What is NOT disposable?

My mother used to say, “Waste not, want not.”
Ah, the WWII generation!
Those were the days when leftovers were quickly eaten
or promptly “recycled” into the next meal.
A young couple would buy their first home,
raise all of their children in that home and then
retire there (after 30-40 years at the same company).
The dinner meal always took well over an hour to cook.
You know I am telling the truth- and it wasn’t that long ago.

Fast forward (a whopping three minutes, or so!)
and what do you find?

Suddenly, everything is extra-disposable and extra-fast.

An obvious, commonplace example of this,
especially in the West, is the drive-thru
(Apparently, it takes too long to write “through”).
Billions of people around the globe regularly partake in a diet of
fast-food in paper wrappers eaten while hurrying off to wherever.

We thoughtlessly throw things out as quickly
as the plastic cards made them appear.
Landfills are overflowing.
Courts are overflowing
(with divorce, bankruptcy cases, et cetera).

How many people do you know (outside of the WWII generation) who have lived in the same house for more than twenty years- or even fifteen?

Is it not commonly advisable to change jobs-
or at least positions, every three years or so,
to avoid looking professionally stagnate?

Whew!

Then there are issues like how often and easily people are aborted, euthanatized, and sold as slaves- though I admit these are not new problems...

There have always been the poor, the homeless drifters.
But now even the affluent have become transients-
perpetually moving into new neighborhoods.

There has always been murder,
though now many ways of taking human life are socially acceptable and accessible to the masses.

There are always been slaves, but technology has exacerbated
human trafficking problems exponentially.

I am going to pause..........

Who wants to offer a comment or two?
Let's get the discussion rolling!

uNpLuGGeD !

Later this spring
(brrr! This is Minnesota)
I am planning a little experiment
which will take me into
(drum roll, please)
...technological isolation.

I will be media free,
television screen free,
computer free
and mobile phone free…

I'll even be people free.

That’s right folks.
I’m going off the grid and into the woods!

You see, I have been wondering
if modern society has gotten
into a state of mind where it is
psychologically inconceivable to
truly unplug.

Think about it.

No electricity or running water.
No music.
No media.

Nothing tethering me safely down.
Just my gear in a pack and
a couple of great books.

Techno-Nekked
Alone with nature.

sigh

Nature...
Doesn't that include
"Cougars and Spiders and Bears- Oh my!?"



Ummm.
I might lure my eldest son into coming along.

In any case, when I return I will post
a report reflecting on my little experiment
which I will (predictably) call "Unplugged"

or maybe I will just call it "Nekked!!"

Until next time... ciao!

Oral Culture- Words Cover More...

Just as clothes do more than just cover nakedness, oral language does so much more than simply deliver a message from sender to receiver.

Conversations reflect the cultural moorings of the times, do they not? Yes! Attitudes and values are reflected- indeed imbedded- within even the simplest conversations.

In everyday speech, these secondary "messages" go largely unnoticed by both speaker and listener; it is a subliminal process for most people.

However, the embedded secondary messages within the language spoken become blantantly obvious when one listens to recorded language being conveyed from outside of one's own time and place. Listen to how language expresses the perceived American cultural values in 1964, in the television entertainment show, "Bewitched".

If the point I am making is not clear from reading this post- it will become blazingly clear after listening to the Bewitched video (the narrator's lines were especially "interesting"). That show gave this post birth, so to speak! It is funny in kind of an eye-popping, brow-raising, sort of way!

Of course, television shows merely imitate natural conversations. The shows are largely written from the motivation to entertain people. But the embedding of cultural moorings within the language used still occurs.

Advertising is another example of a deliberately crafted message. The sender intends to harness lingual power for their benefit. There is no need for the receiver to be aware of this intent in order for their to be impact. And the embedding of cultural moorings within the language used still occurs.

Whether intentional or not, these linguistic reinforcements invariably influence people's behavior.

Language is power.

Can't Touch This!

I thought I would lighten things up on the ole blog today!
Besides, encouraging the happy heart is a noble pursuit, is it not?
So if this short post makes you smile or laugh-
even just for a few moments- then I am glad!

How this blog started:
Last night I ran across an old- very entertaining- video.

Well, ummmm- Let me rewind~
A more accurate translation of events is:

I could not sleep.
Ignoring at least five choices in books on my bedstand,
I got out of bed.

Stupid move: Gaurantees a minimum of 1.5 hours additional sleep loss.

Then I started to wander around youtube-world...
(add minimum of one more hour sleep loss)

I guess I wasn't too concerning with getting a solid night's rest.

Anyway~~~
Like I was saying, I ran across this old, but very entertaining, video.
It made me smile.
It relaxed me
...not long afterward I crept back into bed.

Laughter is sooooo good for the soul!

I wonder how many of you remember this?
Many of you, I bet!

(If you like it, there is a second video. Check out Judson Laipply's website.)




************GOT LAUGHTER?**********************

This is another oldie but goodie.

I started thinking about the issues of
Reader's Digest that I used to read as a kid.
Many of you remember those magazines, right?
One of my favorite sections was called:
Laughter: The Best Medicine.
All sorts of funny stuff was there~
one liners, stories, jokes- whatever would tickle your funny bone!

Laughter really is good medicine!!!
Laughter is really good *food* for our spirit!!!

We need to smile and laugh- It is part of healthy living!

I hope you have a truly happy day!

International Women's Day approaches

In 1975, during International Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating March 8 as International Women's Day. Please take a moment to listen to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as he speaks in honor of this day.



This has been a year of upheaval and reflection for me.

I work to stretch my mind around the circumference of this world.
There are so many issues concerning the human family.
But I also need to grasp the ramifications of these for my own little world.

My little neighborhood, my circle of friends,
my dear family...
This is what I touch and am touched by.
This is where I raise my children.

I believe that to reach the depth of my own capacity
to understand global issues,
I need to find a way to connect them to my own...
To empathize with what is happening in the
lives of women all around the Earth,
I need to gaze, long and deep,
through the intimacy of my direct experiences.

What about you?
Technology makes issues, like woman's rights, increasingly prominent to a worldwide audience. In principle, this is nothing new: Humans have always needed to bridge the gap between direct experiences and stories they heard from others.

How do you connect the big, wide world of indirectly known experiences with your little, directly experienced world?