Discrimination

Discrimination has been a touchy subject for just about forever, but for me it is just another fact of life. Of course we always want things to be as fair as possible. We make laws to ensure equal treatment for everyone, and many of those laws are needed to prevent violence and hate. However, discrimination cannot be totally eliminated. EVERYONE discriminates every day whether they know it or not. You discriminate between your clothing to decide what to wear. You discriminate between different houses to decide where you want to live. Discrimination could really be called judging, and people usually have no problem with it until it involves other people. But don't we all judge people every day? When you see a guy walking down the street who looks kind of shady, do you try to avoid him? When you see a person who you think is ugly, do you want to be friends with them? Would you take an overweight person's advice on how to lose weight? Those are just a few examples of the countless ways we discriminate. So when does discrimination go too far? When you discriminate against someone because of the color of their skin? How is that any different than discriminating against someone who is ugly? I recently saw a guy on t.v. who admitted that if he wanted to hire someone, and he had two candidates with equal qualifications, he would hire the better-looking person. WHAT? If he said that about a black person and a white person, I'm sure he would have had all kinds of people very upset with him, and he probably would have lost his job. Yet, everyone seemed to accept it as a fact of life that prettier people get breaks that ugly people do not. So tell me, how can an ugly person change the fact that they were born ugly any more than a black person can change the fact that they were born black? Don't give me that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" bullshit. Everyone knows that certain people are just not as good-looking as others. That's a fact of life, just like discrimination is a fact of life. So what do we do about it? ACCEPT IT. Don't accept major injustices, but don't be too sensitive either. As you may have heard, life isn't fare, so don't expect it to be. Maybe you didn't get that job you wanted because you weren't good looking enough or even because of your race or religion. Move on. Find the people and things that make you happy, and forget about those who don't accept you.

We Are All Doomed

I sure didn't mean to go so long without posting, but life just seems to get in the way sometimes. I'm sure you have all been waiting in the edge of your seats, so here it goes.....

Yesterday, Mike and I watched a t.v. show about the crumbling infrastructure of America. Bridges and damns collapsing, huge pipes bursting and leaking. That sort of stuff. It was enough to make a person want to crawl into a bomb shelter and never come out. Yet that would not even protect you, because we also watched a show about how, eventually, the sun will burn out. Great, just great.

Sometimes I wonder why we even try. Do we hope for God to save us when the sun burns out, or do we have to find a way to save ourselves? It seems very unlikely to me that we could possibly find a way to save human kind when the sun burns out, but what do I know? If you are wondering why I am even worried about the sun burning out because it won't happen for a very long time, here is what I have to say about that - It is more a philosophical issue for me. If God exists, why would he give us a sun that would eventually burn out? Are we supposed to find a new plant? Will we all die and go to heaven when the sun burns out? Where is heaven if there is no sun and no one left on earth? I really have no idea. So I try not to worry about the end of the earth too much. If it comes it comes, and then I will see first hand what happens. If I die before the end of the earth, then hopefully I will be a floaty spirit, off being happy somewhere. Until that happens, I guess we just live life the best we can, try to take care of the earth, and think really hard about ways to save the earth when the sun burns out.

Sixty-One

Yesterday, my mom would have been 61 years old. Sadly, she only made it just shy of her 48th birthday before passing away from breast cancer. I think the hardest part about losing someone you love is not missing them, but wondering how life could have been if they were still here. Would I go out to lunch with my mom? Would she give me advice? Would she tell me more about her past? Would she be proud of me on my wedding day? How would she interact with her grandchildren? Would she have traveled with my dad? Those questions can never be answered now, even though I have a pretty good idea what the answers would be. Still, wondering what life would be like with her today still gets to me sometimes. A mother is a very hard thing to go without.

I guess the only thing you can do when you lose someone is go on living and remember the ways they changed your life. My mom gave me her love of reading and writing, music and nature. She also gave me her taste for cucumbers and vinegar and her big teeth and round face. But most of all, she gave me life and a wonderful mother for 15 years.



This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom just because she looks so happy. I like to think of her as a young women, before life got difficult. I like to think that wherever she is now, this is how she looks - peaceful and happy.

Wait

Every year I anxiously await the local Greek food festival. There is now less than a week until it arrives and I am practically salivating in anticipation. I don't think it is even so much about the food as it is about the tradition and the anticipation. If I ate Greek food every day of my life, you could bet I wouldn't be going to the festival. But as it stands, that two-day festival is the only time and place I can get some of my favorite Greek foods without traveling far and wide. The waiting for it and thinking about it makes it so much more enjoyable when I actually get it. In my opinion, American society is WAYYYYYYY too addicted to instant gratification. I am a strong believer that there is something to be said for waiting. Waiting often makes you realize how much you do (or don't) really want something. It helps you savor life. If you are always jumping from one thing to the next, it makes it very difficult to really appreciate or enjoy anything. Also, when people don't wait they tend to do things that they later regret because they didn't stop to think about it. So next time you want to jump into something, maybe just wait and think a little.

People Of The World Unite

If there is one thing that really annoys me, it is people who are mean and rude for no good reason. Notice I said no "good" reason. They might have a reason, but it is usually not a good one. People of the world, why not make it a mission and a goal to be nice more often then not? Why not be helpful rather than hurtful? It is probably the easiest thing you could do to make the world a better place. You are still allowed to have your bad days when you just can't bring yourself to be nice, but unless your life is hell, you have no excuse. Even then, you don't have much of an excuse, because even if your life is hell, that is no reason to not try to uplift yourself and others.

The place where I work has a policy where the employees have to greet everyone that comes into the store. I have no problem with that, but I want to be genuine about it. If there is one thing I hate more than mean people, it is fake people. With mean people, at least you know where you stand. With fake people, you are manipulated, and I think that is much worse. This seems to happen more often with girls than with boys, so you can bet I experienced fakeness first hand many times. Who needs people who lie and manipulate? I, for one, try to clear them out of my life. I want to live in a positive way, and I want to be around people who feel the same.

That is all.

Room With A View

Ever since I can remember I have loved having a window in my house with a view. I am not one of those dark basement dwellers. I need light and something interesting to look at. Give me a good window and a comfortable spot in front of it and I can stay there for hours. Granted, I also like having a book or some sort of project to work on in front of the window, but the view itself can be quite entertaining.

The first good view I remember was from my room when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I had a room on the second story facing the back of the house, so I could see the backyard and far into the neighborhood. When my family moved from that house to Utah, I remember hoping so much for another room on the second story. It didn't really work out that way since my next room was in the basement. That room had two windows, but they looked out into window wells full of spiders and all kinds of creatures that you don't want to see. Subsequently, I spent a lot of time in the living room, where I could look out onto the street and see what was going on.

My last apartment had the best view out of the entire complex because it was on the second floor and right in the middle of everything. I miss it terribly now that I am in my current place. Now, my front room has those tall skinny windows from the 70's, and half of them are frosted. Even when you do crawl behind the couch and peek out, you only see the boring cul de sac that we live on. That doesn't stop Bear from finding things to bark at, however. I think she barked less as our last apartment simply because she could see more. For now I will live with my bad view, but the next place that I live better be making up for my suffering.

Addicted

Fall is approaching and with it comes whole new seasons of some of my favorite t.v. shows. I never wanted to be a t.v. junkie, but I somehow seem to have become just that. Not that watching t.v. is all I do, but I do watch far more than I would like. I would like to be one of those people whose life is so busy and full that they have no time for t.v. but I don't see that happening any time soon. I'm hooked. One of my favorite shows that just started up again is America's Next Top Model. Not only am I a t.v. junkie, but I am a sucker for reality shows. Mike can't stand ANTM and I can understand why. Even for me Tyra Banks is just a little too crazy and the girls on the show are just a little too obsessive over her and catty with each other. But I don't watch it because of that. I love the artistic side of the show - posing, lighting, hair and make-up. Everything that goes into a beautiful picture. It all appeals to the artist in me. Not that I am a great artist, but I still love art. I guess the creativity is also what appeals to me in other shows like interior decorating shows, cake decorating shows, and cooking shows. I hate to admit it, but Martha Stewart's show was one of my favorites back in the day. I think Martha Stewart is a little crazy too, but it seems like all the good t.v. personalities are.

However, I can't claim creativity for the reason I like all my t.v. shows. I also like the show Teen Mom, which really has nothing to do with creativity. That show appeals more to my desire to see how other people live. I think I have mentioned before that I am very interested in different lifestyles, and if I can't live them all at least I can watch other people live them. This may be rather nosy of me, but they are the ones who decided to put their lives on t.v. Wrong or right, I will probably be watching shows like Teen Mom and ANTM for a very long time.......unless my t.v. breaks.

There's No Place Like Home

As much as I like to travel, I have always been the sort of person who needs a place I can call home. As a kid, my family moved quite a bit because my dad was in the military, and while I loved all the places I experienced, I always felt happiest when my family was together at home. I have lived in Utah now for about 18 years, so I guess it is safe to say it is my home. I love Utah for it's beautiful places and family-friendly atmosphere. But I dislike it for all the restrictions on things like alcohol and strip clubs and the general intolerance of different people like gays. (Just if you're wondering, I think you can still have a family-friendly environment without such strict limits on alcohol and strip clubs.)

Sometimes I dream about moving away, but I know I would miss my family like crazy. When my brother moved away to for four years to go to college, it was really hard to deal with, even though he visited frequently. Now that all of my brothers are grown and married, it is a little easier because they all have their own lives and families. But family and home will always be important to me. I like to be in a place where I know the roads and where certain businesses are. I like having my family be just a phone call away. What else could you really ask for?

Up Close And In Person

I had a few extra minutes before work this morning, so I decided to browse for clothing online. It was a very unsatisfying experience, and that is something coming from someone addicted to clothes shopping. As popular as online shopping has become, I am fairly certain it will never replace actually going to the store. Online shopping may be good for price comparison or things that you have to buy but don't really car about. (That would be auto parts in my case.) But for almost anything else, you can't beat being in the the store. I love the atmosphere, seeing things in person, and especially touching them. Some online stores let you zoom in on the product to examine it in great detail, but somehow that is still not enough. Maybe this is a personal problem of someone who likes to shop, but I don't see real stores being replaced any time soon. Phew! I was worried there for a second.

Passion

I have always been envious of people who know exactly what they want. You know, the sort of people who say things like,"Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a firefighter." or "I always knew I wanted three kids." What bliss and simplicity it must be. For me, and probably for many people, finding out what you want to do with your life is half the battle. After that it is all downhill because you just have to do it. Sure, many things are very difficult to achieve, but if you have a true passion for it, you are rewarded greatly. If you don't know what your passion is, then you could waste years or even your whole life trying things that don't make you happy in the end. Of course it also helps if you have some sort of natural talent associated with your passion. If your passion is to be an artist but you are horrible at art, you may also waste much of your life being frustrated at not being able to realize your passion. So, I guess, more accurately, I envy people who have a passion AND a talent. But if you have ever been to any kind of church, they always tell you that being envious is bad. Envy supposedly corrupts the soul and wastes time as well. So, I should probably get to work finding a passion because that seems to be the better of the two time wasters.