After every time-consuming or effort-extracting event, I go through a letdown. I’m not sure if it’s organic, chemical, physical or psychological or probably a combination of them all, but it’s as if my body says, ‘Whew! Ok, let’s hibernate and possibly get sick for a bit!’ after which I cry for a few days and endure a cold or other illness. Is it possible I actually DO catch a cold or other illness? Or am I just incredibly spent and want to sleep so my body invents an ailment? Inquiring minds wanna know.
Warning – this may be one of the most painful entries ever as far the segue goes. My brain is cloudy and I can barely remember how to speak ACTUAL WORDS such as CAR and PAINT and CLOSE WINDOW when someone comes to the door. Leave now or forever hold your peace.
In the airport coming home, when for some strange reason I decided my hands were invisible and therefore not functional, I neglected to take out my camera so you could all see Miss Arizona USA (not to be confused with the ol’ regular Miss Arizona) sitting and waiting for the flight to, you guessed it, Arizona. Do you know how I know? She had her sash on. Her required sash for all the free airline travel she gets. And if I heard her say it once, I heard her say it a million times (or at least the actual 6 times I DID hear her say it), she is NOT dating Bill M., Preston C., James F., Tony S., Tony L. or Tony Z. I don’t care what those silly men say, she is NOT. (smiling SMILING smiling)
There was a youngish man, guitar out on his lap, sitting next to her and, I kid you not, playing and picking those strings for the entire 90 minutes we waited for the flight. 90 minutes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings songs, a few of which he hummed along with, not so badly. He was so earnest. So very, very earnest and I wanted to stop reading my book for a minute (yes, my hands reappeared and functioned for my book) just to tell him I would enjoy his music more if he would only play a little Dave Matthews or even Patsy Cline, but he would never have heard me, so completely wrapped up in her he was. His adoring eyes never left her face, not even for the Gypsy Kings segment.
The friend referred book I was reading is called God Is Not Great. I’ve struggled with religion since I was a child and it’s only now that I’m realizing it’s alright to say out loud that I might not believe in God. At least not the type of God I was instructed to love and obey as a child. In the scriptures is says ‘By their fruits ye shall know them’ and my problem has always been that what I mostly see is hypocrisy and ways to keep people out in every religion I’ve studied. But not in all my 36 years and not until I read this book did it dawn on me that I didn’t have to keep searching to find the one I wanted to belong to. Because I don’t want to belong to any of them. And man, I’ve had such a sense of peace and relief with that realization.
Speaking of politics (weren’t we? I did warn you…), I’m trying to figure out how to support any candidate that is Christian. After all the wars done in the name of different Gods, the number of people persecuted for being different and the (what I consider to be) faulty reasoning behind it, voting for someone that I know holds those beliefs would be just plain wrong, wouldn’t it?
A number of people I know are having babies, just had a baby or actively trying to have a baby. (Still with me?) I’ve been trying to have a baby. So much so that it took medical intervention to get me to give it a break already. So many miscarriages in so little time are not a good thing and there have been a few not mentioned on this blog. Today, after reading Schmutzie, who I realize had a totally different reason for writing what she did, I had the sudden realization that maybe The Universe has been trying to tell me that maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t be trying to have another child but I couldn’t hear it yet. And then I thought maybe I’d get my tubes tied. And then I almost cried because it sounded like such a wonderful idea. I’ve not ever considered this option before and I’m not in any hurry to go and get it done, but it’s an interesting turn of events, is it not? Life is so fascinating.
My sister comes out with her husband in a few weeks for an entire glorious weekend of nothing to do put poke our toes in the sand. If I tell her I don’t believe in God, will she still love me?
My daughter is 16. (Did your brain just crickety-crack trying to keep up?) Completely and utterly 16 and everything it entails. I would not go back and be 16 for every, single, solitary fat-free and guiltless cheeseburger in all of China, of which there are none, but even if there were. She routinely hurts my feelings to the very depths of my soul as only your daughter can and it’s continually my job as her mother to love her just like she is, right where she’s at, and not make her feel ashamed. Being a parent is one of the frackinist jobs of all time. And yet, I wouldn’t trade it for anything and actually went through hell just to be in this position but I’ve got to learn to give myself permission to have a bad day without self recrimination. Wow, that was an awfully and probably unnecessarily wordy paragraph. Sorry, Mrs. Beasley.
This freelancing and doing the stray article now and again has not brought in the amount of cold, hard cash one might expect. Or, maybe it’s exactly as much as one might expect. All that to say – not much. And I’m feeling the itching in my fingers and in my brain to do something more substantial. There was a job a few months ago that I was excited about but ended up not getting and ever since then, I’ve just not really looked. But I think it’s that time, friends. It’s THAT time. So, Hello Universe – I’d like a winner job, please. Oh, and thanks.
My husband is awesomer than I ever imagined or dared hope.
And also, mashed potatoes with tiny bitso cheddar cheese just might be the best thing since Kindereggs. (Thanks, Jen.)
My head is spinning – SPINNING. So, I’ll start at the top and stop there too.
Me? Today? Total defrag. I could not stand the thought of my paying jobs sent me into a helter skelter of “run for the bed” emotions and housework didn’t ring its bell loud enough either.
Me and the hooligans hit the library and then rented more movies than we can watch by the time they’ll be overdue.
I gotta sign up for Netflix.
But … er…back to you. Yea, YOU!
If you look up ‘stream of consciousness’ in the dictionary [if it were ever in there in phrase format] there would be a picture of you riding a bicycle.
16 wasn’t so long ago for me, and I remember how I was. All I can say is this. It’s hard to hate someone who honestly and truly loves you. Sure, you can be annoyed. But never hate. Keep that in mind.
Job searching. Ugh does that suck. I job searched for almost a year before I found my current job, which I love to death. But I almost gave up and settled, when my current job was offered to me. So you know what? Stay in the game, and it will of course come your way 🙂
You have more patience than me. I’d have told the guitarist to shush it.
Religion. Don’t play around with it. Also, God, I think, exists independently of it. People just have a need to know everything about everything, so they put words and books and laws and silly things to it. Enter every religion ever. But God, I like to think, just smiles and says ‘Ha. Okay, whatever. Just don’t do anything bad while you’re at it’.
Enjoy your hibernation. Maybe watch some Golden Girls. That always helps.
the post-conference crash seems netwide. i’m going to post something non-blogher related today if it kills me. i’m ready to be on the other side of it, wonderful as it was.
i have notice that once people manage to break away from fundamentalism, it is very hard to find a way back into belief of any kind. who can blame them?
I would just caution against painting Christians or any other religion with too wide a brush. When I had no use for any of it myself, I assumed I knew exactly what you stood for or believed if you were a Christian. You could say I was being a secular fundamentalist. And a literalist. If you professed to believe in the Bible, that must mean your God was that raving lunatic in the Old Testament, right? Because, as a religious person, no way could you be intelligent enough to understand metaphor and myth. I was basically doing what the fundamentalists do, just from the other side of the coin.
Now that I belong to a church myself, I realize that the values and beliefs vary hugely not only from denomination to denomination, but from person to person.
My two cents. just keep feeding that lovely soul of yours, however feels good to you.
A few weeks ago i came to the stumbling conclusion that, for me, there is no God. I was raised without religion so it was not a major leap for me, but, saying it out loud is very difficult. There is a finality to that.
I am so worried about my daughters being teenagers. I hope my heart can handle it.
I want a job too. I want recognition, to be somebody, to be excited, to be challenged. I have an idea, but don’t know where to begin.
This post read like butter to my frazzled brain.
I love this post–and you–because it is so you!
You managed to tie everything together quite quite nicely. And now I’m also afraid of teenagers. Seriously, good luck with the jobby job.
Mike
As long as we’re writing stream of consciousness, your post reminded me of something I experienced at my Lamaze class recently.
We were told to introduce ourselves, say something about ourself and then something about having a baby that scared us. There was a woman there with her husband. She was 42. She was pregnant with her first. She said, “I’m afraid this one will die just like the rest.”
Our instructor said, “Have you lost many?”
“Yes.”
“Not this late, though, right?”
“I’ve lost them at all points, including after they are born but I have a good feeling about this one.”
The instructor said, “I’m so sorry to hear that. Well, we all wish you the best of luck.”
I was speechless and of course my mind began to wander, just what happened? How many had she lost? Would this one work out for her? It bugs me to this day that I’ll never know. I do hope she ends up (ended up? We’re all due any day/minute now) with a son.
It broke my heart. It still does.
Anyway….
errrr, she was pregnant with her first child, meaning, if everything works out and he lives, this will be her only living child. This isn’t her first time pregnant, obviously. :] had to clarify.
I hear you. I think our brains have done some vulcan mind meld thing today, because mine’s all stream of consciousness and freaky, too.
I heart you.
oh my nondenominational deity, am i awful when it comes to needling my parents about religion. especially my dad, who is so pro war, and i am always like MY FAVORITE PART OF THE GOOD BOOK WAS ALL THE BOMBS AND CRUISE MISSILES LAUNCHED AT ANYONE WHO LOOKED LIKE OUR ENEMY OR ASKED TOO MANY QUESTIONS. and he just rolls his eyes, because he is old and can no longer catch me.
i’m in so much trouble if there is a heaven, ’cause he will likely die first and just be waiting there for my arrival.
Hi,
I clicked over from Pioneer Woman’s blog. I just wanted to say I have an almost 16 year old daughter and I completely get the “hurting your feelings to the depths of your soul part” of parenting a teenager. When my daughter does that I go out and buy myself a big bouquet of flowers.
It helps. A little.
Cathy
I love this journey-through-life post. It’s like crossing the stream, rock-by-rock, and every rock is a new topic but all the rocks are in the stream so it is all relevant. And we get mashed potatoes with cheese at the end…how delicious!
Thank you for sharing all of that – the raw, unformed stuff and all of its jagged edges. Your willingness unzip the handbag of your soul and dump out it’s contents…makes me want to empty my purse onto the table too.