Musings

I still can't get over the fact that Jameson (Parker; JP) responded to my comments on his blog yesterday. (Okay, so I'm still a little star-struck... I had such a huge crush on the man back in the 80s when he was on Simon & Simon (he played AJ)). But I do enjoy his posts. A few days ago, he wrote an amusing entry, and now he writes something like his "Gun Appreciation Day" entry. And he writes so well! That's the kind of writing I aspire to do. Of course, I don't have the kind of life experiences that he does, so I can't write about the same types of things that he does. (Maybe I'll get one of those emails promising me great riches if I send my personal info to some bank I've never heard of in London or where ever. You know, the ones where an African patriarch died and they haven't been able to find his family, blah-de-blah... Those are always fun to read. Or the lottery somewhere in England. Hey, if I could win a few zillion pounds (how much is a pound in American dollars, anyway?) I could forget about renting a house and just flat-out buy one. A house big enough for me, my friend, our dogs, and maybe more dogs.)

Okay, maybe not. But it's fun to dream about having lots of money. Be as rich as Oprah, or Bill Gates, or Donald Trump... I'd buy the biggest house and property I could find and become the crazy dog lady. :-) I'd adopt as many dogs from shelters as I could, or even right from people who couldn't keep their dogs anymore. And they would live in the lap of luxury, of course. Only the best food and shelter for my babies.

Have y'all heard about that Publisher's Clearinghouse sweepstakes they're doing now? The $5,000/week for life one? What I could do with that much money! And then I might leave it to my friend if I died before she did, or to one of my brothers. Of course, I'd bury most of it in the bank. (Find the best interest-bearing account I could.) I'd make almost a quarter of a million dollars the first year alone (before taxes; I have no idea how much I'd have to pay in taxes. I might be lucky to have $100,000 at the end of the year.) But hey, that would be a heck of a lot more than I'm making now!

Hmmm, I'm getting way off what I was writing about at first, lol. (I tend to do that.) Getting back on topic, I might see if I can go back to school or take a few online courses in creative writing. I've always loved to write, and it probably wouldn't hurt to beef up my skills. My grandmother took some classes when she and my aunt lived in AZ, and she wrote some stories about her life. One of my favorites was a story she used to tell all the time about when I first moved to OK to live with her and my step-grandfather.

It seems a couple of ladies from Green Country MHMR (that's the closest I can come to what it was called) came out to evaluate me. (I have no idea why, and neither did my dad or grandmother.) Anyway, they did a bunch of tests (which I passed with flying colors; I was an intelligent kid!), one of which involved raisins and a bottle. They put the raisins in the bottle and watched to see if I could figure out how to get them out. Of course the neck of the bottle was too small for me to reach my finger into and get them out, so after puzzling over it for a bit, I turned the bottle over and shook them out. Grandma said that as the ladies were leaving, one of them turned to her and said, "Mrs. Merritt, if that child's retarded, I'd sure hate to see a smart one!" lol (Retarded, no. Scatterbrained in the extreme, but definitely not retarded. I'm one of those people who'd lose or forget their head if it wasn't firmly attached.)

I wish I could remember more of my childhood. It's funny (weird) that I have such a great memory, but except for a few little things, I can't remember much about growing up in Oklahoma or visiting my parents in Richland Hills (or even after I moved to Texas full-time). I remember watching my brothers Pat and Lonnie playing football, I remember things like chasing the bus down when I missed it. I remember my brother Lonnie carrying me to the end of the driveway on cold winter mornings. I remember a few of my teachers (like my first-grade teacher, Anna Milligan, who taught me to read. I picked up on that really quickly, needless to say. You can hardly find me without a book these days.)

I remember going to Six Flags when I came down to visit my dad. I even remember the first time I rode the Shockwave there. I was scared of the loops, and ducked my head, getting it trapped between me and the restraining bar. My brother Frank and his then-wife had to work hard to get my head unstuck. I spent a few Christmases with my parents, and I remember one year I got a baby doll that I loved. (I don't know what happened to that doll. I think her name was Angel.)

I do remember one year my grandmother made me a doll (a Cabbage Patch-type doll). She had curly yellow hair, and I named her Elizabeth Ann. I ended up giving her to my Aunt Annette because she had a childhood friend named Elizabeth Ann. (My grandmother made me another doll, of course.) And there were the soft sweaters that all the girls were wearing in Jr. High. I wanted one so bad, and I asked my Aunt Jessie for one for Christmas. Unfortunately, what I got was a purple wool winter sweater. (Okay, that makes since. It was winter, after all, and she didn't know about the fashions in Warner, OK, being from Michigan.)

Jeez, I talk to much even when I'm writing, lol! I'll probably post more memories (such as they are) later.

About me...

I was going to post this as a Facebook status, but it's way too long. I just wanted to get some things out about myself and my personal beliefs. I've read plenty on Facebook the past couple of days, people throwing stones at each other, liberals vs. conservatives, Christians vs. non-Christians/atheists, Democrats vs. Republicans.

I am a pro-Second Amendment, pro-choice pro-lifer. (I think you can be both. You can wish that there was no need for abortions; that women and young girls could carry their babies to term and put them up for adoption.) In fact, you know what would be ideal? If there could be a way to match up expectant mothers with couples or singles willing to adopt and have the adoptive parents pay all the mother's medical expenses. Why not? I mean, if the adoptive parents were to conceive a child, they'd have to pay all those expenses anyway, right? So why not pay them for a woman or girl who might not be financially able?

On the other hand, I would never, ever, tell a woman/girl that she shouldn't or can't have an abortion. It's totally her decision. I think it would be good for the parents to have input... until a girl is 18, her parents are/should be responsible for all her medical care. After all, a school nurse can't give a student an aspirin without parental consent, but he/she can send her off to have a medical procedure done? How does that make sense?

As far as being pro-Second Amendment, I've seen a few memes the past couple of days, the gist of which are taking guns away from the innocent people won't protect them from criminals. As I said earlier this morning, criminals will get guns any way they can, either by stealing them or buying them on the black market. They're criminals, of course they're going to get them illegally! One thing we MUST do to cut down on the number of shootings at schools, theaters, houses of worship, etc., is teach our children respect for firearms and respect for human life. Most of us know that guns are not toys, and violence is almost never the answer to a person's problems. (With the exception of self-defense, and even then you're supposed to only use the same force that's used against you. If someone slaps you in the face, you don't pull out a knife and stab them. Of course if someone slaps you, you're supposed to first try to talk it out with them, then try to walk away, and only if they escalate things is violence appropriate.)

Something I'm just going to put out there, even though this has nothing to do with what's been going on the past couple of days: I am all in favor of gay rights, marriage equality, and indeed anything that would help make things better for our GLBT brothers and sisters. Liberals talk about "separation of church and state". Conservatives say, quite rightly, that those five words appear nowhere in the Constitution, much less in the first amendment. They're right; as we all know, those words were written in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Baptist Church in Danbury, CT. But even though the words themselves are not in the Constitution, I  believe the spirit is there.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;[...]

 To me that means that there should be no national religion, whether it's Christian, Buddhist, Islam, Hindu, etc. And of course, we are all free to believe,  or not, as we wish. This is important. This means that even if we believe that homosexuality is wrong/sinful, we have no right to try to impose our religious beliefs on our fellow Americans. We could go on forever about the right we have to vote our consciences, which we all try to do. In the recent election, some people thought that Obama was the devil, and some thought the same thing about Romney. We all had our ideas about which of them was best to lead our country. (Personally, I voted for Obama because, well, better the devil we know than the one we don't. He did some good things during his first term (in my opinion), and he did some that weren't so good, but at least he has four more years to try to straighten things out. If he can just get Congress on board!) /digression

We can also go on about whether "gay civil rights" are akin to black civil rights, or if gays even have civil rights. I believe they should. Anytime a specific group of people is attacked because of who they are, it should be a civil rights issue. I am of the opinion that GLBTs can't change their sexual orientation any more than a black (or Latino or Asian or Middle Easterner) can change their skin color. It's just not possible. (And please don't get me started on the "ex-gay" thing. I've heard about too many studies proving that "conversion therapy" is a bunch of hooey.)

So. That's who I am and what I believe. A pro-Second Amendment, pro-choice/pro-life, pro-gay, liberal Democrat and Christian. For those of you who have made it all the way through this post and still want to be my Facebook friend, thank you. For those of you who don't want to be my friend, well I'm sorry. Unfortunately, I've learned in life that I can't please everyone, and I'd much rather please myself and hopefully God by being the best person I can be, treating my fellow humans as I'd want to be treated, and trying to make my corner of the world a better place.

I may be returning to this theme again... I haven't covered everything I believe, but these are important. Any questions you have, just ask!