Spying.....Yet

I am offended by how many of Europe's policy leaders are themselves offended at the mention of the United States spying on foreign leaders.   I am more offended that they found out.  Who didn't keep this information under wraps?  Yes, that dog gone Snowden again.  

Spying has been around.....well, I guess since humans started on this earth.  Perhaps, it was the first cave man looking at another cave's mans drawings of animals that inspired the drawing of humans.  On through history we have Mary Queen of Scots receiving poisoned garments from her cousin over in England; intercepted letters and correspondence helped Mary avoid that fate until her beheading.  Then, of course, we all know of the Nazi Germany and their spying escapades not to be outdone later by the Soviet Union. 

It amazes me that Germany is so upset by all of this spy business.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has thrown in her rhetoric take on this through the use of sentences,"Obviously, words will not be sufficient", and "True change is necessary".


Really, Chancellor? Change is necessary? Hasn't change been the factor by which we have spied on you? Cell phones, computer hacking, GPS location systems.....is this the change you speak of? We didn't intercept your snail mail. We didn't tap the outlets in your office. We didn't put cameras in the light fixtures. Or, did we?

Chancellor, have you not heard of the Patriot Act?  Do you not know that we do this same thing within our own country? An argument that is repeated over and over again in the media lately is:  we are your allies.  I presume that in this country, our own citizens are considered allies as well.  The word ally in its most basic sense means cooperation.  Does cooperation negate the know your friends, keep your enemies closer?  Germany is not our enemy of course and it is a friend of ours in the common goal of freedom and democracy, yet, I graduated in 1989 and watched as the Berlin Wall crumbled....Take down that wall.  Yet, within the reach of my grandparent's generation, Germany has changed it appearances.  Yet, Paris has only been liberated since 1944.  Yet, Israel has only been a nation re-established since 1948.  Yet, Spain in 1978 adopted its democratic constitution. 

Winston Churchill remarked, "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on". We know that there are good people and bad people. People use information for good and for evil. We, like all nations, have been caught with our pants down and it hasn't been a pretty sight. As for spying, yet another quote from Churchill, "The Americans will always do the right thing… after they’ve exhausted all the alternatives".

Never Satisfied

A week ago I was wearing sandals and this week, my winter coat.  I shouldn't be surprised considering I live in Minnesota and this always happens.

I often hear people say that they are looking forward to the cooler temperatures.  They are awaiting Friday night football, sweatshirts, and the turn of the leaves.  Like comfort food, the turn of the weather provides a potato and meat fullness.  We blanket ourselves in layers of clothing that conceal the imperfections and create a sense of security.

After the leaves have fallen and raked into piles and after the boys of Fall have scored their last touchdown, we tend to turn on this glorious season.  Windows that faced once colorful, leafy trees, now seemingly, reflect sticks stuck in brown earth. The sharp turn does not steer us in the wrong direction however because we look forward to a snowy pureness that might arrive any day.

We can make it through Thanksgiving with its abundance of aromas, food, and decorations.  The day after our own stuffing, we set up Christmas trees, send husbands outside to put up lights, reflect our children's homemade school ornaments that tell the story of their school years on the tree.  We exchange the orange, browns, and leafy designs that accompanied Indian corn, gourds and pumpkins.  Discarded, they are thrown into the trash or put away in plastic bins marked Fall Decorations until they are needed again in less than a year.  Red and green strip away the mayhem of Fall and now we are all prepared for Winter.  Are we actually?

Perhaps we are ready for Christmas and the holiday season?  Snow looks beautiful in December but we turn on it.  In January we are still a bit smitten and by February we need a break from it and by March, well, we are mad......it needs to go away.  Is it really the snows fault?  Shouldn't the fault be split between the lack of sunlight, the bitterness of the temperatures, or the lack of any holiday to look forward to?

If we are lucky, we get to have a Spring.  We get the smell of the muddy, watery aroma that permeates the air with hope.  Chilly air mixes with heated streams given out infrequently by the still timid sun.

Summer arrives and the sun dominates.  This overshadows any need for a holiday.  We forget the urgency to look forward because every day is like a school recess period.  The weekends are a field trip without supervision.  The possibility of fun seems endless.  It is the elementary school portion of weather.  It provides release until of course, we are ready to move on and have grown tired of the hot temperatures.

Sitting in the stands at a Friday night football game, during half-time runs to the concession stand for hot chocolate, someone in line mentions how nice the cooler weather feels. Another comments about the harvest and yet another remarks how beautiful the trees look on Fox Road. As the moon replaces the sun, there is a slight rustle of brittle corn and dry leaves.

Soul Stops

My friend lost her 20 year old son last spring. Her pain wears on her like a fevered headache that complicates the most basic of daily living.  There is no medicine that will cure this.

Every parent says that it is not right for a child to die before the parent.  As a society we seem to be okay with death when it happens after a long fought struggle or a life well lived.  We don't want to see people in pain and sometimes death is a release.  But, losing a child is a different matter.

We console ourselves with religion, spirituality, or hope that all the understandings we have about life and death somehow end up being true.  We find solace in words that are written in Hallmark cards. We find kinship in those who can identify with the hurt---they have their stories too.

Two days ago, there was yet another accident outside of our small town.  A young man, age 23, lost his life.  We are asked to pray and to keep the family in our thoughts.

I do not know how to describe what happens when news like this hits those not directly involved.  The whole community is in pain.  The ripple effects are endless.  Every mother and father runs through the scenario---what if this happened to me? Night time prayers become lengthier.  Young drivers are constantly reminded by adults the need for driving safely.  There is nothing anyone can do. Helplessness takes over.

It is almost like when my grandmother said that you have a cold in your back when I would sleep with my window open in the late fall when daytime temperatures were warm and night-time temperatures hovered just about freezing.  You need to close your window at night--the cold gets into your bones. A cold in your back doesn't stop you from doing your daily activities; it is almost like a pinched nerve.  But, it hurts. It is constant and deep and changes your focus on daily life.  You suffer through each day just hoping it is going to get better.  Just hoping you do not have another one.  Just hoping you never experience it again.

The loss of these young adult men is a type of Soul Stop.  It is like the soul had too much.  The soul jolts back but it is different.  The windows of life were left open too long and now the soul has a cold in it.  It hurts, its focus changes, and it is constant.  My soul stopped and re-started but it hurts and it is constant. But, I have no right to complain of my hurt because mine is minor compared to those directly involved.

Small communities can be both blessing and curse---ask any adult raising their children in a small town and ask any teenager trying to find a way to get out.  What I know for sure is that the small town I live in has had their soul stopped too many times.  We are all in need of a bit of therapy.  Perhaps that is being selfish?  As if other small towns and big cities do not go through the same thing.

My friend who lost her son last spring said something to me yesterday......   She told me that the sun still rises and sets. She cannot stop working, raising her other children, buying groceries, taking the dog for a walk, paying her bills, getting ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and so on.  Pain is like that.  It hides behind the sun in the morning and the the sunset at night.  It conceals itself in the clothes she wears, the car she drives, the work she does.

If someone had a broken arm in a cast, the hurt shows.  If someone is cut, the bleeding is covered with bandages.  The soul stopping?  It just downright hurts.

Can Crafty Ideas be a Dangerous Thing????

Due to my job, Twitter, Facebook, SnapChat, etc., are off limits but Pinterest?  Can crafty ideas be a dangerous thing?

I don't know if it is because I am in my forties now or the fact that I see these idyllic young mothers who stay home with their children and still manage to look put together and have time to be crafty, that I have decided that maybe I need to up my crafty game.

My children are teenagers and are not impressed with this whole "crafty mom" aspect.  In fact, my daughter reminded me that Pinterest is more than crafts.  I decided to investigate this phenomena---more than crafts.  What I discovered added to the time sucking that I had already given to Pinterest; now I have to care about how I can braid my hair and how to make a slutty-cut-out shirt from an old t-shirt?

Growing up, we didn't really craft at my house.  My mother was a Girl Scout leader and that seemed to fill our quota of crafting.  In fact, my mother didn't start quilting till after her children had left the house.  (Apparently, my mother knew how to sew before I was conceived and took a few years off!?)  My mother also worked outside the home.  I grew up never questioning the fact that I was going to work and be a mother.

I am not dissing (hip word choice?) the young mothers that stay home with their children; this is the hardest and yet most admired of jobs. I am not saying that if I stayed home with my children, I probably wouldn't shower each day and I would slop around in my sweats---well, I guess I am saying that.  I don't believe that I could get up each day, make myself into the representation I want society to see of me and still have time to create cute pallet signs, burlap monogrammed place-mats, and picture collages of my children.  I don't think I would have the energy to research Home Schooling options because the public schools have gone to hell--literally.

Am I weak because of this?  Perhaps, I will do the things I know I can do.  I will be the mother I am and pray my children do not need therapy as adults.  I will go to work everyday and continue the work ethic that my mother instilled in me.  I will pay my taxes. I will vote so the public schools receive funding and good teachers.  I will pray.  I will pray.  And, occasionally, when I need to suck up some time, go to Pinterest.