Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Reading

I've been embedded in the Civil War, slavery - both from the slave-owner and the slave point of view and state's rights vs. centralized government.  Suffice it to say it is very serious reading and my pondering has become quite intense, as I analyze what I've read and compare it with my faith, what I've seen in my own lifetime and other matter that I've read over the years.

I think I need to come up for air, so..... I've been cleaning up a storm.  I've managed to clean out my clothes closets and my husband's clothes closet, all our bureaus and I've rearranged the kitchen counters.  We have lots and lots of bags of clothes for the Salvation Army - as well as shoes, knick-knacks, old appliances - you name it.  I think we just shoved things in closets for years - and now they have been cleaned out and put in order.  I can actually open my bureau drawers!!  Most of my shopping is done at second hand stores anyway - and sometimes I've been known to go a little nuts with buying things at such cheap prices - things I really don't need and don't end up using.  Now I have truly pared down to a workable group of clothes - and there is still plenty.  My rule was if I never wear it - out it goes.  It feels so good to look in those closets and drawers now - and I know I can keep them that way.  I cleaned out the living room closet and all my Christmas stuff this past Holiday Season and it has stayed in order.  I actually feel like I'm getting somewhere in the goal of keeping control of my home!! 

Outdoors, it has been unseasonably cold for South Florida, but we have had rain every 4 days or so, so we haven't had to water (which saves money as we don't have a well or sprinkler system and must use city water to water our lawn and flowers).  Last weekend I did some weeding and there are some significant areas that need lots of TLC.  Perhaps this upcoming weekend I'll get out there and clean up some of the areas that need it.

And of course, there is the Morning Glory vine from hell.  That sucker has been growing here since the day we moved in.  Our neighbors poisoned and killed it once, but it came back from the dead.  I've pulled out every vestige of it on the left side of the back yard and last spring, when we cut down the bushes in the center of the back yard, the man who did the cutting pulled out ALL the morning glory at the back of the yard.  It is staging a comeback in that area and it is growing all over the bushes on the right side of the back yard now.  I have to crawl in amonst the bougainvillea, get scratched up as if I've fought with 8 cats, and rip it out by it's prodigious roots once again.  I can hardly wait.  I'll need to stock up on Neosporin.  That Morning Glory vine WILL NOT DIE.  Ever.  Not ever.  Sigh.  I will never conquer it, I fear.  Long after I am dust and my house is dust and it is maybe 3 or 400 years in the future, that Morning Glory vine will be somewhere  in the vicinity - even if it's covered in concrete.  It will MAKE a crack in the concrete and then grow up through it. 

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Sometimes I Just Need to Shut Up

Yesterday at work I spoke up about some of my conservative opinions in the midst of people who are very liberal.  I am usually outnumbered in my work place by those who think quite differently from me.  I was just so full of energy and had just gotten back to the office after completing several tasks and a conversation was already in full swing with my coworkers.  The subject was terrorism and airlines and the latest rumors regarding attacks on the US.  

In my oh so superior knowledge I threw out a few comments to these rubes - I knew they'd roll their eyes and think I'm one of those crazy Bible clinging right wingers.  They mentioned airlines and how they didn't like to fly and one of the younger members of the office was leading up to some sort of semi-judgemental statement about Muslims with the usual politically correct mumbo jumbo, "I don't want to offend anyone and I'm probably jumping to conclusions...." and I had to open my mouth and show them how dumb they are......"We just need to profile.  We need to do whatever Israel does and we won't have a problem."  Of course the word, "profile" had an effect.  One of the speakers is a black man and he immediately applied the word to the black race instead of to the subject of the conversation.  He said that I was just like Pat Robertson and I talk like the people who want to send all blacks back to Africa.  

Now let's step back here for a moment.  Of course that is not the way I think.  We were talking about Muslims, which is a religion, not a race - and we were talking about profiling on airlines to make flight safer.  While this idea may have it's big drawbacks, it makes more sense to me than the silliness that airlines go through now, pulling non-Muslim (and yes, I'm assuming here, since, at this time, in this country, most Muslims are still of Middle Eastern origin) grandmothers aside to wand them, etc.  I immediately asked the speaker how profiling Middle Easterners boarding an airline had anything to do with sending blacks back to Africa.  The other black member of the office piped up and said I was one step away from that type of thinking.

OK - do you get the gist here?  I was upsetting people.  Whether I was right or wrong, why oh why do I have to open my big mouth?  Am I going to - in my arrogance - teach these people anything?  Are they going to bow to my superior wisdom?  No.  They are going to think I belong in Northern Idaho now on some compound with Pat Robertson followers.  While I believe their thinking is seriously flawed and their information is acquired totally from the mainstream media - it is not my place to "correct" them.  

Most importantly, I am a Christian.  They know I am a Christian.   How does this affect my testimony?  It makes me look like a nutcase to them.  If they ever would have considered my faith as something to learn about - they sure don't now.  

Next the subject of self-defense came up and of course, I said if law abiding citizens had guns and knew how to use them, crime stats would fall.  I got the well worn phrase, "this isn't the Wild West," from my coworkers.  

So - what is the upshot of this?  I am first and foremost, a Christian, and my responsibility is to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom I am to represent.  To me this means that politics and conservative versus liberal opinions takes a back seat.  Too late now for that.  My arrogance got in the way and I just had to interject my 5 cents....

What say you - am I over reacting or should I be more careful what statements I make?