George W. Bush may be right about something after all. The current state of the economy may not be as bad as the media is making everything out to be. How do I know this? The daily blogroll. Everyday as I get ready to approach my Moodz, I trip though the blogroll. It’s good to check out other sites. I like to see what others are doing, what they’re talking about. I especially like the About Me pages where you learn who these people are, where they live, what they’re doing, and with (or without) whom. Sometimes they will even tell why they’re blogging.
I stumble upon blog after blog postings of people more satisfied with themselves than not. People with really great jobs and great spouses (or fiancés) about whom they daily proclaim their love for and satisfaction with. People who not only purchased homes during the current housing crises, but had them built from scratch. People raising children without worry, fear or dread about their futures or their grandchildren’s.
These average, hardworking, American families seem mostly unaffected by the high cost of gas and oil and food. They’re graduating from college, earning Master’s degrees, knitting and quilting, marrying and being given in marriage, planning weddings, showing off huge diamond rings while gushing over their “simple” diamond wedding band. They love their families. They love their friends. Their oft photographed kids are just too adorable.
Outside their doors, butterflies emerge from their chrysalises, deer strike a pose for the digital Canon, and turtles slowly poke their heads from beneath lumpy shells on their picturesque, multi-acre properties. They have time to stop and smell the roses here at home and frequently travel abroad, undeterred by the high cost of flying, without ever seeming to encounter a single foreigner who hates America.
Oh, but don’t just take my word for it. Here. See for yourself:
If you had stopped and asked me 10 or even 5 years ago where I thought I’d be at this point in my life – living in a big fat house on 5+ acres in upstate New York with a fiancé (happily engaged going on nearly 8 years now with happily no wedding in sight!), 2 dachshounds, a creek, a mile long walking path on our property, two natural ponds, a flock of turkeys, a hundred frogs, 40 goldfish, a deer family, 3 chipmunks, 5 groundhogs, and a bat named Mukluk, I would’ve said I’m sorry, can’t talk, must go to my shitty management job at K*B Toys in Coral Springs, Florida.
While my rather expensive degree in Environmental Science only served to get me out of retail and not into some position where I could not only save the world, but maybe meet and have sex with Leonardo Dicaprio, I cannot complain about my job at a comics/collectible company (even though sometimes a monkey could do my job. or my dogs if they had opposable thumbs). It’s not an important job by any stretch, but it’s fun, stress free, customer free, I get to read comics, take time off to travel whenever I want, add to my always growing Batman collection, come to work in my pajamas if the mood strikes, and if I am so inclined and the guests are good, help with my company’s comic convention in New York City.
Life, she is good. Hi there.
My response:
It’s good to be you, but then again, you already know that don’t you? Enjoyed visiting your blog. Thank you.
In response she said:
Moodz4Modernz, it didn’t used to be this way. I am grateful for every day I wake up feeling good and healthy, next to Rxxx (also good and healthy), and surrounded by flora & fauna (again with the good and healthy) alike. Which is not to say that I am not constantly battling an almost overpowering sense of fear that it’s all going to disappear one day.
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Come back anytime.
I wondered if she bothered to find out a little about me, or was her head too far up in a cloud of conceit and euphoria to care about anyone other than herself? Perhaps she might have been moved to offer up just a teeny, tiny, tad of goodwill, or empathy or encouragement.
The so-called Christian community seems equally as self-absorbed and oblivious:
If you’re looking for a happy, pick-me-up post today, stop right now and come back another day. This is just where it’s at…
- I’ve been involved in 2 car accidents in 2 weeksMy house has not yet sold, and showing it means keeping it clean at all times-with 3 boys!
- I have minimal support monies coming in
- I’ve pursued PT job prospects in XXXX-no openings
- as I have begun to share my life story of abuse, I have faced much criticism and rejection with friends telling me I should “keep family secrets secret”
- Many friends have turned away or pulled back, telling me that what I’m doing is crazy…or just refuse to even talk about it
- I need to find housing in XXXX, committing simply on faith at this point
- My ex… has not spoken to my kids in about 8 yrs
- I am packing, selling stuff, cleaning out, and deciding what we need to get rid of and cut back to simply pay the bills in the upcoming year
Nothing has ever been easy, yet as Job says in Job 6:10 Despite the pain, I have not denied the words of the Holy One.”
I don’t cry, but this morning I could not stop. Tears of frustration, of anger, of loneliness, of joy, of excitement, of praise, of rejection, of hurt, of faith, and of confidence in this all. I don’t know what today or any other day brings. I don’t know how it’s all going to work out and I know I can’t do it myself. I know God has called, I know He has gotten me this far, and I know that this is just all part of the journey…
I was moved. I commented:
I wish I were not writing this but instead working to find out where you are so I could send you something more spendable than my prayers, but I can’t. I can only pass on an assurance: You are not alone, and even that is not original (or humorous) enough to be a real comfort.
I hope, after reading my posts over the past couple of days, you will at least be content with your cross and not be tempted to wish you could pick up someone else’s. I have a sense you are a clever woman and you already know this as well.
Thank you for sharing this. It didn’t come to last, it came to pass. Yes it’s an annoying pithy line, but it’s a comfort to me, and so I’m sharing…
Her response..?
Thank you. I don’t know how to respond–what a great email. Only because you asked…if I’m reading what you wrote correctly. Everything is addressed to MXXXXX LXXXX Church with “for XXXX XXXX” on it and they get everything to me…donations, prayer partners, and all. I love that you are traveling along on with us on this journey.
Peace to you!!
Mxxxxx Lxxxxx Church
3105 XXXXXXXXX Highway
XXXXXX, GA XXXXXXX
Enjoy the day!
Uh, huh. That’s exactly what I said. Sigh..!
On August 18, 1988, George Herbert Walker Bush addressed the Republican National Convention to accept his party’s nomination. Given what has transpired since over the past two years, the site of the convention, the LA Superdome in New Orleans appears both prophetic and ironic. Here he put forward the idea of the so-called “faith-based” initiative and his vision of an America where people help people rather than continue this expectation of government. Mr. Bush said:
I am guided by certain traditions. One, is that there is a God and He is good, and his love, while free, has a self imposed cost: We must be good to one another.
And there is another tradition. And that’s the idea of community — a beautiful word with a big meaning; though liberal democrats have an odd view of it. They see “community” as a limited cluster of interest groups, locked in odd conformity. And in this view, the country waits passive while Washington sets the rules.
But that’s not what community means — not to me.
For we’re a nation of community; of thousands and tens of thousands of ethnic, religious, social, business, labor union, neighborhood, regional and other organizations, all of them varied, voluntary and unique.
This is America: the Knights of Columbus, the Grange, Hadassah, the Disabled American Veterans, the Order of Ahepa, the Business and Professional Women of America, the union hall, the Bible study group, LULAC, “Holy Name” — a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.
Sigh… Oh well. How quickly we forget.
I’ll Be Good to You | The Brothers Johnson | 1976
