♪ We are Flintstone kids, ten million strong, and grow-ing ♪
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHRKHNZLebY
That decades old advertising jingle for children's vitamins popped into my head yesterday, as is my wont. Random phrases of music flit about in there like quarter-note moths nearly all the time.
This particular jingle came out in '88. ( thank you, You Tube LOL ) Expecting my first baby, anticipating his arrival as my twin nephews were born, I lived in a constant state of baby-wonder.
24 years later, we await an election that has been fodder for vehemence, vitriol, and caused lost family relationships and friendships over ideological disparities. The kids in the target audience for that commercial, aged 3-10, now have mortgages and babies and kids in elementary school.
Seems to me that we might be suffering from some sort of ideological 'vitamin deficiency'.
One can consume more than enough calories from the vast offerings available every day at the supermarket and eating establishments -- but how many of us hit the target for the vitamins and minerals we need without taking a supplement? A small percentage, perhaps.
The land of plenty hath produced a collective population of 'overfed malnutrition-ed patriots'. We've become consumers of our leaders as much as they have become consumers of their constituents, instead of leaders and supporters.
We vote for the 'brand' we prefer, the packaging, the promised results advertised, instead of sticking to healthier choices. Just as fast food clogs our arteries and raises our blood pressure, staunchly defending a candidate along party lines clogs our thinking and raises our collective ignorance.
Madison Avenue has lulled us into a marketer's dream state, where we are swayed by slick phrases and glossy images...
... perhaps it's time for a more steady 'diet' where we get the political nutrition we need to keep this nation at full strength, and not simply what seems appealing.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Stormy Weather ♪
"Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather..." We set out across the prairie yesterday as storms clouds gained strength. I braced myself for another rainy route to Lubbock... and halfway there, we drove beyond the storm. Hooray!!
Three hours later, under sunny skies and a fresh breeze, we got texts from home. "floods everywhere big rain tornado warning in Henrietta" YIKES. I almost felt guilty...and worried about my puppy-girl home alone with her skittish self on a thunderous day.
Then my son and his fellow Matador Singers walked out to the 50-yard line and sang the National Anthem, and we cheered and hollered, and then the game went on cheerfully under sunny skies. Thousands of people whooped and hollered as Texas Tech University trounced their West Virginia U opponents, 49-14. What a glorious day! Sunny skies, happy people, unity, celebration.
We drove home in the dark several hours later across the caprock, watching a "popcorn" lightning show for three and half hours. Not a second! between lightning strikes, all the way home. Somewhere, out there, a storm still raged.
This morning, while the birds sang and the breeze ruffled the freshly washed fall leaves, two trees with huge limbs fallen partially blocked a street not far from our home. The sun shone on the fallen limbs, and the gaping gashes where they ripped from the trunks, dry streets bearing no other evidence of severe weather.
Someone will have surgery this Thursday, a mastectomy of yet-undetermined severity. The sun will shine that day and the next day, but when she wakes up, she will be as the trees. Bits missing, gashes where smooth skin once lived, clean-up yet to be done. Her husband will do the delicate dance between helping her keep her chin up, while at once journeying with her through a grieving process that all cancer survivors do. The days will be stormy. The sun will keep shining.
Another person, much closer to me, will celebrate his 83rd birthday that same day. He'll be praying for her, that morning on his walk, since we share our prayer concerns as a father and daughter would, even though we are third cousins. HA Birthday cake and family phone calls with birthday greetings and blessings will fill the rest of the day, and the sun will keep shining.
The yin and yan of this life on earth. Surgery and birthday cake, storms and sun, all at once.
This precious life. I believe in a God who created us in His own image, and I believe that He is an emotional God, else we would not have the feelings we do. Joy, sorrow, fear, courage...reflections of a Creator's own heart. We can mark all the days as good, surgery, celebrations, storms, sunshine, even if we don't smile -- or if we don't cry.
All days, from the heart of a Father who loves and looks after us, in the dark on a road through the caprock, in an operating room ( and the aftermath), on a day celebrating the joy that beloved ones bring to their beloved.
Someone recently mentioned to me that they'd rather read the happy things I write, it's their favorite style of mine.
I admit, I love to report happy news. I wish I could always report happy news. I suppose I could, and eschew the unpleasantries of Life that makes us cry. Like cancer. Losing loved ones. Misfortunes. That person would probably prefer that I did.
There are days to take stock of joy and days to pray over worries. I take the words of Christ to heart. " You will have trouble on this earth..but take heart. I have overcome the world." Remembering that gives me the ability to experience the emotions that God bestows, in response to circumstance. Even Jesus cried when Lazarus was dead, though He knew He would bring him out of the tomb, and Jesus celebrated at weddings.
While we have trouble on this earth, we live from cake to cake, football game to football game, storm to storm. No matter how you look at it, win or lose, broken tree limbs or sunshine, we live. We live. What happens along the way is where we have time to choose how to live. :-)
The sun will keep shining. He has overcome the world...
Stormy weather..." We set out across the prairie yesterday as storms clouds gained strength. I braced myself for another rainy route to Lubbock... and halfway there, we drove beyond the storm. Hooray!!
Three hours later, under sunny skies and a fresh breeze, we got texts from home. "floods everywhere big rain tornado warning in Henrietta" YIKES. I almost felt guilty...and worried about my puppy-girl home alone with her skittish self on a thunderous day.
Then my son and his fellow Matador Singers walked out to the 50-yard line and sang the National Anthem, and we cheered and hollered, and then the game went on cheerfully under sunny skies. Thousands of people whooped and hollered as Texas Tech University trounced their West Virginia U opponents, 49-14. What a glorious day! Sunny skies, happy people, unity, celebration.
We drove home in the dark several hours later across the caprock, watching a "popcorn" lightning show for three and half hours. Not a second! between lightning strikes, all the way home. Somewhere, out there, a storm still raged.
This morning, while the birds sang and the breeze ruffled the freshly washed fall leaves, two trees with huge limbs fallen partially blocked a street not far from our home. The sun shone on the fallen limbs, and the gaping gashes where they ripped from the trunks, dry streets bearing no other evidence of severe weather.
Someone will have surgery this Thursday, a mastectomy of yet-undetermined severity. The sun will shine that day and the next day, but when she wakes up, she will be as the trees. Bits missing, gashes where smooth skin once lived, clean-up yet to be done. Her husband will do the delicate dance between helping her keep her chin up, while at once journeying with her through a grieving process that all cancer survivors do. The days will be stormy. The sun will keep shining.
Another person, much closer to me, will celebrate his 83rd birthday that same day. He'll be praying for her, that morning on his walk, since we share our prayer concerns as a father and daughter would, even though we are third cousins. HA Birthday cake and family phone calls with birthday greetings and blessings will fill the rest of the day, and the sun will keep shining.
The yin and yan of this life on earth. Surgery and birthday cake, storms and sun, all at once.
This precious life. I believe in a God who created us in His own image, and I believe that He is an emotional God, else we would not have the feelings we do. Joy, sorrow, fear, courage...reflections of a Creator's own heart. We can mark all the days as good, surgery, celebrations, storms, sunshine, even if we don't smile -- or if we don't cry.
All days, from the heart of a Father who loves and looks after us, in the dark on a road through the caprock, in an operating room ( and the aftermath), on a day celebrating the joy that beloved ones bring to their beloved.
Someone recently mentioned to me that they'd rather read the happy things I write, it's their favorite style of mine.
I admit, I love to report happy news. I wish I could always report happy news. I suppose I could, and eschew the unpleasantries of Life that makes us cry. Like cancer. Losing loved ones. Misfortunes. That person would probably prefer that I did.
There are days to take stock of joy and days to pray over worries. I take the words of Christ to heart. " You will have trouble on this earth..but take heart. I have overcome the world." Remembering that gives me the ability to experience the emotions that God bestows, in response to circumstance. Even Jesus cried when Lazarus was dead, though He knew He would bring him out of the tomb, and Jesus celebrated at weddings.
While we have trouble on this earth, we live from cake to cake, football game to football game, storm to storm. No matter how you look at it, win or lose, broken tree limbs or sunshine, we live. We live. What happens along the way is where we have time to choose how to live. :-)
The sun will keep shining. He has overcome the world...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)