Scared of Bags?
Continuing on the theme of sustainability, is it just me or does it terrify check out staff everywhere when you bring your own bags? One of my attempts to be more green is to bring my reusable bags to the supermarket. I forget about 50% of the time and it does make things easier at the check out. It just seems to confuse and disorientate the cashier when I saw those words “I have my own bags.”
I was LMAO watching a Wal-Mart ad on television last night as they displayed happy shoppers and happy staff loading groceries in reusable bags. I want to know where that Wal-Mart is located so I can shop there.
Growing up in the UK loading your own groceries into your own bags was the norm. If you needed a carrier bag it cost you. My Mum brought our bags and she had me trained to group everything together as it came out of the cart. That way she could pack the bags efficiently as they came through the line. It took me a while to let the cashiers pack my groceries when I came to the States. It felt wrong to stand there and let someone else do all the work but when I forgot and started to pack my bags I got the strangest looks.
If this move towards sustainability is to work the supermarket chains need to educate their staff as well as the shoppers. As long as the staff react so badly shoppers are going to be deterred from bringing their bags. First step is for the cashier to give the shopper a chance to use their bags instead of launching straight into their trained routine of grab, scan, bag. Then there needs to either be an allowance to let the shopper pack their bags or train the check out staff how to do it properly. With plastic bags the check out staff got used to throwing 2-3 items in one bag pulling it and starting another. Again Wal-Mart is the worst offender here. I’ve gone home with a ridiculous number of bags for the amount of groceries I bought. With reusable bags you can get a LOT more into each bag. Unloading my car is a lot quicker with properly packed reusable bags!
Global Warming Doesn’t Matter
I don’t really care whether the theory of “Global Warming” is true or not. Actually, that’s a bit harsh, I do care. What I really mean is, whether global warming is really happening does not reflect on my belief that we need to take better care of this planet. I find it frustrating that so much energy is being spent on arguing for or against global warming. That energy would be better spent making this world a better place to live. There I said it and I know I sound like a hippy. I grew up with 3 brothers that spent all of our teenage years telling me I’m hippy so I have learned to deal with it.
Can someone explain to me exactly what the danger is to our future by being a bit more careful with the resources provided to us by this planet? Just what damage are we going to do by making sure that we are not polluting the landscape and killing off entire species? It doesn’t have to be grand gestures. Personally, I just try not to be wasteful and take little steps to be a bit more sustainable. Whether or not global warming is actually happening at this time, doesn’t it just make sense to try and live a more sustainable life?
Women in the Church is Still an Issue?
First let me expand on the title of this post. To be more precise it should be “The Role of Women in the Christian Church in the Western World is Still an Issue?” Rodney Dunning wrote about this topic earlier in the week http://dunningrb.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/women-in-church/ and it has surprised me how much the subject has been rolling around in my brain refusing to leave. It seems ridiculous that this should still be a subject for debate. There are many issues where I believe most Christian churches need to lighten up and they need to do it soon if they wish to grow in any meaningful capacity but I thought we had figured out the role of women by now.
I commented on Rodney’s post and in doing so realised that it really is still an issue and is part of the reason I can’t find an organized church where I feel I will fit in. I usually think my difficulty comes from my other more liberal tendencies but I never consider my belief in the equal standing of men and women to be an issue. Most churches are not as repressive as the views reported by Rodney but there’s still a tendency towards the belief of a woman’s submission to a man in the household even if there is an attempt to coat it in frilly curtains and pink flowers. I attempted to participate in a mother’s group a few years ago that was following a bible study about the role of a wife and a mother. I was dumbfounded to find lessons about how to submit to my husband and make him feel like a real man. Most of the women in the group talked about how this was a struggle for them but they realized to be a good Christian they must attain this goal. Really? I have to ponder for hours and put an effort into making my husband feel that I submit to and obey him? Will that really make the world a better place? Would the world be a better place if the strong women who have forged ahead and made significant contributions had instead spent that time learning to be more submissive to the male of the species? I personally think my time is better spent with my husband debating our opinions, testing our theories, and agreeing to differ where we can’t reach a common ground. Both he and I learn more much more from those times.
As I said in my comment to Rodney’s post, a good church needs the contributions of everyone whatever their skills may be and whether they be man, woman, or child. I think there are more masculine roles and there are more feminine roles but I don’t think the masculine roles are necessarily better carried out by a man over a woman and the same is true for feminine roles. People are so wonderfully varied in their personalities and what they can do that each needs be accepted and allowed to contribute on their own particular merits. This goes beyond gender issues, it covers race, sexuality, political ideology, and so much more. Every person can contribute in some way and we can all learn from each other and grow to be better people by understanding our differences more than by understanding our similarities. A church that can realize this to be the case would be an amazing and wonderful entity and just what is needed in this day and age.
Growing Up Online
My son is 7 years old and home-schooled using a mixture of unschooling and formal schooling. One skill that has been slow to develop is reading. Leapfrog produces a wonderful wee gadget called the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set
Thanks mostly to online gaming his desire and ability to read have taken off in the past several months. Yes, my son wants to read so he can play games online and communicate with his online friends. He plays a 3-d immersive game called Free Realms and for right now that is also where he is gaining one of the main talking points of those who fear homeschooling – SOCIALIZATION. This is going to be a contentious subject over the years. The major fear of those who don’t like the idea of homeschooling is how our children will learn to socialize. My son is learning exactly the same lessons children have learned for centuries in a whole new way.
Here is a typical childhood playground scene, all the older kids are having a blast playing a game together and there is one annoying younger kid that wants to play too but doesn’t have the same skills to be on the same level with the rest of the kids. There will be some of the older kids who will take pity and try to include the younger but ultimately it is pretty darn annoying. Right now that is my son. He has enough skills to get around, play the games, communicate awkwardly, and put together a wee house for himself. Right now he wants more furniture for his house and is wandering around asking the other kids for furniture. He is hoping someone will trade but his skills at asking and managing the trade are primitive. Most of the kids exit the scene as fast as they can.
My husband and I are trying to talk to him about how to properly interact. It struck me that this is the same type of conversation most parents end up having with their children. Our kid is only different because he experienced the playground politics online instead of offline. We don’t intend for him to gain all of his socializing online, he participates in other activities offline with other children, but it is interesting that he will gain some of it online. I wonder how this is going to set him up for interactions in the future. Will it put him ahead or behind his peers? As more and more of our life moves online our children need to learn to navigate that world. My child is already learning his life lessons both on and off line. Is this the way of the future?
What “Big Love” Teaches Us About Marriage
When I first heard the concept for the HBO series “Big Love
Once again HBO has delivered a series full of complex and interesting characters in situations that make us question and consider our own beliefs. The main subject explored is the nature of marriage and what is it that defines a relationship as a marriage. The main family in the series is comprised of Bill Henrickson and his three wives Barb, Nicki, and Margene. The most interesting aspect of this marriage is not that this one man has three wives but that each of the wives has one husband and two wives. As much as each of the wives is married to Bill they are also married to their “Sister Wives.” Ok, let’s just get all the giggling and fantasizing out of the way because this really isn’t about sex it is about the commitment these people have made and how much they love each other. These four people have their differences and some of those differences are pretty huge but they all love and care about each other deeply. Is there really anything wrong with their desire to commit to each other and build a family? If no one is being coerced or harmed why shouldn’t a group of people who want to try making such a marriage work be prevented?
Personally such a marriage is not something in which I would have any interest. It’s time consuming enough trying to make a couple work! What I do understand is what it means to love someone and want to make a life with them. When you have that deep a relationship with someone and want to spend your life with them it should give you some rights and standing in their life. I can’t begin to imagine how painful it is to be denied that status in a relationship. What must it be like to have to stand by and be denied your true status as the person, or one of the people, who best understands and knows the wishes of your partner. At its core marriage is about love and who are we to define what it means to love another person. Obviously this goes far beyond polygamous marriage. Shouldn’t any combination of people and sexes be able to commit to each other and form a longlasting bond as long as it does no harm to anyone? I’ve yet to have someone demonstrate the damage done by any willingly made loving commitment.
God as a Loving Father
I have always loved the concept of considering God as a loving father. It is this idea that lead me to question more and more the ideas being presented in Catholicism and eventually leave it behind. It is this idea that often causes me to find conflicts in other religions where I cannot see how their idea of God represents a loving father. When I see God represented as someone who does things that I wouldn’t consider doing to my worst enemy let alone my child it causes me to question.
I have realized that the problem is not with these other religions but in my idea of a loving father. My ideal father figure is a liberal, hippy father who makes me feel secure in his love, stretches and encourages my intellect, and never tells me I am not capable. I was blessed and my own father was a wonderful fit for my needs. The problem is that where I thrived with such a father there are other people who would not. Some personality types need a strict, overbearing father who keeps them disciplined and on the right path. Some personality types need multiple fathers to turn to at the different points in their life. There are even personality types who need an absent father to best reach their potential. We are all so amazing and different that there is no one-father-fits-all which will raise the perfect child in every case.
It strikes me that if this is the case for our earthly Fathers then perhaps that is what we need in our “heavenly Father.” Perhaps there is no one true religion for all and each of us is doing just fine by following the religion that helps us to be our best.
Savoring the Moment
I have received a good number of texts, Twitters, emails, and Facebook messages wishing me Happy New Year this evening. I am truly glad that so many people wish me well for the New Year but it’s really a bit premature because the New Year has not yet come.
At this time it is still New Year’s Eve or as we Scots prefer to call it, Hogmanay. We Scots are very superstitious about celebrating the coming of the New Year. This is THE Scottish holiday. You don’t have to go very far back in history to find a time when hardly anyone even noticed Christmas because this time of year was all about Hogmanay and New Year’s day. There are many traditions associated with this evening and all are tied to the success of the upcoming year. It is really only proper to wish a Happy New Year after the bells although now I’m living in the USA I should probably say after the ball has dropped.
These premature wishes are very typical of how I find life in the USA. I’ve lived here for 15 years now and I love living here but I do still find myself something of an outsider observing life from the inside. The term Resident Alien is very appropriate. Over the 2009 holiday season this particular behavior seems to have been even more pronounced than usual. Perhaps it is the prevalence of social media which is affording even greater insight into the daily lives of those around me. This holiday season I have watched as successes were proclaimed along the way. Christmas shopping finished by Halloween, Christmas decorations and trees in place before Thanksgiving, and Christmas cards sent before December are just a few examples of these achievements. The flip side is the exclamations of relief that it is all over while the Christmas turkey is still being digested and the questioning of how soon is it acceptable to consider taking down the tree and other decorations.
What I find missing is the ability to savor the moment. This is not wholly reserved for the holiday season. There are more examples and I will share them in time but this is the example most prominent in my mind at this time. In Scotland and Europe in general I think we like to take our time in these moments of celebration and if they go on a bit long that’s okay. Of course, it could be that we just don’t know when we’ve outstayed our welcome.
