Comfort from long ago...

From our first president, a gentle reminder of our responsibilities as citizens of this great country...and why, we have such a distinctive onus to keep it great...here's an excerpt from his inaugural address...

"I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."


.

Evil In, Evil Out.

What are we putting into our minds on a daily basis? I can't help asking this after the horrific news out of Aurora Co. yesterday.

I remember a strange incident back in 2008. It was right after the release of The Dark Knight , and the death of Heath Ledger was still hanging in the air. I was driving south on a main thoroughfare, when a speeding small black car pulled up next to me with the passenger window open and a young man dressed exactly as Heath Ledger Joker. He was hanging out the window practically reaching into my car , gesturing maniacally at me...I tried not to look as unnerved as I felt. They sped down the road with him hanging out the window flailing about.
It scared the snot out of me...because it was so aggressive and direct and terroristic in it's intent.

I grew up with the TV Batman and was sad to see it go so dark. I stopped watching Batman movies because of that....then one night, watching TV alone in the den (no kids in the room) I came upon the creepy movie Joker from The Dark Knight while scrolling channels...I took about a minute of it and concluded "I don't need that rolling around in my mind..." and obviously neither did Heath Ledger.

Thank God for remote controls and off buttons.

I don't need Paranormal Activity one ,two ,three ad nausea-um , or Saw or Hostel , or The Orphan/Ring/Whatever ... any of that horrible imagery...
I also don't need the imagery of yesterday's massacre...
but maybe those images need each other, to keep the evil going.
That is something to think about.

Free speech is our right, and a great responsibility for those so inclined to step up to the microphone, keyboard, news desk,movie screen etc. Yet somewhere in the mix,we have lost our way, we have lost our moral code... we speak with the wrong tongues, to the tweaked minds and  worst of all , to our children, and the sad thing is,we don't see our hand in it.

When you fill a vessel with water without thought to the capacity of the vessel, it overflows...when you over fill a mind with evil and violent images, it has nowhere to go but out to the world.

Our  new society has been raised by television and movies, we should know better than to be such lazy stewards. If your argument would be, "Hey, just 'cause there's a few crazies out there, we shouldn't have to tone it down", then it would be a good indication that you are desensitized and affected yourself.
If you can't see the unhealthy turn we have taken, then there is little I can say to you, especially if you allow your children to watch this stuff.

We have molded a new society so far removed from the dreams of our fore-fathers..to live in a safe free country with a strong moral foundation. We feed on an entertainment plate of violence, blood, foul words and garbage behavior.

Is that who we really  are?

Or are we the country who abolished slavery, defeated Hitler and cured polio?

Think about it.

What do you want as your daily diet to fuel your walk in this world?

....

Don't Come Home Without a Deal

We are all trying to find ways to make the recession and the cost of gas work for us. We are using coupons, Giant Eagle fuelperks, creating recipes that last three days…etc.

So when the perfect storm of appliance breakdowns happened this month, I became Recession Master (really mistress, but it sounds so wrong). I decided to buy all things reconditioned, on sale , or scratch and dent.

First I bought a scratch and dent $1600.00 refrigerator on sale for $812.00…I did the bargain dance on that one…Sears Outlet, the most amazing assembly of appliances per square feet I have ever seen…I even eyed up a chainsaw, just because.

Next, I found a reconditioned lawn mower on the sidewalk at Lowe’s … I sent my husband to inspect it and buy it , using our fuelperks gift cards (we never purchase without them ) …we got it home and it wouldn’t start…hubby heads back to Lowe’s…they tell him since we used a Giant Eagle gift card we can only get a Lowe’s gift card in exchange for the mower….hubby does what hubby should always do in a retail pickle…

…he calls the Recession Master

…and it goes like this:

Hubby, “Hey I’m here at Lowes and they will only give me a Lowes gift card back on the mower”.

RM, “Really? Who sez?”.

Hubby, “The woman at the customer service desk”.

RM, “Do they have any mowers on sale?”

Hubby, “No…but there’s a nice..”

RM cuts him off like a bad spot on an apple…

“Well then, you go find the manager, tell him or her that the purchase with gift card return policy wasn’t explained to you and that your wife has eyed up a Craftsman mower at Sears (yes, I did) ON SALE.”

Hubby, “Okay, but… “

RM cuts him off again,

“Honey, don’t come home without a deal.”

Hubby proceeds to find the manager, wrangle him back to lawn mowers, and explain his position on gift card refunds.

The manager, a pleasant fellow named Scott, explains the refund policy, again…hubby makes it clear that it wasn’t made clear by the sales people or at purchase…

The sky parts, the rainbow appears, and the lawn mower sales guy who had been listening in, does the best drive by affirmation ever…”Wow, I didn’t know that was our policy either”.

Manager Scott gives him an I –wish-I-could-fire-you-right-here-right-now-look, then turns to my husband and says, “So what do you want to do?”

Hubby, “I want you to make me a deal on a lawn mower, and did you notice none of your mowers are on sale? My wife has already eyed up a Craftsman at Sears…”

Manager Scott, “Which one do you want?”

Hubby eyes up a nice rear propelled mower that costs well over $100 than the returned mower…”That one, what can you do on that one?”

Manager Scott, “Give me a dollar, over that return of the other mower and we’ll call it even…”

Hubby is happy and relieved, he can now go home having acquired a deal and he can’t wait to call the Recession Master to relay his story of retail victory…when Manager Scott leans in to him and says…

“And tell to your wife I don’t want her to go to Sears…”

So now, Lowes has built in brand loyalty, by showing us fairness and giving us the service of a mom and pop operation, and I am writing this for all to read….mission accomplished on all fronts.

Don’t you love when it all works out?

A Better Way to Say Goodbye

The passing of Joe Paterno gives us pause for many reasons...as we try to engineer his legacy into something we can all live with, I find my self reflecting on decisions made in my own life.

Would I have done things differently and made other choices if I knew they could possibly be my last?

Of course I would...and watching the Penn State scandal unfold has been one of the best lessons out there for doing the right thing.

We all look back on our own decisions in life, we all wish for do-overs, especially those that involve a lack of moral turpitude.

Unfortunately, Joe Paterno lived under the assumption that his legacy was intact and he had control over it. Yet, there are too many "free radicals" out there to ever assume such a thing.

One of them was Jerry Sandusky.

Paterno and others thought they had him under control and contained...

but you can never contain someone with an addiction, they will find a way to maintain their addiction even if it means destroying you...and that's what Sandusky did to Penn State ...and those in power were just as addicted to their own positions, which blinded them to the truth of the situation.

Paterno would have passed away a hero if he had done one simple thing from the very beginning of this mess.

He should have used his power to expunge Sandusky from the world of Penn State, rather than be part of a long time cover up that runs deep and disturbing.

His power was used many times to protect execrable players that had no right to be on the Penn State gridiron.

Paterno's powers ran deep and quite far, which some of us know all too well.

His own words "I should of done more." rang empty for me, as I know he had the power to do more and didn't.

Whistle-blowers usually come from powerless places and are crushed by the very machine they are trying to unmask. ...but in this case Paterno was the machine, he not only had the capacity to speak up, he had the efficacy to see Sandusky brought to justice.

The public at large would have hailed him a hero, for jettisoning a child molester from the grounds of Penn State.

End of story, legacy intact.

Martin Luther King Jr. said it best...“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

The beginning of the end started with the truth about Jerry Sandusky and now has ended with all of us examining the misguided silences in our own lives.

Joe Paterno leaves this life, with a conflicted ending...and most of us searching for a better way to say goodbye.

...