Transfering entries from a blog I'm deleting 1/31/05
You read blogs because you are nosey, admit it you are. I do too. There is just something about peeking into someone’s thoughts, even if they are stated publicly that excites us.
It can give us a lift or make us feel empathy for the universal condition of mankind and sometimes it just plain irritates us. It’s like finding a diary but having permission to read it. Now that takes some of the titillation out of it but it still is very stimulating.
Sometimes in a blog we find more of a writer’s real persona than we see in their poetry. Real personality has a way of seeping out onto the blog page, in ways it won’t in the structured expression of poetry. Poetry can sometimes be like icing covering the cake, but in blogs the real flavor comes out!
I enjoy writing blogs, they tend to clear my thoughts and help me zero in on the ones that really matter even when I write about those that don’t. They also help me to express emotions without the dread of someone’s caustic comments at the end of my say! Although they do sometimes get reported and deleted...I still had the pleasure of writing them.
So blog on, I'll be peeking at your page while you peek at mine.
1/31/05
I like plain truth, plain talk. Physco- babble, religious posturing and beating around the bush, do nothing but confuse the mind, numb the senses. I personally think that Jesus was one of the most plain spoken people whose words were ever recorded. He didn’t mince words, didn’t twist doctrine and I seriously doubt that anyone on a quest for truth ever came away from one of his sermons scratching their head in confusion and wondering what on Earth he really meant. He didn’t convey one message one day and the totally opposite the next. No doubt was ever left in the mind of the hearers that he practiced what he preached and if he talked about love it was because he loved. He was not a faucet running cold one day and hot the next, nor a master of disguise with curses and blessings coming out of opposite sides of his mouth simultaneously. He was a true teacher of pristine truth, worth listening to. Even a sinner like me can recognize the greatness of that. If you want to know what he plainly said, read his words and not someone else's physco-babble about him.
1/31/05
There is no more precious friendship than the one that allows you to be who you are, even during times the other might not understand you, they are still open to your truth, tolerant of your failings and weaknesses, appreciative of your strengths.
They know how to speak an encouraging, calming or motivating word when you most need it. They know how to be honest and open and how to allow you to be the same. Expression between you becomes natural, expected and desired.
For some of us, finding ourselves, loving ourselves is the most difficult task we will face in life. When another not only embraces but appreciates and enjoys our individuality, that is the truest form of friendship...and love.
1/31/05
I opened the page today to write in my blog and a wave of fear hit my stomach and then I thought how damn ridiculous it is to be afraid to write because of someone or ones' opinions and conclusions so I intend to be just as open and and bold as I have always been in writing a blog. I didn't get where I am by being afraid of self expression or bowing down to others standards and demands about what I could and could not write. I won't do it now. The truth always has a way of exploding on the scene, just when you think it never will. Now if anyone wants to complain about this blog please feel free to express yourself. If I want free speech then I have to allow you to have it also, even if you are determined to end mine.
1/31/05
*"Oh games people play now
Every night and every day now
Never meaning what they say now
Never saying what they mean
And they wile away the hours
In their ivory towers
Til they're covered up with flowers
In the back of a black limosine"
*Joe South
I'm not afraid to say what I mean and mean what I say and I don't play games with anyone. In life I took a lot of crap, patiently and without retribution, until I finally woke up and realized I really don't enjoy being a doormat. I am a peaceable person, I like to live and let live but if you push, you will get pushed back, if you scheme,intrude,lie and disrespect don't expect me to ignore it forever and to continue to let you bulldoze your way into my life and over my heart. I don't play games, I'm in this life to do what I was created to do and if you insist in standing in the way, if I can't go around you, I'll push my way over. Some people are so used to throwing around their imagined weight they have no idea when to just back away and leave someone alone that they don't have the force to flatten.
2/3/05
There once was a very unique bird of unusual song and red plumage. She was not a pretentious or dishonest bird and unafraid to sit upon the same branch each day forthrightly singing out the songs of her heart. Many paused and listened, and were touched by her song. Others in the forest watched her and at each opportunity threw stones in her direction, especially on those days her song was not one they enjoyed or approved of. There were other forests where her songs were appreciated and welcomed, where she sang without fear or compromise. So one day the red bird took the very last stone she could tolerate and flew away to better more hospitable woodlands, where there were no hunters or murderers of free song.
1/31/05
Life is a long series of changes. Just when you think you have some of it figured out and neatly indexed and boxed, it smacks you hard in the head from left field, knocks you flat and if you don’t get up and run the bases you’ll lose the game.
I’ve always found it fascinating, the story about the huge oak and the delicate willow. When the winds were fierce the mighty oak stood tall and immovable and was uprooted by the force. The willow, delicate and supple swayed and bent with the wind and after the storm stood intact just as before.
Most of the major occurrences and changes of my life have blown in like hurricanes, completely unexpected, without Doppler weather reports to warn me. Sometimes I knew a storm was on the way by spiritual signs and intuition but even then I often didn’t know the reasons or the intensity and the outcome.
I think life is better, more interesting that way, full of surprises. If we knew all about the joyful things before they happen that would take much of the joy away and if we knew about all the tragedies we couldn’t bear it.
I never thought some of the storms I have weathered would ever have happened to me. Those things always happen to someone else…..never to you! I think the only reason I have survived and remained sane is because early in life I learned how to gracefully bend and how to depend on the One who planted me to keep my roots firmly grounded. Storms are not a bad thing, they help us to learn flexibility and cause us to send our roots deeper.
1/31/05
The decadent Marie Antoinette when faced with the poverty of her people and the fact that they had no bread made the statement "Then let them eat cake" For which she eventually lost her head. Shame on her for such insensitivity.
Shame on George Bush for his. Millions of dollars in taxpayer money and private funds are being spent on his inaguration and inaugural balls while children starve in this country, people freeze to death on the streets, among them military veterans who this country has used and thrown away like some expendable commodity. Some elderly must eat dog food and live in unheated homes. Millions in this country can't afford health insurance or health care. Our troops who are fighting his war, don't have the needed resources. Young men who have come home maimed for life from Iraq will receive barely enough pension to survive meagerly and if they are crippled and in need of modification of their homes, it is being done by businesses and private contractors as an act of appreciation and charity.
Enjoy your day Mr. Bush. Dance the night away.... break a leg. At least you don't have to worry about losing your head, like Queen Marie, no matter how insensitive you are.
In time of war as was appropriate and would be expected to reflect such times FDR did not indulge in the ususal eloborate and expensive customs of an inaguration and balls. There was a simple ceremony and finger foods served at the White House. Over 40 million will be spent by private contributors and government, simply to throw a big bash for Mr. Bush and his celebrants. While our soldiers are undersupplied and victims all over the world are homeless and and destitute. 40 MILLION DOLLARS spent for pomp and good times. The following article is from CNBC
By Diana Olick and Rob Reynolds
CNBC
Updated: 5:00 p.m. ET Jan. 18, 2005 President Bush and wealthy donors are sparing no expense for his second inauguration. Besides the ceremony itself, there will a parade with 11,000 people, floats, vehicles and horses. There will be nine fancy dress balls and assorted receptions, rock concerts and candle-light dinners.
The inaugural committee plans to spend $40 million -- the most ever. President Clinton's 1993 festivities cost $33 million. So who’s picking up the tab for the Bush bash?
"There are a wide variety of companies that are giving; some people were former supporters,” said Larry Noble, executive director at the Center for Responsive Politics. “We’re seeing some Pioneers and Rangers -- the big fundraisers for Bush. Among the companies we are seeing are Texas companies and energy companies."
While direct corporate contributions to political campaigns are barred by law, inaugural committee contributions are one way companies can legally spend very large amounts in order to make friends in high places happy.
ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and Southern Company all kicked in $250,000 each. The companies hope the administration will push stalled energy subsidy legislation.
Financial services firms Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and HSBC gave a total of $375,000. They have a strong interest in president Bush's plan for private social security accounts.
Dawn Arnall, co-chairperson of Ameriquest Capital, gave $250,000 to the inaugural, and her company and its subsidiaries gave $750,000. Last year she gave $5 million to the pro-Bush Progress for America fund, which produced television commercials for the Bush campaign. Ameriquest specializes in sub-prime mortgages in minority neighborhoods and is seeking federal standards that would supersede tougher laws in several states.
"The wealthy here are buying access through giving large contributions,” said Noble. “And it looks a lot like what we have seen before -- with the political conventions and other things. It looks like a government for sale."
Some commentators, even conservatives who supported President Bush's re-election, question the appropriateness of a lavish inaugural in wartime.
"This president -- who was the choice of 80 percent of ‘morality’ voters, is undermining his moral standing by making a giant party for rich people while our soldiers continue to battle and die in Iraq," said talk radio host Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
Breaking with tradition, the administration says it will not reimburse the District of Columbia for nearly $12 million in security expenses. The city says it will have to divert money
