Story of the day, STD free since 1995

Back in the 70s there was this cheesy, romantic movie starring Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neil, heart throbs of the day, entitled, "Love is never having to say you're sorry." which was extremely popular at the box office, and the slogan "Love is never having to say you're sorry" gave boomers permission to behave as they wanted without guilt, or even concern for how people they supposedly loved might feel.

Sally said, "That movie was rubbish and it ruined my life. I really believed that tripe. My boyfriends would complain to me about my free love attitude, and I'd tell them I loved them at least at the time of the consummation of our love which now I recognize as lust, and brush them off and go my merry way. Now it all seems so unfair, disrespectful, now, you know?"

Linda said, "Sal, don't worry. We were all that way. A product of the times what with birth control and everything. I saw what look liked a mother and daughter at a peace protest last week  and they were waving to the cars passing by. It said, 'STD free since 1995'. I started laughing so hard I almost pulled over because I didn't know if I could keep my car in its lane."

"Yeah, well, I don't know if I ever told you, but I had a couple of abortions too along with chlamydia and genital herpes which slowed me down a little bit, but often I wouldn't tell my partners and I felt guilty which I tried to erase with pot and LSD. When I got genital warts I knew I was done with my 'free ways,'" said Sally. "I started to feel unclean."

"We had some good times though, didn't we?" said Linda.

"At the time I thought so, but I now I wonder if I wasted part of my life, and I get down on myself."

"Time to find the Lord," said Linda laughing.

"I tried that. Didn't I tell you about the time I got saved? I thought it was right. It was about 7 years ago, and for awhile I felt like my sins had been washed away, atoned for by the blood of Jesus when He died on the cross. But that explanation isn't working for me any more. I think I have more responsibility and I'm still thinking about some of the guys I hurt. I try extra hard to be kind to people, you know, to make up for my uncaring, cavalier ways earlier in my life," said Sally.

"Look who's turning into a goody two shoes," said Linda.

"You're not helping, Linda," Sally said.

"Okay, listen, this is turning into a bit of a downer. I've got to go. When you get done feeling sorry for yourself, give me a call," and Linda got up to leave.

"I'll see you next time," said Sally.

"Yeah, I'll see you when I see you," said Linda over her shoulder as she walked out the door.

Sally started to tear up and she wondered what was wrong with her. Why was she losing her friends? Her therapist had told her he thought she was outgrowing them, and loneliness sometimes is the price you pay for growing up and moving on with your life.

Story of the day - Last days of the world as we've known it

"Climate change deniers are evil," said Laketa. It had been a long day. She was tired and had been listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio and even though she had promised not to listen to him ever again, her husband had left the car radio tuned to the station and she caught his diatribe as she started up the car.

"So why are only the drug dealers and users going to jail," said Chuck, her husband. "It seems that the damage done to the planet by the fossil fuel corporations and their shills and the politicians is far worse that whatever damage is done by drugs."

"Who has the power and the money?" said Laketa disgustedly. "The corporations have bought our government lock, stock, and barrel, and turning this planet into a cesspool."

"People love having pools. You've always wanted one if we could afford it, right?" said Chuck.

"You're not funny at all. Listen, this isn't something we should be laughing about!"

"Come on, sour puss. Ya either laugh or cry, right? It's like having the orchestra play on the deck of the Titanic as it was sinking after it crashed into the iceberg," said Chuck. "While these changes will take decades or a century, it feels like the last night of the world. Remember Bruce Cockburn's great song? We used to make love to it. Remember?

Story of the day - Bottled water

We were meeting for our monthly book club in the basement of the independent book shop in town discussing Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver.

"I think it's just terrible what is happening with this climate change stuff," said Jennifer as she took a swig of water from her Poland Springs plastic water bottle.

Should I say something or keep my mouth shut, something like, Plastic water bottle, Jenn, really? How concerned are you? But I didn't want to embarrass her in front of the group and she doesn't like me much already because I speak my mind which I can tell at times makes her uncomfortable. Let it go, I say to myself, but then good ole Jenn says, "I just wish people were more aware and would do more for the environment" and I couldn't stop myself, I mean I tried, but it came out in spite of my better intentions, "You mean like drinking water from plastic water bottles that are totally unnecessary and are based on fossil fuels like oil and clog up our landfills for decades?"

Jenn looked like a deer in the headlights. She appeared to be stunned like I'd caught her with her pants down, and then she blushed and her eyes started to tear, and I thought, "Oh shit, what have I done?"

She looked at me and said quietly, "Ahhhhhhh, you're right. I hadn't thought of that. It is silly to buy water in plastic bottles. I should get one of those re-usable ones."

The other group members sat stunned at first, but then started telling their stories too about the water bottles they use and how plastic water bottles and soda bottles are a little thing but something we could do as a group.

"Will it save the butterflies?" said Sarah sarcastically bringing us back to the topic.

"You know how the Christians ask, WWJD what would Jesus do? Well, what would Dellarobia do?, asked Linda.

There was relieved laughter in the group and Karen said, "She couldn't afford bottled water on her budget."

Story of the day - The Bullshit Express

John Lago, the young hit man in Shane  Kuhn's novel, The Intern's Handbook, says on p. 37 "Our minds are not interested in truth. They are our private twenty-four hour news cycle putting a constant spin on reality. It's like the Matrix. Everyone is plugged into the Bullshit Express."

"That seems awfully cynical," said Alicia.

"Really," said Greg, "I think he hits it right on the money."

"I'm interested in the truth," said Alicia.

"Really?" said Gregg.

"Yeah," said Alicia, "Don't be such a prick."

"What about the cosmetics you wear that were tested on monkeys in that lab in Riverside? You think that's right, that animals get exploited to see if the chemicals they put in that shit will harm humans? They're just using them like guinea pigs. When did that term "guinea pig" even come to mean what it means if we humans didn't exploit animals for our own benefits which, at times, are pretty superficial and vain," said Greg.

"I don't think it's such a big deal," said Alicia. "Are the animals really harmed or inconvenienced?"

"Inconvenienced or harmed? Really? Listen to yourself. Like Lago said, you're not interested in the truth, you're plugged into the cosmetic industry's "Bullshit Express"  and you're not interested in finding out the truth which might conflict with your practices. You don't need all that make-up anyway. I love you just the way you are without all that crap."

"I don't know if you're sweet or being a dick," said Alicia.

"Maybe I'm a sweet dick," said Gregg laughing.

"I don't know if it's fair or not to be testing cosmetics on the monkey's. I guess they really don't have a say in it do they? And if they could talk would they agree to it? What do they get out of it except an allergic or toxic reaction sometimes. But they are well cared for, I assume, fed, looked after. They must get medical care. So I don't know how bad can it be?" Alicia mused.

"Go ahead, rationalize, justify, twist it around to make it seem okay."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," said Alicia. "I have to go put my make-up on before we go out."

Story of the day - Exposed at a young age to too many theme parks

Linda McCullough Moore writes in her short story, "Baby Doll" in her book This Road Will Take You Closer To The Moon, about Margaret who comes home after many years to visit with her family. The scene being described is a conversation among the family members and Moore writes about Margaret:

     "The only place we will not go tonight is me. Conversation never wanders there. I have been waiting ever since my first visit home from college, freshman year, for someone in the family to say, 'So. Margaret. How are you?' or, in some spoken way, to acknowledge my existence and the fact that I have been three states away, for weeks, for months, now suddenly, for thirty-seven years.

     "So tell me about Brandon," one of the sisters says.

     "Oh, he's too young for long-term care insurance, " Eileen says.

     Brandon, Eileen's son, a man who throughout his late teens and early twenties devoted his life to following professional wrestlers on tour. A natural consequence, I like to think, of his having been too exposed at a young age to one too many theme parks." p.54

My Kind Of Church Music - Fun, fun, fun, The Beach Birds

Story of the day - Justice is a concept. Muscle is the reality.

Of course, there is Linda Blanford, whoever she might be, who is quoted in the Sunbeams section of The Sun Magazine issue of June, 2014, as having said, "Justice is a concept. Muscle is the reality."

It made me chuckle to read the quote and it made me think, "Right on, Linda baby, might makes right." Justice is what those in power want it to be.

And then you think of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights protestors of 50 years ago now who taught us, as a nation, that we have unjust laws, even in the United States, the home of the brave, and the land of the free. So we are told by our rulers that in our democracy we should be grateful for our freedom, but then our names wind up on the no-fly lists, or we're driving while black, or just walking while black in New York City.

My wife says that I am too cynical and bitter and I tell her I am just realistic and she is wearing her rose colored glasses again.

The pastor preached this morning that people aren't perfect and we shouldn't expect them to be and if we are to have any peace we need to be compassionate and forgiving.

Ron Firbank, another person I have no idea who he is, is also quoted in the June, 2014, issue of The Sun saying, "The world is disgracefully managed; one hardly knows to whom to complain."

Good old Ron has got it wrong. I know exactly to whom to complain, but alas without muscle, as Linda said, they have no need to, and usually don't,  listen.

Story of the day - "Not actually"

Brigid was four and came into the kitchen as I was making dinner making stir fry on the stove. Behind me was the Hoosier Cabinet on which sat the cookie jar. Brigid asked me if she could have a cookie and I said she could after dinner which I was just making and we would be eating in five minutes.

As I continued adding ingredients to the stir fry I heard the top come off the cookie jar and I turned around and said evenly, "Brigid what are you doing?"

She said with a guilty expression, "Nothing daddy."

I said, "Yes, you are. You're taking a cookie."

She said to me very seriously, "Not actually."

I had to stop myself from laughing. Where, at age four, had she learned this word, "actually" and used it correctly in a sentence to minimize, if not eliminate, her culpability?

I can imagine God saying to any one of us, "And why have you polluted the earth with plastic water bottles, plastic shopping bags, and exhaust from SUVs, Hummers, and all sorts of combustion engines?"

And we, of course, would plea ignorance, saying we didn't know the consequences, and God will say, "But having learned the consequences, you have continued with your harmful ways." And we will say, like four year old Brigid, "Not actually." and we will each have our excuse about why we continued with the rape and pillage of Mother Nature.

I don't know if God, like me, will attempt to stifle a laugh at our naivete, but let us pray that He extends some matter of mercy for our sins, and treats us like innocent four year old children and not like responsible adults.