New Year

I'm on the verge of a new year and still not motivated to anything....especially blog.

What Is Christmas?

This Sojourner's blog puts Christmas and the state of the world into perspective.  I've posted most of the article, but the whole article can be read here.  It's titled The Real War on Christmas...By FOX News, posted 12/15/2011 by Jim Wallis.

What is Christmas? It is the celebration of the Incarnation, God’s becoming flesh — human — and entering into history in the form of a vulnerable baby born to a poor, teenage mother in a dirty animal stall. Simply amazing. That Mary was homeless at the time,a member of a people oppressed by the imperial power of an occupied country whose local political leader, Herod, was so threatened by the baby’s birth that he killed countless children in a vain attempt to destroy the Christ child, all adds compelling historical and political context to the Advent season.

The theological claim that sets Christianity apart from any other faith tradition is the Incarnation. God has come into the world to save us. God became like us to bring us back to God and show us what it means to be truly human.

That is the meaning of the Incarnation. That is the reason for the season.
In Jesus Christ, God hits the streets.

It is theologically and spiritually significant that the Incarnation came to our poorest streets. That Jesus was born poor, later announces his mission at Nazareth as “bringing good news to the poor,” and finally tells us that how we treat “the least of these” is his measure of how we treat him and how he will judge us as the Son of God, radically defines the social context and meaning of the Incarnation of God in Christ. And it clearly reveals the real meaning of Christmas.

The other explicit message of the Incarnation is that Jesus the Christ’s arrival will mean “peace on earth, good will toward men.” He is “the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.” Jesus later calls on his disciples to turn the other cheek, practice humility, walk the extra mile, put away their swords, love their neighbors — and even their enemies — and says that in his kingdom, it is the peacemakers who will be called the children of God. Christ will end our warring ways, bringing reconciliation to God and to one another.

None of that has anything to do with the Fox News Christmas. In fact, quite the opposite.

Making sure that shopping malls and stores greet their customers with “Merry Christmas” is entirely irrelevant to the meaning of the Incarnation. In reality it is the consumer frenzy of Christmas shopping that is the real affront and threat to the season.

Last year, Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas. Clean water for the whole world, including every poor person on the planet, would cost about $20 billion. Let’s just call that what it is: A material blasphemy of the Christmas season.

Imagine Jesus walking into the mall, seeing the Merry Christmas signs, and expressing his humble thanks for how the pre- and post-Christmas sales are honoring to him. How about credit cards for Christ?

While we’re at it, here’s another point of clarification: The arrival of the Christ child has nothing to do with trees or what we call them.

Evergreens and wreaths, holly and ivy, and even mistletoe turn out to be customs borrowed from ancient Roman and Germanic winter solstice celebrations, assimilated and co-opted by the church after Constantine made peace between his empire and the Christians.

I have no problem with the public viewing of symbols from all of the world’s religions at appropriate times in their religious calendars (which can actually be educational for all of our children) and believe that doing so is consistent with our democratic and cultural pluralism.

But I don’t believe that respectfully and publicly honoring those many religious symbols has changed many lives, for better or for worse. Much more important than symbols and symbolism is how we live the faith that we espouse. And here is where Fox News’s war on Christmas is most patently unjust.

The real Christmas announces the birth of Jesus to a world of poverty, pain, and sin, and offers the hope of salvation and justice.

The Fox News Christmas heralds the steady promotion of consumerism, the defense of wealth and power, the adulation of money and markets, and the regular belittling or attacking of efforts to overcome poverty.

The real Christmas offers the joyful promise of peace and the hope of reconciliation with God and between humankind.

The Fox News Christmas proffers the constant drumbeat of war, the reliance on military solutions to every conflict, the demonizing of our enemies, and the gospel of American dominance.

The real Christmas lifts up the Virgin Mary’s song of praise for her baby boy: “He has brought the mighty down from their thrones, and lifted the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.”

The Fox News Christmas would label Mary’s Magnificat as “class warfare.”

So if there is a war on Christmas it's the one being waged by Fox News.
Jim Wallis~12/15/2011

Fracking

In 2008 a small town in WY requested that the EPA investigate "water quality concerns in private drinking water wells" that are associated with hydraulic fracturing. The EPA found "synthetic chemicals, like glycols and alcohols consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracturing fluids, benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards and high methane levels. There is a preliminary report on the EPA website of their findings" The article can be found here: . There is a preliminary report on the EPA website here (this is 15mb pdf download): http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/EPA_ReportOnPavillion_Dec-8-2011.pdf EPA also has the site description here: http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/index.html and a news release here: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/ef35bd26a80d6ce3852579600065c94e?OpenDocument They are very careful to say that production conditions are different in this town than in other parts of the country. Also, that the chemicals are "generally" below established health and safety standards. EPA has begun a national study on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources. I wonder what their conclusion will be? Opinions?

English Paper

For those of you who don't fear the Turnitin Police, here's a 100% paper. 

I'm a strong believer in The Commons:  My work is here for you to benefit from and build on.

Edie’s Journey

“How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro, is a short story about a young girl named Edie who works for the Peebles.  The theme of her narrative is the coming of age of Edie, the protagonist in this story.  Munro develops Edie’s character as she passes from innocent naiveté into adulthood.  Munro uses various symbols that guide and shape Edie’s perspective through an ironic twist of events involving a letter that never arrives.  Her believable story is told through first person point of view as an adult looking back on her life.  Edie’s antagonist is not a person, but rather her own inner struggle as she strives to reach adulthood.  During her struggle from a naïve teen into adulthood, she observes and interacts with other characters in the story.  Even though there is not a major human antagonist in this story, several people influence Edie and her struggle to discover herself.  These people do not aid her in conventional methods like advice, but by their actions, conduct, and Munro’s use of symbolism with each. 

The first person Munro introduces to the reader that aids Edie in her journey is Mrs. Peebles.  She is a kind employer, but feels as if she is “tied down” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 24) with her country life and two children.  Edie and her family find this amusing (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 25) since Mrs. Peebles has many modern conveniences that they do not own including running water, an automatic washer and dryer, a double sink, and a modern bathroom.  Edie describes the irony of Mrs. Peebles’ feelings compared to her mother’s workload.  She points out the difference between washing clothes at home where it is a “struggle with the wringer and hang up and haul down” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 25) and concludes it is difficult to remember now that she has these modern conveniences (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 25) in her adult life.  In this way, she excuses Mrs. Peebles’ perspective by comparing it to the way she lives now.   

Mrs. Peebles has many nice things that Edie may want when she finds her husband; however, the one item Munro uses to symbolize Edie’s inner struggle towards adulthood is Mrs. Peebles’ dress.  Edie discovers dresses in Mrs. Peebles closet that are pushed to the back.  She expresses her disappointment that there is no wedding dress (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 30), but tries on a beautiful satin dress.  Mrs. Peebles dress represents two things.  First, it shows Edie’s innocence and her desire to play dress-up.  The second thing it symbolizes is her desire to try on Mrs. Peebles’ life to see if it suits her.  After she puts on the dress, “one thing led to another” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 31) and she loses herself in the moment.  She is trying on the image of a well-off lady, but finds herself in an embarrassing situation with Chris Watters—something a lady of a higher social class may not find herself entangled in.  This experience also leads her to conclude that she has crossed an unspoken line when she states that employers “...like to think you aren’t curious” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 51) about anything but their wants.  She enjoys trying on the dress, but also regrets that someone else found out her secret.    

Loretta Bird, another character Munro introduces, is a woman that Edie does not want to become.  She is nosy, judgmental, and at times rude.  When she is alone with Edie she comments about Mrs. Peebles’ naps and how “[s]he wouldn’t find time to lay down in the middle of the day, if she had seven kids like I got” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 22).  This statement is both ironic and judgmental at the same time.  She judges Mrs. Peebles by claiming she (Mrs. Bird) does not have time to take a nap.  This is also ironic because Mrs. Bird has plenty of time to sit and gossip with Edie.  She is also too curious about the Peebles’ personal life when she asks whether the Peebles fight or use birth control (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 23).  She asserts that using birth control is a “sin” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 23) passing another judgment on Mrs. Peebles. 

There are ways Munro depicts Mrs. Bird’s rudeness, but the lawn chair represents how she insults Edie personally.  When Edie returns from the kitchen with ice tea, she finds Mrs. Bird “had settled in [her] lawn chair” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 101).  Alice Kelling was invited to sit and wait with the family (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 96), not Mrs. Bird.  Bird takes it upon herself to sit in Edie’s empty chair leaving her on the steps (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 101) separate from the other adults.  As Edie observes Mrs. Bird’s behavior, she sees someone she does not want to become.

With Chris Watters, Munro uses visual symbols as well as personal interaction to nudge Edie into adulthood.  When Watters first appears in Edie’s life, he is flying a flashy red and silver plane (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 1) to the abandoned fairgrounds across the street from the Peebles.  According to Clugston (2010), the color red symbolizes passion and danger (sec. 7.2, table 7.1) the two things Edie encounters when she meets him in person.  The danger she experiences is when Watters catches her playing dress-up in Mrs. Peebles’ clothes.  Edie fears he will tell her secret and her job will be in jeopardy.  She also experiences passion when Watters compliments her beauty and kisses her.  During their first two encounters, she is unable to respond to his compliments with anything other than embarrassment (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 45) and nervousness showing her inexperience with men.  Edie wants to gain experience by kissing him, but she is still too naïve to understand where the kissing might lead.  Watters, on the other hand, realizes what could happen and takes the initiative to stop them from going further.

Watters’ plane also symbolizes the how easy it is for him to enter and leave Edie’s life, something she realizes later.  The plane suggests that he has flown into Edie’s life to bring some excitement, but it also represents his inability to settle down.  In fact, Watters admits this while talking to Mrs. Peebles.  He tells her “he couldn’t settle down to an ordinary life, [and] this is what he liked” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 86).  Edie is too naïve at this point in the story to realize Watters is only making promises he will never keep including the letter he will never send.

Later in the story, Edie sits by the mailbox every day as summer winds down waiting for the promised letter from Watters.  Munro uses the imagery of goldenrod and children returning to school (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 199) to show the physical changes in the seasons from summer to fall.  As the Earth changes, so does Edie’s hopes of receiving a letter from Watters, and in fact thinks, “No letter was ever going to come.”  (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 199) one day when the letter failed to arrive.  She realizes “there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 200) and “knew which one [she] had to be” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 200).  It is in this moment that Edie takes a leap towards a mature adult and meets her husband.

As the reader finds out at the end of this story, Edie ironically meets her future husband, the mailman, while waiting for a letter from Watters.  Munro suggests through this part of the narrative that the mailman is far more dependable than Watters will ever be.  Edie claims the “mail came every day except Sunday, between one-thirty and two” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 198) showing how dependable he is.  He also enjoys seeing her and tells her “You’ve got the smile I’ve been waiting for all day!”  (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 198) showing his obvious interest in her.  Although Edie does not realize until he calls and asks her out that he is interested in her, she ends up marrying him.  She also lets him tell the story of how she chased him because “it makes [him] happy” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 202).  This final line shows how Edie grew from a naïve young girl into a mature and caring woman by letting her husband think she was waiting for him—not a letter from another man.

Alice Munro shares a story of how Edie, a young hired girl, finds a husband.  In her journey from child to adult, several people help her along the way.  Some of these people she tries to emulate like Mrs. Peebles when she tries on the satin gown.  Others, like Mrs. Bird, are not the type of person wants to be.  One man, Chris Watters, helps Edie gain experience with situations that are more intimate.  His empty promise to send her a letter keeps her waiting by the mailbox for many weeks.  After weeks of waiting for a letter, Edie has a sudden moment of self-awareness.  This is the moment she decides what type of woman she wants to be, but she also opens herself to another possibility—finding her future husband.

Reference

Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint                       Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books

Lunch With Idiots

My story begins last week when the fridge at work went kaput in the public kitchenette.  The boss decided to replace that one with the working fridge in the staff room.  OK, not a problem...until....
One very nice lady was put in charge of cleaning out the staff fridge to make room for our shiny new one.  My lunch (with my name on it) almost ended up in the trash, but was saved by my super.  However, my cheese chunk wasn't saved.  Now I have pita crackers, but no cheese.  This was easily remedied by a trip to the store to replace the tossed cheese chunk with fresh.  Today I decided to have some fresh fruit, pita crackers, and cheese for lunch.  I set my spot at the table nicely with crackers, cheese, sliced fruit, water, and my book.  I got up to place my knife in the dishwasher, turned around, and saw a staff member eating my pita crackers!  Hello, didn't you notice ALL of my stuff sitting there?  Then she started to complain about "how salty" the crackers were, said "I don't eat salt, so that's what it tastes like", and "where did these come from?"  I sat down in my chair and picked up a piece of fruit FROM THE SAME PLATE and picked up my book.  I told her I had bought those to go with my cheese and fruit.  They were called "pita chips with sea salt".  She then picked up another one made a face, ate it and complained some more.  Whoa...didn't I just say I bought those to go with my cheese????  I'm sitting here with my lunch and you're eating it!  She didn't even notice I had sat down in that spot WITH THE PLATE IN FRONT OF ME everything nicely sliced and arranged for me to enjoy.  She walked over to the "communal counter" where everyone leaves snacks to share, grabs a handful of Doritos eats one and says "that's better" and walks out of the break room.  What the HELL....

Ms. Kitty Plays Tag

My story begins with a promise to the girls to let them outside while I was weeding yesterday. True to my word, I let them out while I was pruning shrubs and pulling weeds. They were content to roll around on the sidewalk and sniff the clippings from the shrubs. However, Cloe decided she was hot (she's covered in black fur and it was 80++ degrees) and found a cool spot under a shrub with a good view of the birds overhead. What more could a cat ask for?
Ms. Kitty had other plans for her outdoor time. Ms. Kitty, the adventure seeker she is, found something new in the flowerbed. A few years ago, a small garter snake made its home there. Ms. Kitty wanted to introduce herself and possibly make friends. Who better to make friends with than Gertie the snake? Gertie, however, wasn’t feeling neighborly and tried to escape from Ms. Kitty. Ms. Kitty would have no part of this and insisted that Gertie come out and play. She flushed her out of hiding and followed her as she slithered under Cloe's resting place. Poor Cloe, nothing's worse than dozing in the shade then finding a snake slithering over your paw. She shot from beneath the shrub with all of her hair standing on end. Gertie was hot on her heels trying to escape. Or were they playing tag? Ms. Kitty couldn’t decide and tagged them both. Both Gertie and Cloe hit back. Ms. Kitty thought this was great fun because she managed to attract Cloe's attention, make her fur poke out all funny, and have a game of tag all at once. This would be a wonderful day for Ms. Kitty.
Unfortunately, it was not for Gertie or Cloe. Poor Gertie had now attracted the attention of not one, but two cats. The first wanted to play tag and the second wanted revenge for disturbing her nap. No matter which way Gertie turned there was a furry beast blocking her path. She curled up in her defensive position ready for the attack. Ms. Kitty made the first move and was rewarded with a nip on her nose. This only made Cloe's hair stand up more (she had a squirrel tail now!) Cloe circled around the two taking it all in and absent-mindedly walked into the grass (see Ms. Kitty Catches a Bird to understand what an important piece of information this is.). I calmly looked on to see how far she would go before she noticed. She didn't. Apparently, there is a difference between freshly weed-eated terrifying grass and regular terrifying grass. As soon as she crossed the line into the regular terrifying grass, her hair poked out even more (if that’s possible) and she darted to the safety of the driveway glaring at Ms. Kitty. She knew this was all Ms. Kitty’s fault.
When Gertie glanced in my direction, I could see the look in her eyes. We had an agreement and I had broken it. She was welcomed into the flowerbed in turn for keeping mice and other creepy crawlies out. My end of the bargain was to leave her in peace to sun herself on the rocks and hibernate under her favorite shrub. I immediately picked both cats up and apologized to Gertie for my blunder. Today, she is happily sunning herself on her favorite rock. I let the girls have outdoor time by the patio. Gertie deserves a rest.

MS. KITTY CAUGHT A BIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Ms. Kitty and Cloe were on the front porch with me. The birds were taunting them on the low branch of the tree. They would take turns flying onto the porch, into a bush, then back to the tree. Ms. Kitty saw this pattern and took advantage of it. A bird landed on the porch and she raced and pounced on it. It managed to escape to a bush, but she dove into the bush, snatched it up and ran to the driveway with it. It was squawking and flapping its wings trying to get away. The other birds flew down and circled her squawking and flapping their wings. She held the bird down with her paw and looked at all the birds surrounding her trying to decide what to do. <> She finally decided to keep the one she caught and ran to the porch with it (and we thought she was the stupid one). Of course Cloe was amazed that Ms. Kitty had a bird and wanted to see it. Ms. Kitty hissed and the bird escaped into a bush. Ms. Kitty was convinced that the bird was under the bush when in fact it had escaped out the other side--which Cloe saw. While Ms. Kitty was occupied sniffing for her lost bird under the bush, Cloe was poised to make her move. However, the bird was squawking and flapping its wings about 3 feet away an IN THE TERRIFYING GRASS. What should she do? As she weighed her options--terrifying grass/catch bird--sidewalk safety/wait for bird to come to her--the bird recovered and flew into the tree. All the birds then flew to the tree and squawked for a very long time. Now every time the girls go out onto the porch, the birds fly away to the pine trees and squawk--but only when Ms. Kitty is out. In fact, if she sits in the window or front door they fly away terrified that she will come out and catch them again. Cloe doesn't strike the same fear in them--yet. If only we would remove the terrifying grass, she could catch them all and KILL...KILL...KILL them for taunting her.