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My Friend Andee brought up a very valuable question in her (fabulous) Blog:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

She asks THE question:

It brings up this question: In a day and age with no Little Yellow Birds and no Expectations of behavior, do I continue to try and instill these old-fashioned values in my kids, or do I throw in the towel and give them a fighting chance amongst peers who have no respect for others, much less, themselves?

And this brings me to a topic that is eating at me since some time now (since it happened, actually). Here is the story [rant on]:

I have the same problem. Here is our personal conundrum:

We have 5 sets of direct neighbors (as we are in the middle of a settling). One family has one kid, Mark, who is 4. The other family has two kids. Their smallest, Alice, 5, plays with Mark. Their older boy, Peter, 8, plays, well, not with many kids, it seems. (Btw, I changed the names. They’re not their real names).

I cannot say I initially disliked them. They are very different than we are, rather uptight and closed. But I remained friendly and did all the necessary neighbor stuff: Invited them to garden parties, wrote them Christmas cards, gave them an Easter basket and so on (although none of this was ever reciprocated, but these are things I do not measure, so I don’t care).

The kids are EXTREMELY well behaved. As far as mute counts as well behaved. You seldom hear them talk at all, and surely not in the presence of adults. But. I am continuously finding out they are… mean. Just evil. I mean it. (more…)

Make a Wish

Thank God it’s spring.

So 2008 is drawing to an end. I remember the last New Year’s Eves clearly. All of them sweet, surrounded by friends and loved ones. But all of them summing up a year that was nothing less than difficult.

I remember how my husband and I toasted each other, praying: “May the next year be better than the last. May it finally be better.”

It never was, not really. And I came to the conclusion that this, probably, is life. That there is no such thing as unfettered love and happiness. Who am I to know? (more…)

The lovely V1c again, and she shot three questions at me. Those questions are concerning math, philosophy, science, geography and history. I hate you, V1c. No, not really.

As all three of them call for a rather longish answer, I will answer all of them in a separate entry (and each will be a day of its own). The first one is day eight, and it’s a really tough one for me.
Question #1 by V1c: Do you believe in the fundamental basis of mathematics or was it something concocted to keep men busy and feeling superior as they play with little made-up numbers? Is it just another way to provide fake proof to theories that continue the subjugation of people or is there some real basis to it? Is it a pure science, from God, a divine entity, natural, or another creation of man?

This is a tough one because I used to hate math when I was in school. But even then, when I was honest with myself, I admit that I rather hated it because it was a family tradition to hate it. (more…)

Here is an original Blackout Poem just for you Blog readers out there.

This was done for a Worth Contest, but never made it, because I wasn’t able to shrink the scan to the necessary maximum size without making it unreadable.

Click the thumbnail for 355kb poetic goodness.

The final poem reads:

God?

I walked alone
and shadows struck me
I greeted faces,
reached for people
?
but God had turned his back.

Beneath consciousness,
the deeper waters,
appears a cold warrior,
powerful, transforming

we have arrived at a critical mass.

irrevocable change
in a world of exploration
yet, the heart understood
the death of God

filled with hubris and danger.

wholeness may be
rooted in heresy
its victory cost dearly
and defeat is in the air.

death by transformation

I walked away,
surrendering to
the vast oceans of myth
and the masks of God.

the courage to let go.