Where Did That Bucket Go?

I did want to make a bucket list. It seems like everyone is making one, or writing about one. I don’t seem to have a bucket. I do have a plastic pail, but that is hardly a suitable place for my list. There may be a bucket around the house, but I lost track of it for lack of referring to it by name. Making a ‘pail’ list just isn’t the same. While searching for my bucket, I discovered my house all over again.

Of course, we all use things around the house we do not ever identify by name. However, most of them don’t disappear like my bucket did. There is a land of lost items in my place that have never disappeared. They remain steadfast in their service to my needs, always right there when I need them, but I never refer to them by name.

For example, my stove. I cook on it, bake in it, place things temporarily on one of the burner grids, and I never speak the word ‘stove’. It’s just there, everyday, where it should be, and I take it for granted. Actually, I’m not ashamed to admit it, I’m deliriously happy to have one. I can’t imagine having to cook over an open fire, or even in a stone fireplace. My stove is an amazing piece of equipment, and one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to call it by name, at least once in awhile. There, I feel better already.

The house is full of things I seldom refer to by name. A scatter rug is another forgotten item. We spend time planning to buy one, match the room colors, shop for it, load it in the car, carry it into the house, and place it on the floor. Then we walk on it for 25 years, and never call it a scatter rug, maybe not even once. It’s not that inanimate objects can feel rejected, but in taking everything around us for granted, they somehow fade. When they fade, so do we.

It’s refreshing to walk through my house once in awhile, hesitate here and there and remember the unique, and the ordinary, that give my life color, and meaning . Although the house tour doesn’t seem important at first, when you begin to search for something you haven’t seen in awhile, you’ll be surprised how quickly you will find it.

Aha! I see that bucket in the corner of my broom closet, now I can proceed with my bucket list. We’ll talk about a bucket list at a later date.

Happy New  Year. ))_^^((

Senior Citizens Need More Computer Savvy, Now!

The internet represents the opinions of everyone but those who have lived through most of the last fifty years.

Not everyone who gets old has dementia. As tendons, and joints, get a bit squeaky, some may need assistance to get around, but it doesn’t mean their brain has been clouded by health problems, or media hype. By the same token, children who have not coursed through the hormone channels of puberty, may have a lot more to say about the decisions being made about the singular world in which they will manifest their adult lives.

The politicians running for office establish their turf, and insist it will provide a meaningful garden where blossoms of power to the people will flourish, and their opinions grow into incredible policies that will benefit humanity. They may speak in grandiose terms of change, whatever that means in the moment.

All the rest of us must listen to this endless stream of blabber, until we are numb, passive, or really angry about the success of one over the other. We tend to choose our favorite candidate when we’re in a state of exhaustion from listening to the blabber, while we sadly regard the millions of dollars  being wasted.

We get one chance to vote for a person who has enjoyed freedom of speech, and a singular right to do as they please once they are elected. There are mini stopovers of their express train to power over the people, but there again they can speak hyperbole, and never mean one bit of what they proclaim.

Senior citizens have the power of AARP behind them. However, they should be able to enhance policies that affect them through their own participation on the internet.

It’s not that hard to understand the basic functions of a computer. Everyone over fifty studied typing in high school, and the keyboard is the same. Senior citizens should be using computers to comment on articles in every publication dealing with election material. They should be able to insist that their point of view be accurately represented, and after a lifetime of service, receive the consideration they deserve.

If you are a senior citizen, or know them as part of your family, encourage them to learn how to participate on their behalf, by learning to use a computer. They will be grateful for the opportunity to make a difference!

Your Menu, or Mine

I read an indignant comment by a Vegan, whose beliefs are supported daily, by his chosen menu. I replied. 

We are steeped in visual entertainment, much of which has a spin of some kind that resonates with what we are already inclined to believe. Through millennia, meals were eaten as folks were hungry. There was never a question of harming animals, as supermarkets hadn’t been invented yet. Many of the indigenous peoples respect the spirit of the animal with ritual before killing it for food, indicating they believed the animal gave its life for a purpose.

I do not disagree with anyone feeling protective of animals, most of whom we have taken into our lives in meaningful ways. We each reflect on how we make choices, and manicure our lives accordingly. Sometimes our choice is made to impress others, but more often, because we really care about something.  

We can choose to maintain good health, leaving animal products out of our diet and it may not be a sound choice. Becoming a vegan is a commitment to a diet regimen that requires some research, as the diet does not automatically create balanced nutrition. Besides health questions, there are additional problems growing beneath the radar. Our world is changing, and scarcities of food, or water, may strongly impact our own survival, as well as that of our animal friends. 

In the near future, we may have to make choices between our children, and our most favorite family pets. The placid countryside with a few cows grazing on the hillside, has been largely replaced by industrial farming of animals such as pigs, and chickens. Their living conditions are woefully inhumane, and further, they are given hormones to enhance their growth cycles. This surely affects our own health. This may seem reason enough to become a vegan, but will the expanding population negate the growing interest in this choice?

The view of animal welfare is becoming a numbers game. People or pets, room for veggies to grow, or raising animals that also eat them. It may be hard to see the coming days from the comfort of our backyard. In the meanwhile we all make choices that fulfill personal views.People have always valued the animals we took under our care, however, which animals are listed on menus may vary with the culture  in which one lives. And then there is this to consider, we don’t grow significant canine teeth to eat lettuce. Perhaps the growing number of vegans will buy us time. That meat is on the menu throughout the civilized world, and has been for a long time, must have meaning besides cruelty to animals.

If Only We Could, If Only We Could, Do It For The Greater Good

In spite of historic progress in technology, the ongoing contributions of religion, improved literacy, and global awareness, there is great personal deception, greed, dispassion, a menu of social dysfunction, the rise of compromised health conditions, a lack of political success in resolving current global conflicts, and the failure of world leaders to establish strategies that will escort i into the future with hope, and toward peace and prosperity for everyone. In other words, we have not really contributed much to the establishment of a safe bridge to the future.

Our leaders abuse their power to satisfy the greater good, are cheered on by special interest groups who have the money, and influence, to denigrate the opposition, intimidate the general public, as well as the media, while uplifting the image of aspiring politicians who plot a personal career in government. Once elected, these wannabe iconic leaders submit to public service for a term or two, return to private life, and continue to impoverish the system through laws created by their colleagues,  after they leave public service. They do not deserve to receive, receive, receive, until they die.

We have exchanged much written in the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, as well as the various oaths taken by professionals such as attorneys, and physicians, to insure greater financial gain. Our curiosity got the better of us, when we planned to spend billions of dollars on the space program, instead of aging infrastructure, global literacy, environmental safety strategies, and managing our food sources so that no one goes hungry. Of course we have learned much through the space program, but when stretched to the limit of our abilities, we will be left with some new technologies, a few related inventions due to R & R, and a lot of useless equipment. Meanwhile, environmental catastrophes, corporate domination, and political game playing, will have stolen our future on earth. This would include those who now focus on Wall Street.

If only we could wish for an opportunity to create a different outcome, a make-believe moment we often see in film, and have it come true. Would anyone make that wish?  I would.

If only I could.

Every Day A New Adventure

I keep reading about Medicare costs breaking the bank. Why are they so high? Have aging grandmothers, and grandfathers, become just a bunch of sick old people, and a burden on society? Why do so many people drive to the end of their lives in an ambulance, or suffer decades with a chronic illness? Whatever happened to self administered, preventative health care? Why are there regular supermarkets, and a whole other category of markets that sell “health food”? Why isn’t all of our food healthy? IMHO, the reason is simply that corporate profits are more important than consumer health, and consumers have grown complacent, and unfortunately, too many, are too lazy to be vigilant consumers.

Due to huge profits by companies that produce unhealthy products, there is great mirthfulness in executive offices, as well as in the land of the stock market returns. Meanwhile a sinister menu of advertisements keep consumers brand addicted, and well supplied with sugar, salt, and a long list of deadly chemical additives. In addition, exposure to EMF emitting personal gadgets, lifestyles that promote microwaves over traditional cooking, and stress from changes in our heretofore family oriented culture, contribute to serious health issues already weakened by poor eating habits.

Before Medicare becomes an active part of one’s life, there should be better care of health,  the sort that qualifies as preventative. Instead, people have become successful consumers of nearly anything marketed with creative labels, commercials, and promises of a better life, rather like a typical political campaign.

There is now a long list of pathogens that take up residence on our growing veggies, and bacterial threats from both meat, and fish, that endanger our health. More reason to be an educated consumer practicing preventative health care. The control of pathogens in our food chain is aiding them to evolve toward more resistance, and therefore more pesticides will be used, making things worse. All of this moves the population toward more critical, as well as chronic health conditions, such as Diabetes II, asthma, allergies, as well as a laundry list of other health problems.

We are the only ones who can initiate a preventative health program in our lives. Although organic foods may be more expensive, and we have to learn to curb an inclination to eat anything that is sweet, or deep fried, in the end, it is a much cheaper way to travel, and a world apart from succumbing to chronic diseases. In addition to abandoning traditional food preparation, and adding plastic to our diet, these are what bring about an astonishing Medicare price tag.

We should encourage each one on our health care list to help us practice preventative health care, by prescribing less medications,  and giving us more educated support for maintaining good health.