Oil Spill Influenced Dream

I had a weird dream last night I can only attribute to all the damage done by the BP oil spill. I've been following all the damage that oil spill is and will be doing and reflecting on how my own dependence on fossil fuel helped contribute to this disaster. Skip and I have already decided that when I am ready to move on from my 2003 Toyota Matrix, we will replace it with an electric car. I have just been wondering how much abuse our earth can take before we completely destroy her.

So last night I had this dream. We were in our house, but it didn't look like our house. It was worn out and dilapidated. And all the houses in our Wisteria-Lane-look-a-like neighborhood looked the same way. Almost like an abandoned neighborhood, but everyone was still living here. In real life, we have a dining room table that we bought when we first got married and it's a little worse for the wear, but we really like it. In the dream, that table completely collapsed and we needed to replace it. So my husband and I had a very calm, reasonable conversation about whether or not we should spend the money on a new table when it was likely that the earth would not be able to sustain human life for very much longer. Did we really need a new table or could we make do without one until the world came to an end? About that time, I woke up, so I don't know what we decided about the table.

I think we all have this idea that even with all the talk of climate change and pollution, the earth will continue to absorb all of the abuse for many, many years to come. But if we keep causing these massive disasters, we're going to speed up the destruction. Mother earth can only take so much. Hoping for better dreams tonight. Last night's was a little too creepy.

Wouldn't You Know it?

Just 8 days into Buy-Nothing-June, my I-pod dies. Gone. No coming back. It is a testament to the Apple brand that it has lasted this long. It's old school--a third generation Nano. I've had it for two-and-a-half years and have long since gotten my money's worth.

Of course, it is ironic that in an effort to curb my daughter's addiction to buying, I am now having to face my I-pod addiction. Not too long ago, I misplaced it for awhile and was completely out of sorts without it. I listen to pod-casts of NPR shows while I'm doing house chores. I have music for when I exercise. I listen to audio books while I knit or fold laundry or do rote things like log all the church member's contact info into a new database program (still no church secretary).

Now exercise is torture. Housework is even more of a drag. Yesterday, my daughter was kind of annoyed that I had the stereo on while I was making dinner. It clashed with her television show (she is loving the tv freedom that comes when school is not in session). I told her she was welcome to turn off the tv at anytime.

So, I suppose, I'll have to get used to more time with my own thoughts running through my head instead of Carl Castle's voice or the latest from the Black Eyed Peas.

Buy Nothing June

After a long hiatus from this blog, I am back to talk about Buy Nothing June.

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While both my husband and I are certainly guilty of often buying things we don't really need, we declared this consumer-free month to combat our daughter's growing obsession with obtaining more and more things. She has hardly enjoyed the wonderful gifts she received recently for her birthday because she is already looking ahead to what she can buy next. We're not sure how this happened. Skip and I are not big "thing" people. Our spending downfall is experiences--travel and entertainment. Vacations and concerts and theater eat up a lot of money that might be better spent elsewhere. But we have a really good time. :)

We have a great house, but our home is furnished--not decorated. My engagement ring is the only valuable piece of jewelry we own. I have a $10 cell phone. If someone broke in to our house to steal something, they'd be so disappointed by our ten-year-old stereo and square-box 36-inch television, they'd probably spray paint something out of spite. I regularly haul things we aren't using or have outgrown to Goodwill, so we're just not sure where our child got this fixation with stuff and more stuff.

Since she's still too young to send off on a mission trip to Appalachia or Mexico (a great way to gain a little perspective), we thought we'd just put an end to the consuming. She actually cried when I told her. I have a nine-year-old who had a breakdown at the thought of not being able to buy anything for a month. Let's hear it for my parenting skills.

We've told her at the end of the month, she can decide where we will donate the money we have saved by curtailing our spending habits. I hope this month is effective. Otherwise, we may have to send her to the convent. Do they take pre-teen Presbyterians?

Indian Premiere League--Cricket

This is how they open up a cricket championship game in India. Love it!



Did I mention we have the Cricket Ticket through DirecTV so we don't miss a thing

Is Evian the key?

My 40th birthday is just around the corner. Should I buy a case today?

Right for all the Wrong Reasons

The death penalty has been in the news for the last few days here in Arkansas. A couple of cases have been called in to question and executions have been delayed. So it’s got me thinking about the death penalty, and I am against it.

There are a number of good reasons to be against the death penalty:

1. Life is sacred and should be protected at all costs
2. It is an arbitrary punishment. Two people can commit identical crimes and one may be sentenced to death while the other gets life in prison
3. There is no way to take it back if evidence later proves the person was innocent.

So there are lots of legitimate and even admirable reasons to be against the death penalty. Alas, my reasons may be as legitimate, but perhaps not very admirable.

I am against the death penalty because the people who receive it are the very worst example of humankind. They have destroyed not only the lives of the people they killed, but often the lives of everyone who ever loved their victim(s). The ripple effect of the destruction that occurs in the commission of a violent crime is impossible to measure.

But I also believe in a loving and merciful God. I believe that there is nothing that we can do that can separate us from the love of God. I don’t believe that heaven will be my home because of anything I have done, but because of what God has done through Jesus Christ. I believe that everyone, no matter what s/he has done, has the opportunity to receive forgiveness from God.

God is all loving and forgiving, but I am not. I think that people who have done irreparable damage to this world should have to hang around this life for a while before they get a shot at the next. Since I’m not a believer in purgatory, I like the idea of some prison-time limbo imposed here on earth. I really want them to have a taste of hell before they get a chance at heaven. Not very admirable or loving or forgiving of me.

I just may be the most mean-spirited anti-death penalty advocate around. I believe it's wrong to kill, but I'm okay with certain people being miserable. Not my best moment, is it?

Box Writing

My daughter starts taking the Benchmark test today in school. For weeks, they've been preparing for these tests. It seems like everything has revolved around them. And part of the prep has been learning how to write their answers to certain questions inside a box so that the tests can be graded properly. I can't believe I send my child to a learning institution where they are teaching here--training her!--to write inside the box. Drives me absolutely up a wall.

I don't claim to know anything about education, but I can't see the benefit of these standardized tests--other than to provide some statistics for the school districts. I would much rather that she was learning how to solve problems and figuring out new ways of making things work. I supposed my education wasn't much different, but after three years of International school exposure, the world of bubble filling, box writing and endless worksheets just doesn't seem very effective.

Hopefully, her time in Argenta will help counteract this training. I'm pretty sure most of the people who live there don't even know that there is a box--much less how to stay inside the lines.