Tag Archives: society

On a Tangent

I wrote this several years ago and recently ran across it. I was procrastinating and looking for something to post this Sunday instead of the planned missive. It made me laugh. I hope it does you too.

People who know me, know that I love words. I love to write them. I love to speak them. And to a lesser degree, I love to hear them. I have also been known to spend my days waffling through tangents galore. But I digress.

I was recently commenting on a blog using the words “whale piss”. Yes, it was a humorous reaction to a comment on his blog that was hilarious.

It actually made me start to wonder about how aquatic animals urinate. With the billions of creatures in the oceans and the fact that much of it is connected, leaves an odd feeling in my stomach. I have swum in the ocean. And I have tasted its salty water. Oh my god it’s a urinal! It is! It is! They poop there too! How can they ever get clean?

When birds poop it usually lands on the ground. Occasionally it ends up on someone’s head. Animals in the forest poop on the leaves. And fish in the streams . . . Well, you get the drift. Humans aren’t much better. We are civilized though and we use containers to hold our excrement.  And then we flush it away . . . to our lakes and oceans. Doesn’t it make you want to rethink the whole idea of taking a swim!

Now you might also want to rethink the food you’re putting in your mouth. Do you know what the best fertilizer is? Okay, I don’t know if it’s the best but there are so many uses for it in the real world that it is mind-boggling. Poop. Dried elephant poop makes a great fire starter. Bat guano (poop)  is highly prized in some parts of the world. It gives a whole new understanding to the phrase “shooting the shit”.

When you take your oh so sanctimonious walk in the park think very carefully about what is landing on you. There are trillions upon trillions of teeny, tiny terminators that reside in the bodies of bugs. If it goes in, it has to come out. Their teeny tiny dung is in the air my friends. We are breathing it in!

The next time you hear someone talking about how our world is a cesspool you can agree. Problem is they’re speaking metaphorically and you’re thinking literally. From lowly shit a mighty world did grow.

 

The Art of the Lie

I don’t lie. That is not an arrogant statement of superiority. I’m simply not very good at it. My coworkers used to laugh when I told a lie. Everybody knew I was lying. So why bother trying? What I was good at, was obfuscation and misdirection. Damn, I’m good at that! And that is not an arrogant statement of superiority. It is simply my means of getting around things I am uncomfortable with.

A friend had just come back from spending an obscene amount of money at a salon for a new haircut. She was obviously very pleased with it and asked me what I thought. Now I care very deeply for this friend and I would never do anything that would cause her any kind of pain.  Unfortunately, I was not in a position to keep my mouth shut because I had been asked a direct question. So, I answered in the most indirect manner I could. I simply told her that it was an incredible look. I didn’t say it was an incredibly good look.  She looked like her hair had been cut by an eight-year-old with dull scissors high on crack cocaine. I’m not kidding. And I wasn’t lying. It happened many years ago and we laugh about it now. She did eventually see the humour.

Politicians are known for their lies and it is expected by everyone. I find that difficult to understand. I don’t like being lied to. Especially when it’s done openly and everybody knows it’s a lie! And yet it seems to be the way we live our lives. We expect those around us to lie to us. I’m one of those naïve people that expects others to tell me the truth. I don’t know why am surprised when I find out they haven’t. But I am. Look at advertising. Now these people are good. They lie so well you don’t know it’s happening. Case in point…

A very large chain that sells hamburgers recently laid the claim that their beef is grass fed. I won’t use their name because that would be unkind. But here’s my question: what were they fed before? They haven’t told a lie. But they’ve taken a statement of truth and elevated it to gospel. I see cows in the fields all the time and their faces are in the, oh I don’t know, grass! Cows have been eating grass since they crawled out of the primordial slime several million years ago. And the methane which is produced from that grass is one of the contributors to global warming. I’m just saying.

Words are wonderful to wander through, to play with, to communicate. But they can also be used to confuse, to manipulate and to harm. We all need to watch what we say but sometimes the mistakes that we inadvertently speak are the basis of some of our best humour. And we all need a good laugh. Especially these days.  So please, accept my words in the spirit in which they are given and enjoy.

Just Have Fun!

I was born in the 50s, barely. So I was a child in the 60s. An era of free love, free drugs and an optimism I don’t think we have seen again. Of course as a small child I wasn’t into all the free stuff! I was a child! My sexual awakening came much, much later during a particular . . . Another time perhaps.

One of my favourite shows as a child was Star Trek. The creator, Gene Roddenberry, described it as a ‘western’ in ‘space’. It was a show that was optimistic, it believed in the good that we could be. It was inclusive, mostly. There were crew members of every colour, gender and species. The original show did show women in a slightly different light than men but I don’t think it was disparaging, I think it was protective. And that was the mindset in those days. It still showed powerful women.

I think being so invested in Star Trek as a child help to mold me into the person I am today. No, I’m not an astronaut or a scientist or an explorer, but I do believe I am optimistic and compassionate. I believe in the good that we could be even though we often fail miserably. And isn’t that a good thing? The believing not the failing!

The Star Trek franchise, and yes it is now a franchise, is worth billions. There were several series, lots of movies and more products than you can shake a stick at. Why? Because I think it gives us something we all need: optimism.

Of course there’re probably plenty of people in the world that either do not like or know of the series Star Trek. But I would hazard a guess they still feel the need for a little optimism in our lives.

The news today is full of death, destruction, disease and terror. People are mistreating people for selfish reasons or even for no reason at all and that is terrifying. Movies used to be a form of escapism. We could hide from the realities of the world for a couple of hours in a dark movie theater. We could work out our fears and aggressions on the silver screen and hurt no one.

I love the escapism of a good movie. I love the movie that teaches me something without ramming it down my throat. I like a movie that shows me things I would never do, but someone else does beautifully. People like to be frightened, safely in a movie or titillated by a guilty pleasure. Movies can do that. For 135 minutes, more or less, we can escape reality and just have fun!

Seen any good movies lately!

Taking Responsibility

Two little words. Actually they are not so little and neither is their meaning. Taking Responsibility is something that is often not done and always should be. And who gets the blame? Well, of course, everyone else. Lately it’s the Millennial’s. A generation of young people whose name is usually used before or after a snide comment.

It isn’t their fault, usually. Their parents, and that generation, was so hell bent on protecting the children of the next-generation that in doing so, insulated them too far. They grew up not knowing what it was like to fail. Failure is part of the learning curve. We have to learn how to deal with disappointment and rejection and angst.   It’s all part of the process. If, as a child you’re always told that you are perfect and can do no wrong then as an adult you will continue to believe it.

My generation was so proud of getting away from the Me Generation that we boomerang straight into the Fear Generation. And it’s all our fault, mostly.

Our world will one day be run by the Millennial’s. They will one day be leaders of industry, politicians and law makers. Hopefully their childhood of fear will segue into caring and competent adults. I am an unrepentant optimist. I believe that not all of them are quite as clueless as so many appear to be. But it will not be easy.

Mistakes were made in the past and the past never goes away. What is that saying: ‘if you forget your past, you’re doomed to repeat it.’ It’s entirely possible I have forgotten the exact quote, but you get the gist. I’ve often heard the youth dismissing what has gone on in the past. I have heard that is archaic and is not relevant. It is comments like that, that makes one wonder if they have what it takes to survive.

A few years ago power went out over a great deal of Central Canada and the northern states. I wasn’t significantly bothered. It was in the summertime but it wasn’t too hot and I simply had a cold dinner that night. Traffic lights were out, subways were out, even cell towers were down. The power was out for I believe up to 12 hours, or more, in some areas. There was a lot of trouble in the cities with traffic lights etc.

What I found particularly telling in this whole situation was the furor brought on by the inability of people to use their cell phones. And lights! I had people knocking on my door because they heard I had candles. These people did not know what to do when the lights went out. They didn’t have candles because, well, there is a light on their cell phone. People honestly said that to me. They could not conceive of their being no electricity.

Such a little thing as no lights and the world goes to hell? Not in my generation. You put a candle in a glass in one hand, a bottle of beer in the other and you’ve got a date. If the Millennial’s cannot learn to adapt then I’m glad I won’t be here to see it.

Away

 

A child sleeps softly

Her dreams intact

Tragedy and fear

Just a whisper away.

 

But darkness embraces

This small little soul

It hides her, protects her

Keeps monsters away.

 

Too soon there is dawn

And the new light of day

The sleeping child wakes

To a world far away.

 

We owe this young one

A life of her own

Filled with the wonders

Not far away

 

We work and we pray

Please Lord make it so

A beautiful new world

Please show us the way

What are we teaching our children?

 

 

A few days ago I was waiting to cross the street at a crosswalk. The ‘do not cross light’ was lit so I waited where I was. I noticed a young woman and a child across the street. The adult took the hand of the child, looked both ways and stepped into street. The two crossed unharmed but I wondered what that adult was teaching that child. “It doesn’t matter what the rules are, do what you want.” ?????

Perhaps I’m getting persnickety in my old-age but I take great delight in following the Little Rules. If the crosswalk says ‘do not cross’, I don’t cross. It doesn’t cost me anything and I think it shows others that the rules are there for a reason, let’s abide by them

Children learn by example. I’ve heard people say; “Do what I say, don’t do what I do”. Children are like little sponges, they soak up what they see and they mimic it. Statistics show that children growing up in homes of domestic violence tend to perpetuate that violence. What they see, becomes the norm.

When I was younger my mother and I were doing some Saturday shopping. We had quite a few parcels and we were storing them in the car when my mother realized that she had a pair of pantyhose in her hand that she hadn’t paid for. We were just about to get in the car when she said she would be right back. We were quite a distance from the shop but my mother walked that $2 pair pantyhose back into the store and paid for them. Now that’s a good lesson.

I have friends that brag about how they get away with things. Cheating on their income tax is a game to them and they’re proud of themselves. I willingly pay my taxes. The money I give the government pays for a lot of stuff I take for granted. They don’t always do such a great job on things but there are a lot of benefits in my life that I wouldn’t have without my government. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Now allow me to rant a little about television. I watch television. There, I admitted it in public. My primary source of entertainment is the idiot box. I enjoy cooking shows and documentaries on animals. I enjoy movies, comedy, drama and even action films. I enjoy some primetime network series. But I do wonder about what our children are getting from television. When I was a child my parents watched television with me and explained things to me. I understood that it was fake. It was for entertainment purposes and I shouldn’t think it was real. They also wanted me to understand that when someone got hit in real life it hurt. No, my parents never beat me. I got a spanking when I deserved it. I have no qualms about that.

I worry when I see people in authority condoning violence or hatred. Our kids see that and they believe it. I do not have any children. But I believe I am as much responsible for the children around me as if I were a parent. We live in a global village and we are responsible for each other. But today it doesn’t always feel like it.