Department Of Boys And Girls, Can You Identify These Magazines?
Silly question. The titles are right there, on the cover, juat like any periodical, right?
Almost. Here is another example.
Girls and boys, can you note the difference?
I knew you could.
The last picture has the subscriber’s address on it and the return address of the organization; other than that, the cover is ala the proverbial brown paper wrapper. When you unfold it, you see that it is Freethought Today, the periodical for members of the FFRF – Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Several years ago I found out from a FFRF board member the reason for the *discretion*: when the FFRF first began to publish Freethought Today – with the periodical’s title and other text and graphics on the front cover, just like any other organization’s journal – many members reported that their copies often arrived in their mailboxes having been damaged. They’d been torn, graffitied, and vandalized with anti-freethought screeds, with article headlines crossed out and threats scribbled across the cover. Now, who would have motivation to do such a thing? The slogans and threats had a “Christian” (if often scatological, obscenely-worded) theological bent (repent or you f****ing ass**** atheists are going to hell/kill a commie godless bastard for Christ[1] ). The logical deduction being that it is the recipients’ Good Christian® friends, or family, or neighbors? Postal carriers and/or the U.S. P.O. mail sorters? [2]
The publishers ofChristianity Today[3] (founded by Billy Graham), U.S. Catholic (published by the Claretian Missionaries[4] ), Lutheran Lifeand other religious magazines don’t have to hide the name of their publication lest the magazines be defaced by self-righteous…who? Atheists and other “non-believers.”?
But the reason why Freethought Today cannot declare itself openly on its front covers is related to why I often put aside the FFRF newsletter when it arrives. If moiself is at all in a “tender” mood (read: disgusted with a good number of my fellow human beings), I wait until I’m feeling calmer to read it.
My attempt to explain this reticence might seem more puzzling than enlightening. It has to do with the important work that the FFRF does, via education, litigation, and persuasive advocacy. Their legal department takes on cases on behalf of its members and the public, and ending hundreds of state/church entanglement violations each year, such as prayers and proselytizing in public schools and events, and public funding for religious purposes and religious symbols on public property.
FFRF lawsuits have removed Ten Commandment displays and Jesus paintings from public schools, stopped city/school board prayer; halted school subsidy of child evangelism, and stopped censorship of freethought displays, literature, and merchandise.
Other FFRF court victories include:
Halting federal funds to a bible school offering no academic classes;
Ending millions of tax dollars used to repair and maintain churches;
Successfully suing the IRS to reinstitute investigations of church politicking. [5]
All this is good news…and all this is frustrating news – frustrating in that they shouldn’t have to do this in the first place. Each case reported in Freethought Today reminds me of previously reported incidents, and of the sad fact that, because of the sheer number of the cases they take on and the responses they get, for every family who contacts the FFRF for help [6] (re their child whose history teacher proselytizes religion and makes anti-science comments in class; re the child of Jewish parents who objected to team prayers led by her Christian soccer coach and was then shunned/harassed by her teammates….) there are hundreds more who stay quiet, not wanting to be discriminated against any more than they already are.
* * *
Department Of The Subject Of This Post
…is important enough for it to be a single subject, [7] in moiself’s opinion.
A dominant worldview – dominant in terms of numbers of the worldview’s adherents (whether by actual belief, or adherents via the inertia of culture [8] ), and not dominant due to the rationality of the worldview’s content – defines everything in terms of itself.
A dominant worldview defines everything in terms of itself. Thus, the religionists have given us the term atheist, to which they want to imbue with a plethora of malicious associations even though the word simply means “not a theist.” They’ve also provided us with non-believer, another pesky misnomer, as it, like atheist, takes a person who is *not* religious and labels them in religious terms.
There’s plenty of things I “believe” in, but religion ain’t one of them. If you are religious and looking for an umbrella term for those who are not religious, moiself, along with many other freethinking folk, prefers religion-free.
Now I must address the unasked question by including a question of my own, which is why this question – “And, what do *you* believe?” goes unasked. I can count on the fingers of my two hands (if some of the fingers were missing due to a tragic food processor accident) how many times a religion-believer, upon finding out that I am not “one of them,” shows an interest in what I do believe in. The majority simply don’t ask; they’re not interested in – or their tone and body language indicate that they are fearful of/uncomfortable with – the possible answers. They just want to know if you do or do not believe what *they* believe (so that they can accordingly shun/pray for/witness to you).
As for what moiself believes, I can’t state it any better than this :
* We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems.
* We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation.
* We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life.
* We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities.
* We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state.
* We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding.
* We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance.
* We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves.
* We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity.
* We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.
* We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest.
* We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence.
* We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity.
* We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences.
* We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion.
* We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences.
* We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos.
* We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking.
* We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others.
* We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality.
* We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.
* * *
Department Of Anyone Looking For A Business Investment Opportunity?
I’m thinking of starting my own yoga studio, wherein students will practice in the nude. I’m going to call it, Yogi Bare.
May you take the Humanist creed to heart, no matter what your worldview is; May you appreciate your right to read uncensored periodicals; May you strive to be a good guest at the dinner party of your life; …and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] Freethought Today also has a regular feature article, Crankmail, wherein the editors share, printed just as received (in other words, atrocious grammar/spelling/punctuation left as is) “…some of the more ‘out there’ letters and social media comments that we get.”
[2] Who had access to the journal, once it was printed and mailed?
[3] Masthead here; I’m not sure who the publisher is and which organizations the magazine currently represents, other than “evangelical Christianity.”
[4] “a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men headquartered in Rome.” (Wikipedia)
[6] Most of the plaintiffs in the FFRF lawsuits prefer to remain anonymous, due to the harassment and threats they have received when trying to address their concerns via non-legal means; e.g., going directly to their child’s school or sports team or….
[7] Although, of course, this subject encompasses about a bajillion others….
[8] persons who, if asked re religious affiliation, say that they are Christian, then when you question them re the tenants of Christian theology they either disagree with the tenets or don’t know them… but, when you bring this to their attention, they say they know they’re not Hindu or Buddhist or Jewish and this is a “Christian” country so they identify as that.
[10] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
Department Of I Thought It First, But She Said It Out Loud
Writer and social critic Fran Lebowitz, responding to a question as to why she often gives the impression of being so angry, or why she is perceived to be so angry, either at an individual person’s behavior and/or situations around her:
“I have no power. But I am filled with opinions.” ( Fran Lebowitz, Pretend It’s a City )
Speaking of which (re having no power and being filled with opinions)….
Department Of I Usually Like Learning New Things
…but moiself is confident that I could have gone to my grave/urn/ashes scattering ceremony/medical cadaver lab in peace without knowing that there is such a thing as a yoni steam.
There; I said it (okay; typed it). Yoni steam.
Alas, there will be no such peace, for me. While searching for yoga studios in my area which might offer a tai chi or other classes of interest, I found a new (to me) place which offers a variety of yoga classes, massage, and other “wellness” services. In a website blurb the business briefly listed the services they offer, including, yoni steam.
Yoni steam. Um…say what? That got my attention, as moiself was fairly certain sure that yoniwas the Sanskrit term for vagina. Nah; it’s gotta be something else. It’s something else, all righty, as judging from the service description I clicked on: [1]
” Yoni steam, $50.00
Sit back and enjoy your time alone while sitting over a pot of warm herbs. Yoni steam has been shown to help balance your PH levels, improve odor, decrease dryness, improve menstral (sic)cycle, and increase libido.
Yoni steaming is the practice of allowing warm steam to permeate the exterior of the vagina. Use this time to allow connection with the body and plant medicine. Steaming is suggested just before and after your cycle to help with cramps, bloating and balancing your PH.”
No, Martha, it’s not, and you’d better stop smoking whatever Snoop Dogg is sharing with you if you’ve fallen down that rabbit hole.
If you think your yonineeds servicing you need to see a yoni specialist gynecologist, not a yoni steamer, FFS. You do not need to shell out $50 to squat over a glorified potpourri prepared by someone who uses woo-woo language to refer to lady parts and who can’t even spell menstrual. And what is this balancing your PH crap – how would a glorified spa employee accurately assess whether your PH is out of balance without sticking a litmus test strip up your (non-steamy) yoni?
Here’s an internet search summary of the practice (my emphases):
“Yoni steaming, also known as vaginal steaming or V-steaming, is an alternative medicine[2] practice that involves sitting over a pot of hot, herb-infused water while unclothed from the waist down. The goal is to cleanse the vulva and absorb the herbal steam through the pores to enhance blood flow and promote healing.”
From what I gathered, some peoplesay v-steaming can “…help with a variety of uterine issues, restore health and balance, and ease the transition through life phases.” That latter phrase is code for a school of thought which defines a woman’s life as a series of “phases” – read: conditions or even diseases – which need to be managed, and that everything revolves around the reproductive cycle ( “Are you pre/post/peri/quasi – /kinda/neo/retro/over/under/uber menopausal? We’ve got a pill/injection/cream/steam for you!” ). And those some peopleare those who will financially benefit from selling a product/treatment (“service”) to women whom they’ve convinced will benefit from it.
Other folks – e.g., moiself and every medical professional I worked with in my former life as a reproductive health educator/medical assistant [3] – would say the y-steaming practice is yet another gimmick which reflects Western societies’ traditional (read: repressive and shame-based) values of women and the lifelong critiquing and managing of their bodies, specifically their sexual and reproductive parts, which are presented as needing constant…”attention.”
In that former life, my colleagues and I spent a lot of time educating women about why they should *not* use the so-called “feminine hygiene/cleansing” products that had been ferociously marketed to them since adolescence. The vagina is self-cleansing; women are not “dirty’ after menstruation or intercourse; douching has been sold as a remedy for problems that mostly do not exist (and also mistakenly sold as a form of birth control, as in, wash that icky sperm right outta there…when actually, what post coital-douching does is give those swimmers a speedboat push up toward the cervix). We were happy to note that fewer women were falling for that woman-shaming practice, and that our patients knew that douching is “…harmful and should be discouraged because of its association with pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, and other conditions….” [4]
Most women nowadays seem to understand that a woman should never douche or otherwise “clean” her vaginal canal, except for those rare times (as in, for post-surgical care for certain, rare procedures) when one is instructed to do so by their medical professional (the doctor or nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant, not the receptionist or office manager). When I left that world, I was confident that douching, a medically needless and even harmful practice rooted in ignorance and shame, was dying out. Then a few days ago moiself finds out that yoni steamingis a thing.
Why should this surprise me? Ain’t never been a shortage of folks – both on “the other side” and those disguising (deluding) themselves as being pro-woman – who exploit to turn a woman’s body and natural cycles into conditions that need to be managed and “balanced.” The yoni steam is just a douche-wolf wrapped in sheep’s clothing.
Step 1. Keep it away from your yoni.
* * *
Department Of Memory Sparked By A Notable Figure’s Death
That notable figure would be the writer, producer, and activist most known for hosting his eponymous, innovative daytime talk show, Phil Donahue.
Moiself’s relation with The Donahue Show was sporadic; I watched it occasionally during the nursing-my-offspring years, and sometimes during my exercise sessions. I’d never been a daytime talk show fan, but I appreciated Donahue’s groundbreaking approach and willingness to feature guests who ruffled the feathers of the social, cultural religious, political and entertainment establishments. He had a few missteps over the years; e.g., he was somewhat patronizing to the Freedom From Religion Foundation‘s co-president, minister-turned-atheist Dan Barker, and editor and author and FFRF cofounder Annie Laurie Gaylor (ala “oh my gosh, scary atheists, you’re taking it too far…“) [5] when they were guests on his show in 1998. But Donahue was the first – and for a time he was the only – talk show host to realize that the women watching his show and those in the audience had opinions and solutions and were interested in politics and world affairs, and not just fashion and meringue recipes. And he gave them a voice by giving them his microphone, to both question his guests and voice their opinions and feedback.
Two of Donahue’s show’s guests are the subject of this memory I will share. Dateline: 30+ years ago; early in my marriage to MH; working at two Bay Area Planned Parenthood clinics. One Friday afternoon MH had some kind of work conference that was fairly local but far away enough that he was given a hotel room for an overnight stay, and since I had that day off he asked me to join him. It was a smoggy day; while MH was at a meeting I attempted to go for a walk, then decided to protect my lungs and return to the hotel room and get in some exercise before meeting MH for dinner. When I turned on our hotel room’s TV, there was the Donahue Show. To my proverbial jaw-dropping surprise, among a group/panel of Donahue’s guests who were “promoting alternative sexualities” (I did not see the show from the start, so I’m not exactly sure what that day’s theme was) were two people I recognized: a young woman, Caryn, and her “boyfriend,” Richie. [6]
Caryn was a new clinic assistant in the Planned Parenthood clinic where I worked. Richie came to work with Caryn, almost every day. He didn’t just drop her off and leave ( I’m not sure if he drove her there or if she drove the two of them); he would find an excuse to hang around in the waiting room and/or return when her shift ended. I’m not sure of Richie’s employment status; frankly, I tried to show as little interest in them as possible in order not to encourage their mutual, “It’s all about us, PAY ATTENTION AND NOTE HOW SPECIAL WE ARE !!!” obsession. But whether or not her coworkers showed any interest, [7] Caryn and Richie made sure that their personal business was everyone’s business.
Y’all know or have known such people – you may have even worked with them. Remember how tiresome it can get, sharing work space and responsibilities with fanatical attention whores seekers?
None of Caryn’s coworkers ever asked about her personal life; nevertheless, we were treated to her frequent recitations of her and Richie’s relationship. Which seemed to be the point of her existence: she was on a not-so-subtle mission to have her and Richie be considered the most unique (“freaky!”) couple you’d ever met. Your not being shocked by (or interested in) their lifestyle was of obvious disappointment to them.
The reason I qualified Richie’s “boyfriend” status was because that’s how he was introduced to me:
Caryn (amid much giggling by her and Richie): “And this is Richie, my (air quotes) boyfriend. BOYfriend…for now….”
Moiself: “Nice to meet you Richie.
Did Caryn mention that you are not allowed back in the clinic area?”
Caryn and Richie were proud of *not* being the typical young hetero couple, and they wanted, with a yearning approaching desperation, for everyone to know why. Some context is in order: This was the San Francisco Bay area in the late 80s, where, for example, the Exotic Erotic Ball , an annual costume party held on the night before Halloween from 1979 – 2009, was considered the epitome of the area’s anything-goes culture. Now, let’s say you’re a puerile, histrionic, sexuality-focused attention-seeker living in an area where gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, multi-sexual, cross-dressing, up-and-down-dressing, not-dressing, is considered old hat – or worst, for attention-seekers, even conventional. How, then, do you stand out? And those two really wanted to stand out.
It wasn’t their sexuality/gender-bending obsession that irritated me; rather, it was the attitudes they projected, which were befitting of insecure, self-absorbed ten-year-olds and not grown-ass adults:
“Look at me! Look at us! We are different; we’re special!
Please give us a just a whiff of disapproval
so that we can exult in lecture you on your judgmentalism.”
Every other shift I worked with Caryn she found a reason to mention, to either moiself or another clininician, that she was gay and Richie was in the process of “transitioning,” but that Richie’s transitioning was different from the usual transition! Her announcements would be met with tolerant silences, followed by relevant comments such as, “Uh huh. Could you get the hematocrit readings from the lab log?” from her coworkers. Caryn was not good at hiding her dismay at the lack of follow-up questions, and she would find some excuse reason to elaborate on the topic of Richie’s transition and her and Richie’s relationship.
I was a couple of steps above Caryn in the clinic assistant hierarchy, and had briefly helped with her initial training. During those trying days she found ways/excuses to mention that she was gay/lesbian (her terms varied) and was concerned about receiving equal treatment. I began to wish for the opportunity (which never arose) wherein she would whine about me being rude by not showing interest in her personal life and thus I must be LGBTQ-phobic, so that I could tell her,
Congratulations, you have achieved the equality you say you seek. I am treating you as I would any other narcissistic bore, and couldn’t care less about how you LGBTQ-BFD spin it. You’re acting like an immature ass; thus, I ‘ll give you the same respect I would give an immature ass in a three piece Brooks Brothers suit. So please, STFU and do your job.[8]
Caryn’s You-have-anything-better-to-do-than-to-hang-out-here? boyfriend Richie was actually quite a looker. He had a chiseled/angular facial bone structure and piercing dark eyes which were sometimes obscured by his shoulder-length, curly, brownish-red hair. Overall, his features were classically masculine; he was lean and tall, and his muscular physique included ample body hair (particularly on the legs), which Caryn’s coworkers were privy to because Richie’s typical attire was a short sleeved, v-neck tee or polo shirt tucked into a kilt-type man/skirt garment. And the reason for Ritchie’s transitioning (at least, the reason both Caryn and Richie found excuses to share with Caryn’s coworkers) was that although they were– of course! and enthusiastically! – having sex, Richie wanted to be with Caryn, sexually, as a female, and not as a male. You see, Richie had the soul of a lesbian trapped inside the body of a male model man. Or, to use Caryn’s favorite, oh-so-overused catchphrase description, Richie was “a dyke with a dick.“
Caryn and Richie were really proud of Richie’s dick – and so very fond it that Richie’s transition to being a woman was going to be different from your run-of-the-mill, man-to-trans woman, because Richie was transitioning not to be a heterosexual woman who has sex with men, but to be a lesbian in order to have lesbian sex with his lesbian girlfriend, only with his dick still…hanging around.
Got that? Neither did most of Caryn’s coworkers…
…which was the point of Caryn’s convoluted narratives. Because any trace of a “Uh, how’s that work?” expression [9] that flitted across a coworker’s face was an excuse for Caryn to go through the whole speil, again.
So, from context to content: there I am, in the hotel room. I turn on the TV, start doing reverse pushups on a chair, and I see Caryn and Richie on Donahue’s guest panel. The host is going from panelist to panelist (there are about a dozen), making introductions, and is asking Caryn about her and Richie’s relationship. I am gobsmacked; this is Caryn’s supreme fantasy. She is getting what she’s dreamed of: a national audience (this was way before cell phones and social media). Sure enough, Caryn manages to get in her tagline, which I’d bet she and Richie were hoping wouuld be their ticket to tagline immortality (or at least 15 minutes of fame), ala SNLcatchphrases:
* You look mahvelous! * I’ve got a fever… and the only prescription… is more cowbell! * We are two wild and crazy guys! * Well isn’t that special/Could it be… Satan?
When Donohue notes that Caryn’s and Richie’s relationship may be confusing to some people, he sets them up to deliver the phrase they intended and hoped would be a shocker. Caryn mentions how she is attracted to Richie because he’s a lesbian in the body of a man: “I like to think of him as a dyke with a dick.”
Finally, Caryn and Richie get the response they’ve been hoping from: audible gasps from the audience. And there I am, in a hotel room, face palming my forehead and saying to myself, “Please please please do NOT say where you work.”[10]
My concern was for the financial stability of my PP clinic. I’d wager that very few people, including most of the clinic workers, knew the history of how the PP clinics of San Mateo County were funded, and that they were established by both Republicans and conservatives as well as liberals and Democrats. Many Republicans back then (including my in-laws) would tell you that “true” conservatives supported PP’s mission – after all, what could be more anti-big-government than supporting the right of people to be free from government interference when it came down to determining the size of their families and managing their own health care?
Hanging in the halls of the PP clinic’s administration wing were a series of framed pictures of older men and women. Every day when I arrived for a shift I walked down the hall which led from the back entrance to the clinic, and I’d never paid attention to those pictures. Then, one morning I passed the PP second-in-command in that hallway, and she took note of the button I’d clipped to the strap of my purse:
She pointed at the button and said, “I’m a Republican. Do you think I should have a lobotomy?” Gulp. I removed the button from my purse strap. stammeringly assuring her that I never wore political “statements” of any kind when I was on duty. She proceeded to give me a tour of that wall of faces – faces of the old, conservative, Republican men and women whose initial and ongoing financial contributions ensured that the clinic stayed open and that services were available to all, regardless of ability to pay.
And there is always another thing, isn’t there? Caryn came to work dressed rather rattily, in the hobo chic style that was popular with the financially secure miscreants [11] of the day. She looked as if she’d paid good money for clothing that had been torn and stained to give the impression that the person attired in such outfits was above the judgements of mainstream society. She also wore an excess of jewelry that was not appropriate for work ( one doctor mentioned to me privately, that he thought her spiky rings and piercings were a hygienic hazard in the clinic [12] ) and several times she came to work wearing t-shirts with provocative and ribald political and sexual slogans printed on the front, slogans which were just barely/inconsistently hidden by the lab coat she had to don in the clinic. That was a dress code no-no, but no clinic manager ever mentioned it to Caryn (that I knew of), and I sure wasn’t going to open that particular gender-inclusive can of worms.
That is, until one afternoon when the clinic lead tapped me on the shoulder and asked to speak with me privately for just a moment. We stepped into the lab; she said that this was difficult/awkward for her to bring up, but that my habit of wearing brightly-colored clothing – she pointed past the hem of my lab coat to the teal green mid-calf-length skirt and multi-colored geometric patterned ankle socks I wore – had caught the eye of someone in the administration, who found my attire “unprofessional.”
I told her she might remember that I did not dress that way when I started at the clinic, but began doing so more regularly after I’d worn a colorful shirt/skirt/socks combination one day and several of my patients told me how nice it was to see “joy and color” in a clinical setting – a setting they’d really rather not be in. [13]
The clinic lead smiledn nodded, then averted her eyes when I asked her if anyone was speaking to Caryn about her coming to work in a dirt-smudged t-shirt which displayed an obscene slogan about the hetero patriarchy? When she replied no, not to her knowledge, I wondered aloud as to why that was. I gave her an out; I told her she need not answer my question as there seemed to be an unspoken acknowledgement amongst clinic staff that if Caryn were reminded about the dress code, or even questioned about her attire, she would raise a fuss about some kind of phobia (homo/trans/attention-seeking juvenile )…and until I saw equal treatment re the “professional attire” issue I will keep wearing my vibrant socks, thank you very much and don’t let the centrifuge hit you in the ass on your way to another employee attire review. [14]
And Phil Donahue: thanks for the memories, enlightenment, and entertainment.
“Do you know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine.”
( Australian actor/musician/composer/comedian Tim Minchin )
* * *
May you never have a reason to steam your (or anyone else’s)…parts; May you have entertaining memories sparked by the death of a celebrity; May you not be such peoplein someone else’s memories; …and may the hijinks ensue.
[5] I do realize Donahue often played the devil’s advocate – no pun intended in this case – when it came to asking questions of his guests, questions and critiques that he knew their critics would sling.
[6] Not her (or his) real name, which I have mercifully forgotten…although their presence is etched upon the folds of my cerebellum, for life.
[7] And the answer was most often a resounding, NOT.
[8] How and why she was hired was anyone’s guess (and I was far from being the only clinic aide who wondered). My guess was that Caryn was a diversity hire – having worked with her in clinic I can attest that it certainly wasn’t because of her experience and/or work ethic – as in, up until then, there were no openly LGBTQ women on that particular PP’s clinic staff.
[9] Which was her interpretation, when we all were really trying to convey, “And we’re supposed to care about this, because….? – just being rhetorical – PLEASE DON’T ANSWER.”
[10] And they didn’t – there was some brief identification along the lines of, “works in a health care clinic.”
[11] I’ve no idea about her family background-social class-financial status, but her casual attitude about work gave the impression that she didn’t have to worry about money.
[12] I encouraged him to bring his concerns to the clinic manager, but he told me that frankly/off the record he didn’t want to be accused of “discriminating” against her.
[14] Not verbatim. I was very fond of that person, but I made sure that she knew that I knew that there was a double standard going on.
[15] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
Dateline: Monday, 5:45 am-ish. I’d left my yoga pants on the bathroom floor overnight. As I picked them up I shook them, as moiself would with any article of clothing before putting it on, to get out the wrinkles or whatever, and a spider [1] made an athletic if somewhat startling ( to moiself) exit from one of the pant legs, where she had apparently spent a restful evening.
Or perhaps she was preparing me for a yoga pose: the Utkata Konasana variation known colloquially as, spider pose.
* * *
Department Of Just Wondering… (But Not Enough To Follow The Link For The Ad)
Dateline: Tuesday morning, 5:37 AM. After finishing the last of my New York Times word games I went on to another word game: Waffle. After finishing the daily word waffle, an advertisement popped up on my phone screen. The ad consisted of graphic of a black spider with long spindly legs, along with the phrase, “Way to stop spiders.”
Although I quickly scrolled past that on my way to the waffle royale, [2] I was distracted by, and kept thinking about, the ad’s grammatically imprecise teaser:
Way to stop spiders.
Huh? Way to stop spiders? As in, *a* way or *the best* way to stop spiders, as opposed to a slang-ish congratulatory phrase one might confer upon an exterminator:
( Duuuude, way to stop spiders! )
And if it’s the former, “stop spiders” from…what, exactly? From merely existing? From getting inside your house? From…
* building their webs across the armrests of your TV chair?
* weaving their web in the corner of your living room and successfully reproducing so that when their egg sac hatches around Christmas time dozens if not hundreds of baby spiders burst forth and land on your Christmas tree? [3]
* crawling inside your yoga pants and startling you in the morning (ahem)?
* inviting their spider friends over to sample and then critique your steamed mixed veggies with Indonesian style peanut sauce?
* going down the rabbit hole of political psychosis and weaving tiny red hats instead of webs and screaming at you at the top of their thin, quavery, high-pitched arachnid voices, “Oh look, Karen, it’s another bleeding heart woke liberal!” when you open the door and shoe out a fly that had gotten inside your kitchen instead of squashing the fly with a rolled-up issue of last month’s The Atlantic ?
Like I said, I didn’t follow the link, so I guess we’ll all just have to speculate.
Not that I have anything against spiders wearing hats.
* * *
Department Of Olympic Reflections
As previously noted in this space, I love watching the Olympic Games, both the summer and winter versions. I saw many outstanding performances in these summer games; among my favorites was the men’s 5000-meter race. I found moiself, much to my surprise and embarrassment, shouting at my TV screen ( “WTF?!?!? WT effin’ F is he doing – how can he just do that?!?!!?! “) as I watched the Norwegian entrant, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, with less than 600 meters left in the race and seemingly hemmed in by the other runners, shift into a gear that the other runners – including the four ahead of him – did not seem to have. And he looked so casual while doing it; it’s as if he suddenly reminded himself, Oh, sure, you betcha, it’s time for me to get in front. And as the other runners gasped and flailed with effort, Ingebrigtsen just…ran faster.
“To do: Check the lefse and pickled herring supply when you get home; get a new setdesdal sweater for cross country ski season,
hmm, what else was on the list – oh, yah, win the 5k….”
It’s a two year wait until the Winter Games in in Italy, and four years until the next Summer Games in Los Angeles. I’m in the process of withdrawal, from not having the luxury of sitting in the comfy chair ® for hours during and after dinner, clicking a few buttons on the remote to decide among a plethora of volleyball games or rugby matches or kayak races or fencing/skateboarding/BMX biking/gymnastics/track & field events to choose from.
Alas and yep, the games are over now, so it’s time to thoughtfully consider some of the existential issues brought up by such an amazing series of athletic contests complain.
Is it just my imagination, or, as indicated by their behavior before/after/during their events and also by what they said during interviews preceding and following their events, that the self-opinions held by many Olympic athletes has exceeded the heights of years past?
Robust egotism should be neither surprising nor unexpected from athletes who devote years to pursuit of excellence in honing what are essentially it’s-all-about-me pursuits and skills. Still, according to a study I just made up, the literal and metaphorical chest-thumping on display in the 2024 Summer Olympics was 48% greater than such displays in previous summer Olympics.
Some of those immodest exhibitions I blame squarely on the influence of social media in all aspects of young(er) people’s lives (the ages of the vast majority of the Olympic athletes are between 20 – 30).
And although the Games are already a spectacle of Olympic proportions…
(sorry) …but it seemed that for many of the participants – who were perhaps keeping in mind their post-athletic careers hawking athletic gear and junk food – you can never have too much showtime.
Of particular annoyance to moiself was how the athletes were introduced in too many certain venues, such as when entering the aquatics center or track and field stadium. The booming voice from stadium PA system would announce name of the individual and/or team members competing in the next event, followed by the athlete(s) strutting through the entrance to the stadium field, pausing to perform flirty and/or self-aggrandizing versions of I’m-ready-for-my-selfie!/I’m-number-one! poses and gestures
Uh, hashtag, SpareMe.
Now, I don’t know exactly who is to blame for this – the host country’s Olympic organizing committee? But isn’t this something that, even if it was “foisted” upon the athletes (“BTW, this is how we’re going to introduce you”) couldn’t they just have refused to go along with the peacock-ish preening and simply given a wave of acknowledgement to the cheering crowds?
So many of the entrances seemed to have been coordinated, as in choreographed, exhibitions. I’m all for athletes [4] having fun in the moment, but the prancing and posing seemed anything but spontaneous.
I mentioned previously in this space about having watched the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Full disclosure: I watched less than half of it – I mostly just saw the flotilla of athletes cruising down the Seine, followed by that mesmerizing metal horse – and missed the vocal performances and some of the other presentations that some people found controversial. The closing ceremonies have always held little interest for me (bbbbooooooorrrrrring), and true to self, I once again didn’t watch them, although for a brief moment moiself considered doing so. My customary lack-of-interest was stoked when word was leaked that the Hollywood poster boy for refusing-to-age-gracefully-or-intelligently, [5] Tom Cruise, was going to be featured in a stunt symbolizing the passing of the Olympic flame to Los Angeles.
“In the end, I am just a guy wearing spandex that turns left really fast.” ( Canadian Olivier Jean, [7] short-track skater, 2010 Olympic Gold Medalist in the 500 meter relay )
“Curling is not a sport. I called my grandmother and told her she could win a gold medal because they have dusting in the Olympics now.” ( Charles Barkley,[8] American former basketball player and verbal raconteur )
* * *
Parting Shot: I love it when/I hate it when…
I hated it when the NBC Olympic coverage team apparently thought it was equally exciting for viewers to watch celebrities watch an Olympic event –
* here’s Seth Rogan watching the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s All-Around Final! * And Martha Stewert at the same event! * Mick Jagger is at the fencing competition! * See Spike Lee cheering for the US women’s water polo team! * Bill Gates spotted at the Tennis Men’s Singles First Round match! *wow – Elizabeth Banks, Judd Apatow, and Leslie Mann watch beach volleyball! * Look, it’s Jason and Kylie Kelce at Women’s Rugby 7s! [9]
“Here’s Snoop Dogg, high up in the stands….” Well, of course he is.
* * *
May you not try to stop spiders (from anything); May you be mistaken for a celebrity when watching a sporting event; May you never challenge Charles Barkley’s grandmother to a dusting race; …and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] I have been finding a lot of spiders in the bathroom recently, but have not found a nest or remnant of egg sacks or any kind of entry point.
[5] which moiself blames on, among other factors, Cruise’s combination of a Hollywood doctor’s plastic surgery expertise, and Scientology.
[6] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
[7] I don’t actually know if Jean is a freethinker, but with a refreshing perspective like that, he probably is.
[9] These are…”name” people? How can I be impressed by their attendance when I don’t know (or care) who they are? I remember a quip from comedian Jay Leno, something along the lines of, “You’re not a celebrity unless my mother knows who you are.”
[10] There were several times, when watching the NBC coverage (MH and I also had other coverage with different schedules and announcers, which is what we mostly watched) when action in a game or other event was missed when the cameras cut to show celebrities in the crowds.
Something I came across recently on social media. With the right addition (* courtesy of moiself *) IMO it is is the best ever – as in most straightforward – definition of a complicated concept:
If you’ve never had a Supreme Court case *or a constitutional amendment* decide if you have the same rights as others, you have privilege.
* * *
Department Of Motivational Speaking… Make That, Walking
Dateline: Tuesday morning; 7:45 AM-ish; morning walk; rounding a corner on the way back to my neighborhood. Even with my earbuds in and listening to a podcast, [1] I hear a voice from behind to the side of me. When I look to the right of me I see a woman in aSubaru Outback; she gives me a thumbs up as she drives past, and yells something out of her rolled-down driver’s window about how…well, the only word I catch is, motivational. I give her a thumbs in return, and think,
Thanks!… uh, I guess?
From the glimpse I caught of her, I would’ve guessed her to be slightly older than moiself, and so I wondered, just what is so motivational about seeing someone who is out for a morning walk? Is it that she thinks *she* should be outside, walking instead of riding in a car? Or is it the dreaded patronization of, “Oh, look, isn’t that sweet – that woman is, my gosh, ambulatory, at her age!!” I mean, hell, this is the week of the Olympic Games, and I’m just walking – cruising along, listening to a podcast – I’m not running or hurdling or swimming marathons. I’m keeping up a good pace, but it’s just….walking
Perhaps I’m overthinking this.
Anyway, for the rest of the day (read: two hours) I decided to be happy (read: smug) over the fact that someone looked at what I was doing, and the concept of motivation came to their mind. Now, the rest of y’all, get off your asses, shut down your screens, drop to the floor and give me 50.
I need to see some motivation NOW!
* * *
Department Of It’s Still A Milestone Even If He’s Dead
Yesterday would have been my father’s 100th (!) birthday.
He was less than half that age in the summer of ’67 when he showed off posed for my mother, who took this picture of him lifting his two youngest children.
Chet Parnell (age 43) with my younger sister (age 6) and my year-old brother.
* * *
Department Of The Good News Just Keeps Rolling In….
Moiself refers to that wacky world o’ publishing, with yet another development that confirms my notion that had I known then what I know now I would have chosen another field, artistic or otherwise, in which to waste devote my time and finite brain matter.
Small Press Distribution Closes its Doors “Small Press Distribution (SPD), a crucial distributor for independent publishers and authors, has abruptly closed after 55 years, leaving small presses and writers facing uncertainty. Publishers must retrieve their inventory from SPD’s partners and seek alternative distribution channels. The closure poses financial challenges for small presses… Authors may experience delays in royalties and book distribution due to the disruption….” ( The Author’s Guild Bulletin Spring-Summer 2024 )
“Last week, Diane Goettel was on vacation in Florida when she saw an alarming email on her phone. After 55 years, Small Press Distribution (SPD)—one of the last remaining independent book distributors in the US—was shutting down immediately, with no advance notice or transitional support. Its website went dark, its Twitter account was deleted, and no one was answering calls.
‘The small press world is about to fall apart,’ Goettel remembers thinking. She’s the executive editor of Black Lawrence Press, one of more than 400 publishers that relied on SPD to fulfill online orders and make copies available to bookstores and libraries…
On the other side of the country, the executive editor of Noemi Press, Sarah Gzemski…received a text about SPD. ‘We were shocked, [though] some of the fulfillment issues we encountered over the past few months began to make more sense,’ Gzemski says. ‘We’re already working on shoestring budgets, so for our distributor to close abruptly, without warning, while not paying us our earned income, is devastating.’
Distributors are perhaps the most opaque and byzantine part of the publishing industry. When you buy a book on Amazon or Bookshop.org, it’s usually the distributor—not the publisher—who ships you a copy from its warehouse. When bookstores, libraries, and schools order books for their brick-and-mortar locations, they use online catalogs populated by distributors….
Without a distributor, presses like Black Lawrence and Noemi are completely cut off from their main sources of income….
‘I don’t know where else these presses can go,’ says Meg Reid, executive director of the Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg, SC. ‘Larger distributors are going to have sales minimums that might not be financially viable, and self-distribution basically takes them out of the system in terms of getting reviewed in major publications or public radio.’
To make matters worse, many small presses say SPD owes them money. ‘We’re owed upwards of $8,000,’ says Gzemski. ‘We just released three books [at Noemi], and all of the preorder and event order revenue from those books has disappeared.’….
Goettel is optimistic about Black Lawrence Press, but anxious about the situation more broadly. ‘I’m not panicking at this point, but I would not be surprised if some small presses completely close because of this.’…. ( excerpts from Lit Hub,The Small Press World is About to Fall Apart:
On the Collapse of Small Press Distribution , my emphases )
Prediction: small/independent presses will soon have to close or merge, as will the larger presses, which will morph into one or two monoliths of literature and employ technology to let them cut out those pesky middle men and women,aka, authors:
( “Let’s just plug in a story outline and let our AI run with it” ).
In fact, how do you know AI isn’t writing this, even as you read it?
“A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace
with his pants down…. If it is a good book nothing can hurt him.
It if is a bad book, nothing can help.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay
* * *
Parting Shot: I love it when/I hate it when…
I love it when I’m guaranteed a laugh at the end of a yoga class, but I’ve forgotten when that opportunity will be, until it is there, once again. Example: Wednesday morning; finishing up a yoga class that I stream from yoga international.com. I do a variety of classes from that site; this particular class is one of the ones I do about once every three or four weeks. The teacher is knowledgeable and amiable, a little too into the “woo” for me, but all is forgiven near end of the class when, after leading the student yogi she is instructing into [3] a twist and hip-opening session, she explains what the student is doing in a forward learning pose from a seated position: “…cascading over, connecting her little S-self to her big S- self; connecting your little S-self to your big S- self….”
The first time I heard the teacher’s narration, moiself of course thought the teacher was advising that I should be “… connecting your little-ass self to your big-ass self….”
“…The shin bone’s connected to the knee bone; the knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone; the thigh bone’s connected to the little-ass bone; the little ass bone’s connected to the big-ass bone….”
* * *
Department Of I Love It Even More…
…when I fantasize about how the PR handlers of a certain VEEP candidate, concerned with his condescending smearing of a sizeable percent of the voting population, arrange for him to visit a local animal shelter, and when they attempt a photo op of him trying to make peace with its feline residents….
Just hold still for the other side, Mr. Vance.
* * *
May you cherish the rights no court has had to bestow upon you; May you have fond memories of someone’s milestone birthday; May you find peace connecting with your little-ass self;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] I always have the volume low enough to be able to hear what’s around me – passing or approaching cars; friendly neighbors, attack squirrels….
[2] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
[3] Some of the yoga classes on the site are filmed with the teacher and a “model” student/yogi or two, some with a class of yogis.
Dateline: one week ago tonight, watching the Olympic Games opening ceremony. As mentioned previously in this space, moiself looooooooves to watch the Olympics Games; however, I almost never watch the opening or closing ceremonies. I’m glad I did this time; I thought the French did an excellent job, despite the rain and the attempts at sabotage diversions. If you missed the ceremony, try to find some footage of that beautifully strange and mesmerizing metal horse galloping down the Seine to deliver the Olympic flag. [1]
I actually, embarrassingly, found my eyes tearing up at some points, during the speeches by the French Olympic organizers – words of encouragement and welcome to the athletes and spectators – wherein the hope for peace and the ability to set aside differences and come together for games and camaraderie was lauded. Somehow, if only for a moment, those sentiments sounded more…plausible?…when spoken with French accent.
Reality of course reared its cynical head, when I recalled the Parade of Nations. The Parade of Nations is the main part of the opening ceremony where the participating countries’ teams enter the host country’s stadium in alphabetical order (as determined by the host country’s language). The French did it differently, and more creatively IMO: instead of marching around a stadium, the over 10,000 athletes from 204 nations cruised in a flotilla of 94 boats down Paris’ Seine River. Most of the boats carried the Olympic team members of at least two countries (and sometimes more, for the smaller nations). I found that to be a cool idea, and it was great fun to see the teams mingling and rejoicing…until the narrator reminded us of the fact that Iraq and Iran should have been sharing a boat, seeing as how their respective countries’ names share 75% of their alphabet (even in the French language)…but nope, couldn’t do that. And the Russian athletes were absent, their participation banned due to their dickhead of a dictator’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Dah, comrades, I am why we can’t have nice things.”
Moiself is fairly certain that in Some Ancient Someone’s mythology, wars and other inter-tribal differences were settled via sporting events. So, I’ll do the sit back relax and enjoy thing (confession: although I almost never watch daytime TV, for the next two weeks my TV will be on almost continually, tuned to the coverage of the you-know-what). And maybe, just maybe, I’ll dream of a future mythology shared by all, in which disputes are settled by a heartfelt Women’s Rugby Sevens match, capped off with a haka. [2]
* * *
Department Of Another Reason To Be Optimistic
Have you ever heard multilingual Rhodes Scholar, army veteran, former mayor and presidential candidate and current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speak? I get a wee twinge of hope whenever I hear him talk, on any issue.
Perhaps you saw him during the 2019 Democratic nominees debates, but have you heard him interviewed (as in his recent interview with the NY Times series, The Interview) , or at a press conference? Did you know that Buttigieg accepts invitations to appear on Fox News to be interviewed by their shamelessly partisan hacks “journalists”? He will accept invitations to speak in such a hostile environment, where many of his fellow politicians would say, “What’s the point?”, precisely because, as Buttigieg points out, the Fox News type of audience is not even going to *hear* the Democratic party message if no one is willing to take it to them. He stays calm, remains rational, makes his points – which includes something I’d previously given little thought to: remember, there is the possibility that person who controls the TV remote does not necessarily speak or think for his [3] entire household. Translation: just because the household TV is tuned to Fox News that doesn’t mean that every mind in the household is closed off to anything but the Fox News POV…but that’s all they will hear if no rational person is willing to speak to them.
I admire Buttigieg’s composure, intellect, ethics, ideas, and presentation. And while this year is not yet his time for The Big Chair®, I’m looking forward to seeing Buttigieg serve in the Kamala Harris cabinet, and to having the opportunity to vote for him for president, four to eight to however many years from now. [4]
You may be familiar with British mathematician, philosopher, author, and activist Bertrand Burton Russell’s “china teapot argument.” Russell used the argument-by-analogy to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making empirically unfalsifiable claims, as opposed to the burden of disproof being upon a person hearing such claims.
In the example of religion, Russell wrote that if he were to claim, sans offering verifiable evidence, that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because it would be difficult if not impossible to prove his assertion to be wrong. [6]
“I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist. I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus or Valhalla. To take another illustration: nobody can prove that there is *not* between the Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.” ( Absence of Evidence, Evidence of Absence, and the Atheist’s Teapot. 1958 Ars Disputandi. 10 (1): 9–22. doi:10.1080/15665399.2010.10820011. S2CID37528278 )
Got it; absolutely agree. [7] I have no desire to even quasi-seriously entertain the idea that the natural world is the way it is because of the supernatural world (this is the tenets of all religions and spiritual beliefs in a nutshell [8] ), and/or that there are supernatural beings which are capable of intervening in the affairs of the natural world (but evidently choose not to do so, or do so with an almost violent capriciousness [9] ).
Given the evidence and statistical probabilities, [10] I can confidently assert that I do not “believe” there is a china or porcelain teapot – or a warm beverage-holding kettle of any composition – orbiting any celestial object in our solar system. However, what with all the junk humanity has dumped/let escape into space in the past 70 years, it wouldn’t surprise moiself if some alert amateur astronomer spots a rogue astronaut’s diaper (excuse me, Maximum Absorbency Garment eeewwwwww) circling a satellite or even the International Space Station.
That said, moiself can understand the appeal, if only from the point of view of a fiction writer, for holding on to such flights of fancy. There is much art to be made – many incredible flights of the imagination, from the whimsical to the grotesque, with which to entertain ourselves – in an orbiting-china-teapot world.
Remember, boys and girls, your tin foil hat will protect you should the teapot’s orbit disintegrate.
* * *
Department of Employee Of The Month
It’s that time, to bestow that prestigious award upon moiself. Again. The need for which I wrote about here. [11]
“As established in the Constitution of The United States,
there are three branches of government. Your religion is not one of them.” ( as per the legions of us often referred to as Anonymous )
* * *
Parting Shot: I love it when/I hate it when…
I hate it when I have to think about something that makes me want to quote nonsense to combat nonsense…which is something I try to avoid in this space because it takes me to dark places I’d rather not spend time and brain cells mucking through….
Such dark places include the sadly undeniable fact that some people who identify as Christians support a certain, carroty-tinged candidate.
* * *
May you find hope in the existence of some young(er), sane, idealistic politician; May you consider using a hakato celebrate your victories, acknowledge your defeats, and settle your disputes; May you enjoy the occasional foray into an orbiting teapot cosmos;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] Not a very good description…you just have to see it for it to make sense.
[2] There are a variety of hakas (ceremonial dances and shout-chants, usually performed by a group) Māori culture. “The haka is commonly known as a war dance used to fire up warriors on the battlefield, but it’s also a customary way to celebrate, entertain, welcome, and challenge visiting tribes….it’s also a customary way to celebrate, entertain, welcome, and challenge visiting tribes. The very first New Zealand representative rugby team, known as The Natives, performed a haka during a tour of Britain and Australia in 1888-89. The haka performed then, Ka Mate, is still performed by the All Blacks (NZ rugby team) today.” (History of Haka, experienceallblacks.com )
[5] Sagan’s dictum is related to Occam’s razor and other scientific and philosophical principles on how the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to the extraordinariness of the claim)
[6] Because the teapot is too small to be seen by our telescopes, for example, but really, it *could* be there, you just can’t see it.
[7] With minor quibbles as to the varying definitions for what one person may find “extraordinary.”
[9] and the causes of/reasons for these sporadic interventions vary among the various supernatural theologies (read: religions)….
[10] I’m not going to quote those here; I just wanted another footnote.
[11] Several years ago, MH received a particularly glowing performance review from his workplace. As happy as I was for him when he shared the news, it left me with a certain melancholy I couldn’t quite peg. Until I did.
One of the many “things” about being a writer (or any occupation working freelance at/from home) is that although you avoid the petty bureaucratic policies, bungling bosses, mean girls’ and boys’ cliques, office politics and other irritations inherent in going to a workplace, you also lack the camaraderie and other social perks that come with being surrounded by your fellow homo sapiens. No one praises me for fixing the paper jam in the copy machine, or thanks me for staying late and helping the new guy with a special project, or otherwise says, Good on you, sister. Once I realized the source of the left-out feelings, I came up with a small way to lighten them.
[12] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
Active, reliable, sarcastic, affectionate, bipedal, cynical optimist, writer, freethinker, parent, spouse and friend, I am generous with my handy supply of ADA-approved spearmint gum and sometimes refrain from humming in public.
