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I had a dream that I believe gives me some insight into our political system.
It started as a basic sci-fi premise that’s been seen many times. A technologically advanced group lands on a planet and observes and/or helps one or more groups on that planet.
I seemed to be in the observational group. The planet in question had two groups that had evolved two societies that had some major differences, but also had much in common. The most basic difference was the underpinnings for the reasons behind laws and customs. One group prized individuality above all else. Excellence was praised as a way to shine as an individual and was rewarded with increased wealth and status. The other group prized the community. Excellence was also praised, but as a way to help the community overall and was enfolded back in as a way to lift the whole to better things.
The individualistic society also ended up having the whole lifted up by the excellence of the members as well, partially because each person strove to prove his or her excellence.
In both societies, diversity was appreciated and cultivated: in Society I because it offered many ways to excel; and in Society C because it gave the community depth and breadth. Naturally, a certain amount of conformity in both societies was also both necessary and encouraged.
The correlations to our political parties and their ideologies is obvious, at least to me. There are things to be said for both, and neither is inherently wrong nor right. I personally tend to see the individualists as tending to be more selfish, but acknowledge that their contributions to the community are valuable, as well as the fact that the motives aren’t always necessarily so easily seen.
I remember taking a song I had heard the previous year to my high school choir teacher my sophomore year. He dismissed it as weak. I don’t remember the words, just the attitude. The music itself was too pop-y, and the lyrics were nonsense feel-good junk. Basically, it was characterized as a musical candy bar. He’s mellowed some since, but back then, he was rather stringent in what constituted acceptable music.
From the perspective of about the same amount of time since as I’d lived up to that point, I can honestly say that I disagree. I did then, too, but it was from a more emotional point of view.
One of the specific things that he had a problem with was that, for a purportedly “Christian” song, the lyrics didn’t have any “meat” to them, any real message. I didn’t really formulate why I disagreed back then, and even if I had, I wouldn’t have had the chutzpah to confront him with it. I think there’s something to be said for overly-emotional musical junk food. If something like that is what it takes to reach someone who’s in an emotional morass (and what else quite so well describes the hormonal stew known as puberty that we’re all subjected to??), so be it.
Something to get out of my system.
There’s an old joke that asks what someone who can speak x number of languages is called, and goes through (depending on how pedantic the teller is) the various prefixes down through bilingual for someone who speaks two languages. The final question is, of course, what one would call someone who can only speak a single language. The natural progression would be to monolingual, of course. The joke turns it around and says “American.”
All too often, this is true. Though my mind has started putting an “insert your own frothing-at-the-mouth-Republican joke here” after bilingual, due to the all too frequent bitchings about “if you’re going to come to this country, learn the damned language!” from the right wing.
Unfortunately, I fall pretty squarely into the “American” stereotype, because I have a hard time following a conversation between two native Spanish speakers. It has a bit more to do with the inflections and lingual shortcuts native speakers of any language take than lack of understanding of most of the words, because as a word geek, I can tease out the meaning of most words, especially if I see them written down.
However, I’m also not going to go to another country and automatically expect them to know perfect American English just because I’m in the vicinity, which seems to be the modus operandi of most of those frothing-at-the-mouth-Republicans who expect immigrants to know perfect American English upon day two or three after setting foot on American soil. …If they’re feeling generous. Yes, this his hyperbole. Unfortunately, it’s not hyperbolic enough to be less than true.
Instead of speaking my American English more loudly and slowly when someone doesn’t understand, I tend to be embarrassed that I don’t know their language well enough to speak it in a way they’d prefer to hear. In fact, I think that if I ever end up going to any country other than maybe Canada, I’ll make it a point to learn the sentence “I apologise for my inability to speak your language.” before anything else. Or, at the very least, have it written down.
This place held for an actual post. Basic thought: relationship with God is a private thing that is only shown by certain behaviors, like marriage is a private thing only shown by certain behaviors.
I’ve got a fairly wide variety of caffeinated beverages I like. Well, okay, it can basically be narrowed to three. Coffee, tea, and Pepsi. Dr Pepper and Coke will do in a pinch (usually occurring at a burger joint that doesn’t serve Pepsi products or Barq’s root beer).
Ooh. And G33k B33r, but that’s in a category all its own.
But I’ve found myself leaning more and more toward tea when I want something hot and caffeinated. Not just because I like the taste better, but in a way, at least partially because of the whole culture surrounding tea—everything from Japanese tea ceremonies to the much more abbreviated but still as fraught with meaning British version. It’s something that’s come down through centuries both intact and changing with the times. The basics of warming the pot, having special blends of teas imported, and sipping haven’t changed, but the fact that an “electric kettle” is now the preferred method for boiling the water is a sign of currency.
Coffee has its own ceremonies, to be sure. Everything from the yuppy dash to Starbucks to the resurgence of the community coffee shop where discussions on everything from art to philosophy are had. Coffee culture, perhaps in reflection of its higher caffeine content, is a bit faster, more on-the-move, hours-long discussions aside.
Perhaps it comes down to taste after all.
John and I have said for a while now that when we get our vehicle paid off, we want to buy a house. Of course, that got put off when we totalled our car just a few months before we paid it off, back in ’07.
I’ve put some thought into what I want in a house. Some of it comes from experience, of course. Some of it comes from what my sisters have.
A few things I really want are:
A separate utility room. At least big enough to have our front-loading washer and dryer in, preferably big enough for a folding table and a Cat Genie as well.
3 bedrooms, with the master a decent size. about 14×14 or so would be ideal, but anything larger than our current 10×10 will work.
At least 1¾ baths, though I’d prefer at least 2 full baths.
Storage space, either an outdoor room off a porch or patio or a shed in the back yard.
A dishwasher.
Those are the real deal-breakers, the things that will make me consider a slightly more expensive house.
Things I’d like:
A garden tub, i.e. one with bowed-out sides and more room than a typical rounded-rectangle. If I can get one with jets, I will be one seriously happy Kes.
A wet bar. Hey, even if we don’t keep a lot of alcohol around it’s a nice thing to have.
A fireplace. Yes, even though this is Texas, most of the houses my family had while I was growing up had one, and it’s still nice to curl up in front of a fire on a chilly night with a good book and a mug of tea.
A secondary main living space, aka family room or den. This would be in addition to a dining area, and would be the space set aside for gaming. A nice big table (or even smaller one with individual tables [TV trays] for players), some chairs a few bookcases holding gaming books and/or minis, and we’re set. Room for a fridge would be nice. I mean, who wants to go clear to the kitchen for a drink? *L* Of course, having the wet bar in this room would be mightily convenient.
Laminate, vinyl, tile, or hardwood floors throughout. This is mostly due to our cats, who shed like crazy. Carpet is much more adept at grabbing and holding onto shed pet hair, and harder to clean it out of. Rugs are just fine.
These are things that I would absolutely adore, but won’t break a house for me.
I’ve found a house with most of these. I can’t tell what kind of tubs are in the bathrooms, but everything else is just about perfect. I’m not going to link to it, but boy do I wish we could break our lease for this house.
I’m not into astrology, but like pretty much every person I’ve ever met, I know my sign and some of the basic traits ascribed to people with that sign.
I’m a Capricorn, but I was born pretty much at the last minute to be one. I’ve never been the typical driven, type A personality I usually hear ascribed to Caps, and I’ve only grown more laid back as I get older. In certain ways, at least.
Recently, I found a site that listed some likes and dislikes for each sign, just futzing around. If I went solely by that list, I’d be a Pisces. Likes were listed as “foods of all kinds, romantic places, sunsets over the sea, waterfalls, ponds, poetry, people, mystical settings, candles, incense, freedom to drift along from moment to moment, and their own uninterrupted personal privacy”. I went through and ticked each one off with a “Yup. Yup. Yup. Yup. Uh huh. Yup. Absofrigginlutely.” Dislikes were listed as “bright, noisy, crowded, popular places and dirty, ugly, garish objects, and the wrong people. Again I ticked each of the three off as applying to me.
Not surprisingly, as I’m an introvert. Being around crowds makes me jittery and squirmy, both due to the simple stress of being around so many other people with their thoughts and feelings and the noise they make simply by being around as well as the sense that they’re judging as people do. Inevitably, the way someone wears their hair, the way they speak, the way they walk, what clothes they wear… each little thing is categorized according to the observer’s previous experiences and expectations are there according to those previous experiences. It’s the way humans work. And the way many people (most of the ones I’ve run across) have learned to interact with others, the judgments tend to be on the harsh side. If you’re not just like me, you’re not an “us” therefore you are a “them” and to be ridiculed or evangelized or fought or ignored.
Mostly, I ignore. Anything else requires too much interaction. The one thing that drives me the most nuts is being forced to interact, even passively. Having a car drive by—or worse, sit in a parking lot—blasting their bass not only gives me a headache, but is forcing me to listen to something not of my own choosing. This leaves room for compromise, because the choice is still there.
Another frequent occurrence that tends to drive me up a tree is when parents will tell their children to “go play outside” to get them out of their hair. It’s all well and good when there’s enough room between where the kids are to play and other people, but in apartments when there’s not a playground or park or something far enough away that the noise doesn’t reach me, those parents are just inflicting on me what they won’t deal with themselves, and that’s unacceptable.
I’m really not sounding as laid back as I claim. Drawing a few hard lines, though, lets me be as laid back as I want everywhere else.
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Labyrinthine Thoughts  ●Musings
●Opinions
●Meditations
●Occasional Randomness. |
