Today’s question is: Why don’t more people encourage peace??

Background: Last night I had the pleasure of attending a private showing of Matt Lamb’s art at an event in St. Helena, CA in an effort to fund raise for Lamb Umbrellas for Peace.

It was a very small benefit, maybe 40 people, allowing me the opportunity to meet and speak with Matt Lamb at length. He is fascinating. He is determined. He is a riot. I had a fabulous time.

Matt Lamb is about spreading peace throughout the world, one person at a time. People waste so much time hating others that are different or think different then themselves. Peace is about overlooking those differences and making the choice to get along. No one has to agree with everyone, no one has to believe what everyone else believes, but we MUST be able to coexist, harmoniously.

I woke up today and I just can’t help but wonder why everyone doesn’t insist on peace? Wouldn’t our world be such a greater place if we could just get along and learn to love?

I took this statement from Matt’s website because I think it perfectly explains the umbrella project:
Lamb says, “The umbrella is a metaphor for protection – it does not discriminate, and all people – regardless of race, age, gender or country – are safe under its cover. The top of the umbrella is the shelter and represents our hopes, dreams and aspirations. The underside of the umbrella represents our concerns and fears, that which is often closest to us. ”

Boy do I wish more people in this world thought like Matt Lamb.

Today’s question is: what’s up with name dropping??

Background: It seems that I live in a world of name droppers. Well that’s not entirely true, only a select few people I encounter are name droppers. But it’s something I don’t quite understand, at all.

What’s with name dropping anyway? Why is the name of a person or product so incredibly important that anyone would need to use it?

ie: I went to this great party the other day and I hung out all night with <>.

I suppose people want to make themselves feel better about spending a small fortune on their name dropped item so they need to tell everyone about it. That’s it right? It’s all incredibly lost on me.

One day someone I know was carrying a purse. I said I liked it, because it was cute (I know you guys don’t quite understand the cute purse thing, but for women purses can be cute). She told me it was a <> and that she was lucky enough to get it on sale for somewhere around $1400. I about choked.

$1400 for a purse? A purse? OMG (think of all the stuff you could buy with that money.)

I assume name dropping happens everywhere. Anyone have any good stories??

Today’s question is: why do some consumer products have obvious warning labels?

Background: I understand why products have warnings, I really do. I get that without the warning label they could be liable if someone actually did the very thing the warning label says not to do. Not that some people still don’t find them liable even with the warning label.

Let’s talk about some of the most ridiculous ones here.

Hair Dryer: it warns not to drop the dryer while plugged in, into a bath tub with a child in it. Electric Shock would be the result. Does anyone really not know this? Can you imagine someone actually dropping a hair dryer into a loaded bathtub? I simply can not.

Shredder: it warns not to insert your tie (while around your neck) into the shredder. It warns not to let your pony tail into the shredder. Can you imagine someone doing either of these things?

The list could go on and on.

I wonder though without these obvious warnings do people (litigious) actually sew and argue that they weren’t warned not do do the obvious act? Like the person that gets choked when their tie goes into the shredder, does he say, “well nowhere did it say not to allow your tie in the shredder”.

Who wouldn’t know that it could choke you?

My dad once owned a convenience store. As most store owners would do, he shoveled the snow when he needed to to keep the walkways clear. One day someone slipped on his shoveled walk. Apparently, without warning, this person didn’t realize that you could slip on a shoveled walk. He decided to sew my dad for slipping on the walk in front of his store. Makes me wonder if he had a big old sign that stated DO NOT WALK ON ICE, would he have avoided the lawsuit?

Do people really need this kind of warning to take responsibility for their own actions?

Sadly, I think so.

Can you think of any good warnings? Anything restating the obvious?

This article ran in the Washington Post today. My cliff note version is the artist said she did not actually do what she said she did to the Yale paper. The art project is made up. Hmmmm?

So tell me, do you believe she really did it? Or do you believe she faked it? Comment please.

For the record, I think the Yale Officials are outraged and pretty much forced her to say she didn’t really do it. I think the statement is forced. Of course I understand it, I’m pretty sure Yale doesn’t want to be known as the university that encouraged the abortion art experiment.

Today’s question is: why on earth would someone decide to do an outrageous art project??

Background: A friend posted about this story on a board I visit often. I am at a loss for words over it. It seriously makes me wonder about people, seriously. Here is the full story (it’s really outrageous, be prepared):

A Yale student who claims she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” and then took drugs to induce miscarriages for her senior art project says she will showcase the stomach-turning display next week — complete with her own blood samples and videos from the terminated possible pregnancies.

The story of art major Aliza Shvarts’ upcoming exhibit, which the Yale Daily News broke Thursday, has sparked widespread disgust and outrage.

“It’s clearly depraved. I think the poor woman has got some major mental problems,” said National Right to Life Committee President Wanda Franz. “She’s a serial killer. This is just a horrible thought.”

Critics on campus have said the display sounds like a shock-and-awe look at the highly sensitive issue of abortion and called it a sick stunt to get attention. The abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America also condemned the exhibit.

“This ‘project’ is offensive and insensitive to the women who have suffered the heartbreak of miscarriage,” said NARAL’s communication director Ted Miller in a statement.

But Shvarts said the goal of the project is to encourage debate and discussion about the connection between art and the human body.

“I hope it inspires some sort of discourse,” Shvarts, whose age was withheld, told Yale’s newspaper. “Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it’s not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone.”

The senior’s campus phone has been disconnected, and she did not respond to e-mailed requests for an interview. Yale University also didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Shvarts told the school paper that her sperm donors, whom she declined to identify, were not paid for their participation but added that she did require them to be screened for STDs.

The drugs she took to induce contractions and miscarriages were legal and herbal in nature, according to Shvarts — who didn’t specify what they were. The art major insisted she wasn’t concerned about the effects of her research on her own body.

But ob-gyn Dr. Manuel Alvarez, FOXNews.com’s health managing editor, said the young woman should have been worried because what she was doing was extremely unsafe.

“It’s quite dangerous,” Alvarez said. “She was playing Russian roulette with her life, if she indeed did this to these unborn children for the sake of art. I don’t even have the words to express the disbelief that I have.”

Alvarez said herbal remedies to trigger uterine contractions have long been used in countries where abortions are illegal — including certain raspberry teas and strong cinnamon teas — but they are far from consistently effective, and they tend to be risky.

“They interfere with pregnancy and are either toxic to the fetus or cause contractions,” he explained. “The reason they are effective is that they create side effects, but none of them are 100 percent prescriptive to be abortive.”

Shvarts wouldn’t say how many times she was artificially inseminated and actually got pregnant for the project — which she described to the Yale paper as a huge cube hanging from the ceiling and swathed in plastic sheeting smeared with her blood from the reported miscarriages. The existence and number of pregnancies Shvarts may have had weren’t independently confirmed.

Videos taken of what the college student says were self-induced abortions in her bathtub will be projected both on the cube’s sides and on the gallery walls.

The exhibit will be on public display from April 22 to May 1 at Yale’s Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall. Shvarts will be honored at a reception April 25.

Franz likened Shvarts’ process of artificial insemination and induced miscarriages to the human experimentation that took place during the Holocaust. She said the Yale senior’s work highlights a stark truth about American society’s approach to abortion.

“She really has hit on a reality that what she has done is legal,” Franz said. “Anything she chooses to do here can’t be stopped in terms of legality. And there are people fighting for her right to do this.”

Alvarez believes such an endeavor in the name of art is offensive, harmful and insensitive, especially to women who face difficult choices about pregnancy or who aren’t able to conceive.

“Anybody who trivializes a woman’s choice to terminate a pregnancy is really not contributing anything positive to these matters,” he said. “I don’t see anything artistic about this. … It’s completely unethical and immoral. What have we accomplished? Absolutely nothing.”

Today’s question is: What’s with people not making kids accountable for their actions?

Background: This weekend I took the girls to a girl scout sleepover at a YMCA camp called Camp Duncan. We had a little incident while there. Let me explain…..

It was raining. It was cold. It was totally kinda miserable. But the girls had fun.

We had poncho’s to keep dry. I had an umbrella too because I had my glasses on and I didn’t want them all dripping with water. I’d have to keep drying them on my shirt if they didn’t stay out of the rain.

After our second activity of the morning we were in the lodge getting warmed up and having a little hot chocolate/coffee. I left my umbrella outside the main door under an overhang. It was by it’s self, no other umbrellas were around.

By the time we had to go to the next activity it was raining pretty hard. I went to get my umbrella and it was gone. No where to be found. I was livid.

Mostly I was mad because I just couldn’t understand how someone could pick up someone else’s umbrella and use it. Like what exactly did whomever take it think it was doing there? Clearly, someone owned that umbrella.

For the next hour I steamed over my stolen umbrella. When we got back to the lodge for lunch I stood by the window waiting for the poor soul who decided to walk off with my umbrella to return.

And then she came.

It wasn’t a mom, like I expected, it was a kid. A little girl (5th or 6th grade, old enough to know better) was walking along with my umbrella, keeping herself dry. She didn’t have a poncho.

I walked out and approached her. I asked her where she got the umbrella. She said she picked it up out front of the lodge (right where I had left it, of course) when it was raining to keep dry. I said, well you realize that you can’t just pick up any umbrella because you want to keep dry, that umbrella was there for a reason, because the person that left it there was using it. She said well I’m bringing it back, sorry (not exactly the sorry I’d expect from my own children).

Entitled, totally entitled.

She gave the umbrella back to me. I said “I get that you are young but you need to realize that you can’t just take whatever it is you want because you want it” and then I walked away with my umbrella.

The thing is, that right behind her were her troop leaders. Not once did they make any mention of the fact that she had taken the umbrella. They did not make her accountable for her unkind act whatsoever. They didn’t talk to her, they didn’t make her come over and apologize, they said nothing. Nothing.

Honestly I was appalled. Totally and completely appalled.

What is wrong with people that they can’t teach a kid a lesson about what not to do? Of course, all the girls in my troop will most likely never take something that doesn’t belong to them after that incident.

(although I don’t think I could say I was a very good example of how to handle the situation, I was a little totally obsessed with finding that umbrella, to the point that the girls followed me outside to see what I’d say. That was, admittedly, embarrassing. And truth be known, one of the girls in the troop found the most important detail to tell her dad was her account of my stolen umbrella. Looks like I need to learn to take a chill pill.)

Today’s question is: why do bad things happen?

Background: Yesterday, I got a call from PW’s uncle. He called to tell me that they lost a grandchild. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, I said “what do you mean?”. And then he told me that his grand daughter, Julia, was killed in a car accident on the way to visit her cousins yesterday morning.

I don’t even know how he found the strength to call me. I don’t know how he was able to tell me what happened. I do know, he must be profoundly sad.

This morning, as I sit at my computer with the sun shining gloriously down upon me I wonder why, why do bad things happen to the people I know and love?

Please say a little prayer for Julia’s mom, dad and little brother, they certainly are going to need many prayers as they navigate through the rest of their lives without their Julia.

Today’s question is: Why is everyone in such a hurry???

Background: 90% of the time I walk the kids to school. If it’s really freezing or really pouring I’ll drive them but it’s almost always walking. We live in a community where we can walk to just about everything we need so we take full advantage. There are days that I don’t use the car at all.

Which brings me to my point. Almost always when we walk across an intersection and a car is waiting for us the driver barely waits for us to cross his or her path and he or she guns it through the intersection. It infuriates me. I mean what if one of the kids accidentally fell backward or something happened? I doubt the driver’s reflex would be fast enough to stop him or her from hitting one of the kids. It happens constantly. It doesn’t matter if the driver is young or old, everyone is in a hurry.

Why is everyone in such a big ass hurry? Don’t they know patience is a virtue??

ps. in case you don’t know what gun it means here’s the urban dictionary (slang) definition:
(v.) To push with full force. Most commonly used to say sprint (whether person, racehorse or car). The likely origin of this could be a starter pistol, although the fact that a bullet leaves a gun at full speed and never slacks seems more probable.
I’ve got to gun it to catch the next train to Scotland!

Today’s question is: Why don’t some moms do what’s right sometimes? (better known as why are some moms dumbasses?)

Background: years ago I was in a mom and tot class with my oldest girl. The class had a little system. It went like this:

45 minutes play time
5 minutes clean up
5 minutes tot picks book and mom reads it on the rug
5 minutes circle time (teacher lead)

That’s the rough schedule anyway, it’s been years since I’ve attended a mom and tot class.

Anyway, the class was filled with entitled type women who really thought their kids were, well, more important than the rest of the world. You know the type.

So, book picking time comes and my little girl picks a book and starts making her way over to me. The next thing I know, one of the very special and important kids grabs the book out of my kids arms and walks over to her mother with it. I look over, as if to say, hand over the book lady, and the lady says (no joking) “we’ll give it back to you when I’m finished reading it to her”.

And she did just that. I could have made a scene but it wasn’t really worth it. Instead I used it as a learning tool on what not to ever do. 1. you don’t take books from other kids hands and 2. if you ever do take a book from another kid you give it back right away.

Someone needed to clue in that mom on those rules. Sadly she’s raising overly entitled kids that probably have continued to act as though they are more important than their classmates through the years.

Today’s question is: Why do people like to ask you tough questions at inappropriate times?

Background: PW’s mom died a week ago. She had been ill for many years and her body finally gave out and she passed. It’s been a tough week. He lost his dad almost 14 years ago and now his mom is gone. Having both parents myself, it’s a little hard for me to completely understand.

Yesterday we had her viewing and funeral. While we were greeting people I had not one but two ladies ask me if our children attended Catholic school (we’re catholics). When I replied no, both times I was met with “Well, why not.” And let me tell you they wanted answers.

I tried to avoid answering them, change the subject or make up excuses. I’m sure they didn’t really want to hear that our taxes are too high and that I think if we’re going to be dropping that much money a year on our public school system I don’t think it makes any sense to spend more money on a catholic education. Or they probably didn’t want to know that I find Sunday school a just fine alternative. Lucky for me, right when I’d start to sweat about what I was going to tell them, PW would lean his head over and say “oh, they might go to a catholic high school”. That was the only bone they needed to move along and stop with the pointed questions.

Whew, thank goodness for PW. But really, who asks people those type of questions at a funeral??