I took my Bernie bumper sticker off my car before I left for work yesterday morning. Bernie Sanders had a noble and honorable run for the presidency. I believe he accomplished a lot that was good and important during his bid for the White House, and I’m beyond grateful to him for that. But, for me, it was never about rooting for a personality – it was always about the ideas Bernie supported. I’ve always tended to follow ideas more than people. People die or they don’t get elected or whatever, but the ideas live on. Let’s not stop fighting for the ideas, okay?
My Bernie bumper sticker.
The weapons of bigotry, ignorance, envy, fall before an honest heart.
– Mary Baker Eddy
This will maybe tell you something about me. When President Obama got elected the first time and my friends and I were all excited and celebrating, someone – or probably a bunch of someones – said how awesome it was that we had finally elected an African-American to be our president. And – honest to goodness – up until that moment this hadn’t even occurred to me. When I voted for Barack Obama I was just voting for the person I thought was going to make the best POTUS. His race had never entered into any of my political conversations or been any kind of factor for me in deciding that I would like him sitting in the Oval Office.
Just as I don’t believe people should be denied equal rights because of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, non-religion, or sexual orientation – I don’t believe we should vote someone into the presidency just BECAUSE of her or his race, ethnicity, gender, religion, non-religion, or sexual orientation. There is too much at stake to focus on a person’s color or gender as a deciding factor in a presidential election.
So when I came across this while internet surfing, I was… well, “dismayed” might be the right word…
emoji art by Laura Olin
To lump all “white guys” into one big monolithic group doesn’t feel right to me. To put Abraham Lincoln in the same lump as, say, George W. Bush, is… well, it’s a little appalling, isn’t it? To paint FDR with the same brush as Herbert Hoover just because they both happened to be males is, I believe, a kind of bigotry.
If we’re going to vote for a woman for President, it would be awfully nice if we did it for the right reasons rather than just because she happens to have two x chromosomes. To vote for a woman just because she happens to be a female seems… well, in a roundabout way it’s disrespectful to the female candidate.
Okay. That’s all I have to say about this, I guess.
Carry on then…
Well, HERE is a cool thing – and I know my fellow writers will appreciate the full coolness of this: I just brought one of my books, Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist, up on Kindle and discovered that people have been highlighting some of the passages in there! I know, right?! How cool is that?! And yes, my readers are obviously people of great good judgment and perspicacity. 🙂
Ahem. Okay, so there aren’t, like, scores and scores of passages highlighted or anything. I mean. Well, there are three. But three is more than two, right? And two is more than one. So. Yeah.
Anyway. Here they are:
From the chapter about our Christmas Dog –
from Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist
From the “Car Stories” chapter –
From Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist
And from the chapter titled “Mental Malpractice” –
From Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist
***
Okay. There you go. Thank you so much for letting me share this milestone with you!
Carry on then… 🙂
12:05 am, June 8
My dear Humoristian hooligans –
Yup, I am still up. Before I go to bed I wanted to send out a message to you to tell you how very glad I am to know you are on this planet with me. If you’re feeling discouraged or ascared or alone – know that you have a whole community of people who are working for the same things you’re working for, who care, and who are blest by your kindness. You have a reason to be here – a purpose. You are here to love and to spread laughter. You are a hero. So don that cape and those tights. Put on the Groucho glasses and play the kazoo. You have work to do, my hooligan friends. Go out there and spread your magic. I mean.You know. After you get a good night’s sleep.
xoxoxo
Karen
“We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest; that human life is the work, the play, the ceaseless action and reaction upon each other of these different atoms. Then, we should go forth into life with the smallest expectations, but with the largest patience; with a keen relish for and appreciation of everything beautiful, great, and good, but with a temper so genial that the friction of the world shall not wear upon our sensibilities; with an equanimity so settled that no passing breath nor accidental disturbance shall agitate or ruffle it; with a charity broad enough to cover the whole world’s evil, and sweet enough to neutralize what is bitter in it, – determined not to be offended when no wrong is meant, nor even when it is…” – Mary Baker Eddy
Earth (NASA)
Yeah, I think what we’ve got here is a case of “middle child syndrome.” My middle child of books, The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Middle Book, has been a little over-looked lately. So maybe it’s time to give her some attention. 🙂 Here are some excerpts…
“But this is one of his clouded times and
He’ll out of ‘em enough to shake the tree
Of life itself and bring down fruit unheard of…”
– Edwin Arlington Robinson
***
My son and I recently talked about my previous book, Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist. I told him that book was true for the person I was then, and I’m glad I wrote it, but I couldn’t write the same book now. Andrew told me I should write another book then, for this time in my life. I told him that my recent life experience has been kind of dark. He said I should write about that then, and he started talking about trilogies – how almost every life story has three parts – the first book is usually happy and innocent, the second one is dark and challenging, and the last book is the triumph book. Andrew said it was time for me to write “the middle book.” He assures me the book about the golden years will come, but he says that book can’t come until the middle book gets written.
So what you see here is me sucking it up and writing The Middle Book…
***
At the age of 51 I went insane. I did not like it so much. But I learned a lot from it.
Eckhart Tolle tells us: “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.” He asks, “How do you know this is the experience you need? Because,” he says, “this is the experience you are having at this moment.” I really like how he puts that. My thought is that something is only a challenge to us when there’s a lesson to learn from it. Two people, in other words, might find themselves in identical situations – and one of those people might coast through the situation, and the other might stumble through it – depending on where each individual is in her spiritual progress.
If somebody had tried to talk to me about mental illness before I’d had this experience, I wouldn’t have had a clue what they were going on about. Mental illness was something that happened to “other” people. Mental illness was not something a madcap Christian Scientist would ever know anything about, right?
Yeesh.
Here’s some of what I gained during this time: a new understanding and appreciation of love; a greater sense of gratitude for the power of a moment, and of a good, deep breath; a greater appreciation for choice; renewed gratitude for all the beauty in Nature and mankind; greater humility, empathy and compassion; and a greater commitment to my own spiritual journey. I’d entered The Year of Insanity an untested “youth” – gliding through life’s challenges on a kind of cavalier, simple joy, without really having to put much work or effort into my mental frame of mind. By the time I exited that year I had a much deeper understanding of God, and who I am, as God’s expression.
A picture of Cory Booker just popped up on my Facebook page. It was taken four years ago when I was a delegate for Pres. Obama at the Washington State convention. For a few hours I got to hobnob with Cory Booker and other movers and shakers and political celebrities. I also met some really amazing people who were not celebrities or stars – but who, every day, are in life’s trenches, working to improve the lives of the people in their communities.
And at the end of the day, I came home, changed into my jeans, got out the sponge and scrubbing brush, and cleaned the toilet. That sort of thing always helps put things into perspective for me.
Viva la cleaning agents!
Cory Booker et moi.
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 