Fifteen things that maybe people don’t know about me

I am going to be a little bit off grid for a minute or two. As a placeholder, here is a brief list of some things you may not know about me. If I come back on grid, maybe there will be something more interesting.

It could happen.

1. I have been held up at gunpoint.

2. I have been married 3 times.

3. I lived in France for 3 years.

4. I have been involved with recording 3 records. I’ve never even heard the last one.

5. I used to be convinced that I would die before I was 40. Apparently I was wrong about that. Maybe I meant in dog years.

6. I have studied 5 different foreign languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Arabic.

7. I studied Tribal belly dance for 2 years.

8. I am not a sea food fan.

9. I used to hate football. Blame left handed quarterbacks.

10. I have a thing for pop music.

11. Although I seldom wear it, I love lipstick. Red lipstick.

12. When I die, you should all hope that you are not the ones who have to clean out my house. Not so much because of the clutter but because I have a lot of embarrassing belongings. I don’t care. I will be dead.

13. I have an ideal death scenario.

14. I have a thing for stripey socks and argyle. Today I am wearing stripey socks and an argyle sweater. They do so go together.

15. I do not feel like anyone else’s rules about hair brushing or style apply to me. Oh. Wait. You all prolly noticed.

PS: Happy birthday to Robin, who should really be at Sandtime with us. Your personal charms and way with words will go down in Tierra del Mar history:

I’m going to need a bigger bowl…

Love you, Blonde Goddess!!!

New experiences for the New Year

I made a pot of chili for game day, and it all got eaten. That is definitely a first.

Kyle, Rick and Chelle all golfed on a course that was frozen solid for the first time. We discovered that golf balls bounce really high on a frozen course. We also discovered that we didn’t particularly enjoy it after about the 13th hole. It was really, really cold.

Chelle got to fish for golf balls in the ice. She didn’t even fall into the frozen pond. She liked it.

I drove a golf cart and stayed on the path the whole time for the first time.

I had ice cream for dinner for the first time.

Kyle had pho for the first time, and liked it.

I crocheted a headband for the first time, and liked it.

Rocky, who has resolved to be more tolerant of other people’s coffee choices, did not object when we put Bailey’s in our coffee. He even brought cream for us to put in our coffee if we wanted to. This is an area of huge personal growth for him, and we are all proud.

We watched the Ducks win the first semi-final college football playoff game against FSU and loved it. There may have been both whooping and hollering.

The Boyz simultaneously called me out for violating my resolution to be unkind when I made fun of Jameis Winston. Yep. Liked it. Really. Being called on bullshit is good for you.

I went to a Blazer game with Paddy for the first time.

I watched “Pretty in Pink” for the first time.

I wrote about terrorism and didn’t like it.

Not a bad start for a brand new year…I wonder what else we will come up with?

An imaginary conversation about killing in the name of God

That attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris was really terrifying.

Islam should just be banned. Sick fucks.

Excuse me?

Their religion justifies murder. Don’t tell me you support that. They killed people over cartoons? Who does that?

I don’t support any form of murder. Or oppression for that matter.

Have you forgotten about 9/11? Or Boston? Muslims are attacking us everywhere!

Have you forgotten about the Crusades? Or the Inquisition? The Federal Building in Oklahoma City? Bombing the NAACP office? Bombing clinics? The people who did this are sick fucks, but it’s not because of their religion, it’s because they won’t accept anyone else’s right to different beliefs or behavior.

I can’t believe you are sticking up for terrorists.

I’m not sticking up for them, I am disagreeing with your views condemning an entire religion because some of the people in the religion are sick fucks.

You don’t even like religion!

It’s true. I don’t. I think many people use religion for purposes God would disapprove of if there was one. I think sometimes religion is just an excuse for people to do all sorts of things.

Probably so.

Religion is only the excuse people use to justify the fucked up shit they are doing. Religion and politics. I’m just sick about this, and I don’t even like the sort of cartoons they published in Charlie Hebdo–I think they are disrespectful. In the same way Piss Christ is disrespectful. Art and comedy often use disrespect to throw light on something that needs attention.

And that justifies killing?

Would you think it was OK for me to kill you if you called me a bitch?

Of course not!

Right. Disrespect doesn’t justify murder. Even extreme disrespect. I might not care for their form of satire, I might even think it skews toward racism,but it’s their right to publish it. Extremists don’t even really care about the disrespect. All they care about is silencing all dissent through terror.

Who do they want to silence?

People who believe in equality for women, for homosexuals, freedom to choose their religion, show their faces in public, choose when to have children. Anyone and anything, pretty much. Anyone who disagrees. That is why supporting the right of journalists, writers and the media to speak freely is so important. They help make sure other voices are always heard. Our voices.

Even voices we find repellent?

Especially those. Everyone agrees with the easy stuff. We have a harder time defending things we disagree with.

It’s easier when we think about what is at stake, isn’t it?

I hope so. What’s at stake is pretty much…everything. We can’t keep letting people silence us for anything they disagree with.

So what’s the solution? Kill them all?

It doesn’t seem to have worked so far. Jail the ones who do this…go after the training camps…invade a country they hide in…turn the entire country into a training camp for terrorists when they object to the invasion. It seems like there must be some other way. Although obviously, we have to find them and put them behind bars. It doesn’t seem like much, does it?

So what more should we do?

Build more schools? Feed more people? Work harder to eliminate poverty and repression through non-violent means?

Do you think that would work?

I wish I knew. Peace, love and understanding seem like a better solution than an arms race, don’t they?

A little of all of those would be good right now.

We all need to keep using our voices, and not just to drown each other out, but to try to understand each other.

Continue reading An imaginary conversation about killing in the name of God