Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

It’s not really my style – I don’t like the idea that we put one day aside to “give thanks” for all that we are appreciative of – it seems very insincere to me – if someone is truly thankful they should feel it and express it everyday, not on one designated date on the calendar. But, here I go, taking the bait – blogging about what I am thankful for - - -

I am thankful that I was born white and in the United States – luck of the draw – I could have been anything, anywhere, but I got lucky and was born into the most affluent country and the most privileged race. For this I am thankful – not because it makes me better, but because it has provided me with advantages I can only begin to understand.

I am thankful that I was not born with, and have not developed any, physical or mental disabilities. What a difference this makes in my life and the lives of everyone around me. Another lucky draw that I am truly thankful for.

I am thankful for growing up in a healthy family environment that gave me the love and support and the lessons I needed to grow into a person who can stand on her own two feet and not be afraid to live. Specifically, I am thankful to three women from three generations in my family - - -

>My grandmother, “Grama”, who’s unconditional and undying love is still with me everyday (long after she has passed)
>My mother, who taught me that you have to get back up again no matter how hard you are knocked down and that good grammar gets you a whole lot more in life than just a good grade in English class.
>My sister, Leslie, who has been my best friend all my life; sometimes a guardian angle; and forever a shining star I look up to.

I am thankful for the man I love and to have found in him a loving relationship that feels balanced and respectful with deep-seeking roots.

I am thankful for the meaningful friendships I have formed over my life – some past and some present -- all nurturing my heart and soul just the same.

And last, but not least – I am thankful to myself for persevering through the tough times; for seeking higher meaning in life; for not settling, for accepting the challenges; and for not giving up on me.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Defying Logic

Riddle Me This Batman: How can one group of voters re-elect a struggling democratic Governor, protect the lives/rights of a common song bird and also abolish affirmative action?

It defies logic! Put personal opinions aside on the issues for a minute and just try to figure this one out? I can’t do it. It would be interesting to get some statistics on this – did anyone out there vote that way on their ballot or is this some sort of mathematical phenomenon? (Sorry, I’m not good at statistics) I’m pretty sure, that in order for these three things to pass that there had to be some Michigan voters who voted
1. For Granholm,
2. No on a hunting season for Mourning Doves, and
3. Yes to abolish Affirmative Action
Gee – which one of these doesn’t fit?

If you guessed # 3 you win the prize! But unfortunately the minorities in Michigan lose – big time. (okay, if you didn’t notice, now I got my personal opinions back out) I think what burns me about this campaign almost as much as the effect it will have, is the way it was cloaked like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, so to speak. The premise was that “equal is equal” and that Affirmative Action is a bad thing for minorities because it sets them apart and thereby sets them up to be discriminated against. However the actual people I spoke to who were voting to abolish Affirmative Action had much more the attitude that “they” (the minorities) shouldn’t get hand outs or special treatment and that Affirmative Action has swung so far as to cause an environment of reverse discrimination.

I don’t argue that Affirmative Action was a perfect system, it had flaws, I’m sure. But to completely do away with it is like taking three giant steps backward in social justice. Does anyone with a brain believe that our society has evolved to the point where prejudice no longer exists and that a minority has a fair and equal chance in our society compared to a white male? I wish we lived in that kind of world, but we are far from it, and now we will move even further from it. It is a sad commentary on our culture. We should be ashamed.

Moving to a lighter note – just for fun – do you want to hear what I have to say about hunting Mourning Doves??? (too bad, I’m gonna’ tell ya’ anyway!) Are there not enough species to hunt that you have to turn to your back yard bird feeder? PLEASE! Oh no, please don’t tell me how you love the taste of Mourning Doves – RIGHT! Oh, or better yet, the one about how they’re not endangered, so why not? My response to that is: “people aren’t endangered either, go for it!” A friend of mine (who will remain nameless) was telling me that her husband (a big hunter) voted to allow a Mourning Dove hunting season because he figured it was just the first step, and that next he would lose other hunting rights, I said, “I guess this is a matter of perspective – what makes him think he has that right to begin with?” Honestly, what gives man the right to kill anything he wants (I use the word “man” here as a species, not as a gender). Besides, no one was taking away an existing hunting season, there wasn’t a hunting season on Mourning Doves in Michigan to begin with. What’s next, Cardinals? Blue Jays? Chickadees? (Hey I hear they’re good eatin’ too, Maynard!)

Oh, and just in case you were wondering where I stand on re-electing Granholm: You go girl! :-)

Self-Inflicted Extinction – Not necessarily a bad thing . . .

For quite some time now, I have had a theory about the origin of man that is somewhat unconventional to many people. And I now have a theory of the demise of man that goes hand-in-hand with it.

I recently traveled to DC and while there, visited the Museum of Natural History. The exhibit that stuck with me the most was the evolution exhibit. Sure the life-size, re-constructed dinosaur skeletons are grand, but the thing that interested me most was the timeline of Earth. I already knew that man has only inhabited Earth for a small fraction of it’s existence, but to see it portrayed visually is very effective – mankind is a blink of the eye to Mother Earth.

Several months ago I went to see the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” – put your political bias aside – this is not about politics, it’s about science and reality – it’s about a man-made condition that will cause the demise of mankind. No reputable scientist disputes that global warming is real (so don’t you – you’re not qualified). And most agree that it is happening at alarming rates that may already be out of our control.

So first, here is my somewhat unconventional theory as to the origin of man: I don’t think man is from here, not altogether at least. I consider the possibility that during the evolution of man that some entity from somewhere else bred with one of the early forms of man and from that the human species has evolved. The reason I think this is mostly because of how separated from the natural world humans are. We are the only species destroying the Earth – if we were indigenous to the planet, wouldn’t we have a survival instinct within us to protect the Earth instead of destroy it? Some would argue that it is our “superior intelligence” that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. But to that I say, why does man, this ONE species on the earth, have “superior intelligence"? Where did it come from? And why hasn’t it evolved parallel to us in other creatures?

And as for the demise of mankind – unlike the dinosaurs who never saw it coming and had nothing to do with it, we are going to cause our own extinction. It’s poetic justice if you ask me. We are so arrogant and so righteous that we thought we could trash this planet and it would adapt for us. We deserve every ounce of annihilation our “superior intelligence” is going to bring us. Earth will survive, it always has, it always will. The best thing that could happen to Earth is the extinction of man – and relatively speaking, she doesn’t have long to wait. In the timeline of Earth, man will forever be nothing more than a blink of Mother’s eye.