NO TATTOO? USE A SHARPIE!

I suppose it is all about priorities. Admitting that only makes the latest change in policy even more mind- boggling. Of course, by now you have heard that the Marines are banning any new, extra-large tattoos below the elbow or the knee, saying that such body art is harmful to the Corps' spit-and-polish image.

Heaven forbid.

Personally, I do not want a tattoo. It would just not be a good look for me - and besides, I think it would hurt. BUT - whether or not someone in our armed forces sports a tattoo is completely irrelevant to me. After all, these brave kids are putting themselves in harm's way supposedly on our country's behalf. (Okay. I am going to resist my compulsion to launch into a opinionated rant about this war.)

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway said, "Some Marines have taken the liberty of tattooing themselves to a point that is contrary to our professional demeanor and the high standards America has come to expect from us. I believe tattoos of an excessive nature do not represent our traditional values."

Give me a break.

I guess it is okay for Marines to enter into the war zone and lose an arm or leg, as long as it doesn't have a big tattoo on it. Sigh.

It seems to me that policy should be focusing on getting the best protective gear available to these guys. Instead, they are requiring that unit commanders photograph and document sleeve tattoos to ensure Marines do not add to their ink. A phenomenal waste of time and energy.

AND - getting a prohibited tattoo could constitute a violation of a lawful order, punishable by up to two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.

The armed forces have been struggling to fill the ranks. Our soldiers are being required to do repeated tours of duty - and here we are, quibbling over superficial crap like tattoos - instead of seriously moving to bring them all home.

These soldiers are dying in this war. They can fight, they can lose their limbs, they can suffer permanent brain damage. If they have too many tattoos, however, they won't be representing "traditional values."

Just another stupid thing about this stupid war.

Whoops. I think that qualifies as a personal rant.

MAYBE THE ANSWERS ARE IN THE QUESTIONS

These days it seems like nothing is very clear. I find that things I THOUGHT were clear, simply aren't. And, so, I ask questions - trying to find my way through the mire sometimes known as situational ethics.

Please understand that it is not my intention to favor one side or the other in my little space in the blogosphere. I just want to point out some discrepancies that I believe make things really confusing.

For example, why is it that most people who are pro-life, are also for the death penalty? The argument might be that an unborn child is innocent, while someone on death row is not. But, if we are cautioned NOT to "play God", as we so often hear is the argument, then how can we judge who is worthy to live and who is worthy to die? Hmmmmm?

Why is it considered humane when we put animals to sleep so they don't suffer, but insist that humans with debilitating and incurable diseases not be allowed the same choice? Again, no hard line here - just obvious questions that seem to make things "fuzzy". Why do we insist that humans endure degrading, humiliating, and painful deaths - going so far as to make assisted suicide a criminal offense - when we would never allow our pet to go through such agony?

Sometimes it seems like the line for morality keeps moving, and holding our place on that line is increasingly difficult. Especially if we filter everything through the lens of love for one another. How can we teach our children that murder is wrong - that human life is precious - and then send them to war, where they will see and participate in atrocities against other humans? Why are we surprised when they return home - if they return home - emotionally damaged and broken?

If we, as a nation, pride ourselves on being a Christian nation, then how do we reconcile the things we do in the name of not only our God, but patriotism in general? What has made us see the world - see our fellow earth dwellers - as being different, separate, from who we are? So much so, that we as a country have allowed our leaders to label entire cultures as evil. So, if we view other groups of people as "less than", does it not also give us an excuse and a validation to our behavior as we slide it along the ever-changing moral line.

I think we all need to stop and ask questions. Ask those we have placed in positions of authority these questions. Ask our spiritual leaders. Ask each other. And most importantly, ask ourselves.

Maybe there are no clear cut answers - and in that paradox, we may find a kernel of wisdom we can hold on to. Maybe the wisdom is found in realizing that nothing is set in stone and the only responsibility we have is to examine what we believe and why we believe it - and then step back and breathe. Maybe if we could stop scrambling to be King of the Mountain - to be right -then we will have time to focus on our similarities instead of our differences.

SHALL WE DANCE?

I'm better. The rewrites of the rewrites are almost complete. I just had to make up my mind, and do it. And, I think this batch might be better than what I had originally done. At least, that is what I am telling myself. A little pep-talk, if you will.

Progress toward a goal is never going to be without a few bumps along the way. I don't know why I keep forgetting that. It is like climbing the stairs. I go up a few stairs - and then back down - and then up, a little farther - then back down.

There is rhythm in that. Kind of like dancing. Once I accept that life can be a bumpy ride -then I get my rhythm back, and work with what is before me.

In The Power of Optimism, Alan Loy McGinnis identifies the characteristics of tough-minded optimists, and one of the most important is that optimists always plan for a step back. They expect it to happen. Pessimists don't allow any flexibility. It is perfection, or failure. A step backwards is then an excuse to give up. Pessimists don't have to work at anything. They choose not to.

A positive outlook simply makes one feel better. That's why I cannot stay "down" very long. I just cannot allow myself that luxury, because I am afraid I would never find the strength I need to continue. As I worked my way through the chapters AGAIN, I realized I was feeling more positive with each passing page. It got easier, the more I worked at it. Once I stopped looking over my shoulder in regret - pining after all the missing changes in the manuscript that were lost forever, then I could move again.

I hope I remember this lesson. Challenges make me grow. They keep me flexible, and I get better with practice.

And so I dance - forward, backward, around in circles - moving and learning along the way.

LETTING OFF STEAM

If you put your ear to the screen of your computer and listen...listen...listen...what you will hear is ME, - YELLING!!!!!!! ARRRGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Okay. Let's see. Do I feel better yet? Ummmmm....NO.

As my previous post indicated, I lost 18 chapters of rewrites due to a mechanical failure. 18 chapters. EIGHTEEN.

Writing a book is work. Actually, peeling off the first draft can be fun. I just type wildly and try not to edit in my head. I enjoy traveling wherever the characters take me. It is an interesting ride.

Editing is harder. I have to make decisions to part with phrases that I am fond of. I have to delete whole paragraphs of descriptions filled with fabulous adjectives. Sometimes I have to completely erase a character. (I try to place them somewhere safely in a file in case I want to use them in some other story. Feels a little less like murder that way.)

Rewrites are tedious. Going through sentence by sentence - word by word. Reworking and fine tuning in order to be sure that the finished manuscript is the very best I can do.

BUT - rewriting rewrites is INSANE! I keep trying to remember what I changed - if I changed something - why I changed something - should I change something....sigh.

So far, I have plodded through 6 chapters. Only 6. That means there are 12 more to do before I am back to where I started.

At this moment, I am frustrated and not happy.

Just thought I would share.

Thanks for listening.

Okay...back to work. Sigh.

EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

I am electronically challenged. I love electronics - all the latest gadgets - but I just want to turn on the power switch and have them work perfectly. Just like my car. Key in the ignition and go. Anything other than that is simply a pain in the ass.

The last several days have been bizarre. I feel like we must be experiencing solar flares, or some magnetic anomaly that is messing with my stuff! It started with my cable box. The DVR (which is a feature I LOVE) stopped working. So...the cable guy came and gave us a new box. He also disconnected my VCR - which we never use. Now, it wasn't as simple as that - while he was here, the main thingy at Comcast that powers the boxes went down - and I had to call them every hour to see if it was up so that they could send power to my cable box. You know what that was like - seemingly endless recorded instructions: "If you live in Chesterfield County, press 1" "If you speak English, press 2" etc. etc. ad nauseum. sigh.

The next thing that happened was truly stressful. STRESSFUL!!!! I have been working on rewrites of novel two - and have been saving the revisions on a portable hard drive. I have plodded through 18 chapters - some changes were significant rewrites. We had a power surge/ outage that lasted no more than 10 minutes. When I re-booted my computer, my portable hard drive would not work. All it did was make a "tick-a-tick-a-tick-a" sound. It might as well have said, "nana nana boo boo". All the revisions - LOST. I held on to a faint hope long enough to make it to see the Geek Squad at Best Buy. Hmmmm...they are interesting people. The young man who helped me (translated: confirmed my fears that all was lost) had these wierd things in this ears that were stretching his earlobes so he resembled an jungle tribesman. Or - maybe he looked more like he was wired for satelite transmissions from Mars, because his earlobes were sitting horizontally from his head and the things in his ears looked like mini-speakers. Not a good look - and enough of a distraction to keep me from bursting into tears at the thought of all my hard work, vanishing. Where are those miracle working forensic computer guys who can pull information from hard drives that have been set on fire and run over by cars before being dropped in the ocean. Okay. I'm exaggerating. Still - arrrgghhh!

This morning, I felt better. Just resigned myself to starting over. Marilyn and I decided to watch a short DVD while drinking our coffee - and we discovered that THE DVD PLAYER DIDN'T WORK!!! (a string of obscenties would fit nicely here) We had sound - but no picture. After we had hooked and rehooked every frickin' cable behind the television (Dear Lord - the dust!), we gave up, and called Comcast. (See above for the frustration of calling Comcast.) Evidently when the guy unhooked my VCR - he didn't change the wires so that my DVD player
would work. Once I was actually speaking to a live person, he informed me that I would have to pay $24.99 for the call. Fine. Then he tried to sell me something that was $4.99 a month that would eliminate ever having to pay for a service call again. Forget it. I may be frustrated, but I am not a sucker!

So - tomorrow, between 11 and God-only-knows-when, the cable guy will return to fix what he messed up - for the meager price of $24.99. And - barring any further electronic disturbances/poltergeists, life should return to normal.

If not - please come visit me at Central State, our local looney bin.

THIS IS A TEST

When I was in school - back in the dark ages - the test I hated to take most was the multiple choice test where you had to choose the BEST answer. You know the kind of test I mean. I always felt like the teacher was trying to trick me.

Now I realize that particular format for testing was really a terrific preparation for life. Every moment, we have multiple choices to make. The responsibility of selecting and acting on the one that will produce the most favorable outcome is completely up to us. And, once the choice is made, we have to live with the consequences.

Albert Einstein said, "The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth."

Perhaps they are the qualities that indicate the best choices. If we choose what is kind, and what is in line with our sense of truth, then the outcome will be beautiful. It sounds easy, but it isn't. Sometimes life can be overwhelming and it is easier to do nothing....to just find a comfortable rut and nestle there. If we want to, we can find all kinds of excuses to not move forward. We can talk ourselves into settling for less - for choosing something easier than the best thing. And, there is always a choice that is easier - but definitely less fulfilling.

If asked, each of us would say that we want the "good life". But do we really want to make the choices required to achieve the good life - and what exactly IS the good life? I believe it is living deliberately. Not simply moving through our days on auto-pilot, but being fully engaged in each moment. It is not taking this life - this day - for granted. It is expecting the best for ourselves, and making choices that line up with those expectations.

It is living a life of gratitude, love - and curiosity. It is always learning something new - and choosing to find the good in bad situations - to see the good and to do good in the darkest moments of our lives just as we do when things are going well.

It is letting in the laughter after the tears - letting go of the sadness and embracing the promise of hope. It is refusing to stay the same by choosing to continually be involved in the pursuit of personal growth.

The good life is non-discriminatory. It is available to each one of us. All we have to do is choose the best answers. Difficult, yes. But not impossible.

Every moment is a multiple choice question. There may be more than one right answer - but the challenge is to find the best one, and then, live it.

THERE MUST BE A SILVER LINING SOMEWHERE!

Sometimes I think I am a news-a-holic. I find myself impatiently flicking the channels between CNN, MSNBC and FOX trying to locate the most interesting story. It all started after 9/11 when I would turn on the TV to see if something else "blew-up". During those months after the tragedy, everything was different. There was an urgency to life, combined with a gnawing fear that nothing was safe anymore, and I was compelled to stay informed. I think I expected something else terrible to happen right away.

In the midst of this tension, I was inadvertently creating a habit. I was looking for the bad news and now I realize that is all there is. Perhaps it's always been that way - I mean that the news media has looked for the shocking and salacious stories to report. I can remember years ago laughing at the grocery store tabloids with headlines like "Two-Headed Baby Delivered By Aliens" or "Turtle Mates with Elephant at Zoo." Okay - I made that up. But, you know what I mean. You read them, too. Oh, and then there was the O.J. Simpson trial. Talk about salacious TV!

But, now bad news is not something that stands out in my consciousness. It is everywhere. All the time. The cable news channels feed us a steady diet of car crashes, natural disasters, murders, not to mention the Anna Nicole Smith/Britney Spears/celebrity scandals. The bad news IS the news. If it's not bad - it's not news.

And, guess what...I've come to expect it. Actually - I think I get a little disappointed when there is no "new" bad news. See, I admit it. Recognizing this terrible trend in myself, I actually subscribed to a "Happy News Only Newsletter" - and honestly, I was bored to tears. i couldn't unsubscribe fast enough! This is not a good thing. I don't want to be this way - honestly, I don't. I want to take the high road.

San Francisco writer and musician Gary Lachman wrote a captivating essay called, "World Rejection and Criminal Romantics" in which he observed, "It's the Ted Bundys that get television coverage, not the thousands of self-actualizers who work away at self-transformation quietly and anonymously. And it's their influence, not that of the Ted Bundys, that will shape the face of the coming century."

Wow. I think I need to be more vigilant about what I am allowing my brain to consume because it affects my view of life - of this world I live in and my fellow human beings. If I am expecting the worst - looking for the weird and horrifying - I'll find it. I want to tune my ear to listen for the quiet voice of goodness. I know it's there in all of us.

Maybe "happy news only" is still too saccharine to be reality. But - "bad news only" can be lethal. A healthy mix. Balance. That is what I will strive for and I'll let you know how it goes.

THE INTERNET - ALL THE INFORMATION WE CAN STAND

Every morning, I come to my computer and after I check my email, I start visiting my favorite sites. Usually they are blogs, but sometimes I start following links and end up in strange, but fascinating places. In the process, I stumble upon tidbits of information that I would never be able to fit in conversation, but that are worth remembering.

For example, this morning I learned that "The National Center for Atmospheric Research reports that the average cloud is the same weight as 100 elephants. " Sort of blows that "fluffy as a cloud" description. "Fluffy as 100 elephants" doesn't have the same ring to it.

Here's another: "With every dawn, when first light penetrates the sea, many seahorse colonies perform a dance to the sun. " That's a nice thought, don't you think?

How about this one? "Because half of the world's vanilla crop is grown in Madagascar, the whole island smells like vanilla ice cream." Yummmm! BUT - "in the Ukraine you can buy Fat in Chocolate, a food with a layer of dark chocolate covering a chunk of pork fat." Gross!

More? Okay. "In hopes of calming flustered lawbreakers, Japanese cops have substituted the sound of church bells for sirens on police cars." Now - add this bit of information: "The most frequently shoplifted book in America is the Bible!" See, fact IS stranger than fiction!

So, this morning, I was happily reading all these delightful bits of trivia when I found this nugget, and my enjoyment came to an abrupt halt. "There are always so many fragments of spider legs floating in the air that you are constantly inhaling them wherever you go."

ARRRGGGHHH!!!!!! DEFINITELY TOO MUCH INFORMATION!

Now that I have shared all of this with you - I hope you have a terrific day, but I don't recommend that you take very many deep breaths!