April 30, 2009

Got a few books from the library the other day (guilt-free, might I add, since I’m DONE SCHOOL), and one of them is called Enough: Breaking Free from the World of More by John Naish. I’ve been skimming it a bit and it’s actually pretty good. I’d say it would be worth at least a skim. Here are some of the things that he says early in the book…

We have some evolving to do. And quickly. We need to develop a sense of enough…We have created a culture that has one overriding message – we do not yet have all we need to be satisfied. The answer, we are told, is to have, see, be and do even more. Always more. But this is bearing strange fruit: levels of stress, depression and burnout are all rising fast, even though we live amid unprecedented abundance. Our planet doesn’t look so happy either…We urgently need to stop over-stimulating the powerful ancient instincts that make us never satisfied. Instead we must nurture our capacities to appreciate the unprecedented wonders now at our feet.

Enoughness requires us to accept that the carrot of infinite promise will always dangle just beyond our noses.  Embracing this fact is a path to contentment.

What charatcterizes [our species] most is our capacity to want, to desire, to covet, to yearn for, and generally lust after.  We want to know what lies over the hill, we want to see it, and then to possess it, along with everything that lies above and below the ground…and after that, we want to know what lies over the next hill…

He talks about evolution a lot, maybe too much.  I don’t really believe that too much of anything is caused by ONE THING.  But he makes a lot of what I would call valid points.  This culture, mixed with our natural instincts to hoard and eat as much as we can when it’s available and compare ourselves to others to see who we can beat when it comes to a fight to the death, IS NOT GOOD!  I might post more from this book in the next few days.  Some of the chapters so far have been on enough stuff, enough food, and my particular favorite – enough happiness.  Anyhoo, all of this to say, I’d recommend the book, at least to skim

April 29, 2009

A friend on Facebook posted something about this organization – Kiva. It’s this website where you can go and make a small loan (as little as $25) to an entrepreneur in the developing world. From what I understand, you get your money back in 6 to 12 months. I never know for sure if these things are on the up and up, but on the word of my Facebook friend I’m going to give it a shot. It’s $25. If I lose it I lose it…that’s not the point. If it actually gets to an entrepreneur in another country that’s amazing! If the $25 eventually returns to me, I’ll try a bigger amount. Clicking on the thing below should get you to the website.

April 27, 2009

Well people, I regret to inform you that I’m pretty sure that my brain cells are dying very rapidly and this leads to no blogging.  My job has been very very understimulating lately and I think this is the main culprit.  I can barely function when I have little to do.  It’s so weird.  My brain and body pretty much just shut down and I become USELESS.  Grrr.  I need to find a way to keep the brain ticking in times like these or it will surely just turn to mush.  Maybe I need to do Sudoku or something.  I don’t know…any suggestions?  I also need some suggestions re: my dog’s bad breath.  It’s awful lately.  Anyone have any ideas?  She is about 150 years old, so I guess it’s understandable.  I had another question for you but because of the mushy state of my brain, I can’t remember what it was.  Alright, must get back to staring at my cuticles…

Blah April 24, 2009

This would describe how I’m feeling this week.  I don’t know what it is.  Work’s a bit slow so maybe that’s it.  That always tends to suck the life right out of me.  Maybe it’s the weather.  Blah.  Blah.  Orrrr maybe it’s because I haven’t hung out with ANYONE this week other than Greg.  Ya, it’s probably a combo of them all.  A lesson learned in what not to do, if nothing else.  But it’s Friday, and I’ve got some good stuff happening this weekend, so hopefully this means digging myself out of the blahs very very soon.

April 22, 2009

Well, happy “Administrative Professionals Day” to me. Not a fan of the day, people. Not a fan. First, I don’t like extra attention drawn to me for any reason. Second, this is just a job for me for the time being, it’s not a career path which the term “administrative professional” may suggest. Third, we are not referred to with these words on any other day, and therefore I think it’s ridiculous to call us this on this day. Other days I am “the secretary” (which is fine for me, but offensive to some other office people) or “my girl” (“I’ll have my girl do that for you”) or “the gal here” (“I’ll have the gal here do that for you”). Fourth, I think there should just be a day for employees or something, instead of singling out the office people, although “us girls” maybe take more crap than others…I don’t know. Fifth, it puts pressure on “the boss” to do something for “the gal” even if the gal sucks and deserves nothing.  It’s like having to send your dad a Happy Father’s Day card that says that he’s been such an amazingly awesome dad when in reality he doesn’t even know you.  Anyway, all of this to say that this day makes me grumpy and I needed to vent. I’m done. Carry on.

Get that camera out of my face would ya April 21, 2009

 

I don’t really know why but this picture of Grammie totally cracks me up.  It’s kind of like one of those pictures that I’m sure all of us have been in when we’re totally taken off guard, or our eyes are half shut, or it’s just an all around bad angle.  With Grammie it’s either that, or she’s thinking get that fricking camera out of my face.  She hates the camera and tries to avoid it at all costs.

April 19, 2009

I think my blog brain is in neutral right now.  It would seem like I have no bloggable material kicking around in my brain.  So, as annoying as it is when people don’t update their blogs, I guess I’m just one of those people right now.  The minute I give myself space to not blog something will come to mind, just you wait.  It’s like those great ideas that I have when I’m not trying to think about anything – like when I’m in the shower, or when I’m cleaning the house, things like that.  That’s when the good ideas come to mind.  Like this morning…just walking my dog, not trying to think, but my brain was unstoppable.  All these new ideas came to my mind.  I think that the subconscious mind is kind of wacky…like I’m probably thinking about all of these things all of the time in my subconscious brain, forming ideas, creating things, but I don’t really know that until one day I’m walking my dog and for some reason my brain decides to present me with what it has come up with.  Crazy.

No Roll-Up status to update.  I’m ticked off and have been refusing to buy Tim Horton’s coffee, not to mention shaking my fist and swearing at the place every time I drive by.

April 15, 2009

Now, I hesitate most of the time to say anything about the marginalization or inequality of women because many times it seems like people roll their eyes and write me off.  I get grouped in with those crazy feminists…When I talk about the equality or inequality of women, I’m not saying women need to be “above” men or considered to be “greater than” or anything like that.  What I think is that men and women cannot function properly, society can’t function properly, unless the fundamental equality of men and women is acknowledged and practiced.  And if we think that that is happening already, we have been fooled.  This is not a woe-is-me thing.  It is a desire for truth and justice.  ANYHOO enough about that from my brain for now…I’m reading this book FINALLY called “She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse” by Elizabeth Johnson and I totally can’t wait to get into it a bit more.  I’ve read a few pages so far, and here is some stuff that I couldn’t agree with more:

Speech about God shapes the life orientation not only of the corporate faith community but in this matrix guides its individual members as well…The women’s movement in civil society and the church has shed a bright light on the pervasive exclusion of women from the realm of public symbol formation and decision making, and women’s consequent, strongly enforced subordination to the imagination and needs of a world designed chiefly by men.  In the church this exclusion has been effective virtually everywhere: in ecclesial creeds, doctrines, prayers, theological systems, liturgical worship, patterns of spirituality, visions of mission, church order, leadership and discipline.  It has been stunningly effective in speech about God.  While officially it is rightly and consistently said that God is spirit and so beyond identification with either male or female sex, yet the daily language of preaching, worship, catechesis, and instruction conveys a different message: God is male, or at least more like a man than a woman, or at least more fittingly addressed as a male than as a female.  Upon examination it becomes clear that this exclusive speech about God serves in manifold ways to support an imaginative and structural world that excludes or subordinates women.

I really believe that this is true.  Take, for example, the book “The Shack”.  Someone makes a suggestion that perhaps God is female, and Christians all over the place lose their minds.  Take, for another example, how often when people refer to God as “she” they feel like they need to explain themselves.  It’s all silly, really.  Silly in a growth-stunting kind of way.  Stay tuned for more…

(no title) April 15, 2009

If I ever write a book, it’s not going to have a title.  I can’t do titles.  Have you noticed that I rarely give my posts titles?  And if you get many emails from me, you will notice that they often don’t have a subject.  Do I wish to send if subject line is blank – they keep asking me.  Yes, yes I do.  So, if I write a book, I think I’d call it (no subject).  Titles and subjects are just too final…too precise…too limiting.

Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed, as have I, that there is not much activity in the ol’ brain today.  Maybe it’s the gloomy weather.  Who’s to say.

April 13, 2009

Well, Easter is over.  The weekend was pretty busy…a little bit painful.  My parents came up and an aunt and uncle.  My uncle and dad (and Greg) were working on our front door…out with the old, in with the new.  Who knew how much work that is??  WOW.  It took them an entire day, and my dad and uncle work like maniacs, and my uncle is a construction guy.  Insane.  Good thing they came up, or we would be living with a boarded up front door area for a very long time…Anyway, most of MY weekend was spent cooking.  ARG.  I’m not used to cooking for so many people.  And the expectations are fairly high, everyone being from mennonite families and all.  It’s not just oh-we’ll-grab-a-burger.  It’s morning coffe break, huge hot “lunch” plus dessert, afternoon coffee break, and huge supper plus dessert.  Good ol’ mennonite roots.  Yikes.  The good thing about those roots, if I was forced to pick a good thing, is that everyone is willing to work like crazy for other people.  I haven’t seen that aunt and uncle for a very very long time, but yet they made the trip up to do it.  So that is very cool.  However, after such a visit I find myself exhausted.  You see, families seem to be a strange, sticky web.  And when I am with not only my parents, but also and aunt and uncle, I tend to get stuck in the ways I used to act…such as – in my mennonite family kids were expected to be seen and not heard.  And even though I am older now and logically it does not make sense that I would remain silent unless spoken to, that is my automatic mode and it takes a lot of energy to get out of it.  Weird.  There is another thing which often keeps me stuck which is the idea that women’s ideas and thoughts aren’t necessarily as important.  Something I refuse to believe.  But yet the energy that it takes me to get out of that mode often makes it not worth it.  ARG.  So, I spent most of the weekend keeping my thoughts to myself and not sharing even part of who I am.  And despite the high level of frustration that this results in, I’ll probably do it next time.  I tell you, families are strange.  I look at the women in my extended family and think, wow…looks to me like a whole bunch of women who have no idea who they are or what they like or what they want.  They don’t know what life is like apart from serving their husbands and being who they need to be for the men.  Unbelievable to me.  Not good for the men or the women.  Well, I guess each family has it’s weirdness…this is some of mine.  I hesitate to even write about such things in the event that family members ever stopped by this blog, but worst case scenario is that someone else starts to clue in to the truth.  Anyhoo, better get back to my slow day at work.  zzzzzzzzz

Roll-Up Status: 2.5 wins – 20 losses