“…government of the people, by the people, for the people” is a famous part of his Gettysburg address, a location that I have the privilege to live next to. Lately it seems that the only part of that desired governing ideal he described that we remember is the “for the people” part. Apparently Katrina “victims” have decided to sue the government for $3 quadrillion dollars. This ridiculous amount is called a negotiation tactic.

So here is my question. Let’s suppose a meteor came out of the sky and landed square on your roof. Your house is now destroyed (you and your family were at work and school during this time, so you survived). You have no where to live, and your homeowners insurance has declared a moratorium against God, so His acts are not covered. You are sunk. No home, a mortgage for a hole in the ground. Your neighbor comes to you and says, “Hey, I am so sorry for what happened. Do you want to stay with us for a few days, until you can get things together and get some directions?” Grudgingly, because you really want to sleep in your own bed, you thank him, and you and your family stay in his house, eat his food, watch his cable television. Time passes. You end up renting an apartment, because you can’t afford to buy another house, and you are struggling to survive. Your frustration and bitterness build. So one day you go to your neighbor, the same neighbor who took you in, fed you, clothed you, and let you live off of his generosity, and you demand recompense: He needs to buy you a new house, because this whole situation wasn’t fair, and he didn’t lose his house, and so he needs to belly up to the table.

Does this even make sense? The “victims” of Katrina - we act as though Katrina is a person and purposely attacked them - are suing our government. Hmm, now let me see. Who is that government? Oh yeah, that’s us. The people. These victims are suing us, because life isn’t fair, and the rest of us, who weren’t attacked by Katrina, should have to pay for it. That’s logical, right?

We have gotten so far away from what this government was intended to be, it is sickening. Life isn’t fair, and I am very empathetic to those who lost their homes in the storm that was Katrina. But they need to make sure their local government is better prepared for the future, and accept that it is a chance you take, simply breathing every day, that trauma can hit. Learn from it, grow, help each other out of the holes of life, but for goodness sake, take responsibility for your own survival. We as a government have offered our tax dollars for their relief, done the best we could for a situation no one could truly be completely prepared for, and let their local government off the hook for not reinforcing their dams. We did not intend out assistance to return their life to its apparently lustrous state prior to Katrina. It was simply to get them through until they could get back on their feet.

I’ll tell you what: the next time life throws me a curve ball, I’m heading down to Louisiana and demanding they cough up the dough for my problems. I wonder how that would go over?

Why, yes, Ms. Jong, I agree, we should refrain from smear campaigns (like accusing an entire party of stealing an elections when recounts proved otherwise), from judgment (like “disdain for our lovely green planet” simply because we disagree on environmental laws), and we should wait and “cultivate watchfulness, not opinion mongering” (like referring to your less-favored party as “Repugnicans”). Don’t you love that we have such unbiased, nonjudgmental columnists telling us how to be nonjudgmental and unbiased like they are?

I am watching NBC, and their logo is now brilliant green. And every other commercial is punctuated with an actor advising me on how to save energy, save money, and of course, save the planet in the meantime. Apparently NBC and celebrities were not aware that those of us who actually write a check for our electric bills each month, we know how to lower our bills. We do it on a regular basis. So perhaps turning off the lights when you leave a room is a novelty for them, it’s a norm for my house.

The audacity of NBC to act as though we need to reminded how to live our lives economically is annoying. I wonder what their top dogs’ carbon footprints are? Probably right up there with our peace prize winner.

Oy.

I am watching the CMA awards. The women are stylish, gorgeous, and skinny as a rail. I know from my own brush with Nashville that these women are expected to be rail thin. I was told to drop at least 15 pounds, when I was considering a contract. I was at my thinnest, at the time. Another 15 pounds, and I would have been a rail - which was the goal, I suppose.

I am not a fan of this - women should look like women: curves, a bit of a rear end, etc. That being said: the lead singer of Rascal Flatts has always been a bit pudgy, but now he is edging on downright chubby. I wonder if he is being lectured by his record company about his weight, or if it is ignored?

What bugs me is the double standard applied. Women are never allowed to even have a bit of pudge, or else they are ridiculed for it (see recent example: Britney Spears - I know, I know, there is a whole host of things to make fun of outside of her weight). Yet men can gain weight with little impunity - or so it seems.

Thoughts?

Let’s face it - none of us appreciate paying $5 for a cup of coffee. I don’t care if it is a double mocha soy latte with vanilla flavor and whipped cream. I don’t even get a collector’s cup for all that froth and cash. But okay - it is fast, it’s easy, and they have free wifi.

Au, contraire, mon frere. No longer is free wireless internet synonymous with coffee shops and warehouse-sized book sellers. No, they not only charge the price of a meal for a gratuitous, tooth-yellowing syrup, they also expect you to pay for your wifi. $20/month or $10/day. What is up with that? The only free wifi I’ve found is at Panera (for a limited time), Giant Superstore (in their dining area) and local privately-owned coffee shops.

And as a final note, what is with the extra charge for soy milk? I’m friggin’ lactose intolerant. I’d rather have the nectar of the utter-goddesses, but unless you want your coffee shop unexpectedly attacked by a stink bomb, you’d better give me my soy. Shouldn’t I blackmail the barrista to keep his coffee shop a stink-free zone??

If you have ever bought your Viagra off a spam email! Seriously, if I needed Cialis - and I’m pretty confident I don’t - like I would buy it from some spam email or comment on a blog!? And when I want my Swedish girl-on-girl-on-guy action, I will get it through traditional pornography sites, not spammed comments!! (Aside: isn’t it a sad state of affairs when porn sites have been around long enough to be traditional?)

Seriously - who would buy that? It is like buying something off an infomercial, only I trust Jack LaLane - or whatever his name is - more than I trust Mr. My-Private-Parts-Are-Too-Big. Yeesh.

And for the ladies - is there anything even remotely attractive about an erection lasting more than four hours? I’m just feelin’ the pain, on that one.

For those who are interested….

I’ve decided to work on getting published. Yes, yes, the unfinished novel and all that….it does occasionally get finished. I’ve written quite a bit over my life, and I am tired of whimping out. So I am currently working on a piece. I will be posting it online, for feedback. Please feel free to offer constructive criticism. The site is called “Fallen Angels” - the working title of my piece. Even I’m getting annoyed with the title.

Feel free to check it out - as I edit more of it, I will post more. Makes sense, no? =)

I’ll occasionally post here, when I feel the desire. Politically, I just don’t care any more. Socially - well, I worked in welfare for a while, and let me tell you, you get a nasty look at those you ideally want to defend. So unless something really gets to me, I doubt I’ll say a whole lot.

Thank you to all who recently commented or emailed - I appreciate it. I’m doing just fine.

God bless, to all.

I am pleased to report that my results from my barrel-of-monkies-fun procedure were benign. No worries. ::sighs::

On this side, though, I have to admit - I’ve done quite a bit of thinking. Partially because of my family history and undoubtedly because I live in perpetual guilt, I was contemplating that I might be dead in under a year. What can I say? I’m the queen of overreacting, when it comes to medical stuff. Anyway, it made me think about my life - what would I want to do if I only had a year to live? And this time, I wasn’t thinking hypothetically. While the fear was irrational, it was just as real as if it were true. Priorities definintely shift, and the things I thought were important took a radical nose dive.

If you only had a year to live….what would you do? Who would you love? Would you be happy with what you had accomplished so far? Or would you tend to feel - as I do - that there is so much yet to be done? What will your legacy be? As I drove to my doctor’s appointment, I looked down at my hands as they clutched the steering wheel - I wiggled my fingers. So alive - so much a part of who I am. They are my expressions and my personality, as much as my face, my crooked tooth, my eyebrows….yet if they ceased to have life, they started to mold and decay….what would be left behind? It is hard to imagine that line between life and death, that some of us have yet to come to terms with. I do not know if I have, at least - not completely. I’m definitely more accepting of it now.

I am not, however, confident if the lesson will be worth the amount on the bill….but it was worthwhile to learn.

I’m not sure when it happened. Something that seems so incredibly resilient, so virile, is suddenly incredibly fragile. Nothing has changed; not really. Simply perspective, knowledge has been gained, increased. And everything becomes very, very different.

I am sure I was one of ten or fifty they see in a day. Not a person, just a body part, to be examine briefly, diagnosed, treatment plan put in place, and then dismissed. Somewhere, in that bland itinerary, life changed for one of us in the room. The life of one was shocked into disarray, into tiny pieces that seemed so fragmented, there was no way they could be put back together. Poor Humpty had a lesson to teach us - he never did end up too well at the end of the rhyme.

Suddenly, what seemed normal - a bad hair day, a stain on a favorite shirt that forces an outfit change - became inconsequential. It seems that way, with everything - none of it means much. Yet every single second has meaning, and those inconsequential wrinkles in a moment are vital to the survival of normalcy.

It could be nothing, no more than a blip on the radar. It could be something, that sends the signal off the screen - temporarily. Permanently. I don’t know. Soon, I will know, and life will either be normal again, or it will be something unknown. Either way, it leaves little moisture to wet the arid throat that craves the answer it cries for, yet fears the danger in those layman’s terms. Time will tell.

I was pondering the conversations I always have with my grandmother. She and my grandfather are the only family I have left. Yet when I call her, I always find myself anxious to get off the phone, and I feel guilty, so I stay on the phone even longer than I intended. Nod your head at your computer screen if you ever feel that way with your relatives on the phone. What does grandmother talke about? The latest candidate on The Bachelor (a show which absolutely nauseates me); the latest American Idol shocker; Let’s Make a Deal failures; and if all else fails or is preempted by baseball games, the most recent gossip in the country music world. I am bored to tears with these discussions. Of course, this is after I hear all about the illnesses and deaths in the family, which comes immediately after her health update. This is not an unusual conversation to have with someone who is over 70, and I would bet, most of you have had similar conversations.

Here is what bothers me: If you listen to those you work with, go to church with, or perhaps just your neighbors, you will frequently hear people counting down to retirement. Get around some soon-to-be retirees, and all you will hear about is their plans for when they no longer have to go to work. It usually revolves around travel, home-improvements, or relaxation. While I am not one to blame them for wanting some time to relax - they’ve earned it in my book - whatever happened to volunteering, working with children, and spreading around the wisdom gleaned over the years?

When I think about “retirement,” I think about all the time I will have to put back into society. All the sources I have taken advantage of to learn and orchestrate this thing called life: I’ll have a chance to give it back and move ball a little further down the field for the next generation. Of course, it is easy to speculate about noble causes at the ripe young age of 30….and yes, you twenty somethings, thirty gets really young as it becomes your reality. Still, isn’t that how things used to be?

It used to be that there were no such things as retirement homes. Families took care of each other. Grandparents helped raise the children. They were never a burden - they were family. Volunteer organizations were dependent on at-home moms and grandmothers. Retirement? You worked until you couldn’t work anymore - that was how you put food on the table and showed an example to the family. Ecclesiastes 4 and 5 talks about finding joy in your work, no matter how abundantly you are blessed or not blessed. Whether you have a lot or a little, you are to continue working and taking joy in your ability to work. Other cultures around the world, cultures not as blessed as ours, are very tight-knit, with family taking care of family. It is not only the way that works for them, but it is the only way, as they cannot afford to pay someone to help them with their lives and loved ones.

No, I’m not against retirement or getting some relaxation. And the thought of my mother-in-law living with me is enough to stagger even the bravest of hearts. Love that woman, mind you, but many of you probably understand what I mean. But think about this: we pay people barely more than minimum wage to care for our elderly family members. If we can’t pay, the state provides it. And that was okay. Then we started paying barely more than minimum wage for our children to be raised by someone else. Do you see a pattern here? We expect our families to get the same care and concern while we pay someone else to take care of them. Does that even make sense?

I have no idea what the solution is. It seems we have gotten so far away from “traditional” family structure that I’m not even sure I know what it is. It just seems sad to me, to see so many retired people wasting away in retirement villages, mobile home parks in the south, and tiny apartments, seemingly waiting to die, while our babies and children are being raised by strangers who are being paid very little to protect and nurture them. We have a society that is making the same mistakes over and over again, while those who have been there, done that, are not around to give advice on what they have learned. They are too busy watching “The Bachelor” and “The Price Is Right.” Somehow, there has got to be a better way.