Wasted

One of the many definitions of waste is to use or spend to excess and carelessly. Even when it is used to describe someone way into the depths of some drug or alcohol, it's the same, a careless use of mind and body.  It can't be denied that as a nation, as a people, we are excessively wasteful.  We live in a land with such extreme plenty that it's very difficult as humans not to partake to the fullest.

Many of us, especially the older population, or folks from a poor background, often carry a lot of guilt about the excess.  The hubby and I often comment that sometimes things just feel obscene. Even the poor in our country, with their televisions, cell phones, food stamps, food banks and a multitude of assistance resources, aren't in the "living in filth, disease and starvation" situation of other unfortunates in the world. If they are in abject poverty in America, there is a belief by many that they have mostly put their selves there. And we aren't speaking of those with chronic debilitating bad health or events in their lives that were completely out of their control or those with diminished mental abilities. There's not a single person that I know, who would not be willing to take half the dinner on their table and share it with another.  Americans are not selfish. We give very unselfishly, even though corruption and evil misuse of charity takes the gifts from the needy in many instances.

 So, in a society that seems to be swimming in the comfortable waters of abundance, what has brought us to be so thoughtless and wasteful of our gifts? Answer number one is that we are human. Humans have an incredible ability to quickly adapt to prosperity, to become spoiled. Our motivation for being wasteful is the belief that there will be more where that came from.  The garbage, the food thrown away, behind just one of our local restaurants is truly obscene. The spouse and I often share a meal because the portions are so huge. I have friends who buy a restaurant meal, take it home and divide it into two more meals for later. Why do restaurants serve excessive portions? Well, because we are spoiled, we demand bigger, better and more. Those that are trying to make a living selling food, cater to the wants of the public. 

There is no stronger motivation for any behavior than experiencing personally something. You very easily want more of that something or never want that to happen to you again and typically act accordingly.  I have known what it's like to go to bed hungry.  Of course, I was determined that me or mine would never be in that situation.  Fortunately, as that child, I had family or others that cared that would've never let me truly starve. There was a time, when only family, good neighbors or the church would be there if you were down on your luck or an unexpected crisis arose. You tried to be as self sufficient and prepared as possible for a stroke of bad luck. You worked because if you didn't, there was NO money to live on, you went to college to be able to work at a better job, you put your extra change in a penny bank and any few dollars you could spare in a savings account. You took care of what you had acquired, it was not something to just throw away or neglect. You wanted your family to have enough but an excess just didn't feel right.

We waste because of a false security that there will be more.  Food will always be on the loaded store shelves, gas at the corner station for our multiple cars, water and electricity at the touch of a switch or handle.  If we get down on our luck, one of the numerous government programs or assistance agencies will be right there to take care of us.  Why be a conservative? It's there for us, isn't it?  We have children who are so completely devoid of empathy for their fellow humans,  they think if someone offends them, if things don't go as they want, if people don't give them all that they deserve, then just like the game or television show, they will shoot them. As if they have no concept of ceasing to exist, no more life. Precious lives wasted.

While very few of us can claim these days to not have waste in our lives, some have come to believe that a people who so carelessly use their resources with no personal accountability and responsibility will surely find them selves with no resources.  The people who prepare for a possible disaster, in ways both small and large, do so because they believe that very likely there will be a day when only their own self sufficiency will allow them to survive. They are not wasting any opportunity to prepare for an uncertain future.  What others do, think or believe should have nothing to do with what your heart and mind tells you is right. I believe character is not about being perfect, it is about always striving to be better.  Ask yourself, what did I waste today?  Is there even a small thing that I could have saved or left for someone else?

Dark Days

The one thing in life that is absolute and certain is the loss of life. We are not immortal.  Most of us have made our peace in our own way with that fact. The thing that we are never prepared for is the loss of someone we love.  As much of  "be prepared" person as I am, I know that there is no preparing for the pain and grief of loss. The single thing that we humans can do is to prepare to survive such a loss. 

I'm in the midst of losing my oldest and dearest friend. Not only has she been in my life since I was just a girl but her spouse and family have been like family to myself, my spouse and children.  The memories of things shared would fill up a boat.  Indeed, that boatload of memories is the best comfort that I have. And it's typical that life has said to her, "You didn't really think I was going to be fair, did you?" with a vicious laugh.  It is taking her through a cruel illness. The pain that her family has and is enduring only doubles my family's sadness. So, in all this deep sadness and grief, there is the knowing that we can never be prepared, get ourselves ready for the losses.

I personally am an optimist. One of the things that is often said about my post apocalyptic novels is that there is hope. I honestly see no point in NOT having hope.  Just as all the clichés say, the sun will come up in the morning,  life will continue around us (we hope).  If you open your eyes and you are still here on this earth, no matter how miserable or horrible yesterday was, you are here and will have to move through today. 

I believe that a person should prepare in any way available to survive. I believe you should buy that extra box of mac and cheese and stick it in the closet, not live in fear but be aware of the results of a catastrophe in your world.  In our everyday life, I believe we should remember to tell those we care about that we love them and I believe we should store up good memories as if they are gold and toss away the bad ones. After we have cried our eyes out, after we have allowed the pain to squeeze our hearts and twist our stomachs, we have to find the courage to appreciate the time that we were given, the memories that we can cherish of someone we love. 

It is a privilege to be living on this earth and your life is what you make of it. It is of no benefit and in truth if you drown in the floods of sorrow, you will be no more than a ripple on the water. The secret is to survive and to honor the person you loved by holding them in your heart and taking them with you as you continue the walk through life. 

Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.---Emily Dickinson

The Naked Truth

If only I was smart enough to claim that this is just one thing that I don't get about life...not so.  My mind literally crawls with bugs of doubt all the time.  While this does not rise to the level of terrorism, viruses and congress, it still just perplexes me.  Blame it on my age, if you like. Makes me no never mind. 

In the news recently and occasionally, there are the stories of the poor, sad and maligned celebrities who had their privacy invaded. Oh my goodness, they spread nude pictures of themselves on electronic devices and some person of low character had the nerve to make those images available for the world to view.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying for one moment that I don't think celebrities have a right to privacy.  I honestly believe that much of the media world are slimey stalkers that will do anything for a picture or story.  However, here is where I get real "bugged" with non comprehension.

As has commonly become the routine these days, the spin is my rights trump your rights.  The paparazzi would certainly claim that the public has a right to know.  Know what? that their favorite famous person has a freckle on their butt? Wrong...not a right of the slinking reporters to know things about those they stalk and not a right of the general public voyeurs who somehow find it tintillating to know any little scrap about someone they've seen on tv or in the movies or on the internet. Our society is so bass-ackwards these days that criminals sue their victims. Obviously, someone doesn't have the right to by whatever means,  steal information from your phone. 

Here is the burning question. Someone please explain to me why a person would take naked pictures of themselves and put them on their phone?  Is it for their life partner, the person they're intimate with?  Seems to me that the partner doesn't need a picture...they've seen you naked, right? Then what else is the reason,  for your family, your mother, your friends?  I'm sorry but why would you take and display nude pictures of yourself?  If it's private, just for yourself, then I just don't want to think about the weird-ness of that. 

It is the same kind of ridiculous logic that makes a person stand in front of the corn flakes in the grocery store and out loud talk about the most personal things. If I was to say, "Excuse me honey, I think you ought to see a doctor about that rash" or "shouldn't you report that s.o.b. to the police?" the talker would be appalled, even though they are "sharing" their private information with all of the poor unfortunates merely trying to buy food. I mean, the rest of the world is supposed to put their hands over their eyes, ears and mouths like monkeys...the idiots actually believe they have a right to public privacy.

 I must be old fashioned and totally not savvy. It seems that if you're on your own private property, if you're behind closed doors, you do have a right to your privacy.  Public places are not your private spaces, you are to share those with others.   If you are on the wide open world networks, facebooking and tweeting, texting, sans clothing and you think that your privacy is promised, that you are secure, then you've got a lot more missing than your clothes.  What gets me the most is that in today's world, you would run down the street naked and then have the nerve to complain, that pervert looked at me!

If we want privacy, we have a huge personal responsibility to insure it.  I may not be a genius and this is just my opinion. If you don't want something seen, shared or talked about, do not make it available.  Don't display your bare bottom selfies on your cell phone. You might as well rent one of those big flashing billboards, spread your lovely nudeness across it, and title it, "Don't Look at This".

The Threat

America's and it's citizen's biggest threat these days is complacency, political correctness and a cum-ba-ya foreign policy.  I'm about to express my extremely concerned, politically incorrect and unfriendly world view opinion of why our country is in such high peril. 

We are as a whole, so complacent, so confident that there couldn't be a real effective invasion of our soil. I myself, don't deny that sometimes I refuse to even watch or listen to the news, not wanting to hear the horrendous happenings of the world.  Someone I actually respect said, no one person or small group could do us widespread harm.  We have weapons, guns. We will not just be run over by an invading force. Really? what is not massive? not widespread?  Was 9-11 a small incident?  What about if a quarter of Texas was blown up or half of Houston with a suitcase bomb? It's true, an enemy might not be able to accomplish the complete take over of our country, but the catastrophic results of multiple attacks would shake us to our core and could cripple us on many levels.

You are very naïve if you don't recognize that a terrorist such as the one in the picture...who is about to behead the person beside him has no soul or conscious or respect for life. "Behead" is actually a sanitized term for this act of evil. Just ask any doctor what it would actually entail to take the head off a human with a knife.  Such a person would not blink at swimming across the Rio Grande with a suitcase bomb or indeed, tying it to the back of a child. And you are just plain stupid if you don't accept by now that our southern border is not a border, it is a freeway. 

And here is the totally incorrect thing.  These people are not just over in some distant land, sliming along on the sand and taking off people's heads. These enemies are right here, already in our midst. Douglas MacArthur said, I am concerned for the security of our great Nation, not so much from the threats from without, but from the insidious forces working within. Funny, how that applies. And much more recently, the ever charming late Hugo Chavez said, America will fall without a shot fired.

We have become so entrapped in our own exaggerated political correctness that if the devil himself was walking down our street, we wouldn't dare say, "Wait a minute! That's the devil."  If he's not the devil, then why would he be trying to appear to be. Make no mistake, that person in the picture is an evil threat and he wants all of us to know it.  I am not a racist, I am not a bigot and other than the normal human prejudices that we're not supposed to admit to anymore, I'm a fairly tolerant and accepting person.  If it looks and quacks like duck, good chance it's a duck. I have a right, it is not an insult for me to say, "You are a duck, right?" Instead of using common sense, we seem to be determined to rush madly to the opposite end of reason. We're putting on our blinders and allowing potentially dangerous people to merge into our society and we are loosing our freedom to even ask them if they mean us harm. 

The cold hard reality, folks, is that Americans are not well liked in the world. Mostly because the world is rapidly becoming infested with terrorists that make no bones about hating us. We are truly not safe outside of America and very threatened inside.  I do not feel friendly, I do not want to hold your hand and sing around the campfire while you saw away at my head. America's closed eyes, open borders and refusal to smell the stinking tide of hate that is spreading across the seas to us, could
be our doom.

What can we do?  Prepare. On whatever level you are able to, for yourself and your family. Whether from hate or from nature, you have very little control. Only your own self sufficiently will give you a chance to survive.