Sunday, June 17, 2012

A Trip to the Store

What would you think if you saw a middle aged woman with a shopping cart full of groceries, 7 tubes of personal lubricant, and a pack of 50 pet pads (you know the puppy training pads that soak up pee)? Yes, you read correctly, 7! tubes of personal lubricant. What could she possibly be doing? The mind goes wild.

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Well that lady is me, on a regular basis, and there is nothing "personal", illegal, or disgusting (by perverse standards anyway) going on with those tubes of lubricant and packs of pet pads (no, we don't have a puppy). If you want to know what does go on with it, you can go to the family site and start in February of 2011.

How much of what we perceive about other people is actually even close to accurate? The simple fact is that we really know little about other people. More to the point, what we do know, like how many boxes of personal lubricant the weird lady at the store just bought, even provable facts, tell us nothing about a person, their life, or situation.

Come up with any scenario and I assure you I can give you another way to look at it. My next statement will likely ruffle a few feathers, feel free to comment or e-mail me and we can have a discussion, I welcome open communication.

Take the terrorists that wrecked havoc on 911. Weren't they just following their traditions, convictions, and quite frankly, things that had been ingrained and brainwashed into them from the time they could breath?

I make no apologies for the actions they took and the horror that was caused by their choices and actions. I am not on the side of the conspiracy theorists and do not think it was "an inside job". Nor do I purpose that there are not necessary consequences for actions we choose to take. I also won't be inviting anyone to to my backyard for a barbecue that believes that the country in which I live, and I myself, am the root of all evil and need to be killed. Important to note, I do not believe radical actions have anything to do with an entire group or religion.

It's not my business to determine whether a person is evil. It's my business to determine whether it is in my best interest to be around said person based upon the belief system that will dictate their actions.

I offer the following thoughts to ponder. Are we really as awesome as we think, and do we really posses the ability to know anything about anyone but ourselves? If we worried less about what we know about another person, or group of people, and more about what we understand about ourselves, wouldn't we be happier and more able to create peace and contentment within our own lives? Would that peace and contentment be contagious? Do we have vaccinations for peace and contentment in the form of ideas and words that make it nearly impossibly for us to catch the awful disease of peace and contentment?

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After one too many stares, whispered comments from onlookers (not so quietly most times), and questions from the check out clerk, I sort of went postal. Okay that would be an exaggeration, but it was startling to realize how much was behind the smiles and pat answers I was putting forward that were apparently not a true representation of how things had been affecting me.

I didn't yell, or even raise my voice. I put on that same smile and gave a short, but much too long, narration of life with Malachi from the beginning. The silliest part was that this particular clerk didn't have anything negative or implicit to say. She actually said, "Oh look at his cute rosy cheeks. He is so adorable." I proceeded to let her know that his rosy cheeks were due to a skin condition and he was born with a disease and, well you get the point.

That experience was valuable for me in many ways.

I associate, and am friends, with a great many people that are nothing like me. They believe differently than I do, they live differently than I do, they eat differently, medicate their children differently, educate their children differently, and so on. I genuinely like and enjoy each and every one of them.

There are those that hear and read my words, which are often times very direct, and assume I am coming from a place of passing judgement on others. It is very easy for me to be exact and decisive for myself and my family while having no need whatsoever to decide what is best for another. I can easily leave your business to you.

I am that lady buying 7 tubes of personal lubricant. I really don't care what you are using yours for. As long as you are not going to require me to join you, then you might see me get a bit feisty :)

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