Archive for the ‘Neurotic Griping’ Category

As a strong woman with an appreciation of other strong women, I was very impressed with the numbers that marched all over the world the day after the presidential inauguration to speak out as a gender. It takes organization, leadership, consensus, a sense of unity and, in this case at least, a very scary cause for so many to gather and combine their feet and voices.

We just have to remember, in this day and age, it won’t be enough. Marching makes a statement. It doesn’t change legislation. It doesn’t change leaders.

As United States citizens of legal age, women, or anyone for that matter, who are unhappy with the state our our government and its officials need to make it count with a vote. Not just in the presidential election, but in every election. Your council members, your mayors, your state congressmen and women, your governor, your federal congressmen and women; federal mandates are one thing, but federal dollars are another. Quite often it’s up to state officials to decide how that money is divided, then districts, counties, townships, and finally cities and villages. You pay all of them. You need to know at least who they are.

Don’t like what the US congress is doing right now with your money? Who are your congressmen or women? Did you even vote when they were elected? Here in lies the problem. Less than half of the US citizens of legal voting age voted in the last election. That apathy not only affected the presidency, it affected all the officials on that ballet, right down to a sheriff or county clerk or state representative. And the percentage is even smaller in a bi-election year when the highest office in the land is not up for grabs.

So, yay, I’m glad, grateful, proud that my gender gathered together in solidarity to make themselves known and noticed. How about showing up to the next election in your area and voting? Go online to your municipality and see what’s up for elections in April, who is on the ballet, and what they would bring to the post.

Even better, get together in numbers and discuss ways to keep up the fight. Do your own campaigning and collect signatures to oust the US congressman or woman whose agenda is hurting you, your family, your country. When those signatures are collected en mass, send them to that representative and contact them often. Let them know that you will fight them with your vote if they don’t change their ways and listen. Whether they like it or not, you are their constituent and you deserve to be heard.

For some it may be a little late. But leaders are elected to the US House every two years, the US Senate every six. 2018 is not that far away. If Trump doesn’t self destruct in the next four years, it’s still possible to restructure the US Congress to take away some of the one sided power. And don’t forget everyone else down the chain.

Battle with will. Battle with stamina. Battle with unerring consistency, and battle with passion and integrity. But most of all, battle with your vote, all the time, every time, before the privilege to do so is taken away.

I feel that, in our need to maintain our sense of self in a world of globalization and population explosion, we human beings are losing our sense of empathy and replacing it with self-righteous narcissism. If a person can’t or won’t try to see the world from another’s perspective, they will fail to understand anything but what they believe to be true. Belief is not reality.

Empathy is not the same as pity. All of us want to be understood, no matter who we are and how bright or bleak our lives may be. To understand why a person says or does something that goes against our beliefs, we must learn their motivation, their background, their environment, their goals. To gloss over another’s opinion as simply wrong sells both parties short.

Sometimes, it’s very frightening to delve into the mind of someone whom we fear or possibly hate. But the sad truth is all of us are equipped with the same giant brains, so very capable of being very conscientious and very malicious. The brain is a vast dense jungle of neurons, chemicals, hormones, all waiting for some event to trigger a reaction, prompt a response to the outside stimuli that feeds it, dictates its processes, molds its reality.

There are those scientists out there that still hold to the theory that evil is genetic. I’ve born witness like to rest of you to the media soup that proves time and time again that awful acts know no genealogy.

To me, it will always come down to this. If you fail to perceive the notion of others, you fail to understand them. In doing so, your perception of the world will be narrow minded and deluded by the beliefs that bring you comfort at the expense of others. Unfortunately, we are all compelled to this state. It takes a courageous act of will to be otherwise.

Lately, I’ve had a spare moment in the morning between when my husband leaves for work and my new full time job starts. I finally found the motivation and energy to write a little something. I noticed the last blog post was from February. That’s pretty awful for a writer who hopes to maintain an audience, I know.

If you are angry with me for my lack of blog writing (never mind book writing. Sheesh), I’m sorry, but your disappointment in my lack of progress is nothing compared to mine.

I learned a long time ago that I will never live up to my own expectations. I will never be as good as I believe I’m suppose to be, never be as successful, never be as organized, never be as insightful or ready.

But my worst failing is never forgiving myself for being a human being with flaws and ineptitude that preclude me from being the perfect specimen of writer, wife, friend, daughter, and now mother that I believe is necessary for acceptance from the rest of the world.

That, unfortunately, is a flaw that my main character inherited from me, though I doubt it was done with any intention on my part. Bernice runs and hides from those who care about her because she can’t seem to come to terms with her apparent failings in life. She leaves those who need her most because she believes they’d be better off without her.

But the problem with being alone for too long is the voices in ones head start to sound more convincing and logical than they should. And rarely do they ever utter the words, “you’re good enough.”

So, in my tardiness of offering anything that resembles new writing with which to entertain you, I apologize, but I have to give myself a break right now and accept that the writing will come when I let it. Meanwhile, I’m busy enjoying my chubby, drool covered, babbling new job who sucks up most of my attention, adoration, and energy.

Enjoy your summer. I may write again. Book 6 is about 1/3 done. So we’ll see. In the sage pseudo words of my new demanding boss: “gnagnagna ah ba ha aieeeee!” or something to that effect. It’s hard to articulate with big bird’s squishy beak shoved in ones mouth.