Down in Kitty's Bassment

A flag-wavin', Earth-lovin', independent Pagan-in-a-giant-red-cornfield point of view. Believe it or not, there are some open minds in Nebraska. Oh, and I love NFL football too.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Some Pet Peeves

I am a 99% extremely tolerant person, but there are a few things in this world even I cannot stand. These are my "pet peeves" (who came up with that term, anyway?)

1. People who shit in public restrooms. What about entering a store makes you immediately feel the need to take a dump? Do you not realize that other people have to use the same restroom? Maybe even the employees? I have to walk past the restrooms to go to the breakroom and eat my lunch, and lemme tell you that whatever crawled out of your ass and into the hall does NOT make that task easy. If ya gotta dump, that means it's time to leave the store. I WORK there and I can hold it for a few hours until I can go home! GEEZ!

2. People who cannot read speed limit signs. If the sign says 40, and I am doing 40, you have no right to whip past me doing 60 with your left middle finger out the window and your right hand clutching your cell phone to your ear. (How do you drive like this?)

3. People who impose their brand of morality on everyone else. If you don't like something a store sells, don't buy it. Also, don't put other things in front of it, hide it behind a shelf, or turn it around. (Can you guess how many times in Nebraska we had to flip the Bill Clinton bio back to its rightful, face out position?) Or how many days in a row I've had to remove Midwest Living from in front of Heavy Metal this week? You can complain to the manager, if you like. But it won't help. I like our Constitution.

4. People who blame others for their problems. Reading Harry Potter books turned someone's kid into a witch, which took a lot of expensive counseling to fix and made the parents look bad to their buddies at church. Reeeeeally? Mark Foley was allegedly molested by a clergyperson as a teen. So? Some guy dreamed of molesting kids so he shoots a bunch of Amish girls. HUH? No one is powerless. Do your homework, make your decisions, and then accept and own the consequences, good or bad. And don't hurt other people because you can't stand yourself anymore.

I am sure there are more. There have to be. But as it's late, and #1 was the big one (or or the big #2, as it seems to be) I'll quite griping about humanity now and let you sleep.

A Point about that Over-zealous Mother

The point was to be: what is this mother teaching her children? That there are some evil books in this world? (I believe there are no evil books - the evil comes from what people do after reading them.)

How about "Stand up for what you believe in." That's noble, and I cannot disagree with it. "Even when you are ridiculed and persecuted for it." Yep, even then.

Or is she really teaching them this: "If you don't like the answer one authority gives you, then you ask the other one, and then another, and then another; until you get the answer you want. Do not accept no as an answer." Can't wait till those kids grow up, Mom. Remember, if you tell 'em no, they can always ask Dad. And if he says no, they can run away or sue for emancipation. All because you provided them with the example that no doesn't have to be final so long as there is another person to ask.

Harry Potter and the Over-zealous Mother

One mother in Georgia has made it her mission to remove Harry Potter from all the school and public libraries in her county because it promotes the practice of witchcraft. No kidding. Stop laughing.

I have not read the Harry Potter books. They started coming out when my kids were at the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Thomas the Tank Engine" stage of life, and as they aged they never showed interest. We have seen a few of the movies though, which were OK. I never saw them as promoting witchcraft, though. I saw them as portraying the struggle of good vs. evil, much the same way as "The Lord of the Rings" did (though not nearly as well, in my opinion).

Why do I say the books do not promote witchcraft, when they portray children going to a school to learn to cast spells and tamper with the universe? Because that's not witchcraft, really. That's wannabe fluffy "witchcraft", just like the TV series "Charmed". If casting a spell makes you a witch, then surely eating a flat tasteless wafer and drinking wine makes you a Catholic. It doesn't, obviously. It's just one teensy part of the whole.

What is witchcraft? It is a pagan religion, often referred to as the "old religion". Why? Because paganism predates all the other religions. Long before there were "God" and "Jesus" and "Allah" there were other deities. Which ones you worshipped mostly depended on location. Egyptians had a set of gods/goddesses (Bast, Ra, Osiris, etc.), Greeks had a set of gods/goddesses (Zeus, Demeter, Athena, Dionysus, etc.), Romans had them (Neptune, Venus, Mars, etc.). The Norse had Odin, Thor and Freya among others and the Celts had Cerridwen, Brighid and many others. Even those on this continent could have been considered Pagan, when you think that their gods are all things you find in nature, such as the Sky Father, Earth Mother, and their many brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom. Many people think "heathen" or "atheist" are interchangeable with "Pagan". They are not. Pagans of old (and the Pagans of today) simply believe in deities other than "God." Some people, especially Christians, equate "Pagan" with "Satanist", which is also extremely inaccurate. Satan belongs in that God, Jesus and Mary set, and most Pagans do not believe in him. How can we worship a being who does not exist to us? Witches simply worship other gods and goddesses in much the same way as other major modern religions do.

Do witches cast spells all the time? I would say that less than 1% of my religion the way I practice it is spellcraft, at least in a ritualized format. Do I cast spells more often than that? Yes, in the same way that most other people do. It's called a wish. You see a need, you focus on it and direct energy towards it, and work toward resolving it. Much more of my time, in fact the bulk of it, is spent in something I like to call "passive worship". Serving others, taking care of my Earth Mother by recycling and reducing my own personal consumption, noticing all the beauty around me: these are how I worship.

Now if I have a minor illness or discomfort, I have learned enough about the substances Mother Earth has provided in order to take care of it. I don't go running for a pill bottle. If my cure doesn't work, I go to a professional healer (doctor). I have had no need of a doctor for four years, so I must be doing something right. (This also goes to show that most people could also apply a little common sense and nature wisdom to many of their ills and maybe make all of our health insurance premiums go down a little.) Could someone who isn't a witch make menstrual cramps go away with a simple tea? Yes, probably; but would they believe that Earth's solution would work as well as Midol? Probably not.

Wow, I got WAY off Harry Potter. Anyway, in my experiences I have not seen Harry, Hermoine and the other dude invoke a deity to cast a spell. I have not seen them worship other deities. In fact, from the movies I cannot discern what religion they are. Which means they AREN'T witches, because I could easily discern that. They are just spell casters in a fantasy fiction world. You remember "Fantasia"? There was a part where Mickey grabs his boss' pointy hat and floods the whole room with water. That's Harry Potter. It's not really witchcraft. Witchcraft is an entire lifestyle, a mindset, a way of being. I remember when I was really into Jesus. All day long I thought about Jesus. Jesus this and Jesus that, what would Jesus do, etc. I was consumed by it. Or it sure felt like I was. I think many hardcore Christians can relate to that. That, I believe, is the best way to describe the Wiccan faith. It's not something you do for an hour on Sundays, it IS you. Anyway, Harry and friends do not seem to be all about the Craft. They are regular teens sometimes, enjoying sports and cars (OK, it flies) and the attentions of the opposite sex occasionally. And sometimes they get into a spot, say a few Latin-sounding words while pointing a stick and POOF! The problem is solved (or worse, depending on which kid cast the spell). That's not witchcraft. It's just a story.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Critters of Habit

Humans are critters of habit. Take me, for example. My life was as predictable as it could be and I loved it that way. I woke up, watched Good Morning America, and went to work on the appropriate days. Then I came home at 4:43, let the dog out, did one quick Neopets thing, and watched the channel 8 news. This was followed by the ABC news and, if I was feeling froggy, the channel 8 news again. This was followed by my DVR-d episodes of "The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beautiful" recorded earlier that very same day. Then it was on to CNN for Larry King and Anderson Cooper, unless it was a football night (Thursday, Friday, Sunday or Monday). Then I'd go to bed and watch Larry King, Anderson Cooper or ESPN until I fell asleep, having set my sleep timer for 2 hours.

I now have a roommate, whose habits are quite different and apparantly taking precedence over mine. First of all, she does not watch the correct news station. She's hooked on NBC for some reason. I have had no reason at all to watch anything on NBC until just this fall when ABC made the most gigantic mistake of dumping Monday Night Football and John Madden and Al Michaels had to move over to NBC. Before that I think it's been at least 10 years since I had watched NBC at all. In fact, I think Cheers was the last show I liked on NBC.

I didn't know until this last month that there were still game shows on TV. I knew "The Price is Right" was still on because a) it's on right before Y&R and b) Bob Barker is immortal. But I figured that all those other game shows had run their course. Not true. In fact today I found three game shows on my TV: "Jeopardy!" (I guess Alex Trebek is also immortal), "Wheel of Fortune" (so is Pat Sajak), and that one show that Regis used to do 9 nights a week with the final answer thing (which is now hosted by a woman. In fact "Jeopardy!" is on every flippin' day when I get home. You know, before this month it had been probably 10 or 12 years since I had seen "Jeopardy!". I could happily live another 12 years before I watch it again. Betcha I don't get that lucky.

And finally I watched 6 episodes of Y&R this morning. I'm not caught up to this weeks episodes, but I am getting closer. I also have about 6 or 10 episodes of B&B recorded. Since I cannot watch them every night any more, I have to have these marathon viewing sessions. So DO NOT tell me what happened today in the comments section.

I never thought that at my age I would have anything in common with the college kids with whom I work. But I do. I'm learning to live around a roommate. I missed out on that in college. I guess it's karma coming back around to bite me.