Everyone has at least one special place. It's that place that never entirely leaves you, but becomes a part of you in some little way. Maybe it's the place you met your first love. Maybe it's the childhood fort. Maybe the church you married in, or a dream house, or maybe the site of your first job.
I think most of us have a number of these places. Places you'd be hurt to see destroyed. Placed it'd make you sick or angry to see gang graffiti. Maybe it's just some beautiful or favored spot that means something to you. A beach. A favorite mountain. Your church. These can all become sacred spaces.
Would you casually shrug off finding a used and discarded condom on the church floor? You wouldn't want someone tossing their empty beer cans under the pews, would you? Cigarette butts?
And you certainly wouldn't toss those things on the floor when visiting someone else's church, right? Apparently you're more of a minority than you think.
There are sites and articles suggesting that Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions (at least in terms of percentage) right now. Wicca is one--probably the largest--subset of neo-Paganism. One mostly common theme among Pagan groups (and others, too, obviously...) is a reverence for nature. For an admittedly small yet growing number of people, nature is sacred.
I'm not Wiccan, but I do fall somewhere near or under that (neo-)Pagan umbrella. When someone asks me where I go to church, I tend to answer, "I pray outside, mostly." Anywhere in nature is my church.
Yet what do people leave on the "floor" there? Broken bottles, cans, cigarettes--you name it. Odd are that some of it is probably yours.
Now, I go to churches for weddings and the like, and I behave as the guest I am. I'm respectful and mindful of other people's churches, even if I don't agree one hundred percent with the sermon.
Maybe I'm more of a minority than I think...
[posted to Vocalo.org 10/30/07]
So we went to Minnesota for cousin Kevin's wedding a couple weekends ago (already). It was a good trip, but stressful... too far for the kids still. I think three hours is about the sane limit.
There was one little thing that irked me more than it probably should. Other than being in a city which claims the Mall of America as the number one tourist attraction in the country. Damn, but I hope that's not backed up by real numbers... 'cause that's just sad.
But I'm getting more and more annoyed at the omnipresence of advertising. There were huge stretches of forest we drove through. Large hills rising up, rolling the landscape around for fun and sport. And rising up out of the middle were billboards upped to some preposterous scale so that you could still read them at what had to be a mile or more off.
Even the cards for the hotel room doors had ad space sold out on them. Never mind that I have to be a bit beyond starving to actually order Dominos Pizza. I'd rather get a frozen one at some scary convenience store (not that we had a scary convenience store encounter on that trip...).
But, come on. Do we need every square inch of our lives leased out for advertising? They had a couple of sports stadiums... with corporate sponsor names. I can't decide which movie I'm reminded of more: Vanilla Sky, or They Live.
I drive to work and see the billboards lined up along the expressway like predatorial mile markers. Every now and then there's a missed spot with open sky. And I have to imagine that somewhere there's an ad or sales exec bemoaning that lost advertising space...
[posted to Vocalo.org 10/29/07]
In a brief glancing at political issues, I browsed some stances on same-sex marriage by Republicans and Democrats. Several were listed as opposing same-sex marriage but supporting the equal rights of same-sex couples as civil unions. I wonder if it's really realistic to have it both ways.
But what is marriage, really? And who gets to define it? If we define it with any religious origin, doesn't that mean that a couple married in a courthouse by a justice of the peace aren't really married? But it wasn't a religious union... Does that mean that those couples are just "domestic partners" and not husband and wife?
If we say it's a man and a woman for procreation, then doesn't that mean that childless couples aren't married yet until they have kids?
So what really distinguishes a marriage from just some shared living arrangement? It can't be about a priest waving hands over rings. It can't be about kids (which can be adopted, let's not forget).
I say what makes a marriage is the solemn reverence it's entered into with. It's the commitment to each other. It's two people joining to create a new "us" entity. It's the two each becoming more than they were by themselves. It's the intention to be that makes it.
I say--if it's deliberate and intentional (sacred in whatever way)... with promises made before witnesses... in some form of ceremony that makes the event meaningful... Do the other details really matter? Being married changes you. Maybe both parties should change their last names...?
Races can intermarry, right? People with different hair color can intermarry, right? Or they can be the same race, right? I don't see why gender need be any different.
So that makes me pro same-sex marriage.
Now, I will admit I believe children are best off with a mother and a father (although a "Mommy" and a "Daddy" is better still...). That doesn't mean I'm against two mothers or two fathers. More and more children only seem to have only one. That's the less-than-ideal situation. Kids are here to experience. I happen to believe that kids benefit from having both male and female influences around them. Then again, I'm not entirely sure that two parents are enough...
[posted to Vocalo.org 10/28/07]
So Tuesday I'm driving home after work. I'm all but a block from the office. Stopped at northbound River Rd in Rosemont, in the turn lane to turn left onto Higgins. In in the right-most left turn lane. There's nobody in front of me. I had just missed the light, so I waited.
Green arrow. I start into the intersection. I'm most of the way through the turn when another car appears out of my blind spot. Someone from the right moving fast. It seems like she's cutting me off, but I feel the impact. It's almost minor enough to not notice.
Actually more aware of her spinning and fishtailing out of control. Oh, and that's my front bumper that she ripped off...
She ends up over the curb, only stopping once her rear wheels hit it. I calmly pull over onto a paved spot off to the side. She's out of the car within about 30 seconds, talking to someone on her cell phone. Her hands are shaky as she asks repeatedly if I'm okay. It only occurred to me later that she must have been on the phone the whole time. In retrospect, her hands probably weren't calm enough to dial.
A few people pause to ask if we're okay. Nobody stops as a witness.
Under two minutes and the police arrive. They're always close by in Rosemont. I'm pulling my bumper out of traffic. They spend a lot more time with her and paperwork than they do with me. The officer agrees with my theory that she ran the light, but he can't prove anything, so he can't issue a ticket. I lower the rear seats and put the bumper in the car to take home. I'm not sure what to do with it, but I don't feel right leaving it there.
...
So since then I've talked to her insurance company. Their appraiser guy came out and took pictures. Tomorrow I call them back and see what happens next. They were waiting for the police report yesterday. Country Companies. My insurance company says they'll (Country) probably take care of me okay. At least it isn't a cheap-o internet company.
As usual, we'll see...?
When we had our house in Streamwood we watched a lot of movies. We also spent a huge amount of time with computer games--but another time...
The Blockbuster staff knew us by name. They knew what we liked, and often held aside a copy of new releases for us. They would stay upen an extra fifteen minutes if we hadn't come in yet. When customers asked for movie reviews they would sometimes get sent to us if we were there. We could walk down the new release wall and comment on nearly every non-horror title.
Listening to movie reviews on the radio, or watching previews, was a hobby...something I earnestly liked. I knew which times different radio shows reviewed movies during commuting hours. That hobby lasted past the active watching era.
Now, on the other hand, I've pretty much accepted that movies are not a significant part of our lives. I think we've seen one movie on the big screen this year, although I couldn't tell you what. Oh, other than Ratattoille, which counts separately since we took the kids and it was work-sponsored. We now average one to two rentals a month. Hardly dominating our time.
I've finally (and somewhat recently...over the last few months probably) stopped bothering to listen to movie reviews. For any movie that comes out...we're actually pretty unlikely to see it. And even then only the high-priority ones. Movies--and therefore movie reviews--just aren't important anymore.
Right now it's TV that has us. But not purely because we want to watch it, per se. It's light escapism. The kids go down and we just want something simple for an hour or so before bed.
Sometimes we get stuck and go to bed an hour later than planned. We don't watch anything while the kids are awake, and there are a few shows we really like.
But at the same time, I sometimes ask myself: If we cancelled the dish and went withouth, which ones would I genuinely be frustrated at missing?
Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and the 4400.
Bionic Woman (has good potential--curious where they're taking it...), Stargate Atlantis (Ronan rocks, but is the main strength of the show), Eureka (which just wrapped up season 2--we'll see if it gets a 3rd), Moonlight (fun so far, if it lasts...?), Chuck (still too new to know and probably doomed anyway)... All those I would get over before all that long.
There are plenty of ways our lives could improve if we unplug. Plenty of other ways to fill the time. But maybe right now we still need the sanity break time. Or maybe it's holding us back from fixing the things causing some of the stress in the first place.
I just don't know...
So we went to Minnesota for cousin Kevin's wedding a couple weekends ago (already). It was a good trip, but stressful... too far for the kids still. I think three hours is about the sane limit.
There was one little thing that irked me more than it probably should. Other than being in a city which claims the Mall of America as the number one tourist attraction in the country. Damn, but I hope that's not backed up by real numbers... 'cause that's just sad.
But I'm getting more and more annoyed at the omnipresence of advertising. There were huge stretches of forest we drove through. Large hills rising up, rolling the landscape around for fun and sport. And rising up out of the middle were billboards upped to some preposterous scale so that you could still read them at what had to be a mile or more off.
Even the cards for the hotel room doors had ad space sold out on them. Never mind that I have to be a bit beyond starving to actually order Dominos Pizza. I'd rather get a frozen one at some scary convenience store (not that we had a scary convenience store encounter on that trip...).
But, come on. Do we need every square inch of our lives leased out for advertising? They had a couple of sports stadiums... with corporate sponsor names. I can't decide which movie I'm reminded of more: Vanilla Sky, or They Live.
I drive to work and see the billboards lined up along the expressway like predatorial mile markers. Every now and then there's a missed spot with open sky. And I have to imagine that somewhere there's an ad or sales exec bemoaning that lost advertising space...
[Submitted to Vocalo.org 10/29/07]