School daze?

So kindergartner and 2d grader are supposed to make valentines at home for school. Ben comes home with some sort of stuff for supplies. We buy some paper for Soren to cut out and make Valentines.
   Monday night we remember  the valentines . We start making them and Soren will not let me help cut the paper. Ben is on his own and makes a couple with glue sticks and such. Soren is busy slicing up paper with peace signs on it and writing in the same color ink so the names are invisible. Suddenly Soren needs help. Trex (on the back of peace signs ) needs his teeth cut out. I help him thinking that it is a special valentine. Nope "I just wanted to draw him. Now Soren is doing some crazy art project and Ben wants to buy pre-made valentines. 

Father son.

Pickup the kids at school, head out to look at lame horse go to buy the kids shoes(Again?!). Get home tired and sleepy,eat some c**p from my stupid food allergy diet cook noodle and ramen (Plasticated noodle with freeze dried soy sauce). Cold and tired. Go outside to cut and split wood for fire. Ben wants to come and help. He does one cut with the chainsaw and then disappears to work with horrible new puppies(more on that later) Finish cutting tree and start splitting with huge axe Ben (7) comes back and wants to split . Spend 40 minutes putting logs back on block while Ben with no impatience or frustration swings away with Daddy sized axe.                                                    


                                        PRICELESS

first impressions

You only get one chance to make a first impression.
There are many ads on the radio about how to do a good job interview,many classes on resume creation, there is speed-dating and on line dating whee you are writing an advertisement for you self. It is kind of a relief after all that hippie and yuppie stuff of becoming a better person or worker or boss or artist.
    All I have to to now is pretend to be good at whatever until the Short attention spanner across the table or laptop goes back to text and twitter. I am golden!

Exceptionalism rough comments welcome

A friend of mine recently recounted an experience that he had in a grocery store parking lot..
   A young lady (homeless maybe) asked him for money he had no cash so could not help. she then approached another woman with the same results. My friend and this woman discussed this interaction,him expressing concern over the fact that this issue of panhandling seemed to be on the increase and that worried him. She agreed and commented that it was really hard to know who was telling the truth. My friend responded  that in a way it did not matter, a generous act is worthy unto itself and it up to the recipient how to use these acts. She agreed and they parted. He later observed the same woman giving dog food to a man with a dog.
  Interesting. This little interaction allowed the other person to be more generous.  Something to remember for each of us and how we interact with ourselves in terms of society and all that comes with it.
  A little sidebar, my friend thought it might be enlightening? to consider why the woman gave dog food not cash or human food. This reminds me of my friends Grandfather whose hobby was picking "bums" and forcing them to eat breakfast. The paternalistic idea that he knew better than them what was good for them. Everybody I tell this story to says "Good for him" I am not so sure. It seemed odd to me at the time. Why not give these persons what they thought they needed?
  Reminds me of the story of a friend of mine who settled in Guatemala in the late sixties. The peace corps decided to help the village that had adopted him by teaching them to farm fish. These people were hungry but their perception was that this was because all their farmland had been stolen to grow bananas(and drugs). The helpers from America had the idea that if these poor ignorant villagers just learned about the good old protestant work ethic they would be a lot better off.
   The ponds were built and the fish grew and the peace core left and the villagers had a feast. So much for the fish farm. Is there a wrong or a right in this story? Maybe not. Neither party could actually solve the problem of a changing demography that this village was dealing with. They were  unwilling to adapt  and unable to get their farms back. Both parties were hoping for good and maybe neither understood the complete dynamics of a global situation. Many "helpers" went away thinking that the villagers were lazy stubborn and ignorant. The villagers may have had a different opinion.
    The story goes around the US that natives to this area sold land for liquor and trinkets. Here is a huge
'failure to communicate" Most if not all of the humans who lived here did not "GROK" the idea of ownership. These are my moccasins or clothes or whatever,but the idea of "owning land was completely out of their worldview. I do not think I have the words to express what I sense the Cochiti thought of their relationship to the land. I do however know that there was no sense that one could buy or sell land. Did the land own them? Did they "share" the land? I do not know. It seems that one could make a deal to farm or hunt on land that others had farmed. In some way one could have territorial disputes. In none of their interactions did it seem one could "own" The land. Maybe deals were made that were mot understood but I am sure that the land was not "Sold".
  Back to exceptionalism. OUR IDEAS ARE RIGHT. Which of course means that"Your " ideas are wrong. So the woman at the grocery store may have been part of that paradigm. The "homeless"  are at some deep level "wrong" lazy stupid, druggies, something that is wrong. The natives are wrong. Those villagers are wrong. I guess I really sense that wrong is not totally accurate. "less than us" is more precise. Those "other" are not as smart industrious and godly as we are so we must A) care for and train them. or if they are "dangerous" B) put them down. (any other will do)
 I think  that we have this idea that persons who have fallen on hard times are there because of their own weakness(including moral,for example that speculators and CEO's who demand huge salaries because they deserve sooo much more than "you other weaklings". I always bring this up because these same persons make mistakes they say "What do you expect , I am only human!"
 So did this woman give dog-food because she felt sorry for the dog having a "bad" owner? It could be she had no cash or human food or it could have been that she thought the man would use money for drugs and decided for him that that would not be good for him or the dog. We have a way of thinking in our culture that allows us to stand in judgment because we are entitled by where and when we were born. We think that we are better than because of the vast wealth of this land and because it attracted a lot of brilliant driven sociopaths who took over and are willing to work to the exclusion of all else for "personal gain". They are more "successful" than and feel superior to thos who will or cannot do as they do. 

Sport and oppression

Sport to me is practice for real life. Honor, integrity, teamwork, courage,all those things that help life go well for groups of people. I remember speaking with my high school coach on the subject of sport in school and him reminding me that I probably would not have attended high school without sport. So sports are important in life and society.
 That being said, I listen to these guys talk about the superbowl and how it was the most important thing in their lives and I cannot help but think that there is some way that all there spirit energy and power gas been directed towards a huge marketing tool that is run by the small group of sociopaths that care not for morality or humanity

Just one of those things

Last May I accidentally volunteered for a school fundraiser,an auction for Acquia Madre School. I showed up and they put me in charge of "security" wandering around the jewelry making sure that nobody pocketed anything while acting nice. So I showed up late as usual and was greeted by this hot c..uh beautiful woman in a  little black dress who directed me to the jewelry table and bade me stand around and look nice.
 So I found out her name was        and of course I stayed late to help with the breakdown(because I came late, not because of the little black dress). Anyway turns out that her son is in my sons class and she is single like me. So of course being me I do not do anything about this for months and months.
    Fast forward to the next school year(proof that I am a fast worker) I bump into her at a PTC (PTA for us older folks) and call her up later to discuss the meeting during this talks it slips out that I find her very attracted to her. Of course her response is the standard "let's just be friends." I don't say anything but in my head I am. "I already got 4, maybe 3, or so friends why do I need more?"
  Segue (still remember the day I learned this word, very upsetting experience having my little brother use a word I did not know) to health issues. I have always had, how do you say this delicately?  .... a sensitive stomach and have always managed it(or not) without comment or noticing(self absorbed?) that some other people did not have this experience(sort of like my childhood) excuse the over use of whachamacallits() I recently realized that only few people can read between the lines and they all know me from waay back so I am trying to use all the words that I think, very difficult task as a am a fast thinker and slow typer er ist I mean.
  Where was I ? Oh yeah the hot... person. Anyway Susanna(named changed to protect the guilty)  forced me to watch a movie about Polly where the Ben Stiller character has something called IBS. AHA. thank DR. comedy. So I had an epiphany and a name for something that had existed for years. (naming, another treatise soon)
   So fast forward from Polly (Rachel, if anyone is interested) a few years to a beautiful naturopath and a shy guy with a weird disorder.
    So long story short I am losing my treasured syndrome and still only friends.  Oh well there's always arthritis or something