Is It Still Safe To Go Back In The Water ~ Morning thoughts

Yesterday I arrived at the doctor's office in time for my appointment, to be met with the news that she had an emergency and would need to reschedule. However, they did know some of what she wanted done for testing, and would I have a seat and hold out my arm.

After feeling similar to a pin cushion, my NEW appointment is for tomorrow - although if there is a cancellation, they will try and get me in today. They also had some pills to take that would help me sleep and not spend all my time coughing. Did they work? Yes, they did.

I will know more tonight, and even more after tomorrow. And, trust me, I am going to be playing "sardines" (see last post) and you will know what's going on.

This morning I was going through some news sites -- and I ran across this wonderful news item. My only question? What else could they use the batter for? ...

(June 26, 2007)SCOTT CITY, Missouri - Police said inmates used pancake batter and toothpaste to cover a hole they made to allow a female inmate to slide into the next cell and join a male inmate. Now steel plates are being added to the Missouri jail's interior walls.

The hole at the Scott City Jail was discovered this weekend, said police Chief Don Cobb. He said inmates removed a block from the wall, after making a digging tool with a nail, a wire from a light fixture and a toothbrush.

The mixture of pancake batter and toothpaste looked like mortar, he said.

Prisoners will stay in a county jail until a security check is completed at the city building.

The city jail's exterior walls already are reinforced with steel to prevent inmates from escaping, Cobb said.

"Unless they can smuggle in an arc welder, they aren't getting through that," he said.

Togas? They Are So Last Century

And where was this when I was going to school? This article is from the New York Times. All I can say is - what a way to enjoy an evening ...um... out.

Read the entire article here ... I've just clipped a couple of paragraphs and two VERY interesting quotes.

By RACHEL AVIV

Published: January 7, 2007

In the unforgiving fluorescent light of Rosenfeld Hall, a dormitory on the periphery of Yale's campus, students crouched in a hallway and quickly stuffed their clothes into plastic grocery bags. Shirts were left inside out, socks balled in pant legs. Giggling, they hurried into a basement storage room, where some 40 people stood around, under stone arches and gargoyles, wearing nothing but shoes.

. . . another senior, says the party changed her idea of what an attractive body looks like. “We’re used to the naked bodies we see on movie screens,” she says, “not natural, typical bodies. I found that people who would have been considered heavy with their clothes on actually looked better naked. I’m not sure why. And definitely the gaunt look was a lot less attractive. Visible hip bones looked alarming. It was a nice reality check.”

. . . “You find yourself accepting people in a completely different light. For me, there’s something totally captivating about it. It reinforces in a really profound way this common thread of humanity. Everyone is bared in all their glory, but it turns out no one is actually that glorious.”

As for the rest of the outfit, just leave it at the door — this party’s naked.

Rachel Aviv is a freelance writer in Brooklyn.

Early Morning Thoughts ~ Truth or ? (part 2)

All the time we are bombarded with what someone wants to have us believe is the truth. A very good, recent example is the recent election. And that is the same reason that after an election we still haven't "gotten" over it. We continually see people trying to persuade that they, and they alone, are the champions of the value of truth ... the knight in shining armor for those values. They conveniently forget that many of us see through their pretenses.

Unfortunately, what they are after is not the value of truth, but a desire - overwhelming desire for self-importance and the power that goes with it..

Truth sets rules and so many people would try to take away those rules that would estrain THEIR actions but also put restraints on the actions of others.

And where Truth brings about peace and contentment, we are in a time where a lack of truth makes everyone polarized and willing to demonize anything/anyone that stands in the way. I"m not sure there's ever been such a disdain for the truth or how "truth" is spun to help us hear only what is wanted to be heard.

When this happens being a "conservative" or a "liberal" becomes something different and something quite dangerous. For, in the long run, those wandering in this desert appear not to be guided by any values what-so-ever.

It seems to be difficult to find people willing to sacrifice anything for a greater good. And I'm not talking politics (although it would be a very easy target) or the entertainment industry. No, this goes all the way down to me as an individual. Why am I not keeping this topic at the top level such as the presidency or congress? Simply put - they are merely a creature of larger and smaller forces. There seems to be a marriage of a number of unholy alliances causing tremendous divisions and hypocrisy at almost every level.

Whether gay, straight, black, white or whatever - we individually need to answer for the lack of truth - moral truth - as a core value of our lives. We once again need to find our shared values - particularly the shared value of truth. The truth in our lives, the truth to ourselves and the truth to each other. And that means finding out who we are and how we are for ourselves. Yes, it is a journey of self-discovery. But it also is a journey of learning to get those around us to be themselves as well.

I look around and see that the very soul of community is in danger.

Yet those in power have failed to speak about this profound moral danger, but the political opposition remains virtually mute and effectively impotent in the face of these forces. (This silence and this impotence are signs of another part of America’s moral crisis, of that also-dangerous moral flaccidity into which too much of America has lapsed.)

But my major concern is individual, and especially the individual "me." If I fail to live in truth, and to require truth from those around me, it is my core value that is in danger. When I fail to live in truth, I need an ”Emperor’s New Clothes” moment. “This emperor,” I must loudly, and forcefully remind myself, “has no moral clothes.” This fits into a "coat piece" plan for change. (more on that later)