House Rules

In our kitchen there's a whiteboard and my husband has the two house rules written on it: House Rule #1, Everybody Be Nice. House Rule #2, see Rule #1. Well, occasionally I'll go out to the kitchen and notice that the rules have been changed. These changes are always made by my youngest (who, incidentally, turns 10 in two weeks...hard to believe. No more single digits in my house!). Anyway, yesterday I noticed some changes. Here are the new house rules:

#1: Everybody be mean
#2: So mean
#3: play COMPUTER! always
#4: see #1, 2, 3......even you, George Washington

**I was just informed that the last two rules were suggested by my 12-yr-old. So it was a collaboration of sorts.

I'm Just An Ole Cynic At Heart

Tonight I saw a new twist on an old practice. There was a guy walking up and the down the sidewalk in front of some places of business at a strip mall-type place. He had in his hand a can (a large coffee can size) with a slot on the top to put money in. You know the ones----collecting for this and that. It's that time of year. And I know there are many folks in unfortunate situations and it's nice to help out where you can.

Here was the twist, though: this guy's can said, "In Memory Of..." I didn't catch the name, and it had a picture taped to it of a little girl, maybe not even a year old yet. He says, "Can ya help me out. I'm collecting for my daughter's funeral." Now, I have to tell you, that takes the cake. Let's pretend for a minute that this isn't real (ya think??)---how low can you go?? I know, I know---it could be real. A guy could be wandering around in front of Little Caeser's several days after his little girl died, asking for dollars for her funeral. It could happen that way. I, for one, don't buy it. I didn't buy it even for a second. And I think it's pretty slimy (if it's not real and how could it be?) and he's pretty crazy.

But he's crazy like a fox, cuz guess what? Yep, you guessed it: I gave him a dollar.

What a sucker.

cuz.....ya never know.

Well! What would you have done?!

The Little Rock Nine

My senior got the privilege tonight of hearing Elizabeth Eckford speak at his high school about her experience as one of the first black students to ever attend a white public school. I'm glad he got to see her in person, to hear her talk, to put a face to immense, incredible courage. Looking at some clips and reading some articles, revisiting that time, it's hard to believe that human beings can sometimes be so ignorant and blind and full of hate. It'd be nice to be able to say that those are bygone days, that it's all a thing of the past, distant history. We've made strides for sure, but we're not there yet.

The Cost Of War

This isn't about the human cost---lives lost, suffering, the aftermath, the attempts to heal. There's no way to quantify that kind of cost of war. And I have no desire to engage in a political debate as I'm not very politically-inclined. I have some opinions and concerns but I'm not out for blood. And I think that while politics has its place and purpose, its place and purpose doesn't rank very high on my list. That said, I found this bit of data interesting: if you took the trillion+ spent on this war (so far) and dispersed it amongst the public schools in America, the amount would equal 17 million dollars for every public school. $17 million. That's kind of a lot of money.