Words...The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and the Strange

I am going to warn you now....this is gonna be one of those long, rambling "soap box" posts. See, it has just been clogging up my brain for awhile now and my "not posting" in so long has been because this was gonna be what got posted first.....sigh. (Please notice pretty picture above to distract you from content of post....lol)

For awhile now, we have heard about how our words affect those around us...the positive and negative. That what we say to ourselves, our kids, our co-workers, family, spouses, friends...well, it has the power to lift them up and "be all that they can be" or to drop them like a ton of bricks over a bridge at the overpass. You get the idea.... I have had several things bring me back to the theme of "words" in the past couple of weeks and I feel the need to share.......

Some of you that know me, know that I love to stay up till 3-4 in the morning working on crafts, home, reading or such...because I don't have a regular work schedule, I get to sleep late and that works. Lately, I have been doing some subbing and I have needed to get on a regular schedule...so I am proud to say I have been getting up before my family, checking out the day, getting things in order...running to the local grocery if I need something for the crock pot recipe that day. (Ok, so I know some of you have the image of me getting up at 4 am...spending a couple of hours in prayer and meditation....impeccably dressing to go out to the grocery....I need to dispell that image now....especially since this post is about words. As long as I am up before noon, I have beat the rest of my family.....just so we are clear.....smile.)

Yesterday, I headed out to the grocery. We have a fairly decent size produce area at my local stop..and while I was contemplating whether the celery I needed to purchase was now gold or silver plated due to the current price....I see a woman close to me hold up a melon and yell across the section to a young man working on a fruit display..."Hooty-Hoo....Hooty-Hoo". Now apparently, there is magic in these words because as soon as she started yelling them, the teenage boy that had been by her side, simply disappeared. No seriously, I never saw him leave, run, hide in the aisle...he was just GONE! Sadly, the first yelling of "Hooty-Hoo" did not get the expected results of the produce guy appearing at her side, so once again the call went out..."Hooty-Hoo"...at that time he did turn around to see what nutcase had entered the produce section. And she was able to ask her question about the price of the melon on hand.

OK...PLEASE explain to me how I missed the memo that tells you to yell "Hooty-Hoo" in the middle of a store to get someone's attention...rather than to simply walk your ample behind over and politely ask the question????? Speaking of lost memos.....

I know this has been going on for awhile...but I can't begin to tell you how irritating it is for me to hear young women (sadly, older too) call each other "b*tches and ho's". Having grown up in a home with a father who had NO value for women except in a servitude type manner...having worked in offices where women felt lucky to get anywhere above a secretarial status--and even if they did, they were still expected to be the ones to serve coffee and "wait" on the other men in charge. To have heard those words used about women to make them less than what we were and are...to make them fun and hip....simply makes me ill.

My friend, Robin Chaddock, recites a poem during one of her talks called, "Standing on The Shoulders " and I wanted to share a bit of that:

"We are standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before us

They are saints and they are humans, they are angels, they are friends

We can see beyond the struggles and the troubles and the challenge

when we know that by our efforts things will be better in the end."

(Joyce Johnson Rouse)

It makes me sad to know all the struggles, the hardships and just ugliness that many women endured to help us have it easier in the workplace (and there are still places that you would never know any changes have occured)...and yet we are raising a group of women that spit on it with every utterance of those words. And don't even get me started on women willingly being degraded (as if that is they way women are supposed to be treated) on many music videos.

I don't know....do you think we could make it hip for them to instead use "Hooty-Hoo"?

And one last thing, that is the reason this whole line of thinking even got started. I received an email last week from an acquaintance.....now understand, this is not the first one of these for me to receive....it was just the straw that broke the camels back. So I want to make something crystal clear....

I don't CARE who you vote for. I want YOU to care about the candidate you chose. I want you to personally research who you vote for...NEVER RELY ON "BEARING FALSE WITNESS" EMAILS that are sent out during EVERY political campaign. These lies are sent out every, every voting season and all have heartfelt scriptures, missionary sitings and such that tell us that who ever candidate they are lying about will send us all straight to hell if we vote for them.
Good grief people.....wake up and think for yourself. If you understood the workings of our government...you would spend far more time on your congressional research and voting than wait every 4 years to go up in arms.

Frankly, I haven't been thrilled with the voting possibilities since the group first threw all their hats in the ring and I am still sorting some things out. But christians thinking that the "bearing false witness" verse doesn't apply to the political process need to get a grip and do some soul searching.....and take a good look at how big their god is....cause my God can handle things, without my having to resort to lies, threats, and scare tactics.

Hey, I have been around long enough to remember the emails that went out that the Russian president Gorbachev (sp?) was the anti-christ because of a birthmark on his head!!!!

Ok...so after all of that, maybe "Hooty-Hoo" looks pretty good....

Nuff said!!!

Hugs,
Debbie