may we be them

I try not to get too involved in politics. Which is weird since policy was one of my favorite classes in college. Regardless, I have never been right or left, blue or red. I basically just listen to the public knowledge and go with my gut when voting. Probably not the most responsible thing to do as a citizen with an opinion that actually counts, but at least I make my stand one way or another. I have my views that I stand by regardless of where this country is headed and I hope that everyone else has their own as well. That’s what this country is about- being a “melting pot”. But I think that some values should be upheld by everyone- like being nice, for instance. Who could seriously come up with an argument against that? Instead of getting up on my soapbox and preaching all about my views and my values and me, me, me, I’d just like to share two clips from recent media that I thoroughly enjoyed and firmly stand by.

“I didn’t just grow up. I was taught to speak when I enter a room, say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ to have respect for my elders and to get up off my lazy butt and let the elder in the room have my chair. Say ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’, lend a helping hand to those in need. Hold the door for the person behind me, say ‘excuse me’ when it’s needed and to love people for who they are and not for what I can get from them. I was also taught to treat people he way I want to be treated.” -Unknown

I am proud that I too was “raised.” All too often people give excuses to the way we treat one another. “Chivalry is dead.” “It’s a Southern thing.” Well I am here to tell you- chivalry is not dead and it does NOT only exist in the South. I will claim to be a Southern girl until the day that I die but regardless of my own upbringing, I am still a Missouri native…And most people don’t considered Missouri to be a part of the South. Guess what? My dad holds doors open. My brother says “yes mam.” And Lord knows my momma tried her damnedest to teach me some manners. The truth is that is doesn’t matter where you’re from or what year it is, we should still all have respect for one another.

Now for a more political stand point from the one and only, Bill Cosby:

“I’m 83. Except for brief period in the 50’s when I was doing my National
Service, I’ve worked hard since I was 17. Except for some serious
health challenges, I put in 50-hour weeks, and didn’t call in sick in nearly
40 years. I made a reasonable salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my
income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, it looks as
though retirement was a bad idea, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who
don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take
the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy
to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I
can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and
daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight
offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t
“believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning
teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the
genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and
Shari’a law tells them to.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques
and Madrasa Islamic schools to preach hate in Australia , New Zealand ,
UK, America and Canada , while no one from these countries are allowed to
fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia or any other
Arab country to teach love and tolerance..

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global
warming, which no one is allowed to debate.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help
support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ
rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses
or stick a needle in their arm while they tried to fight it off?

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all
parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful
mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting
caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

I’m really tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and
actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination
or big-whatever for their problems.

I’m also tired and fed up with seeing young men and women in their teens and
early 20’s be-deck themselves in tattoos and face studs, thereby making
themselves unemployable and claiming money from the Government.

Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also glad to be 83.. Because, mostly, I’m not
going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for
my granddaughters and their children. Thank God I’m on the way out and not
on the way in.”

I think this impacted me more because the topics I generally associate with Bill Cosby are funny…or Jello. I didn’t find anything about this funny, but rather saddening. Nevertheless, he covered it all pretty darn well.

Speaking of media, did anyone happen to see the football game that interrupted Beyonce’s concert on Sunday night?! Clearly New Orleans was in fact, not “ready for this jelly” cause Queen B shot out the lights. Whoa.

Favorite commercials? I will admit that I was a little busy stuffing my face and socializing to watch the entirety of the Super Bowl coverage but I do have two favorites. And you along with 15 million other Americans can probably guess which ones they are.
Drum roll please…..

Of course I would have to pick the horse one. It made me cry. Literally cry during one of the most testosterone-filled events of the year. And I loved it.

And of course I’m a sucker for anything agriculture related, given that it’s made my entire life revolve for the last (almost) 23 years. The 30-second commercial took my heart home to my family and made me proud…also made me pat dear ole Alex on the back to remind him of how proud I am of all that he does. May we know them, may we raise them, may we be them- God bless the farmers. And God bless Dodge for having the guts to proclaim their faith by repeating the word “God” in their paramount moment.

Dad, Spence, Alex and I had the pleasure of going on a luxe duck hunt two weekends ago thanks to HBK seed and Bayer Crop Science. It was a lot of cold an early, both of which I don’t typically fair well, but we had a great time at Wildlife Farms and would all highly recommend it to anyone. Because it was the end of the season, the ducks had gotten smart and were few and far between, but we did get a few kills. On the second morning out, while sitting in the blind, I realized something that I have heard before but never paid much attention to: silence. When you first get settled into the blind everything seems silent. Not a sound. But once your ears get adjusted to the quiet after the short boat ride and clatter of climbing into the floating lair, you begin to hear everything. Birds chirping, squirrels doing what I can only deem as screaming at one another, trees crackling, water lapping against the shore and rippling under the wind, the wind…things that I wasn’t initially paying attention to and had forgotten to notice. Once I was still enough, they made their presence known and it became almost loud again. It reminded me of Psalm 46:10, “be still and know that I am God.” Often we are moving so much in our lives and forget what’s really important. But if we sit still long enough and just listen, we can hear God through it all.

Everyone please say a quick prayer for Nan and Papa as they travel to Washington to visit Nan’s sister and her family. Fortunately, if they get lost we’ll know where to find them….

Nan and Papa do Mardi Gras!

Also, I have a Barron’s GRE study book if anyone is interested in buying it…message me for details. Just sayin.

Love always,

Addie

“I believe that Paul admonishes wives to respect their husbands because he knew that after years of mistakes, poor choices, wrong decisions, and smelly socks, respect may not come naturally for a wife. It may well take an act of obedience empowered by the Holy Spirit within.”- Girlfriends in God daily devotional (….was too funny not to share!)

always dreaming…

Went to see the movie Inception last night. Let me just say, it took some analyzing and some thinking to get through that one, but I would love to sit down and have lunch with the writer of that movie. Absolutely incredible, and I’m definitely going to need to see it again to make sure that I put all the pieces together correctly.

Over all I had a very interesting night even after the movie was over. It rained, and for those of you from the Bootheel, you know that when it rains, it pours. Usually I’m out like a baby when the thunder rocks and rolls me to sleep, but last night was different. My brain definitely wasn’t ready to shut down and I’m not sure if it was due to the fact that I thought someone might infiltrate my dreams (doubtful, I don’t get persuaded that easily), or due to other things weighing on my mind, but either way I kept waking up about every hour. (Ok, so it could be to the fact that I was having to share my bed with an oversized dog because he is scared to death of storms.) Regardless of the culprit, I’m actually not that tired today, and the weather has cooled off thanks to the down pour so it’s a very nice day!

Through it all last night I couldn’t quit thinking about several quotes from the movie:

1. “Never recreate from your memory. Always imagine new places.” – we shouldn’t live in the past because trust me, it turns out bad. (People like Mal will haunt you and your every dream.)
2. “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger.” (as he pulls out a grenade launcher)- nuff said.
3. “You’re waiting for a train; a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can’t be sure.”- sometimes we have to take chances…you can’t get something you’ve never had without first doing something you’ve never done.
4. “You keep telling yourself what you know. But what do you believe? What do you feel?”
5. “Dare you take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone.”
6. “What’s the most resilient parasite? An Idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.” – I think this is very true. We have the power to do anything we want to. And ideas really are like parasites of the mind…once you get one, you can’t get rid of it. Idea’s that pop in your head continue to pop up until you do something to act on them. Crazy.

I love the depth and complexity of this movie. Mind boggling? Yes. But definitely worth the headache.

While I’m on the movie review, let me just say  that I appreciate the realism of Remember Me, but I personally was not a fan. I am a romanticist and I enjoy watching movies with a little “magic” in them. Though it’s not always practical, it’s an escape from the real world and reminds us for just a minute that miracles still happen and everything is possible. Gives me a chance to dream again. Not in this movie though. I wanted a good ending, this ending wasn’t magical, it was real. So for me, it wasn’t a “good” movie…it should have been listed under documentaries or something.

I just want to end this post by saying how regretful I am about Kendra Grey. I didn’t personally know her, but I know she will be missed by many. Always remember that the choices you make can influence other people’s lives forever. Even people that you didn’t even expect to touch. Think twice before acting.

Love always,

Addie

“You can’t live an undecided life.”

Plain old covers and Walls

You know what I’ve been thinking lately? It really is hard to judge a book by its cover. Some of the best books ever written have dated, simple, solid color covers binding them together. How are we supposed to judge that when there’s not even a picture to depict something that has to do with the plot? Or what about the books that have subtle “symbols” on the cover that you can’t quite understand until after you’ve read the book? Or the one’s whose cover doesn’t at all match what you envisioned in your head while reading the book? Maybe that’s just how society is evolving. Used to, people didn’t need a certain color or picture on the front of a book to convince them to read it. They read out of sheer enjoyment and curiosity. Not that people don’t still do that, but more and more I think we find ourselves literally judging what we want off of reviews from other people’s opinions or simply by the outward appearance that someone else created in their mind. How do you possibly deem that a self-made decision? Two people can look at the exact same object and see two totally different things. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t take other people’s word into consideration, but we do need to start weaning ourselves from the attitudes that are being fed to us by today’s society.

Ok, that intro led me to the meat of my discussion for today: don’t judge a book, don’t judge a person. There’s an old saying that we’ve all heard, “don’t judge another person until you have walked in their shoes.” As I was sitting in the McDonald’s drive-thru last night at 2:00 am, I never realized that to be more true. For example, do you think that the man working the window dreamed of growing up to work the McDonald’s night shift? Probably not. (I can’t honestly say that it would be a bad job, because I’m sure that it can be very entertaining at times to meet all the “forth-mealers” in their nightly endeavors, and if the man truly loves his job, who am I to say he doesn’t? The man could have been a road kill clean-up staff member for all I care, as long as that’s what truly makes him happy.) But the drive-thru window man didn’t look happy at all. Tiredness had overtaken him and he honestly looked a little sad, which initially could have been mistaken for rudeness, and also really put a damper on my Happy Meal.

Some people have tough lives. I don’t know why I was blessed enough to be dealt a good hand (Lord knows I don’t deserve it), but it always makes me think twice about those who didn’t quite get the “luck of the draw.” Some people are able to overcome their struggles and humble themselves, while others never even try to fight the battle because they feel like they have lost before they ever get started.

So when you run into a person that’s mean, dirty, quite, or simply working a job that you wouldn’t have chosen for yourself, remember, you don ‘t know where they’ve been and what they’ve had to endure. Battles and triumphs make us stronger, but they can also cause walls to be put up. When you judge a person without knowing or taking into consideration their story, you are not taking advantage of a life lesson. We can all learn something from each other.

Next time you’re out, take a moment to “people watch.” You’d be amazed at what you can gain from actually getting a glimpse inside someone’s life instead of taking one quick glance and shutting them out.

What have you learned from your neighbors today?

Love always,

Addie

“Your neighbor’s vision is as true for him as your own vision is true for you.” -Miguel de Unamuno