Drugs and Trucks

Blogging is such a thing, pro's and con's.  On one hand, it lets you get stuff off your chest, and vocalize what moves you.  On the other hand, it seems to become too easy to just complain and oppose, and that about many and various things.  So.

Lately, we observed, that families fall apart.  A wife moves out with the children or the man is kicked out.  One or both partners find new partners, and the children live with a step-parent.  It so then turns out, that a man lives with a woman and her children (they don't actually get married but talk about their "fiance"), and somewhere else the father lives in another new family.  Both men will be required to pay spousal and child support.  So in each household, money flows out to another household, and money flows in from another household.  You would think, all could be considered well, but obviously, the parents are living in biblical sin, and the children are mostly separated from their fathers.

There are many sides here that could be discussed, but one we talked about over dinner was, that in the end effect the money ends up in the mothers' hands to support the children, whereas before, the fathers, unfortunately, especially in Alberta, might have spent the money on "drugs and trucks".  Many a fellow made a lot of money in the oil patch, and was--sadly--gone from home a lot.  And so it went.  Such are some everyday tragedies that happen in these parts.

White Linen

There has always been something particularly festive and beautiful about white linen.  Not only is it very clean and bright, it signals a special occasion and joy, also seriousness, decorum and good manners.

For Canadian Thanksgiving, yesterday, I had decided to reconfigure my little living/dining room to be able to seat 12 people and also be able to remove the tables again.  I ended up with using five bistro tables from IKEA--two I owned already, and purchased three more.  To cover them, I cut in half several white table cloths in my stash.

(I used to own  some monographed heirloom linen, passed down through the generations from unknown individuals.  They were incredibly tough and irregular, the real item, something everybody should have a chance to handle once with their own hands.)

So, in the end, I had five tables covered in white.  Afterwards I realized that my meal might stain the cloths fairly permanently, with the type of sauces I had chosen to make. I almost opted to run to Home Hardware to get some custom size vinyl covers.  But no, vinyl covers ruin the whole effect.  NO, no, no, no, no.  We will see how it goes.

OF COURSE, we ended up with some spicy red stains on the table cloths.  Thanks to our trusty new programmable washing machines these days, I could choose a nice long, very hot wash with extra long spin cycle, etc.  All, said, by washing the cloths hard and adding some bleach, they came out beautifully white and shiny, again. --Whew.

My husband asked me about the cloths, afterward, as I folded them after drying.  "How did the stains come out?"  I said to him: "This is the beauty of white.  You can wash it like crazy, add the bleach, and voila, it is white again."

You can always clean and bleach white again.

And again.

All of which reminded me of the multitude of Saints who are before the throne dressed in white.  It is a white that has been given them, by the lamb, through trials and tribulations.  There is nothing easy about this white.  And it needs tough rewashing all the time. It needs very hot water, and lots of tumbling, to get the stains out.  It is a beautiful and costly white, but one that can always be recovered again.  Such, also is our life.

Just Breathe or Smoke

We have arrived in some sort of post-cognitive age.  It's not pretty.

We are supposed to relax and meditate and stop thinking.  Fine.  Sometimes, it's good to just be quiet.  But this has become the "answer" to everything.

Oh, sometimes, they "pray" for things to "just go away".  Yes, right.  If we just breathe, maybe things will just go away.  Actually, no, mostly they won't.  The problem will stick around and get worse and worse.  And then you will take some marijuana, which will now be legal, and everything will be better.  No, it won't.

Funny, everyone is trying to get us to learn to think, think from a free and clear mind, unencumbered by history and moral teachings.  But I think we just end up breathing and smoking, and maybe go to a demonstration, to which they have a counter-demonstration, and everyone just breathes fire. Then they can go and just meditate and breathe after that.  Oh, they may have some free sex from the gender-fluid life, in between.

If you have some actual points to make about something, you will be derided as "not loving", as "unkind", as "rude", as "aggressive", or possibly "micro-aggressive."  That seems to be the flip-side of the the just stay cool and breathe message.  Breathe, stop thinking, stop talking, stop arguing, stop saying what you think or believe. The more they breathe and smoke, the less you are allowed to say something to them or discuss any actual problems.





Someone, I know, is praying right now (I don't know to whom), that his problems will just go away.  He has messed up his family life, messed up his financial life, messed up his health, and he is hoping his problems are just going to vaporize.  It does not work that way.  Denial has never yet solved a problem.  Shouting down those with unpleasant messages, has not yet solved anything.  You are in trouble.  Big trouble.  You do need a plan.  There are consequences to stupid decisions.  There are also consequences to doing nothing and saying nothing.  Often, we are just talking about not wanting to be responsible for anything.

I looked up Mandy Hale, whose quote I pasted above.  She seems to be a lovely, young woman, who can't seem to nail down a relationship with a man, and makes a living giving dating advice.  I suppose this just happened to her:  her relationships don't go anywhere and voila she has found a lucrative calling.  How nice.  I don't want to put her down, but the women in my life who are ready for marriage and who are committed Christians and solid in many ways, have married and found permanent and lasting relationships.  What kind of dating advice can Mandy Hale really give:  breathe...

Then there is this guy on Youtube:  "How Yoga ruined my life".  It's a misleading title.  But hey, I clicked on it, and he made income from the advertisement I watched.  Really, he wants to tell you, that he found his calling being a yoga teacher.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyX6_todmrg  Here, I am sending you to it.  He will make a little bit more money.  He is going to be a teacher, who teaches you nothing but to relax, and he will make money from this message.  We are indeed, hopeful idiots and people can sell us anything that is easy.