30 TRUTHS IN 30 DAYS - DAY SIX

Truth #6: This time of year many people tend to add new additions to their homes from local animal shelters or possibly from a breeder or a pet store. Truth #6 sinks to the core of my being because I am an animal lover through and through. I have always had a pet or pets my entire life and they are as much a part of my family as any of my family members are. When they die, I grieve and I miss them terribly. They leave a hole in my heart. These are the reasons why I feel people shouldn't own pets unless they intend to treat them as family members and to love them a such. When I see animals left outside in the heat or cold without food or water I truly do not understand why a person would get a pet only to abuse it. My truth here is that people guilty of doing such things should be chained ouside without food and water and shown how it feels to live that way. So if you intend to bring that new puppy or kitten home for Christmas and you don't intend to make it part of your family, do it a favor and leave it where it is because at least it's getting fed and it's sheltered and warm where it is.

30 TRUTHS IN 30 DAYS - DAY FIVE

Truth #5: When something bad happens you have three choices: You can let it define you. You can let it destroy you. You can let it strengthen you. I encourage each of you to reflect on your life and look at those dark times. What did they do for you? Or what did you do with the dark times? Do you wear those times like a badge? Did those times cripple you? Or have those times taught you to be a better person so you can reach out and help others going through similiar times?

SHOW ME WHERE IT HURTS

When you've been hurt, what works best to help you heal? For me, I find writing is very therapeutic. It allows me to vent uninterrupted and it also allows me to see the problem as a whole instead of in disjointed parts that often times make no sense. This blog has been a blessing in many ways and one added bonus of blogging is getting other people's opinions on whatever the topic I choose to tackle. Interacting with others not only helps broaden my perspective and gives me much food for thought, but it helps me to see that I'm not alone even when things seem to be at a low point. The truth is that we all share the same human experience. We all hurt at times. We all get disappointed by people we love and we all can help each other by reaching out and sharing our pain and experiences with one another.

30 TRUTHS IN 30 DAYS - DAY FOUR

Truth #4: With the second anniversary of my mother's death in a few days, death has been on my mind a lot lately. I know death is a difficult concept for everyone from the time we are small children until our final days. Maybe it isn't meant for us to actually understand it, but sometimes we go from fearing it to actually welcoming it depending on our circumstances and health problems. Over the course of our lifetimes our views on death may change, but one thing for certain, the topic death makes people uncomfortable even though it's something each of us will experience at some point. It's inevitable! So with this truth I know we can cheat many things in life, but there's one thing that no one can ever cheat and that's death.  

30 TRUTHS IN 30 DAYS - DAY THREE

Truth #3: No matter how bad things can get at times, those times will pass. I truly believe that there are valuable lessons to be learned from those times if we open both our eyes and our hearts and reflect honestly on them. For one to find the true reason and worth in their life Socrates claims "an unexamined life is not worth living." As with the tides, our lives have highs and lows and we must flow with it or drown in its current. Socrates may be correct, but Sylvester the Cat calls his version of this lesson of "Brotherly Love": Survival of the Fittest!

BANG! BANG! SHOOT! SHOOT!

WARNING:  WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ COMES DIRECTLY FROM THE IRRATIONAL BRAIN OF A BLEEDING HEART LIBERAL! 

It's been ages since I've written a blog post regarding religion or politics.  I've purposely done that because those issues tend to ruffle too many feathers and quite frankly, I haven't felt like reading a lot of other people's bitching and moaning lately.  What a selfish wench I am!  Although we all like to believe we're 100% correct regarding our political ideology and spiritual beliefs, I'm intelligent enough to know that rarely is one side completely right about anything. The exception to that rule is the dogma surrounding Mildredism. Mildred, after all, is right about everything! 

Today is the day I'm going to break my dry spell and jump back into the insanity of public opinion.  One issue I'd like to weigh in on is the increased gun violence in the United States. Without stepping on anyone's toes or Second Amendment rights, I really believe something concrete needs to be done to curb the violence.  Too many innocent people are being slaughtered daily.  I listen closely to all the rhetoric surrounding this hotbed issue, but all I really hear appears to be are confirmations of an irrational need to be heavily armed and a quite twisted relationship between weapons and their owners.  Instead of people focusing on a very real problem and having a rational discussion about it so a consensus can be reached, all I hear are people wailing about their guns being taken away from them.  To that I say BOO FUCKING HOO!

Perhaps when the Constitution was first written a need to be armed was a truly legitimate need, but it's an entirely different world now than it was then.  At that time people had to hunt to provide food to feed their families.  Veganism wasn't the going rage back then. People were meat and potato connoisseurs not bean sprout and tofu gurus.  Back then guns were a person's only defense in the savage environment they were settling. Today fewer people hunt to feed their families and those who do hunt, do it more for sport than for dietary need.  Those who chose to hunt and it is a choice because meat is readily available for sale at any store near where they live certainly can do so without doing it with a semi-automatic firearm.  Wouldn't hunting be more like hunting if it were done with bows instead of guns? Just a thought! 

Having a fully equipped arsenal of weapons seems a little bizarre to me and just a wee bit on the paranoid side.  Maybe I feel this way because I've never felt a need to own a gun.  As many times as I have attempted to discuss this issue no one has ever adequately explained to me any rational reasons why people have a need for weapons in this day and age.  What I generally get are loud tirades that come off sounding more like something an emotionally unstable person might rant. And oh boy, that's the kind of person I want armed and ready for anything! Today's savage environment doesn't include marauding bands of Native Americans or outlaws who rape, plunder and pillage.  The savage situations of today are school shootings and crimes of passion.  Could the answer be as simple as taking all weapons away except those used by law enforcement and the military? Perhaps if that was done, the violence might vanish.  Just a thought! 

So what's it going to take to turn the violence around?  Any thoughts on the subject? Other industrialized countries don't seem have the amount of gun violence we have here.  Are we not doing something right?  What's their formula for a relatively peaceful co-existence? Are we just a nation of spoiled children who want what we want when we want it regardless of the consequences of our actions?  Have people become incapable of compromise? Has our gun violence gotten so out of hand that it can't be fixed and why does the NRA seem to wield so much power? Who made them Grand Poobah of Gunslingers?  These are just some of the questions floating around in my bleeding heart liberal brain. 

* Repost from June 25, 2014