Well-Mannered Frivolity

Blue Like Jazz

I was up late last night with a sick child. James ate a few too many cookies and had a little too much chocolate milk. It all made the return trip about 2:00 AM. He puked once and after that he was fine, but I couldn't sleep. He did manage to puke in the puke bowl, so I will give the little guy credit for that, but there is just something about a middle of the night illness adventure that puts a mama on red alert status.

Since I was up anyway I decided to do a little reading, natch. I had a fresh, new stack from the library and settled on Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller. I wish this book along with The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical and Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne could be read by every skeptic who thinks all Christians are heartless, money grubbing, right-wing fanatics. That there are many, many Christians actually struggling to be Christlike, to follow the example set forth by Jesus, but I digress........

I read a passage in Blue Like Jazz that really struck me. In this passage Miller had just been to a protest protesting Bush for "blindly supporting the World Bank.....and our policy toward Iraq."

"The thing I realized on the day we protested.....was that it did me no good to protest America's responsibility in global poverty when I wasn't even giving money to my church, which has a terrific homeless ministry. I started feeling very much like a hypocrite.

More than my questions about the efficacy of social action were my questions about my own motives. Do I want social justice for the oppressed, or do I just want to be known as a socially active person? I spend 95 percent of my time thinking about myself anyway. I don't have to watch the evening news to see that the world is bad, I only have to look at myself. I am not browbeating myself here; I am only saying that true change, true life-giving, God-honoring change would have to start with the individual. I was the very problem I had been protesting. I wanted to make a sign that read, 'I AM THE PROBLEM!'"  

Wow! How many times have I railed about the injustices of the world without actually doing anything to change the world. I remember going to Gulf War protests back in college because it was the cool thing to do. I've been to 'tea parties' because I really believe in freedom and liberty. I bitch and moan about the government as much as the next guy. I feel guilty when I see a homeless person. My heart breaks for the women of Afghanistan. But what do I do about it? Nothing. My church has a fantastic ministry I could be supporting, too. But I don't. Why not? I really don't know. I AM THE PROBLEM. But I can change that.

Wendy

Nickel and Dimed vs Scratch Beginnings

I just finished reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. In this book Ehrenreich sets out to prove that an unskilled laborer cannot get by in America. The biggest problem I had with Nickel and Dimed was that the author set herself up for failure from the beginning. She set up three 'experiments' in Key West, Maine, and Minnesota each lasting one month. Her rules were that she would not live in a shelter, she would set herself up with $1500.00 in seed money and she would rent a car with her credit card in each town.

In Key West she landed a waitressing job with housing a 40 minute drive away. She had to live 40 minutes away so she could find affordable housing. I get that, but has the woman never heard of roommates? When she was hired for her job she was told she needed two pairs of khaki pants. Did she go to Salvation Army? Did she go to Walmart or Kmart? No, she went to a department store and bought $60.00 worth of Dockers. To her credit, she did admit this was a mistake later on in the book. She ends up walking out and quitting one night because her waitressing job is more than she can handle. It must be nice to just play at being poor.

In Maine she got a job with a cleaning service @ $6.65 per hour. She complained that the franchise owner was charging $25.00 per hour per person. She fails to take into consideration that the franchise is paying for cars, gas, cleaning supplies, payroll taxes, and insurance. She states that an independent maid makes $15.00 per hour. Barb is having to work as a maid 5 days per week as a maid, and weekends at a nursing home. Here's an crazy idea--Find an apartment with a roommate to share living expenses, and continue working those two jobs until she has enough saved up to be an independent maid.

In Minnesota Ehrenreich is hired at two places--Walmart at $6.25 per hour and Menard's at $10.00 per hour. Inexplicably, she takes the Walmart job. Why would she take a job at nearly $4.00 less per hour? And, seriously, it's not a well-kept secret that Walmart is a crummy place to work.  It kills me the way she constantly pities her coworkers for working the jobs they do. She thinks they must be the most down trodden people on the face of the earth to put up with such demeaning work. Well guess what? My husband does the type of work she poo-poos and he really enjoys his work. Could it be that he and millions more like him have something she's not familiar with called a work ethic?

Adam Shepard was required to read Nickel and Dimed in college. He didn't agree with the premise of the book so he set out to do his own little experiment. After graduation from college Shepard decided to pick a random city and start over with the clothes on his back and $25.00. His goals were to, within one year, own a car and live in a furnished apartment and have savings.   He picked Charleston, SC. He took the train to North Charleston, moved into the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, and set out to find a job. He succeeded all of his goals in less than 6 months. Shepard details his story in Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream. I will admit that Shepard's story is a bit unrealistic. He had several things going for him--no children, youth, good health, no substance abuse problems or criminal record.

I suspect the truth lies somewhere between these to books. I do feel like Barbara Ehrenreich dabbled at being poor while Adam Shepard really threw himself into his project. I also enjoyed the optimism in Shepard's book. Ehrenreich's book is very pessimistic and her lame attempts a humor often fall flat.

This post is already dragging on too long, so tomorrow I will share our story.

Wendy

Wendy

Education and empowerment

I was reading this article on contraception and climate change-http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10355608-54.html and I'm not quite sure what to think.  For starters the words 'population control' always raise a bit of a red flag for me. I realize the intentions behind this idea are good, but it can be  just a short jump from population control to China's one child policy to eugenics.

I don't think simply providing contraceptives to third world countries is the answer. The answer lies in education and empowerment of women and girls. Let's face it, Planned Parenthood could put a free contraceptive kiosk on every street corner in Kabul, but it wouldn't do any good. Under Taliban rule a woman is not allowed to leave her house without her husband or a male relative. How is she going to get these depo shots in the first place? And I seriously doubt the same men who think it is okay to publicly beat a woman for laughing in public are going to be lining up for free condoms. How are we going to get birth control to women who don't even have legal recourse when they are raped? When these same women can get sentenced to death by stoning for adultery because they were raped? When young girls can be sold or traded to pay off debt? While there is still female castration? What good is free birth control going to be for these women?  Education and empowerment are the keys.

Peace,

Wendy

The dark side of Facebook

I love Facebook. It's been great reconnecting with old friends, some dating all the way back to elementary school. It's fun reading status updates, and don't even get me started on Farmtown. Sometimes I even communicate with my brother on Facebook, and he lives just around the corner. But I think, in some ways, social networking is having a negative effect on society. Have you ever caught yourself saying something to someone on Facebook that you would never say to them face to face? I know I have. Sometimes status updates and comments can get a little mean spirited. I have especially noticed this trend among friends of friends. I have been both guilty of and a victim of this. It usually starts off with a friend making a status update of hot topic issue such as religion or politics. You make a comment. Then  your friend's friend proceeds to tell you what an idiot you are. It's easy to do that, because you don't know the person you are insulting. Is this what we have debased ourselves to? Being hateful to strangers just because they don't share the same beliefs we do? What has happened to civility, tolerance, and kindness? It's okay to disagree, just do so in a way that is not vitriolic and hateful.

Peace,

Wendy

On the complaint front-I complained about 90 times today. I blame in on the two pots (that right pots) of coffee I drank today.