Christmas Woes

Today, the world seems like it's turned upside down. There are too many things happening that that shouldn't be happening, or not happening that should happen. I have too many friends who are going through crises or not very good situations. Right now, I'm at the point where I wonder if anything will be normal again.

I want to be able to not worry about what I eat, if it'll cause pain later on, either in my stomach or in the heartburn regions. Even if I don't eat, I'm in pain.

I want my friends and their families to get through their situations with everyone healthy and ok.

Last night, I was told something that, while not unexpected, was not something I wanted to hear. This is twice. I don't know what I want with that.

I've had a UTI last week and my anxiety was increasing. It seems to be level again now, but still.

This time of year hasn't been easy in the past few years. It looks like this year will be similar.

Anyone remember what a normal Christmas is like?

A religious military?

I was born and raised Christian. I have no problems with admitting that. I go to church every Sunday and have no problems with that as well. However, I'm also very familiar with other major religions in the world, having read various texts from some of them, taken classes in other religions at university and making friends with people of various religions. I'm proud to admit that I know people of Jewish, Hindu and Muslim backgrounds, and yes, they are all nice, wonderful people. Even after my studying, I have come to incorporate some beliefs from other religions into my own. (What these are and how they all fit together is another story for another blog entry.) Whether or not this still makes me Christian, I don't know.

With that said, hearing something like this makes me facepalm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA&feature=youtu.be

His exact words are "there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military..."

Wait, what?!

Can someone please explain to me what's wrong with open gays in the military? If someone wanted to serve their country in this way (I wouldn't be able to do it), why can't they? If someone can physically and mentally handle the pressure that this job requires, why does it matter who they're sharing their bed with?

This same goes for marriage. I've heard people say that if you say you can marry whoever you want, then you're allowing for people to marry animals, things, even adults to children. No. That's not what it is. I see no reason for marriage to be defined as a binding between TWO CONSENSUAL ADULTS. Simple as that. You can't work around that and have a man marry a tree or a woman marry a cow. The tree and cow, while they may be adults in their species, can not consent to it.

In his ad, Rick Perry states that children can't celebrate Christmas in the classroom. I, personally, haven't seen this, but I haven't been in an American classroom. As an educator, I have to (or I will once someone hires me) guide my students to succeed in the world. That includes being socially intelligent and knowing how to interact with people. For many people in the world (not so much over on this continent, but definitely in others), their religion is a huge part of who they are. Even knowing what kind of dietary restrictions people have is a help! If they're having a dinner party and inviting a Hindu and a Jew, beef and pork dishes probably aren't going to work! You might also want to make sure that your dinner party doesn't fall on a day like Rosh Hashanah or Diwali or that it starts after sunset if it's Ramadan if you're inviting a Muslim.

So, in a classroom, by all means talk about Christmas. It's part of the culture and, most likely, at least in Newfoundland, the dominant religion of the students. But talk about the other religions as well. Students will learn much more if you actually teach something rather than nothing.

I think Homer Simpson (yes, Homer Simpson) said it best:

"Because in the end, aren't all religions the same? They tell us what to eat, when to pray, that this lump of clay called Man can somehow shape himself to resemble the divine. But we can never attain that perfect grace if we have hatred in our hearts. So let us celebrate our commonalities. Some of us don't eat pork. Some of us don't eat shellfish. But we all eat chicken."

I think that last part says so much more than just what we eat.

And for once, my blog entry has come around more-or-less full circle.

Snow Snow Go Away

As we grow up, we have a tendency to grow out of things. I like to think I still have some of those childhood likes still inside, particularly enjoying the Saturday morning cartoons of my day, eating Kraft Dinner and playing video games. I have found that I no longer like Chef Boyardee though.

As a child, I loved snow. The idea of a snow day was the dream of every student. Now, snow days just bring about days of shoveling and lost money due to work being cancelled. When you're a child, you can bundle up, go outside, make a snow fort, snowman and throw snowballs (obviously, you'd be behind your fort, the snowmen are the guards and you hurl the arsenal of snowballs at the fort across the way). I wish I could still do this. Maybe if I had someone to do it with.

And remember Crazy Carpets? Those insane things to go sliding down that I think are banned around the world because they were dangerous (though I never knew anyone who hurt themselves on one)? Sliding down those were awesome!

As an adult, there is still the shoveling, walking in the middle of the road because sidewalks aren't cleared, having snow and wind blowing in your face, having the snow turn to slush when it starts melting...cold hands, feets, noses and other body parts.

Snow was much more fun as a child. I could see it in the neighbourhood kids playing on their day off while I was trying to shovel off the steps and ramp. It wasn't fun for me this afternoon. I have probably outgrown snow. That, or I'm just looking at the world through jaded eyes these last few days. I don't know if "jaded" is the best word right now, but it sounds better than depressive eyes.

From Oldest to Poorest

For those who don't know, I sponsor a child. He's about a year and a half old, named Alexander and lives in Paraguay. His birthday's the day after mine, he loves bananas and he has the cutest face. About a week ago, I got the 2011 Christmas catalogue from the company, saying "here's some things that people need, would you buy them one? Or buy one in the name of a friend?". I have no issues with it. In a few years when I can afford more, sure I'll pay an extra bit of money for some toys, an animal or help sanitary conditions. But right now, the $38 a month is the best I can afford.

The question is...why do people need to do this? I'm not asking why do we give money to those who need it, but why do these people not have the necessities? What really gets me is the places that are considered developing and third world countries. And these places are countries like Africa and India, places that are where humans may have first arisen. So, if they were here first, why are they the worse off?

Is it like the situation when there's a new baby in the family? Everyone coos over the new one (North America) and forget about the others (Africa, India). North America was among the last one colonized during the migrations 20,000-40,000 years ago, and when the Europeans came over 500 years ago.

But, people in Africa were, arguably, on the planet first. So again, I ask, why are they the worse off? I don't have an answer. Maybe someone else does? I welcome comments that tell me I'm wrong (I'd prefer it in the form of constructive criticism of course).

The Almighty Forward

I love my mother. I do. She annoys me, pisses me off, sometimes forget I'm an adult, but she's my mommy. However, there are some things she just doesn't get.

I don't like email forwards. No, that's a lie. I don't like most email forwards. Those with funny pictures/captions or a really good joke, feel free to send them on my way. I will mostly likely enjoy those. But anything with a preachy message or telling me that if I send it to 10 friends, jump up and down and stand on my head for 3 minutes, my soul mates name will magically appear on my screen? No. That's a waste of my time, and yours by sending it to me. (Funny, misspelled captions of cats is not a waste because they amuse me.)

Mother has been informed several times of the email forwards I don't wish to receive. And yet, some seem to slip past and I get it. This time, it was one from Ben Stein, talking about how, as a Jew, he's not offended by the Christmas thing because that's Christmas, a Christian holiday and he's Jewish. Fine. I'll buy that. But the email goes on about how things got messed up since taking the bible out of schools.

And that's where I draw the line, click ctrl+t and do a Google search.

Yes, Ben Stein did say things like that...5 years ago. The rest of it was just added on by some idiot. Reading the whole thing, top to bottom doesn't make sense. For example, why would someone who's Jewish blame the problems with the Bible being taken out of the classrooms?

Once again, I explain to mother why this does not fall into the category of emails I like to receive. She said that it was religious and I'm religious and therefore might enjoy. Facepalm. No. I did my focus area in Religious Education so that I can learn more about the various religions of the world and place that knowledge into other students heads so they don't grow up to be prejudice to any religion. I'm the kind who would want, not just the Christian Bible, but the Torah, the Qur'an, the Bhagavad Gita, among others, in my classroom. Then I remember I'm a Primary/Elementary educator and the age may not be able to comprehend. Excerpts then! Or at least common ideas found in most/all religions.

Long story short, if you have an email forward and you're not sure if I'd like it, don't send it. If it says that I'll find out my date of death or children's names, I don't want it. If it has a picture like this:

Please do forward.

Confidence Fleeting

Confidence. We all know what it is and we all have some to a certain extent. However, I frequently lack the confidence where I should have it. Example. I have a small solo in church next Sunday evening. That's fine. However, even though I know that I know this piece, I freak out. We had to sing it without music and I just...panicked. But I know the part. Or at least I think do. See? Lack of confidence.

Even at work and various jobs I've done. I start at the bottom rung, and I stay there, despite sometimes not being happy with the way things are done and often quickly learning about how things work a bit higher up. But I never go for a higher position, even though I love having power. Why? Because I don't have the confidence in myself to do it. I feel like I won't be good enough to move forward. So I stay where I am because I know I can do this. If the opportunity came up to move up in a job, it'll take a lot of convincing for me to take this opportunity.

Just saying.

And there's the opposite sex. Confidence in that? Well...that's a no-brainer.

Though I have no idea why I have the confidence in posting my various thoughts online where anyone can read them. Possibly because I seriously don't know who half the readers are. But that's the way it is.

Also, just a notice. The word "confidence" means to have faith in yourself or something else. But "confidential" means to keep something secret. Any linguists out there want to tell me how these two similar words mean something different? /nerdiness.

This is Halloween

Today is Halloween, despite what the weather is like outside in my corner of the world. Rain, cold, windy and about 3 degrees Celsius (37 Fahrenheit). We might get kids come to the door. If not, more chips for me. I will be wearing my witch dress to work, which people will either like or have nightmares about, depending on your persuasion.

Either way, since it's Halloween, a night people associate with ghosts, zombies, witches and all things dead, there are people who are against, mostly heavily Christian people (please note, I'm not saying heavily Christian people are anti-Halloween, just that most people who are anti-Halloween are heavily Christian). I don't care if someone is heavily religious. I'd just like it if you had a little background information before belittling other people's beliefs.

Of course Halloween has Pagan influences, but so does other Christian holidays. Many elements of the Christmas story most Christians known are also seen in Pagan and pre-Christian mythology. Easter also has Pagan roots. Google Eostre and see. So why single out Halloween? My guess would be that it's more open. However, people who note Halloween for it's Paganism seem to forget that it has Christian origins as well, that it's called All Hallows Eve, the day before All Hallows, or All Saints.

I guess people just like to use different bits of information for their own personal reasons without looking at the whole picture. I like to think I see more of the big picture, but I could be wrong. I just know that I suck at writing conclusions and bringing things all together (really, you should see some papers I've had to write...conclusions frequently the weak part). But, I think my point here is clear enough that I don't need one. If I do, let me know.