David recently posted this comment in another thread:
I try to talk candidly with my daughters regarding the pitfalls and benefits of relationships. I try not to say either do or don’t have sex prior to marriage. I try to talk about consequences for doing something without a good understanding of why and what will happen after. When the girls watched the movie “Juno” that became a good opportunity for discussing the difficulty of dealing with teen pregnancy and the confused reasons people can come to that place.
Posted in Doing Life, Relationships, What can we do?, Women's Rights | 5 Comments »
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Watching what you say
Monday, October 22nd, 2007A friend told me a worrying story the other day.
She had been telling her daughter about the ongoing boycott of Nestle due to their behaviour in the developing world, leading to increases in deaths caused by the use of baby milk formula and dirty water. This clearly sunk in rather too literally.
Some time later the girl saw someone eating a Nestle product at lunchtime break. Wide eyed she said “Don’t eat that…. IT’LL KILL YOU”.
Once you’ve all wiped the coffee from your computer screens, maybe we all need to learn a little something about how we teach our children. I still can’t stop laughing…
Posted in Doing Life | 11 Comments »
Were things really better in “the good old days”?
Thursday, October 4th, 2007On the Criminal Insanity thread, Joe posted this comment:
I guess I have a mental burp every time someone claims that in some way our current society is worse than it used to be. Im sick of hearing this kind of BS in church.
Society is just different than it used to be. We used to burn witches at the stake, hold public executions and employ people to live and work in the sewers. In some ways it is less connected, but Im not sure I want to live in a society where people lynch people in mobs or whatever. That might have been a connected society in a sense, but clearly not one Id want to live in.
Yes, were messed up and our societies are broken. But there is no point in comparing ourselves with past communities, because that was then and this is now.
Do you agree with Joe? Or do you think society today IS “worse than it used to be”?
Posted in Doing Life | 19 Comments »
criminal insanity
Monday, October 1st, 2007Last week, a couple of middle aged men went to a care home to meet an 85 year old lady called Jean Gambell. Soon afterwards she had a slight stroke, which it was thought may have been brought on by the reunion.
It is hardly surprising. Jean Gambell was meeting her brothers for the first time in 70 - yes that is not a typo, that is SEVENTY - years. As a teenager of 15, Jean had been incarcerated due to mental illness, as a result of her stealing a few small coins. The brothers allege that the coins were found later.
She was then in the system for an entire lifetime, losing contact with her family and by any reakoning completely wasting her life. Enough one would think, to send anyone over the edge of mental instability even if they were sane to start with. Yet the brothers found a frail old lady, who could identify them by name and showed remarkably little bitterness for her lot in life. More here.
Other than being entirely flabbergasted by the whole sorry tale, I would like to know:
- If there are other people who have been involuntarily detained for long periods of time.
- What it says about a society that it ‘loses’ the records of people in its’ care.
- What it says about us that we live in a society that can lock someone up for an entire lifetime for no crime, without remand or appeal.
- What it says about us that an 85 year old lady is sane enough to recognise relatives after 70 years, but she is not sane enough to be listened to when she is telling her story or come to that was so feeble minded at 15 that she was incarcerated on the dubious charge of stealing a few small coins.
Surely we should all be thoroughly ashamed that we live in a world where this could happen.
Posted in Doing Life, Ethics, Forgiveness, Power, What can we do? | 13 Comments »
I *atombomb* shopping
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007Shopping is a drag, and that is not just because of my gender. For example, take our regular food shopping. We believe in co-ops, so we foresake the local equivilent of Walmart and head for a local food shop owned by our regional food co-operative. There is no parking. There isn’t much choice on the shelves.
One of the reasons we buy from a co-operative is that it has a policy of aggressive labelling. They tell me things other supermarkets keep silent about.
We have several things to check. First we engage in active boycotts of some brands, most importantly (and perhaps most ineffectually) the longstanding Nestle boycott. Next we girlcott products we really like - most notably fairtrade labelled products. We then look at other products and weigh up whether the distance travelled justifies their purchase so the breakfast cereal containing chinese strawberries is left behind. Wherever possible, UK or at least local European products are bought.
Clothes shopping is somewhat simpler: as we are disgusted by the behaviour of most clothing brands and on a limited budget, 90% of our clothing comes from charity/thrift stores. We figure that although we can’t be any more sure of the origins of the stuff from thrift stores, at least someone benefits from our purchasing.
Our approach is that although we cannot totally change ourselves overnight, we can make continual improvements. Each year we conduct a family audit where we identify more things we can focus on and change.
In truth, we have a long way to go to reach the goal of personal sustainability. The more you think about it, there more there is to change.
Here are some useful resources:
Food shopping: The LOAF principle
Posted in Activism, Doing Life, Economics, What can we do? | 6 Comments »
Ethical living: Do-able hints
Clothing: All you never wanted to know about cheap clothing.
April’s Story
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007I wanted to draw your attention to April’s compelling story “Uncharted Waters” over at Ordinary Attempts. Her honesty about her journey into awareness of the reality of the divide between haves and have nots, and what that means, is compelling. Thank you for inspiring us with your honesty, reality, and compassion, April!
An excerpt:
Posted in Doing Life | No Comments »Yesterday, another man approached me in the parking of my grocery store. He looked distressed, telling me he was hungry and asked if I could give him a few dollars. I told him I was going into the grocery store and would be happy to get him anything he liked. He looked perplexed for at least one second and then said, Thanks, anyway, and walked away. To me, this illustrated even further the complexity of the homeless issue. The problem isnt necessarily hunger. The problem is displacement, loss, loneliness, alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, and probably more issues that I havent thought of. Those things dont get cured by a Carls Jr. breakfast sandwich or three dollars.
I am starting to learn that I need to think more realistically. I need to start asking someone their name because a name is a persons identity. I need to start opening myself up and taking a risk, but I will navigate slowly through these uncharted waters. It was a learning experience. I imagine that God has more times like this in store for me in the future.
Daily Mitzvah
Monday, March 12th, 2007mitzvah
1. any of the collection of 613 commandments or precepts in the Bible and additional ones of rabbinic origin that relate chiefly to the religious and moral conduct of Jews
2. any good or praiseworthy deed.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2006
For some time, I have been fascinated with the Jewish concept of the mitzvah. This term can refer specifically to the laws that govern the lives of observant Jews, or more generally to any good deed or act of kindness. According to Chabad.org, mitzvot are the observances that define our lives as Jews and connect us to each other and to G-d. For the devout Jew, observing the commandments of the Torah is a total lifestyle. Following the dietary guidelines for a kosher diet, for example, takes lots of time and deliberate effort. In Jewish practice, each mitzvah is an acknowledgment of God, a recognition of being connected to something much larger than ones self. The inconvenience of the practice is what makes it so meaningful.
Posted in Doing Life | 13 Comments »
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