Who's Charley, anyway?

So my three year old was singing away today:

"Tis the season to be CHARLEY
Fa La La La La, La la la la"

The Sun

So I just got my latest issue of The Sun Magazine. This is my favorite new magazine, and I wait at the mailbox with bated breath until the latest edition comes out. (If you're prone to using the phrase"liberal media" you can move on now). This is an ad-free magazine with articles, interviews and short stories. It doesn't pretend to be non-biased, is definitely an opinion piece. Still, I love it, love it, love it. The articles and interviews are paired with awesome photography.

On the very last page of every issue is the quotations page, called "Sunbeams". Here are a few of my favorites from the latest edition:

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is to high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Neitzsche

"Be Yourself" is about the worst advice you can give some people. - Masson

The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you're going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. - Stone

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him. - Swift (Do you suppose this is where the book title comes from?)

Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer. - Kingsolver

So if you are looking for a great holiday gift for someone who loves to read, I'd suggest a subscription to this magazine. You can also buy a compilation of the quotes.

Oh, by the way

Ok, ok, I get it. Peace is overrated.

Here's something more mundane. I forgot to say that as of Halloween, I have been ONE YEAR without a Diet Coke! Yay for me! I feel healthier, I'm glad I'm not putting as much stuff I can't pronounce into my body, and it proves that I can do whatever I set my mind to.

Now for these extra pounds....

Peace and Responsibility

Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.

When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can consciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness. For some of us, the most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may be non-religious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment we live in seriously.

The Dalai Lama, The Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1989

What the first 100 days will mean to MY family

A few years ago, when the contract between the Air Traffic Controllers and the FAA was coming to a close, the Federal Aviation Administration decided to completely disregard the Air Traffic Controller's Union. They refused to come to a bargaining agreement; made the old bargaining agreement null and void; came up with their own set of rules not agreed to by the controller's Union; and cut pay and benefits across the board. What we have now is a mass exodus of controllers who are retiring because it's a terrible, hostile working environment (all the controller's who were hired after the 1981 strike are now due for retirement); a potential incoming workforce that is saying "thanks but no thanks" to the job offer which includes moving their entire family across country to work for less than they would get paid at Walmart; and an existing workforce that is bitter and unappreciated.

Firefighters and police were not the only heroes of 9/11. Air traffic controllers brought more planes down from the sky in a shorter period of time than has ever been done before. We will never know if there was more of a threat out there that did not have a chance to come to fruition - and we won't know this because of the skill and grace under pressure that our controllers displayed on that day. The Bush Administration's answer to them was to give them the finger. They were stripped of pay and dignity, treated like 10-year olds who couldn't be allowed to leave the building for lunch. I can't even list the ridiculous working conditions they have been subjected to here, because you probably don't have time to read the list. If you want more, you can read the FAA Follies blog.

Obama has promised to force the Federal Aviation Administration to go back to the table and make a ratifiable contract with the Air Traffic Controllers. We're not even asking for the $25,000 + that our family has lost in the last few years. We're not asking for the time back when my husband was forced into overtime, or not allowed leave to take our usual family vacations. We're just asking the FAA to play fair. Finally, a president who'll make them do it.

Love is Like a Lawsuit

I am amazed at the seeker of purity
who when it's time to be polished
complains of rough handling.
Love is like a lawsuit:
to suffer harsh treatment is like the evidence;
when you have no evidence, the lawsuit is lost.
Don't grieve when the Judge demands your
evidence;
kiss the snake so that you may gain the treasure.
That harshness isn't toward you,
but toward the harmful qualities within you.
When someone beats a rug,
the blows are not against the rug,
but against the dust in it.

~Rumi

Something we can ALL laugh about!

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Why I voted No on 8

Some people are wondering why I don't support Prop 8 as a 'good Christian' should. Many of my friends and family who are moderate and even for Obama still say that they must vote yes on 8 because the Bible speaks against homosexuality.

This is an issue that is complicated and I don't hope to understand it or explain it, but I can't argue that the Bible seems fairly clear on the subject.

However, I don't vote my moral conscience. I know that might sound crazy, but I don't feel the voting booth is the place for my personal opinions to be aired. I vote based on the Constitution, and based on the role I want government to take in my life and the lives of others.

Even if I were vehemently against homosexuality and was disgusted by the thought of gays getting married, I'd still vote no. Our great and wonderful Constitution says that all of us are equal and should be treated equally. This is a precept that I love and want to protect. It doesn't say that only the people I approve of are equal. It doesn't even say that only the people that GOD approves of are equal. It says all of us are equal, and should be treated equally under the law. The Constitution bypasses my own personal opinions, and our collective religious opinions. The Constitution was largely written by people who never wanted the overriding religious opinion to ever dominate their lives again. It's why they came here.

I have a cousin who is gay. He is intelligent, thoughtful, and has his own relationship to God. I trust him and God to deal with the decisions that need to be made in his life. I feel no need to interfere with that at all. God's judgment is better than man's - thank goodness.

I'm also a marriage counselor. If you want to talk about what is destroying the fabric of marriage in our society, and the sanctity of marriage, look at the divorce rate. Far from being concerned about people who love each other and are committed to a loving, peaceful environment, let's start concentrating our efforts on educating people about what makes marriage work and how to make love last.

I'm for love and happiness in all it's forms - and I'll appropriately leave the judgment to the one who knows the heart.

What???! He's a bad guy??

So another Halloween has come and gone. My older boy is into Star Wars. Not that he's ever seen it, mind you. But all of his friends at school are into Star Wars and they play it on the playground. E is pretty sensitive and has bad dreams when he watches scary things. So as of yet, I've avoided letting him watch any Star Wars, although I've gotten him a couple of books about it. The other issue is that I've never seen Star Wars (not even the original), and my husband has only seen the original way back when he was a kid. So needless to say, we don't know much about Star Wars.

But E wanted to be Anakin Skywalker for Halloween. I have no idea who he is, but ok. He looked really cute in the costume, and that's what counts, right??

So Halloween night comes, and we join up with our friends to go Trick or Treating. The kids are all having a great time playing in the yard before we head out, when all of a sudden E is very, very sad. I couldn't figure out what was going on, and it took me quite a bit of coaxing to get him to tell me that one of the kids told him "You're a BAD guy!" Oh, he was soooo sad. He wanted to be a good guy!! Mom had to go get a little reference material from a Star Wars know-it-all (that would be Emily). She quickly gave me the scoop. Oooooohhhhhh, Anakin turned into Darth Vader. Who knew? How was I supposed to know this?? More importantly, how could we turn this around so Halloween wasn't ruined? The parents of the "truth culprit" sent him over to tell E - "well, he was kind of good before he went bad" (the last said in a whisper). Whatever. It seemed to do the trick, and Halloween was saved.

Guess it's time for us to rent Star Wars, eh?