Pain

A friend of mine, whom I will not link to out of respect, has had a tragedy hit. And I hurt for her. Losing a child hurts so badly. I can't imagine the pain, but the pain I feel on her behalf is horrible.
This friend of mine is faithful. She's good. So is her husband. They prayed, thousands of people prayed. But it didn't change anything. And supposing this baby had lived, would that have been such a terrible thing? Would the universe really have been worse off if this child had been able to live? Do not tell me that. Don't tell me that that child didn't need a shot at life. If life is really that shitty, then why do we cling to it so desperately?
Did my friend really need such a harsh lesson? And what was she supposed to learn from it? Will she learn from it? Yes. Absolutely. She has no choice. But do not tell me that the amount of pain she's suffering was because she was deficient in some way.
It hurts because we know the injustice of it. We know that life is really special. We know what it is to love and when the loved one dies, we know what it is to hurt for the lack of that person, knowing we'll never see them again. We know how cruel loving can be. And yet we do it anyway, because it's the only thing that keeps us holding on. That's the irony that is life: that what keeps you going can almost put an end to you.

Les Bruns

Well, at the request of a couple of friends, here is a family picture. It's not very good, my little sister is the only photographer in the family, and while I think she took this, she took it more as a point and shoot concept than as a professional. Still, it should give you a basic idea of who we are.

Color

Asking me to pick a favorite color would be like asking my mom to pick a favorite child (although, that may be easier for her now that I've left the church :-). Anyway, we are building a house and I get to have my own office. I'm ecstatic, except that I can't decide on which color to paint the walls. I like reds because of the associations they've had with women, for better or worse, through out Western History. I like blues because, well, it's blue . . . and it was always associated with integrity back when I was still active and integrity has always been important to me. I like greens because I read somewhere one time that the Celts associated it with magic and growth, because the plants around them grew without a seeming explanation. I like purples because they represent royalty (and even though I'm totally not thrilled with the idea of monarchy, I find it romantic anyway). I like black because it gets such a bad rap. Browns are so warm and inviting. Yellows and oranges, while they aren't always top on my list, have some shades that just make me happy. And white, well, of course I like it. But I don't like being surrounded by it, and so that's why I want my walls to be colorful.
Anyway, this was totally superfluous, but I just thought I'd put it out there and see what you guys like. And if you have any suggestions, that'd be cool too.

Fourth

Here's what we did for Independence Day. Theron and I rode the Bonneville County Democrat's float. We kept it simple this year, mostly recycling the donkey from a couple of years back and then making signs based off the Idaho Democratic Platform. We had everything from "protect productive farmland" to "torture? not in my America". We also had some of our candidates walk along with us and hand out their literature. One candidate in particular, Debbie Holmes, is really exciting to me. She was a real estate agent in Boise and was seeing the housing crisis up front. She got mad and decided to run for Congress. The woman has no rhetorical/oratory skill, but is as genuine as you could want.

Obviously, I have no skill at uploading images, so forgive me. But there we are. It was a fun day overall. In what used to be an uber conservative enclave, our float got cheers and peace signs and thumbs up. It was a pleasant surprise. As for the rest of the political spectrum in the U.S. Yeah, we still have a lot of hurdles to make it over. But at least on the fourth, I was feeling a little glimmer of hope.

Corporate Conglomerate

This is in response to Chandelle's post about corporate food. Now, I don't know nearly as much as she does about the food world, but tonight, as I was skimming through the Sunday paper, I found a rather hefty flyer called P&G brandSAVER. Now, obviously, if Proctor and Gamble is putting all their brands into one flyer to advertise, then it's not overly concerned about folks knowing they practically own the household market, but still, I was surprised by how many of the products I use on a daily basis (and indeed, how many products I thought were competing products), were made under Proctor and Gamble's label. Also, here are a couple of links about their legislative pull. Just makes you all warm and fuzzy, huh? Note especially the part where they mention that approximately 80 percent of the rest of the globe hasn't so much as seen a disposable diaper and I wanted to hurl (but for full disclosure, I haven't made the switch to cloth yet). Anyway, here's a list of all the products they make (even though one of those links also outlines it):
Pantene, Aussie, infusium, Olay, Noxema, Covergirl, Herbal Essences, Clairol, Secret, TAG, Gillette, Always, Tampax, Old Spice, Venus, Crest, OralB, PUR, febreze, Swiffer, Dawn, Cascade, Iams, Charmin, Bounty, Pepto Bismol, Tide, Downy, Head & Shoulders, Metamucil, Prilosec, and Pampers. This may not be all inclusive, but it was overwhelming nonetheless. It certainly opened my eyes. Illusion of choice indeed. Thanks for raising awareness, sista!