Why I can't watch the election results until it's over

I know the network and news stations are pushing election predictions and polls right now.  Radio is probably doing pretty much the same.

That's why I have the Food Network on my TV while I work. No matter who you're cheering for in this presidential election, this race is too close to call. And the results matter too much for the country as a whole, and each person who lives here.

At this point, there is nothing I can do. I have voted. I have shared my views and the data on social media and among friends and family. I have watched debates, and declared winners and losers (and I have to admit, had fun mocking mistakes made by the candidate I did not support!)

But now the tension is too high. The stakes are too high. A jump here, a dip there and suddenly I would be elated or upset.

So with my civic duty done (as much as it can be as long as the electoral college remains in place), I will work and write my articles and get ready for tomorrow mornings's interview on YNN*.  And I will look up occasionally and watch someone show me a new way to cook carrots or make a pie crust.

Tonight is soon enough for me to be happy or upset.

What about you?  Are you watching or listening or checking online for polls and results?  Or are you waiting until it's all said and done? 

*Tomorrow, I am being interviewed on YNN Austin, and will be demonstrating how to make a 72-hour emergency kit for kids. Check the website after 9:30 CST to find the video!

How can something so simple be so heartbreaking?

We've all done it.  A flick of our wrists, and a crumpled blanket or quilt is tossed into the air, and comes down smoothly over a bed.  In fact, I would bet that it's a gesture we hardly think about.

So why was it so heartbreaking when I watched a young man do this everyday task the other day?

He couldn't have been more than 22 or 23.  Maybe even younger. Just my son's age.  The multicolored quilt flew up and came down smoothly.  He adjusted the corners to straighten it out.  But it was not on a bed or even a couch. It was under the overpass of Highway 183 in Austin, Texas.

I sat at a stop light, watching this moment of ordinary human action.  And I cried.

As a mom, I cried for the young man, so recently someone's baby, someone's child.  What had happened in his few short years to lead him to bed down under an overpass instead of in a home?  Had he run from an abusive home?  Fled neglect?  Or was a mom or dad somewhere praying for his return, not knowing where their son might be...or even if he's alive?

As a person who has worked with the homeless for years, I cried for a country that leaves so many without even the basics of home or safety while others get rich, some even stashing their funds in Swiss bank accounts or off-shore banks to avoid paying their part to care for the rest of the nation's citizens.

I know there have always been homeless people.  But the face of homelessness has changed in recent years.  For the past decade, the image of the single man struggling with drug addiction or the lone woman fighting mental illness has been replaced with more and more average people who faced one tragedy, and lost everything.  Or the family who cannot overcome the barriers of rent deposits and transportation (and now, mandatory ID requirements that catch the poor in an endless loop of documents they cannot afford to acquire.) 

Or a young man, who once probably spread his quilt over a bed...but now beds down for the night on the concrete under an Austin highway.

Random questions from a Wednesday

Image from Susan Loone's Blog

Why would someone steal my change tray from my car?  It had maybe $2.00 in it, mostly pennies.  It would be more work to count it than it is probably worth.  Has the country gotten that bad off?

Added 8/26/2010 -- I have been feeling bad ever since I published that line above.  Just about 3 years ago, the loss of $2.00 might have meant that one of my daughters couldn't go to school that day, because I sometimes had no food that could go in a lunch box.  Things that could be reheated or cooked at home, yes, but not anything to take.  It was a scary time. And I still have nightmares about it.  So I have no business being flip or acting like I don't understand that kind of desperation.  No, I never took change from someone else's car -- but many days I did search for that last nickel or dime under my car mats or in pockets. So to whomever took the money, I send my blessings and my wishes that soon you will not be in need of change -- that you will be blessed with abundance and will be more than able to buy whatever it is that you needed that money for. I know how you feel now. And I'm sorry for my callousness. 

30 minutes of yoga and Pilates races by..  30 minutes in a coffee shop passes in seconds. 30 minutes in a traffic jam takes forever.  How can people think time is really fixed and linear?

What is sleep, really?  Is it a time to allow our bodies to rest, or a time to allow our minds/spirits/souls to work?

If housing sales have dropped to an all time low, and no one who has a house can sell it to buy a new one, and no one who doesn't have a house can qualify for a new one, how are we ever going to get out of that circle?

If all religions claim to be the right one, the chosen one, the correct one, what does that say about their view of G-d?  It seems to me that it would mean that G-d is either cruel, allowing the overwhelming majority of it/his/her creation to spend their lives in hopeless error, or that G-d is unable to get the "true" message across effectively.  Either one is pretty depressing. (BTW, I don't happen to believe there is one superior way/religion.  So G-d's off the hook with me,)

Hate mongers not welcome

I love my Uncle...but I cannot stand his politics.

Today he sent me a crude, violent e-mail which referred to all of us who oppose the current administration's open policies on torture and elimination of freedom as MAGGOTS!

I responded to him, and to everyone to whom he had forwarded that disturbing post:

Uncle:

When our country defends torture, we give absolute permission for any other country to torture our people as well.

And far worse than that, we surrender ALL morality. If the U.S. closes its eyes to these atrocities, we no longer have a country worth defending.

If we defend the current atrocities, we are no better than the worst in world...in fact we are below that because once upon a time, we had a Constitution and Bill of Rights that prohibited things like torture and warrentless searches and guaranteed privacy in one's person, home, and papers, and absolute freedom of speech no matter how inconvenient or unpopular.

Sadly the current administration has turned those once precious documents into toilet paper with which they wipe their greedy, immoral bottoms.

It is time --- in fact long past time -- for people who value what America used to be -- full of people who valued freedom and were not afraid of shampoo or water bottles in airports -- to take back their freedom and get rid of the people who turn up their noses at all this country SHOULD stand for!

Freedom, not fear.
Rule of law, not the rule of the jungle.
Constitutional protection, not government secrecy.

Don't send me obscenity-laced diatribes that sully the very values our founders treasured. We were once great, not through killing and evil, but through setting a shining example for doing the right things even when it was hard. Isn't it time we aspired to that again?

It's time to choose. The hateful, valueless America promoted in your e-mail below, or everything we can and should be.

Love,
Your niece

An American Theology of Consumerism

I have just been reading Lawrence of Arabia's post about the rise of the cola wars in the Middle East.

Awhile ago, the Confessions of a Shopaholic blog had a piece on the rise in obesity in France. The New York Times reported on increases in cancer rates among Japanese and Chinese citizens who have adopted an American style of eating.

After I read LoA's post about the cola wars and watched the videos that blatently fuse American pop icons with Arabic themes, I realized that what we are witnessing is not just advertising, but a religion being spread with the same zeal as that of any missionary -- and the budget of a corporate giant.

The Free Dictionary online defines religion as:
noun
1.
a. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
b. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
2. The life or condition of a person in a religious order.
3. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
4. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

In this case, the American way of life is the supernatural power. After all, is it really much of step from repeatedly claiming ourselves to be a Super Power to being a Super-natural one? Our lifestyle, our vaues, our styles and tastes -- we claim to rule the (known) universe. Our way is best. Drink our sodas, wear our clothes, live/eat/drive/sing...and above all SHOP as we do.

Just as early Christian missionaries brought a whole new package of beliefs and behaviours to the "primitive peoples" of the world, Coca Cola and Pepsi are preaching a new focus to their Arabic audience. Look at us. We know the truth. Do as we do. This way lies happiness and freedom from your ignorant old ways. Cast off your old ways. We come in the name of the creator of prosperity. And we have been sent here to bring you into the fold.

This is more than just opening up a new market for a product...it's creating the belief that this product AND the liftstyle it represents are the right way to live. How far is that from definition number 3 above? In truth, it's right on the money (pun intended.)

Sadly, our nation's campaign to spread its theology has been widely successful. Taco Bells and McDonald's dot the globe, and it's hard to be far from a Snicker's Bar or a can of Coke.

It's nothing new to recognize that the American way of life is being exported. But seeing it as a religion we are proslytizing is, to me, a far scarier thought.