It always astonishes, the traits I share with my sister & those that I don't.
My sister always seemed to feel the best gift is the one given anonymously, or with as little attention as possible. That there is greater value to such gifts & generosity.
In my experience, the opposite is true. People enjoy knowing a giver - the more personally, the better.
Take our local college & our theological school. Every week, I baked a nibbling for both. But I had the opportunity to connect with each of the theologs, whereas there were very few college students I had the pleasure of meeting. To the latter, I was this name without a face. The ones I've gotten to know have shared how much more the nibbling means, knowing what Aunt Deev looks like, why she loves feeding BACNC students.
The theologs were a totally different story. Almost every week, we had the opportunity to briefly interact. While the nibblings were enjoyable, each of "my lads" were clear that it was the personal contact - not the food - that matters most to them.
This morning, I had the pleasure of watching four candidates for the priesthood kneel, of seeing four ministers arise. We didn't connect because of teaching or being related or anything other than weekly deliveries of gluten-free goodies - with a face & name & heart attached.
Giving anonymously might work great for Mim. For me - the fun of feeding the college is surpassed mightily to the joy of actually connecting. Here's to next fall & the hope of connecting more - of being as un-anonymous as possible - with my BACNC college kids!
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Spark JOY!
It was Jamie Lee Curtis who actually said that, in the description that accompanied Marie's photo as one Time magazine's 2015 100 Most Influential People.
I kept seeing the title of Marie's book on decluttering - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - pop up all over the place. In spite of living in a house that I've choked with clutter, the book did not entice. I've read lots of sure-cure books that left me just as unable to clear my way out of the stuff that clogs my house & life. The culprit isn't John, whose side of the bed is always well ordered. It is me. But it's long felt like my problem was one of nurture, rather than nature. Perhaps, just perhaps, my nature loved creative order rather than the creative clutter, as a friend lovingly described our house. (But she would have died before letting her house look like ours!)
Earlier this week, John & I spent a rare afternoon at Barnes & Noble/Willow Grove, a treat for him as thank you for being dragged to four Michael's & A.C. Moore craft stores so I could get double 55% savings. Little did I know life was about to take a turn for the considerably immensely unimaginably better!
Marie doesn't write like anyone else. She sounds like me, the me I usually share only with John. The one who thinks of everything - EVERY THING - as having some aspect of spirit. She spoke right to me.
Yesterday, I cleared out my clothing. A full bag of torn or stained or otherwise damaged clothing is waiting on the curb for the trash removal. Five full bags are headed this afternoon to the Bryn Athyn Thrift Shop. Only clothing that gives me a spark of joy remains.
Marie is right - it was so easy tossing things out when my criteria changed from what did i want to discard to what did I want to keep. Even pieces of recently purchased clothing - even a piece of Blue Fish - are headed for BATS! And pieces of clothing - like a dearly beloved over-sized long black top that I wore (quite consciously) to church for the last time last week - that matter to me are headed for the Great Closet. If it didn't give me a spark of joy, or even if it did but was increasingly unwearable, I thanked it for its service, tenderly folded it & sent it along its way.
The rest are put away or in the wash or waiting to be ironed. This time next week, my closet will be hung with the heaviest, longest clothing to my left & the lightest, shortest clothing to the right, and my hard-working socks will be duly appreciated & taking their rest in my drawer.
The thing I find most remarkable about Marie is that even the things I expected to be an onerous challenge turn out to be strangely familiar, from her method of folding clothing (it's always seemed the logical way to me) to tossing magazines while keeping the article(s) you wanted tucked into easy to reference clear pages in binders (been doing that for years). The inner voide that pondered if maybe I am not, but nature, a hopeless housekeeper turns out to be right! Wow - who would have thunk it?!
Which is not to say there won't be huge challenges as I wade through my piles of stuff. Just remember that there can't be magic without a thorough follow-through with the tidying!
For more on Marie & her method of cleaning, check these out. Better yet, do an online search of her name & take joy in where it leads you!
http://www.askawayblog.com/2015/04/the-many-benefits-of-konmari-method.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgnTCbJqLi8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxRtXcM_Xj4
By the People: rebuilding liberty without permission - Charles Murray
An intriguing recently (05/15/15) published book by Charles Murray should have its title tweaked to By the Wealthy. Because that's what he clearly means. "The people" usually denotes the general citizenry. Mr. Murray has little to no faith in such hoi polloi.
But he sees hope for our nation's salvation - “The emergence of many billion-dollar-plus private fortunes over the last three decades has enabled the private sector to take on ambitious national or even international tasks that formerly could be done only by nation-states.”
Mr. Murray sees this as a great opportunity to restore sane governance to the USA. All that's needed to fix our broken system is for just one mega wealthy patriotic American to "care enough to contribute, say, a few milion dollars" to a legal defense fund that could then tie up in endless, costly law suits the current laws & regulations that are keeping our country from its birthright of
All we need is for a plutocrat white knight to ride to our rescue & we can bid farwell to those profit-killing, freedom-destroying regulatory hob goblins commonly known as the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (my business owner father considered OSHA a 4-letter word), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission & Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Aka the agencies responsible for worker safety, for fair hiring & employment practices and protecting the environment. My guess is he considers the recent Wyoming law making it illegal to obtain evidence of environmental calamities is a key step to restoring governing as the Founders had intended.
As a Washington Post review describes, Mr. Murray believes that "A Republican president and GOP congressional majorities would not set things right. The system is too ingrained, and besides, Murray admits, Republicans are no better than Democrats at constraining government or upholding individual liberties. (This is not an anti-Obama book; Murray sees the current president as symptom, not cause.) Tired of waiting for America to do the right thing, he wants it to do the wrong thing in service of a righteous cause."
Doesn't that sort of define coup?
Now, that sounds more like a Shel Adelson or David Koch stepping forward rather than an uprising of the electorate. What does Gov. Bush think about his favorite author advocating flat-out oligarchy over democracy?
As a historian, am fascinated by Mr. Murray’s fixating
on James Madison’s view of the Constitution – one far more restricted than the majority
of the rest of the Founders. And he is
correct in thinking that if Madison’s views had prevailed, we wouldn’t be
saddled with things like the EPA, or for that matter, Social Security &
Medicare.
But the Constitution, for good
or ill, does reflect a more expansive reading.
He’s correct in writing, “[i]f we
could restore limited government as Madison understood it, all of our agendas
would be largely fulfilled.” What he ignores is that Madison’s understanding is
not embedded in the Constitution.
What would James Madison think about having a legal
defense fund dedicated to thwarting (while falling short of overthrowing) the
government named about himself? Would he
applaud Mr. Murray or shrink in horror?
It should be remembered that while Congressman Madison
fought against the creation of the First Bank of the United States (it went
completely against his principles & view of good governance), President
Madison didn’t veto the federal law creating a Second Bank. Wait – he not only signed the law, he
supported it.
Another howler in the book is how a staunch conservative
– a party 100% behind litigation reform – would use law suits to hamstring the government’s
ability to enforce regulations & laws that the funding white knights deem
just awful while leaving unharassed those they like.
As an historian with radical centrist leanings, am
unsure if I’m bemused or horrified at how Mr. Murray reveals his utter lack of
faith in the American people, in the House & Senate (both controlled by the
GOP), in the Supreme Court. He places all
his faith in the wisdom of one, several or a small circle of unimaginably
wealthy men & women using their riches to make right what he considers all
wrong with our current federal government.
And this is the author Jeb Bush claims helped shaped his
thinking. Amazing.
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