The meanness in the world

Sometimes things happen that just stop you in your tracks. Such an event occurred last Monday nite.

Jim is a man several years older than I, who, together with his wife, own a small country store.
They are both attractive people. Both are short, neither of them being over 5'1 in height. For many years, Paulette, the wife was a very trim lady who worked in the local jewelry store. She's always been a sharp tongued lady, and she's one of those people whom you aren't sure whether to like or dislike.

On the other hand, Jim is kind, soft spoken, easy to get along with and will do anything for you that he can.

I've known them both for many years. They have two grown daughters and several grandchildren. Paulette has gone through breast cancer, and because of the medication has gained a considerable amount of weight. It hasn't softened her demeaner any, though.

Jim has had several heart attacks, but in spite of the doctor's warnings, he continues to smoke and drink--often to excess. Yet, even in his excess of drinking, I've never heard of him being mean or violent.

Monday night he was attacked a short distance from his home. No one knows the details of why this happened, just the end results. His nose was broken, both jaw bones and his eye was nearly dislodged from it's socket. He is now home from the hospital and recuperating.

But the mystery still remains as to what happened.

In this small community, rumors are as numerous as flies around watermelon. Some say he stopped to help someone who appeared to be broken down, and the intent was robbery.
Some say he was out attempting to collect money owed pertaining to his business.
Yet others say he was fooling around with some woman he shouldn't have been fooling with--but regardless of the reason why he was attacked--it was an act of pure violence, a total disregard for the life of another human being.

If it were robbery, then many in our community stand to be next in line. With the economy suffering the way it is--who may be next? Acts of violence, such as this, are rare in our area; but from time to time they occur. Seemingly out of the blue, always extreme violence and always against a person well thought of in the community.

May God keep and protect all of us.

Voice recognition programs and perspective

A few days ago, a member asked about a free speech program for their computer. The owner of the group posted in part this:

*Command and control your Window's computer through your voice. Operate
> your computer using a minimum of keystrokes or mouse clicks. If you
> want to move the cursor down one line, simply say: Down One. Want to
> check your emails? Simply say: Open Email. Add commands to open and
> control any Window's document or program.*

I replied: *First let me say that I seriously appreciate that some people need a
speech recognition program. I'm extremely grateful that these programs
exist for those who need them.

But, forgive me for putting a bit of humor in on this topic. I sincerely
pray that I never have need of one of these programs. With my experience
with voice automated answering systems, I can imagine the frustration I
would encounter with a speech program on my computer.

I'd say--Find File
The program would say...Did you say Fix file?
I'd repeat...Find File
The program would say...was that flat file?
Becoming more frustrated I'd yell...NO, I said Find file you idiot.
The program would say...I'm sorry, I did not understand your response.

Let's start all over again. What was it you wanted to do?

By this time I would use my black elf powers to disintegrate the computer
to a pile of ashes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the other hand--the plus side of this---if it worked properly, it would
go a long way to aleviate corpal tunnel syndrome from manipulating a mouse
and typing for such long hours.

And again I say--I am really glad they are available for those who have
need of them, and maybe they work better than the answering systems we
have here in the USA.*

Another poster replied to that:* I have another scenario. You'd say find file and the program would say, find the file your elfin self*

Another poster replied *lmaopimp, and I replied that my response to that wasn't fit for the board.*

The original poster who asked for the program posted this:
*yea kinda nice when your not the one with a disability do you know what it is
like to be able to be given the most complex math problem out there and be able
to solve it and with then a few hours later you can't even do simple math. do
you know what it means when you used to be the top of the spelling contests and
now you can't spell simple words sorry I asked a question to a lit I thought was
friendly I guess I am wrong and need to find a list that is firmly to people
with disabilities rather you meant it or not it was a stab in the heart to a
person with a debility*

Sounds to me as though this person is bitter over his disability, because I obviously stated that I was very glad those programs existed for those who needed them, and I was simply showing the humor in my experience with said programs.

Sheesh!!!!

Natural Flowerpot

Being in the nursery biz-(plants not children) we sometimes have puny plants that simply refuse to grow. There is an area behind the main greenhouses that we dump said plants and debris in. Our intent is to slowly build it up, as it's a hollow.

Near the drive where we dump is a large oak tree. Hurricane Katrina tried to do it in, but even though she took a large limb from it, the tree remained firmly planted.

A few days ago I noticed a yellow spot up near where the branches start. Upon closer observation I found a clump of marigolds growing in the crook where a limb had once been. I grabbed my camera and got a shot.....for they look as though growing in this oak tree curve is precisely where they wanted to be.

Tolerance

What causes a person to be intolerant of opinions that differ from theirs? What is the driving force behind their need for all to agree with them. What causes them to be angry, bitter, defensive and to strike out at those with differing opinions?

In my own experience, both from myself personally and from living with one who at one time was very intolerant, opinionated, dogmatic and harsh; it is a problem with many angles.

I was fearful that if you didn't agree with me, then you didn't like me. I was not secure in some of my opinions and I needed your approval/agreement in order to feel right about what my opinion. I also believed that on some issues, I was right and you were stupid to not believe the way I did. I suppose I wanted a copy cat world, where everyone believed the same thing. How boring!

Getting to know myself has helped me tremendously in this area. Today, I still don't know all I need to know in order to be well informed on some subjects. My opinions are still based on the opinions of others--some I know and respect, some I just trust to know what they are talking about. Some areas are still a bit grey for me.

But learning these things about myself, and accepting that I am who I am, a person of worth, a person who is unique in my own way--opens the door for me to accept others who are different. I realize that a different opinion isn't threatening to me. I respect that other's have a different view on certain things, a slightly different slant on how they interpret things. I may not always remember this; I may still find myself thinking that it is all about me. But it isn't. It's not even all about us. It's all about God.

God showers us with grace daily. There are so many blessings that we neither earn or deserve. With all these blessings, how can I now treat others with and in grace? How can I set myself as the authority on all things, or even just some things. I am but finite woman-limited knowledge, limited abilities. Who am I to judge another?

It is only when I come to see myself as who I truly am, can I humble myself enough to realize that I am not judge and jury, except over my own life. My life is the only life I have the right to judge or critique. And even that right is best done under the power of God's spirit, leading and guiding me into the truths I seek.

When I finally turned my will and life over to God, many wonderful things began to happen within me. I began to see that new creature that the Bible speaks of upon conversion. I know there are more transformations to come as I grow in the Lord.

God, help me to treat my fellow man as I would want to be treated.

Klara

Post Election Day

On Wednesday following our presidential election:



A little black boy walked up to the teacher in Ana's class and said: I guess you voted for McCain because you're white and so is he.

The teacher said, according to Ana--Yes, I voted McCain, but not because of my color, but because of what I believe.



In the class of a friend's granddaughter, a little black girl got up in Savannah's face and said: "We got us a black president now. You can't mess with us."



The grandmother said Savannah asked her mom what the devil was the girl talking about. Savannah is only 8 and not the least bit interested in who's president and who's not. :)



It was kinda funny, but on the way to church last night, Elizabeth, the 8 year old neighbor told us that she asked her mom if she could still be friends with a girl if the girl's mom voted for Obama. I was curious as to what Elizabeth's mom said, so I asked. Elizabeth said that mom said it was ok to still be friends with the little girl. Whew!



A couple of older boys at school checked out early yesterday because some blacks told them they were going to have guns brought to school at lunch and they were going to shoot them. Whether that was due to the election, I don't have a clue. Ana's friend was telling me about it this evening, and she knew because one of the boys is her cousin.



Ana didn't mention anything more today that affected her personally, and I'm very glad. I hope it was just a couple of isolated incidents. It gave me a good opportunity to talk with Ana about 'live and let live'.



Hopefully, these were incidents due to emotions running high, kids overhearing their parents talk, and it will die down soon.

Lessons learned

Another Saturday spent with the girls at the ball park. It was a beautiful, cool sunny day, the girls did well with their cheering and nothing out of the ordinary happened. There was plenty of interesting conversation and lively chatter to occupy the hours, along with watching the games and the cheerleaders.

We have permission from the band director to use the concession stand at salem next week, however the principal wants some other school organization to use it. We can use Tylertown's but we have to sign a statement claiming we will pay for any damages to the new track that was put in last year. We're debating that one. Hopefully we can convince the Salem principal to allow us the use of their concession stand, and therefore raise the money for the girls' trophys.

After Ana's last game, we walked over to the school for the Fall Fest they had. They rode the horses and bounced in the air bouncy thing, and slid down the slide, got their faces painted and generally had a good time.

Stacie was off today, so she was present for all the festivities, although she wasn't in the best of moods this morning.

Tonight, I uploaded some photos to my walmart site taken today of the cheering. Then I had a few more of the Halloween pics to upload but it refused to open the tool to do so. Finally after about 45 frustrating minutes, I decided to email them, as this is a new function made available to us. Shoot, while I continued to surf, the pics arrived, my notice arrived in my inbox to add them to my account. I clicked the link, added them, opened the temp folder, chose organize, move and moved those beauties into the folder I wanted them in with no hassle at all.

My getting frustrated has shown me an easier way of doing what I had been doing. Thank you Lord for lessons learned.