Slice of Sacramento

I'm sorry to inform - but i will not be continuing (at least for now) writing the Slice of Sacramento blog.  I am currently under a great deal of stress - as so many of us are - due to the imminent lack of work.  I'm spending almost all of my time looking for other employment opportunities. 

That said, i will still be writing on this blog, If It Were Real, and will add the occasional post about local happenings. 

I think it's a sad state of affairs that we spend the majority of our adult lives doing jobs that we don't love - or even like.  Meanwhile our dreams drift further and further away.  I was unforntunately born with a hefty dose of creativifty.  People will not pay for a creative mind.  Oh - there's a few high-end artists that manage to make it big.  But for every successful - and by that i mean, they can pay their bills - artist, there are a million others who would starve if they had to rely on their art alone.

Yet - and this just nearly chokes me to death - a woman will pay $300 or more - for a freakin' hand bag!  It's a dead cow's skin, ladies!  Dyed to a nice shade of pink and garnished with a few fake baubles.  For hundreds of dollars, you and millions of your lady friends can own one just alike.  But art - a time-intensive, one-of-a-kind, personal creative endevour of love and passion - is discounted.  Marked down to 50% off, 75% off, free for the taking!  I just don't get it.  

I am very sad.

"Lair, Liar, Pants on Fire!"

This is the childhood taunt heard on every playground across America. And there’s probably some version of it in every country around the World. We are taught as kids to never utter a lie. To do so is to bring down the worst guilt, the most sinful shame, and guaranteed you won’t get presents from Santa. We learn this lesson so young in Life and with such unbending conviction that just one angry, hurtful look on a parent’s face is enough to turn on an avalanche of tears.


Lie. Lying. Lied. Zoom forward to our adult selves. I came across a comments section on a blog that made me laugh. Basically, the blog creator was asking his audience, “under what circumstance is it OK to lie?” Wow. Psychologists could work on these answers till eternity ends and not find a more entertaining pastime. I think that’s why people become psychologists – to be delightfully surprised by just how wacked-out people can get. Anyway, i read pages of comments. And gosh – i was entertained! People were quite adamant that they abhorred lying, never lied, and it was generally unforgivable under any circumstance. Then they proceeded to list in detail all the lies that are acceptable. Right.

Honestly, lying gets a bad rap. Lying is our communication bread and butter in surviving society. How could we ever get to our desks in the morning if we had to honestly answer every time someone asked, “How are you?” Oh please – there aren’t enough hours in the day to answer. When the office guys get together and ask, “We’re going to Redneck’s BBQ for lunch; anybody got a problem with that?” And you answer, “No whatever,” when in fact you would rather go anywhere other than Redneck’s BBQ. The cliché, but always real, girlfriend question, “Does this look good on me?” I believe we all know the answers we’ll give. If we’re honest.

So – we should really ask ourselves, how many truths do we tell? Get a stop watch and clip board and mark down every time you are completely truthful and you will get an idea of the various shades of lying we tell on a minute-to-minute basis. And is lying really so bad? Why? Our little twitchy minds can justify anything, so how do you tell if it’s a “good” lie or a “bad” lie? And while we’re at it, get two people to agree on what “good” and “bad” mean in reference to lying. Does that make your face twitch just thinking about it? I read a very good book recently, “Lying and Deception in Everyday Life” edited by Michael Lewis and Carolyn Saarni. An excellent, excellent read. Not a summer book to be sure but full of real-people truths. Which is ironic for a book about lying. The book is authored by more than a dozen PhD’s and has a wide range and depth of subject. The editors pull no punches and aren’t shy to cover aspects others fear to tread. I liked the idea put forward by one author that we abhor lying in others but justify our own lies as being necessary. Yes indeed.

If you are really honest, you know for a fact you can’t live without lying. It’s a part of society and part of being human. So i think we should take another look at lying and the convoluted part we play and re-create our views of lying. Gosh – Lying has taken the rap for too long. It’s feeling pretty jaded and hurt. I think we need to cuddle up next to Lying, wrap it in a warm blanket, and whisper – “it’s OK Lying; you’re beautiful and you’re cool. Don’t listen to all those other people. I love you. You’re OK.”

On Hold...

Well, to any of you who are regular, sometime regular, hit-or-miss, and accidental readers - i've been on a long hiatus from writing, as you can see from the lack of current posts.  It's intentional.  Yup.  I'm intentionally not writing because,

a) I'm working on "supply and demand."  I figure if i limit supply, i will become in demand.  Right.
b) I've taken a vow of silence - including my verbose written word.
c) I've been kidnapped by my cats and am being held for ransom for a crate of Fancy Feast cat food.  If you ever want to lose your sense of self-worth, just see how little value your cats place on you...
d) I've been glued to the computer every night applying for jobs.

And the correct answer is...D...i'm spending an extreme amount of time looking for work for this summer.  Damn - i feel like i've gone back to high school.

Summer job anyone?

Yes - i will get back to writing.  I miss it.  :-(  Hope to join the living again soon...

Earth Day 2011

No words needed...

Peace



photo from http://www.geekstir.com/high-definition-photo-of-earth-from-space

Lauren, You Are Not Alone...

My Fight: Chemo #9

This is a video link to a very young woman who has been diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkins Lymphoma.  To see the courage in someone so young is such an inspiration. It reminds me just how precious life is and how we must cherish every moment. Thank you Lauren for sharing your journey with us - maybe this will wake us up and let us realize the beauty of the World.

Symbol of Trust

"Dad - i wanna go play in the rain.  Can i go play - pleeeeease?"

Look at these guys. Look at these faces. There’s something very special about the bond between our animal friends and us. We might not quite be able to put our fingers on it – some might say it’s unconditional love. Others would say friendship. Or say their zany antics are what give them a special place in our hearts. Whatever the case, we have all felt it. Haven’t we?

Every once in a while, i run across a person who doesn’t like animals. I’m not talking about the “i don’t like little dogs,” or the “i hate cats,” kind of people. But the all-out, “i don’t like animals no matter what shape, size, or color,” kind of people. A statement like that momentarily stops my brain from functioning. My recovery is jump-started by a barrage of questions aimed at clarifying what i perceive as my misunderstanding. “What? You don’t like cats? You don’t like dogs? Birds? Horses? What – not even fish?” At this point i find myself in a very rare situation. Speechlessness. Because this is truly baffling to me. But something else happens when i learn that a person doesn’t like animals. I immediately pull away. Maybe not physically, but emotionally i feel a barrier go up. Something about a person who cannot like an animal hits some fundamental nerve – and i cannot fully trust them. They are one step away from those who also don’t like animals but lie about it. And instead have pets they treat cruelly, even torture or kill, with the indifferent rationale that, “It’s just an animal. Who cares?”


Thankfully that’s not the majority of people. We love our little Fluffy’s, Smokey’s, and Polly’s. They make us feel good about ourselves in a sometimes very harsh world. They’re like Prudential – they are the Rock when it comes to calming our souls and soothing our hearts. They possess unwavering, supportive healing powers. And that’s something you can count on.

"!!! Psst! Go 'way silly human! Givin' 'way my secret, invisible, ninja, hiding spot!"

One Day Without Shoes

I come across some of the strangest things online. Don’t we all? Our inboxes are full of cool, gross, and humorous clips friends have forwarded to us from the Internet. Today i found a fun little site that’s my favorite kind of find – an off-beat, funky, worthy cause. One Day Without Shoes is hosted and support by MSN/Microsoft and Tom’s Shoes – a shoe manufacturer who promises for every pair of shoes purchased, one pair goes to a child in need. And as far as i can tell – that’s 365 days a year. Awesome. The goal for One Day Without Shoes is to raise awareness of children in poverty who have never had a pair of shoes and some of the problems that arise – diseases, infections, and bias – that come from being shoeless in a shoed world. According to Tom’s, 300 million children are without shoes. That’s a lot of little exposed toes in a cold, cold world. Tom’s is asking us to go barefoot for the day to raise awareness. And of course buy a pair of shoes.


I like the sentiment. But i wonder the overall sanity. I mean, we’re born without shoes. Humans have existed for thousands and thousands of years without shoes. Of course, there weren’t 6.9 billion people back then. That many people tend to make a helluva lot of garbage – followed closely by an equal amount of parasites and other ickies that probably didn’t exist.

And something else occurred to me, if there’re so many bugs, infections, and other not-so-pleasant things out there waiting to attack us, why is Tom’s asking us to go without shoes for a day? Isn’t that like asking for a lawsuit? “Tom asked me to go without shoes and I did and I got this nasty cut on my foot and then it got infected and now I’ve been to the doctor three times and they can’t get rid of the infection and I’ve missed more work than I have sick days…” Can’t you just hear that conversation with some lawyer?

Yet overall it feels like a real Berkeley moment and the biggest eye-brow raiser in all this, is that Tom’s is doing what all manufacturers should be doing – giving. Sure, they’re raising awareness of their own product and hopefully selling a butt-load of shoes, but they are simultaneously raising awareness of children in poverty who have no shoes at all. Don’t be one-sided; you know we are going to buy shoes. It’s a profit-profit situation and the best of what any company should aspire.

As for me, no need to ask twice to go barefoot. I love being barefoot. Reminds me of summer, the beach, of being a kid. So i vote for going One Day Without Shoes. At least in places it’s not illegal. We have laws for that in America because – hygiene issues. Duh.