ANGRY ELF!

So I spent many a year dealing with my "anger" issues.  I smiled when I wanted to scream. In negotiations, I got what I wanted more often than not by pushing, prodding and relentless badgering. Things had an intensity that far outweighed any potential disastrous results. Everything felt like a life and death battle - win or perish.

Gotta say, the result of all those battles, all those perceived threats and all that intensity was a lonely, fearful life always on guard... just waiting for the house of cards to fall.  And, you know?  A healthy, happy life can not be sustained if one is living only to control the next disaster...

So why is everyone so ANGRY? {rhetorical question}

I'd love to blame it on the new Administration, but alas, this has been building up far longer than the 2016 election.  Our rhetoric has gotten so ugly that even well constructed arguments often have hate and anger built in.

One poster (with well over 1,000 friends) touted the strengths of the very recent pick for the Supreme Court and then added - "But the main reason why I know the pick is brilliant is that liberals are apoplectic over it. "  I was confused on why he'd be happy that "liberals would be apoplectic over it".  {another rhetorical question.} It's a comment that is intended to inflame in what otherwise was a well constructed opinion

It's almost surreal.  It's like there is an alternate universe out there spinning good things into bad.  And, when there is something really good, something so inherently impossible to make bad someone in the alternate universe connects the goodness to an unrelated bad.

Has a ROBUST veterans program

Was not illegal!

Here is a meme, one of many that get posted everyday.  It must feel good to the poster that they had a say, but what did they say?  Do they know that Starbucks has a great program to hire vets and provide resources for their families?  Sadly, they post without research.  Oh and before you get all high and mighty, I see this type of unresearched inflammatory stuff from the other perspective.  BTW, DT's mother was not illegal!

 It's like the anger, the life and death daily battle I waged in the past is now Americana.  Do we need collective therapy?  Do we need to spend hours shopping for the right self help book?  Do we need a good 12 step program for being addicted to our own opinions?  Or do we simply need to let go of being right and pray to be open to other ideas.

Anger will not change anyone.  Battling is all about winning or losing.  What if we engaged someone in conversation and I mean conversation, not holding silent while another talks until we get to talk.  I mean listening to understand and holding the belief that letting go of an idea or perceived truth is not loss but gain.

Of course, all this is incredibly easy IF I listen to you AND you believe everything I say AND agree that it is the real truth.  Oh my, that would be easy...  but that too is living in an alternative universe.

Alas, social warriors (lower case or capital letter types), this may be a time of name-calling and personal attacks.  Key word is "may".  I encourage all of us to take the tenacity of our past and calmly pray for the goodness of humankind.  If Americana needs a bit of self-help and therapy, maybe our role is to be it's counselor by helping it find its way without fighting to win.  We can guide it with information, truth and kind persistency.

OK, I'd be a liar if I didn't admit that I often reach for the non-existent  WTF icon...  I am still human!  Now, let's do that thang!

WHY I MARCH...

Paypal alerted me that I purchased 3 bus tickets, the payment was accepted and that I was officially traveling to Washington DC to participate in the Women's March on Washington.  The anticipation, the thrill and the sense of purpose filled my body and soul.  I would make a difference.  I would no longer be silent.

Standing up and out!

Some want me to make this a protest against the incoming administration and to show contempt for their cabinet selections.  While I do not agree with much that has happened and am often reaching for the non-existent WTF button on Facebook, I do believe in our Democracy and in the Republic for which I stand.

Naive?  Never take this belief as validation of any wrongs done past, present or future.  Never! 

I march because, inherent in that belief, is the importance of free expression of THE PEOPLE!

I march because I am a single white woman who stayed silent for too long.  I stayed silent because my career said that I had to fit a certain mold or it would be a narrow one.  I stayed silent because I harbored fear that if I exposed myself, I would be labeled, ostracized and yes, even hurt.

And, I also stayed silent because I liked you.  I liked you who surprised me with your votes.  I liked you even when you posted fake news and unresearched or validated statements.  I even liked you who knew that blatant lies were passed as truths even when we could replay the lies over and over again on tape and in writing.  I was confused and concerned but liking you tempered my comments and quieted my speech.

I march because I cannot be silent any longer.

Sometimes service is not gentle!

Most, if not every, major faith tradition and spirituality has a teacher or a deity that preaches compassion and charity towards the poor, the sick and the suffering.  Charity is not always about giving money and being done with it.  Charity is also about giving your time to help those who want to better themselves and to support those that are suffering.  It is also about how we speak and act in this world.  Hate and hateful language has no place at all.

I march because I need our government to remember THE PEOPLE count.  I need me as a person to count.  I march because I need for the people to remember that the people count.

I march for dignity, respect and honor for all people.  And, our legislators need to know that we will no longer be silent.  We will no longer be silent and our voices will continue to rise until you acknowledge that we have been heard.

SECRETING - THE TALE OF UNENCUMBERED MEN

Do they know how they sound?  Have they lost their compassion, their kindness towards others?  Can they hear their words?  Do they know that they are not alone?

It was one of those late work nights in a white collar firm...  We are thinkers, creative planners and, with information and critical analysis, we provide clients with a direction and a plan.  We are paid to tell them what to do...

Two men , admired for their intellect, kindness and great sense of humor, began a conversation about the Presidential Candidate, HRC.  And, they laughed at the videos of her "fainting", they called her Crooked HRC and they criticized her appearance, her voice and her laugh.

I wondered, who were these men?  Did they not have daughters?  Were they really going to vote for the one they call DT?  Everything that's been said, every recording there is - interviews, speeches, comments and all that has been publicly posted from and approved by DT... is all of that nothing?

We are, as a people and as a nation, losing our ability to critically think.  The videos they were watching were not from "neutral" or "trusted" sites but were from very conservative, very right wing sites.  Who are these men?

I wanted to use my voice and challenge their talk but I sat in my office and said nothing.  I said nothing...  these were not the men I knew in the daylight.  So, I remained still and voiceless...  These are men unencumbered by reason or challenge...  It would not be me tonight.  I am quiet...

And yet I railed in my head!  I ranted to the computer as I proofed my spreadsheet.  Who are these men?  And, why does November 8th frighten me so... 

Ever viligant...