

I believed you. I will never forget that.

As of today, I still believe you. And I want to believe that you are smarter than me, that you see all of the pieces and know how to do what you promised. That you will not abandon us now that the real "moment" has arrived. Because, of course, that wasn't really the moment. That was only the moment of possibility and it had to happen to get us anywhere. But the real moment is now, sir. The real moment, when you stand up and say to the people who don't care if children die of cancer next door as long as they have their money in their pockets, the people who are screaming about socialism and death and fear and fear and fear and racism, that we just don't need them any more. We have the votes, we have the procedures and we will get this done.

If you cannot do that, if you cannot stand up for me and my kids and my parents and my neighbors and your own mother, for God's sake, and tell them to go away, we don't need them, I will be done with you. I will wish you well, I will pray for you, but I will not be with you, sir. I cannot be with you if it all was a lie. I cannot.

And it will make me cry again, sir, because I really did believe you could do it. I really believed that soon I would not have to worry if my kids got sick or my best friend needed surgery or I got into an accident. Someday soon, I could stop worrying about that because we would join the other civilized nations in this world and act like civilized people and not allow the rich to profit off the suffering of their fellow men.

I want to cry with joy again, sir. I want to cry with pride that my leader, the man I voted for, a father of children the same age as mine who understood my life, stood up and did what he said he would do. But if you make me cry with disappointment and shame, sir, I will never forget that either.

My children, my mother and I visited Washington, DC this summer. We stood in front of your house, sir, as your neighbors and your friends and we were proud. Please make us proud again.

My Line in the Sand

No parent should EVER have to ask:

"Is my child sick enough to go to the doctor?"

EVER.

What is the deal with people?

Here's your scenario:

Your child has been caught throwing rocks at other children. One of those children has been injured and is bleeding rather profusely. You:

1) claim it's okay because "they were all throwing rocks" (they weren't);

2) try to get away before the parents of the injured child or her friends can confront you;

3) verbally assault said parents using profanity in a tirade of "how dare you speak to my child that way!"

4) apologize profusely to injured child and her parents in the (sincere) hope that they do not SUE YOUR ASS OFF.

One parent did #1 and #2. One parent did #3. One parent, luckily the parent of the actual thrower of said rock, chose #4.

Meanwhile, I'm icing the child's head and hoping for no stitches or CAT scans and my friend is being assaulted by the parent of a child who has already been bullying HER child for months at school with no consequences.

Oh, so unpleasant and unnecessary.

If your child has done wrong by another child, make them say they are sorry. Give them some consequences. You do your child no favors by not holding them accountable for their actions. This situation could have been TRAGIC, not only for my child, who escaped with a cut and a lot of tears, but for the perpetrator of the violence as well. Lawsuits and juvenile detention are not what you want for your child, either, I am sure.

Unfortunately, in my experience, the parents of bullies are bullies themselves and see no reason not to continue the behavior and teach it to their children. So sad, so wrong.

We are thanking God tonight that this situation did not end tragically. I wish I thought the other family was as well.

Peace.

Clearly this needs to go on my to-do list

Everything (not really) on there gets done, eventually!

All is well here at Chez Chaos, though.

Kids are finishing things up, camping is over, DS gets promoted to Bear tonight, spring dance recital was a great success. I will put up a video of DS's play as soon as I have the show edited (one reason I haven't been over here).

DD is doing VERY well in school, yay! Student of the Month for April! It's been a bit of a slog being in the GATE cluster this year but she has really risen to the occasion. Congratulations, DD!

I think I blogged about being eliminated from Sock Madness right at the beginning. Yes! The other patterns so far have been put aside in favor of continuing on with October Frost, of which I don't have any new pictures. I have however knit a front and about 8 inches of the back, so progress is being made. I really do want to finish this sweater in time to send it to the Fair (deadline: July 7). We shall see.

I'm also cheating on that (what's new?) and knitting Kai-Mei socks out of the incredibly beautiful yarn sent to me as a congratulations gift by CelticMemory: The socks are turning out gorgeous, but no pictures yet. Maybe I'll have time today, but I doubt it as I'm cleaning house.

Finished spinning some BFL from Spunky Eclectic (not Club) and I love it! Now to find the perfect sock pattern and the time to knit it...but after Kai-Mei and the sweater most likely. Although another pair of Marigolds is pretty mindless...

Other news: Job is GREAT! Spent half of last weekend on Women's Retreat and for me the whole thing turned out to be about gratitude vs. fear. For a LONG time I've been very familiar with fear, comfortable with its familiarity, functioning within it most of the time well enough, sometimes not well at all (sorry, J!). Gratitude was fleeting and unfamiliar territory.

Now I find myself grateful all the time, happy a lot of the time, and hardly ever fearful. A huge sea-change. And I can look back and see how this result came to be from things that have happened, choices made, prayers answered long, long ago.

My biggest insight about it, I think, is that being open is more important than being conscious of and trying to control everything. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but willingness to listen matters more than knowing what you're listening for.

Anyway, I'm listening!

And knitting and spinning and having people over for dinner (OMG!) and looking forward to summer and looking forward to next year and the next and the next. How cool is that?

Peace.