Monday, August 24, 2009

This Crazy World

I spent a bit of time on YouTube this a.m. and came away alarmed. These violent people carrying guns and calling Obama a Nazi--what is it like to be them? What goes on inside their consciousness? Where did they go to school?

Old New Yorker cartoon: A man cutting his grass pauses in fear realizing "The world is insane!"
Two commenters on my last blog said this has always been so. There is strange comfort in that thought! When I was a young mom the whole thing was anti-fluoridation. It is the madness of crowds.

What is behind this madness? A strange spiritualist named Joel Goldsmith (a variant of Christian Science) wrote he attributes it to forces of mass hysteria that float around the stratosphere. St. Paul (an apostle of Jesus Christ) would attribute this evil craziness to "principalities and powers."

Of course once you start speaking like that, you are considered "out there" yourself.

Another thing the Apostle said is, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8).

I'll try to hold onto that thought and stay away from YouTube which I found truly scary.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

To Our Health

I was working up to a blog on the loss of hope the death of dreams (with research) but can't hold back frustration at the opponents of health care reform. Can't say I follow the debate closely but why can't these nay sayers respond to a few questions.

Q: Do you like status quo.

A: (I presume) Yes.

Q: Do you like exploding costs.

A: (I presume) cut "waste"--such as the last Republican administration did???

Q: Are you OK with so many uninsured?

A: (I presume) Yes. Barbara Bush: "They're underprivileged anyway."

Q: Are you glad people lose coverage when they get sick or have been sick?

A: (I presume) Oh that's just socialist propaganda.

Q: What about businesses who can't compete internationally due to escalating h.c. costs?

A: (I can't even think of a presumed answer to that one.)

Q: So the best thing to do is nothing?

A: Glenn Beck (presumably with 47 mil uninsured and insurance getting away w/o paying for whatever they can get away with and health care costs way outrunning inflation and people losing h.c. when losing jobs and businesses needing to put more and more premiums on employees) "We have the best health care system in the world."

And in today's paper I read an attack on Obama because he hasn't become the post-partisan president he promised to be. Speaking of loss of hope and death of dreams!!!!

Has the world always been this crazy or is it getting worse or is it my imagination? To be continued....

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Medical Death Registry

It was crowded in our old dusty car, the whole family and Grandma.
There it is there it is you passed it!
See, next to that vacuum cleaner store!!
Huge parking lot. Here, you can ride in this wheelbarrow G'ma!

Inside, we had to wait! For evah! A tacky trailer park behind the fairgrounds, who knew? Greenish-gray glare filters through dirty windows over long lines of standing people.

Who's standing behind those grills?
Bureaucrats of course. Democrat Nazis!!

Arrow to the right... plug pulling deferments..
plug pulling permission...

To the left... ration booklets for
antibiotics
x-ray
ER visits, maximum 2 per family

palsies
transplants
human condition

Do you have your triplicate? Dogs go in that line over there. Oh look at that cute little schnauzer!

Friday, August 07, 2009

Our Pets, Ourselves

Today, I took Cassie up to the dog park where the owners relax on benches watching our pets run and play.

"I see Lila coming up the hill," said a white-haired woman who lives at the Conifers (retirement community).

"I thought she was taking India to Waggin' Wheels today!" stated the old man with glasses, who had just shared he had a colonoscopy yesterday.

"You know the dogs' schedules?" I asked.

An old man sprawled on the bench opposite drawled, "This is a TIGHT group!" Yep, he sprawled and drawled.

"India IS at Waggin' Wheels," Lila explained as she sat down w/ her coffee "but Mickey's going to my mom's." Mickey, her giant poodle, was seeking scratches from his owner before joining group dog play. He had a large patch on his side, obviously a growing-back after major surgery. Lila said she was sad because her cat had an ultrasound and has Feline Immune Disorder.

She also explained that Mickey and India were both welcome to stay at the mom's while Lila and husband went away. But India just loves Waggin' Wheels so much because they have a bone-shaped swimming pool! Lila had on a very short skirt and tight top and was young; but enthusiastically joined the colonoscopy talk--about pills, juice, and a ginger-ale flavored drink she hadn't liked.

After remarking she hadn't had a mammogram in five years, the white-haired woman told me about Tinker Bell, her mixed breed chihahua's, weight problem. The maid at the Conifers brings dog treats and Tink already had 3 treats today! Also the white-haired woman's husband keeps giving TB leftover ice cream. What was my secret for keeping Cassie so trim?

Uh well, she's only two, I said, and she gets dry Iam's and very limited treats. (And of course I don't have a maid or a husband.) I told her my last mammogram was 2 years ago but didn't share my colonoscopy history.

Several big dogs arrived then at once, and the play group became a thundering herd.

"Well, we're going now," I said, calling Cassie.

"Cassie can take care of herself!" the drawling man said.

"Yeah I know, but it isn't so much fun any more." I waved friendly good-bye to my fellow dogparents who all give our pets choice of our bed or theirs, delightful resort vacations, health and dental comparable to our own.

As Cassie and I trotted down the hill to the car, I thought of my young years on the farm with steers, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats. I remembered the grownups at a barbecue tossing chicken bones to our black Great Dane Cindy, who happily crunched them up. The large pack of hunting dogs lived in a pen in the pasture, and the cats stayed in the barn subsisting on mice. Cats and dogs were animals back then.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Definition of Heaven

The Kingdom of Heaven is like an elderly widow returning from a long journey and lying down on her very own bed.
As St. Paul remarked, When the perfect comes the imperfect shall pass away.

I slept well enough on a futon for the month in Happy Valley. After a few nights I no longer noticed the slats under the mattress. The weather was cool for July and the window could be opened onto the grassy nights, with the coyotes squealing in the distance. Grandson McGregor's breathing from his sleeping bag on the floor felt like a lullaby, and the house felt like home.

By day, the cousins squealed outside in a kiddie pool, or batted a wiffle ball around. There was a swing set, and there was yet another "last summer" celebrated at the homestead Den and I created for them. The vision of grandchildren playing in the big grassy yard with swings and croquet and a hammock--with the parents watching all from a lovely deck, yes that was heaven too, especially when you remembered the bug spray and sun block. In memory, it will shine.

But in the eternal now, the house was on the market. Showings, meetings, and tense conversations created a constant kerfluffle. There is a special level in hell, I'm sure, where your empty house sits unsold for all eternity, where prospective tenants and buyers try to chisel yet another last dime from you, and where a mean real estate broker looses tirades upon your head. Reader, the buyer's market is vicious, vicious, and that's all I'm going to say on the subject (for today).

Today, having traveled the gauntlet of puff machines, bomb warnings, prices of bag checking and taxi cabs doubling within a month's time (a lamb among wolves, that's me), today I have returned to my NC space to find it overstuffed with furniture and eerily quiet. It is also cool here, and there was a pizza in the freezer and TV and Internet, and whether or not it feels like home, it does contain my own bed.

That's got to be heaven enough for now.