of midgets and giants

No, not a post on height. Today the world lost a giant, Coretta Scott-King. And tonight a midget, George W. Bush, will address the country. It bothers me on a fundamental level. I feel cheated, like I got the bad end of a trade. I want, and deserve, to be able to admire our leaders, to look up to them as an example to emulate. And what I get is an over-age, average frat boy with delusions of greatness.

I know that great people do not always make great leaders. Jimmy Carter, one of my absolute heroes, is a great, great man. He was a pretty bad president. Bill Clinton is a truly flawed man, but a good leader. I just want to not have a flawed man who is also a bad president. We should be able to do better.

itchy feet

Some people get cabin fever, or spring fever. I get "itchy feet". I feel an overwhelming urge to go someplace. Maybe I'm nomadic deep down in my genetic code. And when I say "go someplace", I don't mean Vegas, or down de oshun (as they say here in Bawlmer). I want to go to Tanzania, or Madagascar or New Zealand. Someplace where I can feel, to my core, that I am someplace else.

the urge is powerful, almost all-consuming. I am drowning in travel brochures. I can't afford to go anywhere, but I have a credit card and it isn't close to maxed out. And its tugging, tugging at me, waves rushing from the shore. I wanna go, I wanna, I really wanna.

SIGH!

so not the demo

Santa brought me an iPod Nano for christmas. To say I am obsessed with the gadget is an understatement. Imagine my surprise when I read a recent article saying the average iPOD user was a 15-34 year old male, who drives a VW and plays a lot of video games. Once again, I have been marginalized. So much for my hopes for big-print screens, I guess. I *hate* when I'm not part of the demo. It means my interests and needs are a side issue, if they are considered at all.

I have the same problem in record stores. Remember those? The clerks call me MA'AM, and ignore me for the most part. And they all assume I'm buying that hot new alt-rock CD for my kid. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! I ROCK, I swear I do. Even if I do it in comfy slacks as often as in old jeans these days.

JimJimCrow

A recent court ruling that Maryland's anti-gay marriage law is unconstitutional has the state legislature frothing and drooling. They are now discussing whether we need a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. They want the voters to decide.

If the voters in Selma had been asked whether they wanted to desegregate -- the answer would have been NO. If Southern voters had been asked to decide whether they wanted to keep their slaves, the answer would have been YES. We are taking a step back into the era of JIM CROW laws when we ask the comfortable majority to decide whether they want to be more fair to the uncomfortable minority.

We are talking about two consenting adults who want to commit to each other and commit to the notion of family. How can that be bad for society?

sometimes laws have to lead us into uncomfortable territory, to force us to do what is fair and just, even when our natural inclination is to do the opposite. We wouldn't need a law for something if everyone agreed; we have laws to hold us in check against our lesser selves, to be our conscience when conscience fails us.

wrong turns

I think we've made a wrong turn somewhere. I read today that there is evidence the US "outsourced" torture. How can all this stuff be happening? At what point did we shift our public conscience to the point where we deny basic human rights, spy on our own people, become the "bad guys"?

I keep myself myself well-informed on current events. I vote in every election, local and federal. I contribute to just causes. I think I'm like most people in my basic wants: health and prosperity for me and mine, in a civil, just society. So what am I not doing? what are we not doing, that we have come to this?

Are we on an inevitable downward turn? I just can't accept that. I can't accept how things ARE. Now what??

changejunkie

Why changejunkie?


I have an issue with change. Not in the way most folks do, where I'm afraid of it. No, the opposite. I seem to need it, to almost be addicted to it. I changed my major 5 times in college, with the last time being the beginning of my senior year (or what would have been my senior year if I hadn't changed majors so many times). I'm on my fourth house. I can stay at the same job for a maximum of seven years, but I get itchy to change jobs at year 4. At the end of year 4, I usually interview, get an offer, get the office to make a counter-offer and then stay on, but that only lasts a little while, and then I have to go, since you can't do this process more than once on a job. I change what I want to be when I grow up every 6 months to a year, even though I'm way past "grown up" by now.

I've been fighting against this "short attention span" my whole adult life. I've decided to just recognize it, and embrace that its just part of what I am. So now I'm changejunkie.

Day 1 -- I hate beginnings

Hmmm. I hate beginnings. I can write the middle of a story, but those first few lines are, well, scary. So, deep breath, this is my blog. I've decided to view the whole world as my kitchen. See what's cooking, throw a few things together, make some magic, throw out the disasters, hold on to leftovers too long, do the dishes, whatever. Metaphorically of course.