Revisiting History

I was having quite a rant yesterday from one hot topic on The View so let’s go to another topic. 

Why are we revisiting the question of abortion in Canada and the United States?  Didn’t we agree back in 1972 or thereabout that women had control over their bodies and had a right to make a choice in the event that they had an “unwanted pregnancy”?  Why are we talking about this again?  Has the Boomer Generation found Jesus so now want to rectify their “youthful mistakes”? 

There are some decisions that should be made by neutral parties where emotion is not part of the equation.  That is why we have instruments such as courts and other governing bodies.  We also have the Supreme Court where several judges confer and make decisions.  Religion should never be part of a neutral decision.

People get very emotional when they think about the fetus being “a person” and that is understandable.  However, your personal emotions should have nothing to do with the decision of an individual whose life is going to be unalterably changed regardless of the decision she makes about terminating or not terminating a pregnancy.  It’s not anyone else’s job to judge, to save, or otherwise interfere.  Society made a decision that a woman has a right to make decisions about her body and that includes anything in her body.  Whether you are religious or not, whether you believe in the right of the fetus or not, it’s not your right to decide for another human being; the Supreme Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of the USA made these decisions a long time ago. 

What has changed?

Growing into Senior-hood

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about becoming a senior citizen but I am finding that the label doesn’t seem to fit.  When I think of a senior citizen the image of a grey haired, hunch backed old lady waddling along with a shopping bag comes into my head.  Despite objecting to images, profiling, one-size fits all, stereotyping, well, you get the picture; no one likes to be pigeon holed but when it comes to aging our first picture may not be pleasant.  After all, when I first wrote senior citizen above what picture popped into your head?  I’m guessing it was not Diane Keaton or Linda Gray, two ladies who are certainly rocking their senior years.

In recent times it is likely that each generation thinks they are breaking down barriers of one kind or another and the Boomer Generation is now moving full force into senior citizenship.  When I turned 50 and then 55 I was expecting to discover perks as the prelude to senior citizenship but outside of Smitty’s Seniors Menu I haven’t really discovered much in the way of “senior savings”.  Now I am appalled at how countries around the world are pushing back senior benefits from 65 to 67 and even beyond.  I have discovered that even though you can take free classes at institutions of higher learning you will not be accredited the courses.  So these are some negative thoughts.

However on the brighter side of being older we tend to find ourselves really not giving a care about what other people think of us.  We also don’t care about filtering our thoughts or our mouths.  After all we didn’t get to this age without those around us knowing who we are and if they find us offensive that is their problem, not ours.  This is not about losing our sense of tactfulness or good manners but rather about expressing opinions on so-called sensitive matters without regard for what is now deemed political correctness. 

These days I have more leisure to watch some of the morning talk shows and sometimes my mother and I look at each other in bafflement and wonder “why”?  This week there was a big hullaballoo about a police officer “taking down” a 16 year old student in the classroom.  So here are some of the questions we asked each other:

1.     What happened before the police officer was called in? [apparently the teacher asked her to

o    Stop using the phone

o    Hand over the phone

o    Get out of the class

2.     How was it that other kids in the class had their phones and were videoing the scene but only the “take down” and not everything that happened prior?

o    Still no answer to that one

3.     So can you tell if the kid was holding on to the seat so that when the officer had to pick her up to get her to move the chair tumbled along with her?

o    It’s hard to tell here but my own experience – I have seen a teacher lift a kid out of his seat and the seat went tumbling down with him because he was holding on to the whole desk – it looked violent because of the noise but the teacher actually wasn’t hurting him (at least not on purpose)

4.     Notice there was no sound throughout the video?

o    Can you imagine what was being said throughout the takedown?

Before everyone has a stupid hissy fit I am not saying that it’s okay for the police officer to grapple a female student but why are kids behaving this way in a classroom?  Why are phones even allowed in a classroom?  What is wrong with parents for insisting that they have to be in touch with their kids all the time?  Can’t parents get an f’ing grip on themselves?  Number one, my parents never had to contact me in all my 13 years of school.  Number two, nothing in the world would make me want to talk to my parents while I was in school.  Number three, when I wanted to talk to someone I actually talked to them.  Number four, our teachers were empowered to discipline anyone who dared get out of line, and guess what, the parents were okay with them getting the punishment they deserved.

I think people have to stop tiptoeing around children or giving them everything that they want.  Principals need to declare schools a phone free zone and parents need to suck it up.  There’s a phone in the office and if you need to talk to your kid you can call the school secretary.  I’m pretty sure that will stop all this helicopter parenting and kids can actually grow up.

Sheesh, all this from a six second video.  Did you know that’s called a vine?

A Slanting Look

I’m looking out of my office window and can see from the slant in the shadows that winter is approaching and that gives me a little pang.  Goodbye to hours in the garden and basking in sunlight and hello to snuggling in front of a cozy fire. 

That sounds marvelous but the reality is that in order to stay sane I find myself needing some self-imposed structure to my day.  This includes a regular morning wakeup time, breakfast while reading my latest book and then at least 40 minutes of exercise to get me revved up for the day.  By 8 o’clock I am now ready to really start my day, first with my chicken chores and then into the office to read my mail, pay my bills and then start writing for an hour or two.  Actually snuggling by the fire doesn’t happen until later in the afternoon.

Yesterday I wrote an article which I have since scrapped because it again preached about regularity and finding hobbies but once I evaluated it I felt nauseated.  Who am I to advise anyone on how their retirement should look?  I’m still learning how to manage my own retirement and every day I am discovering new things about myself.  One of the things I have realized is that learning is one of the most valuable experiences we can have.  Learning as experience.

There’s learning about one’s self, an evaluation of our reactions, our morals and values and how we live and learn.  There is also learning about subjects whether that is a specific topic such as history or physics or abstract ideas and philosophies or a craft or hobby.  Our little grey cells need a daily workout and even a simple ah ha moment such as learning about the uses of lavender is meaningful. 

Learning, evaluating, experience. Ahh.

Nine Parts of Desire - a Personal Review

At last I have finished reading Geraldine Brooks’ book “Nine Parts of Desire” and rather than go over the book what I would like to do is review my reactions as I read the 12 chapters.

The first thing I realized was how truly ignorant I was about the Moslem religion.  I had read the Encyclopedia Britannica as well as Wikipedia biography of the prophet Mohammed but that was many years ago and neither article was particularly enlightening on the status of women.  The second thing I realized was that a great deal of what we hear about the religion is in fact not truly part of the teachings of the Koran but rather cultural beliefs that have been folded into the religion.  This is important to understand because a great deal of how the women are treated is not really prescribed in the Koran.

The book moves from one country to another and describes the condition of women in these countries through the voice of various women.  I learned that Iran (at the time of publishing in 1994) was the most liberal of the countries and this surprised me as I had always thought that Ayatollah Khomeini was a vicious tyrant who suppressed women.  In fact Saudi Arabia is the most fundamentalist country in the Middle East (at the time of publishing at any rate).  Brooks’ also writes about Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Eritrea, Egypt, Syria and Turkey.

The further into the book I got the angrier I became; I mean that I was not just upset but very angry.  I was angry at the primitive thinking of both the men and the women.  Then I became angry at our Western governments for not recognizing the condition of these women whose human rights were being violated daily.  Then I wondered in bafflement at how hypocritical our governments are in using expedience as the way to work out “global or foreign policy”.  We live with so much bullshit and as always the ultimate concern is money.   That’s right, as usual everything boils down to money.

It makes me really angry because I am struggling with feelings of racism and justification that are against my upbringing and better nature.  I am watching masses of refugees flooding out of the Middle East into Europe and I am feeling threatened not only on behalf of Europeans but also for Canadians because I am seeing these refugees as economic opportunists just as the Hungarian minister said.  But as I have been reading this book another alarm has gone up in my mind and that is the question of whether these people (most of which are young men) are being sent into Europe to undermine the countries, just as some fanatics have threatened to do in Denmark. 

But now as I have finished the book I have taken time to absorb everything I have read and what I feel is that I need to know more about Islam, the Islamic state and what it means for the women in these countries.  I need to understand if these women are brainwashed into believing their religion or if they honestly believe the teachings are true and right for them.  Have they really been educated to understand what opportunities are in the world waiting for them?  I need to know what the United Nations position is on the condition of women and children in the Middle East and everywhere that Islam is the main religion.

As a woman I feel that it is utterly wrong to endorse a religion that would suppress a woman’s potential by locking her up in her house and telling her that her duty in life is to reproduce.  As part of the human race, women everywhere have a right to human rights and the human rights sanctioned by the United Nations is I believe the benchmark that the world has agreed on.  Am I correct in believing this?  Please see the link below to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the UN site;  the fifth paragraph clearly states equal rights for men and women.

I would encourage all of my readers to read this book and think about what is happening in the Middle East.  I think it’s time we look at this from a completely different perspective and that what needs to happen is that all nations in the world who believe that women have the same human rights as men should boycott the Middle East and all countries that adhere to fundamental Islam. 

 

Footnote:  Just to be clear, I feel the same way about any fundamental religion or culture that suppresses women, children or men.

UNITED NATIONS SITE:

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

GERALDINE BROOKS’ SITE:

http://geraldinebrooks.com/

 

Going Around and Around

During my first year in retirement my days were filled with building projects.  The daily chores were novel and not at all arduous.  Accidents did not slow me down one bit.  And then I went on vacation.  I returned in a state of “vacation” and have been unsettled ever since.

It’s not that I don’t have plenty of things to do but when I look at the To-Do-List I shudder.  I am reluctant to get started on any of the purging projects and the creative ones seem daunting.  What has gotten into my head?

I decided to take the figurative bull by the horns and tackle that blocking wall.  How?  You may well ask.  First of all I decided I should write down the list that had been piling up in my head.  Then I thought that reading light, current magazines would give me a breakthrough into the minds of women in general.  Please don’t be offended because I soon discovered that these “light” magazines were anything but light.  There is plenty of rich information in these magazines that should be of interest to a wide range of people not least of which is the articles on how to spend for less.

As I sat on the front porch warming myself up and feeling guilty for doing so Mom said “You need to give yourself time to enjoy doing nothing”.  Without me saying a word she knew what I was feeling, that old sense of guilt at not being up and doing something.  I looked at her and then asked her “how did you spend your days when we were little”?

In 1956 she had 3 children in diapers and every morning she had to boil water because they did not have hot running water in their apartment.  The water was then put in a huge tub where she washed diapers which she then hung out to dry.  She had to feed us, dress us and then take us with her when she went out to market to get the day’s groceries because they didn’t have a refrigerated.  Sometimes she baked her own bread but often she bought it at the bakery.  She had to wash the dishes after lunch, put us down for a nap (no easy task as both my sister and I were firecrackers) and then hope to goodness no one came for a visit while we napped.  Somewhere in between these tasks she also had to clean the house and I was amazed to learn that she washed the floor almost every single day.  She said that the floors were old wooden ones and that there was risk of worms if the floor wasn’t absolutely clean.  With three young children playing on the floor she simply had to get down on her hands and knees to do a thorough scrub.  She had to come up with creative recipes for making a meal with ground pork and beef as they usually had that 4 times a week.

Would you believe it, I still managed to ask “but what did you do the rest of the time”?  I was lucky Mom didn’t throw something at my head.

Sidelined Book Review

I promised to review Nine Parts of Desire this week but I must confess that I got sidetracked with another book. 

Whenever I go into Calgary I like to take a quick trip into Chapters and always head straight for the bargain books at the back.  Often popular books in hardcover get reduced after a year and that’s when I find some real treasures.  This week I happened to discover Fannie Flagg’s latest book “The All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion”.  How I laughed.  Fannie does it every time, creating characters who talk in such an insane way you can’t help but want to be their next best friend.

The story is another one of those back and forth stories about 1930’s Wisconsin and current Alabama.  Fritzi is a young Polish-American girl who takes up flying in the early 1930’s and along with her brother and sisters ends up in the Army during WWII.  Meanwhile Sookie is living in Alabama and trying to control her 88 year old mother.  Sookie is beyond delightful and had me in stitches at almost every page.  Fritzi had me imaging the young Gena Davis in the role.

An interesting feature of the story was the WASPs, female pilots who flew planes from the factory to their army terminals across the USA during the war.  It’s a little known part of Woman’s history and sadly these brave and talented female pilots were not recognized for their contribution to the war effort for decades.  As well there is some history around how gas stations were first introduced across the country, how they fared during the war and how they eventually died away as family businesses.

This is an easy, light read with plenty of laughs and some enlightenment along the way.  Two thumbs up for Fannie Flagg.

 

Chicken Coop Upgrade?

Since my return from my European travels I have noticed my hens have been slowing down their production which surprised me so early in their youth.  Consultation has revealed that the girls need light therapy in order to get “regular” again.  As my usual handyman (brother John) was busy elsewhere I thought “I can do this myself”. 

I had already set up the wiring for the winter heating so I thought all I needed to do was get a proper light to plug in.  First, though, I needed to remember how to set up my light timer which took about an hour of fiddling with but that was done.  I happened to notice one of the cages for an old work light and I thought this would be a good short term solution to the light problem.  Off I went to the local Home Hardware where I found what I wanted without any help from the staff.  I patiently waited in the lineup at the cash counter only to hear that the debit machine was out of order.  I didn’t have any cash with me so I had to put my purchase back.  What to do?

I headed into the next town to the new Peavy Mart and even got lucky in finding an employee right off the bat who guided me down to the electrical department.  Now something in my mind said “I need a 2 prong, not a 3 prong” but I couldn’t remember why I was thinking that.  So the young fellow told me all about the safety feature of a 3 prong plug and although I was doubtful I took the 3 prong.  Sure enough when I got everything rigged up in the coop I discovered that the timer was only able to use 2 prong plugs.  Great.  I postponed my trip another day and headed back to Peavy Mart because the price was considerably cheaper than the Home Hardware price.  This time I waffled between getting the 2 prong light fixture or the 3 prong timer.  I thought it was a great idea to have a remote control so I chose the timer.

Back home I decided to read the instructions. What instructions you may ask?  There were no instructions because all you did was plug the sucker in and hit the remote.  Well, what kind of timer was that?  I had to drag Mom out of her room to test with me and the result was that I would have to go outside the house to hit the remote at 4 a.m.  Which I did but only to discover that I could not do it from the porch, I had to walk half way to the coop before the light would go on.

I am now $50 in the hole and realize that I should have stuck with my first instinct, get the 2 prong light switch, use the old timer and remember from now on to listen to my first instinct.  A one hour operation has now turned into a 5 day event.

Who ever thought that humans had evolved to their betterment?

Talking Politics

The election is only a couple of days away and as we have been reminded time and again, it has been the longest election campaign in modern Canadian history.  There has been plenty of time for the polls to predict everyone except an alien as our next Prime Minister.  Time for every political pundit to have their say, and then some.  So are you confused yet?  It was thrilling to watch the early polls predict an NDP win but now those hopes seem to be sagging; the media has done its job in putting fear in everyone so the question will be, which “same old, same old” are we going to end up with?

Here’s what I would like to suggest for people to take a look at before they make their final decision on October 19^th.  I’d like them to take a look at the past records of both the Conservative and the Liberal parties.  Trudeau stealing the change slogan and calling a Liberal win “Real Change” is dubious at best.  The fact is both of these parties continue to get their major funding by the big corporations and the banks. 

Here are a few things to think about

·         Why are our current labour laws allowing businesses such as Walmart, Safeway, Sobey’s, Superstore and McDonalds to employ the majority of their staff for less than full time?  If you take a look at who is employed in these jobs you will see that the majority of staff are adults, not students.  These people deserve a regular, full time job with full benefits.  You don’t think these businesses can pay their staff full time salaries?  Walmart’s owners are in the top 100 wealthiest FAMILIES in the world. 

·         What do you expect to “get” for your tax dollars?  It is reasonable to expect a government to be able to maintain roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure with tax dollars.  It is not reasonable to expect governments to bail out corporations when they get into trouble when these same corporations continue to give out million dollar bonuses to their executives (why should they get a bonus when they’ve gotten themselves into enough trouble to need a bail out).  In the same line of thought, business that have been built up by governments (e.g.  Air Canada, Alberta Government Telephone, Manitoba Telephone System, Coop Electric Systems, etc.) should not be sold to private enterprise for pennies on the dollar. 

·         Should government use student loans as revenue?  Anyone who has had to borrow money to send their children to university or college knows how outrageous the interest rate is on these loans.  Students are in debt for decades after graduation.  The difference in the cost of education from 1970 to 2015 is out of all reason to the rate of inflation.

·         What things do you consider essential service and what do you consider “entitlement”?  As a healthy, hard working Canadian I consider I have paid enough health care premiums, EI, CPP, property taxes, income taxes and other hidden taxes over my 40 plus years to feel that I should be able to go to the doctor for any health concerns that I have now that I am “aging”.  I should expect my pension(s) to be able to ADEQUATELY see me through my old age.  What is ADEQUATE . . . it means having 3 square meals a day, a roof over my head (affordable housing for those who were not able to own their own home --- remember, those living on Walmart wages are never going to own their own home) and the essentials of life – heat and electricity being key.

·         Entitlement and entitlement.  Let’s consider how Mr. Harper and his ilk have spoken of Canadians’ idea of “entitlement” when they went on strike . . . and then let’s take a look at that (expletive curbed) Senate. Need I say more?

·         Health care, education, infrastructure, senior care – these are just some of the things that have been steadily dropping off the plates of Conservative and Liberal governments.  I haven’t even mentioned some of the other things that are important to us as Canadians, environment, immigration, foreign policy (peacekeeping vs war) to name a few.

·         Real change . . . THINK ABOUT THAT.

September Book Reads in Review

It’s not often I find a book that makes me laugh out loud but I just finished one that had me bursting out loud countless times.  “The Woefield Poultry Collective” by Susan Juby is hilarious as it describes an idealistic girl’s dream of a sustainable farm which is seen through the eyes of four different characters.  I love it when I can recommend a Canadian author and I can in this case.

I especially liked the way the character of Prudence was eternally optimistic even as she takes her pitiful little “crop” of radishes to the farmer’s market and manages to survive the humiliation of the real farmers’ competition.  Fortunately for me I don’t have dreams of attending a farmer’s market so I will be spared such embarrassment!  But the misadventures were very relatable and funny.

I also enjoyed “The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend” by Katarina Bivald.  This is a Swedish author who writes about a Swedish book clerk who travels to the American mid-west to meet a fellow book lover.  It’s a nice little tale about a dying town embracing a foreigner for the sake of one of their own.  I found it very well translated which is unusual as I often find myself re-editing a translated book from the Scandinavian languages.  I didn’t find any awkward translations which was really very surprising.

Last on this week’s list is Stephen King’s “Joyland” which was so un-King like I felt it was a little flat.  I didn’t find any horror or suspense in the book and it did not end on a gruesome note or even a discouraging one.  There were a few times in the story when I got confused and thought maybe I was reading a Thomas H. Cook novel but that bit of suspense diminished almost with the next sentence.  Don’t get me wrong though, it was a nice read but it was not typical Stephen King.  It was a nice surprise, actually.

It was a quiet couple of weeks in the reading department but next week I will review “Nine Parts of Desire” by Geraldine Brooks.

Dealing with Little Peckers

For the last 2 months I have had one of my hens go into brood mode.  Poor Broodie was determined to become a mother and she had the other hens laying eggs in her nest with high promises of babies.  I did a Google search and discovered that I had to put her in a hanging cage to discourage such behaviour but that was just too much effort for me.  So I chose the alternative of scooping her out of the next once a day and getting her out on the grass to get sunshine and nourishment.  Eventually she would go back into the chicken house, hop into her nest and continue putting on the heat.  Part of that process included ripping feathers off her breast and tucking them around her eggs.

Every morning I would take the eggs away and tell Broodie “it’s never going to happen sweetheart” but she’d look at me with sad little eyes and continue to sit on the empty nest.

Earlier this week I noticed she was not in her nest, she had finally gotten out of her brood mode and joined her sisters in the search for bugs, leaves and other treats.  I noticed she was looking rather mottled, with feathers sticking out here and there but last night I noticed a huge bare spot on her neck and realized that the other hens had started pecking on her.  Well, it was quite the chase to get her isolated but finally I caught her up in my arms and put her in the Isolation Booth.  In fact, it’s the area locked off from the rest of the coop where I keep the feed and other paraphernalia of my chicken empire.  I had set up clean water, special seed treats, feed and fresh straw for my little Broodie.  She was desperate to get out of the room and tried to run through my legs but I just repeated “it’s never going to happen sweetheart, this is for your own good”.

I went outside and stared through the window.  She stood by the door, looking up at the doorknob, looking so forlorn my heart squeezed tight.  Finally she started rooting around in the straw and I thought she’d be fine.

I’m off to the coop this morning, hoping to goodness she has not pined away in misery all night!

The Rest of My Life

I look back on the last 12 months and think “how awesome” which is exactly what my coach had said my reaction should be, rather than “how time flies”.  I look into the future and can only see more of the same, a time of activity, fun and fulfillment.  That’s how everyone’s retirement should feel, happiness and fulfillment all rolled into one satisfying emotion. 

What made these months so special?  Every day felt as though I had something to accomplish when I woke up.  It’s deeply satisfying to work all day at something and go to bed at night tired but with a sense of accomplishment all the time knowing that another day will be filled with the same satisfaction.  Maybe some folks have this feeling when they go to their regular job but it was never like that for me; if you do, you are very lucky indeed.

Now don’t get me wrong, not every day was one where I was building something.  Some days I would work on my writing, other days I would be shopping with my mother or going to the hairdresser for a new look and sometimes I simply took a rest from hammering and gophering to just socialize with friends or family.  Remarkably I never felt that I was goofing off or that I should feel guilty if I wasn’t going at top speed.  I spent about 3 days in bed or lying on the sofa in the early stages with my broken wrist but other than that I didn’t even have a day of loafing in bed.  Every day I felt rested and ready for the next thing on the list.  Every day I spent time outdoors even if it was only to watch the hens frolic in the yard.

I was fortunate that we had an amazing autumn, a mild winter, an early and lovely spring and a terrific summer.  I certainly had a bad time of it with the broken wrist but even that turned out to be pretty tame compared to what it might have been.  Somehow I managed to get things done with the cast on, even typing one handed!

There’s a lot to be said for having a plan laid out and more to be said for being flexible as things come on sale, weather changes to alter the staging of construction and basically keeping one step ahead of The List!  What I have learned about myself this year is that I am simply not the type of person to get bored, that I can always find something to do, something to learn and most of all, I can always, always wake up with a smile on my face.

Call me Pollyanna, but this life isn’t half bad!