What do i want to change about healthcare?

What do I want to change about healthcare?

Surprisingly (perhaps) I have a pretty short answer for this one. Of all the possible complaints and difficulties any American might have concerning how he or she receives healthcare in this country, my biggest problem is the seemingly overwhelming assumption that the federal government should be the entity from whom a solution must come.

There seem to be about a thousand rumors circling as to what the new hypothethical healthcare bill may entail. There are some ideas I don't have a big problem with. There are other ideas I feel I would nearly give my life to protest. But with all of the prospective policies, I have one problem: that the federal government of the United States would institute them.

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The portion you have just read was the entirety of my submission for SixPerspectives this week.
Be sure to check out that blog for the other perspectives and join in the discussion.

Here, i will share more.

You can call me a lunatic if you like. I might call you one back. But to me, the prospect of socialized healthcare goes against everything that made this country great. The idea is supposedly to make this country a better place, but any system that forces me to abide by its notion of what is best for me, will if yielded to, imprison me in the name of my own freedom. And i will fight it, i will resist it, and i will beg almighty God in His mercy not to let it happen.

Socialized healthcare is the first notable step to the socialization of a nation. Don't give up your rights, people. Not the president, the congress, not your doctor or your minister, can tell you what's best for you. You have the right to make that decision on your own. You may consult whomever you choose, but the decision is yours. Our forefathers and God Himself gave us the right to make the wrong decision if we want to. And my healthcare is included. My healthcare, my body, my values, my faith, my decision. Period.

Viking Pools

This is no expose or anything. I received this advertisement in the mail today from Viking Pools, whom i have no reason to suspect is anything but a completely upstanding corporation. Simply, the image on the cover made me laugh. A little misleading, perhaps?

Getting a pool from Viking Pools or anyone else probably won't make your back yard ever look exactly - or remotely in the same universe - like this cover. But nice imagery, Viking Pools. And good for a laugh.

SixPerspectives Topic: Do you give money to the homeless guy?

Each week, SixPerspectives has a new topic for discussion, and i often have the pleasure and privilege of sharing my perspective for the weekly submission. I have a hard time keeping my opinion to the preferred 150 word limit, so i have decided to expound here. Please check out SixPerspectives and read the other 5 responses submitted on this topic.

Topic: Do you give money to the homeless guy?

Well, I guess I have to ask, “which homeless guy?”

I don't have an absolute answer to this one.

As a Christian, I have a barrage of scriptures and scriptural principles banging around in my head, ”. . . do unto others . . .,” “. . . be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove . . .,” “. . . give to him to asks . . .,” “. . . be a good steward of the Lord's money . . .,” and so forth.

As a human being, I recognize that “the homeless guy” may or may not actually be homeless, may be about to spend my money on liquor or drugs, may be homeless by choice (those who choose to withdraw from society), or he may be someone just like me who had a bad run of luck and just doesn't know what to do but ask random strangers for money so he can eat.

But in that moment, that thirty-second window at the stop light, when I see said (possibly) homeless stranger at the corner hoping someone will drop him a five, I think the answer is “maybe.” It's really always a judgment call. And often it depends mostly on the off chance that I actually have some cash that can easily be handed out the window before the light turns green. And if he's selling something, not just begging for money, i'll gladly buy it if I can.

There is another variety of “homeless guy” who I would like to give money or food to but who will rarely accept it. This is the guy who most people have seen around town, walking here and there or riding a bike. Some of them have acquired an unofficial job taking out someone's trash or sweeping someone's floor and earning just enough to get them cigarettes and a combo meal every day or two. My husband and I will comment on them and give nick names to the ones who won't talk to us (just for our own personal reference). We'll notice when one of them acquires a bike and looks happy about his new, speedier method of transport. Sometimes they're slightly mentally disabled, functional but not comfortable with the “normal” way of things. I respect these guys, to be honest. I think they're exercising their right to live how they want.

Once I read a letter to the editor in a local newspaper, in which a woman was complaining about the population of homeless persons who had taken to camping in the unoccupied woods near the local library. She said that they should be “cleaned out of there” or something very similar indicating that they were dirtying up the place. This sentiment angered me. And I still don't understand it. I'm not afraid of homeless people any more than I am of the general population. And if they are not on private property and are not endangering anyone, I fail to see the problem. Homeless people are part of American society, like it or not. And a large percentage of them really have chosen to be homeless. For those who have chosen it and do not expect to be returned charity for laziness (not to imply that the homeless are necessarily lazy), I say let them be. I've certainly had my moments when the hermit life seemed very attractive. And feeling like being alone doesn't, in itself, make anyone dangerous.

Just one more thing. As to the guy who may be simply at the bottom end of a very bad run of circumstances, it has been my experience that he will eagerly make very good use of every drop of assistance you will give him. And when you see that the simplest act of compassion and decency has resulted in a man (or woman of course) who is back on his feet....well, if you gave to the drunk and the drug addict and the deceitful panhandler along the way....the people who made no profitable use of your outreach, it's o.k. The beauty of seeing a man, once humbled, now able to stand up on his own two feet and make a life for himself, is worth all of the seemingly wasted effort along the way. And it encourages me to once again to, ". . . give to him who asks . . ."

Look what my chicken did!!!!!!

I have been concerned about my chicken.

She has been singing the "i laid an egg song" for a solid month, but i never could find the eggs. I knew it was possible that she hadn't started laying, but i really thought she probably was.....somewhere.

Then today, i was waiting for James to get home from the store so we could go see his dad, and i went outside to look at the chicken but couldn't find her. So i went searching, and i found her huddled up behind some plants next to the side of the house. At first i thought she was sick or injured or something. And so i tried to pick her up, and she kind of stood up, and then i felt them.....EGGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And i kept sticking my hand back down there and kept coming up with more eggs. SEVEN in all! Which means she's probably been laying for at least a week. At least i think that's what it means.

She has been trying to tell me, but i never could find them.

I am so proud and excited! I have been celebrating and doing a little dance every time i think about it!

This is very important to me. If you don't know why, read here.

Finally, a sign of success! Maybe we will really get to have a productive little mini-farm. Maybe maybe maybe there is hope!

So....after i found the eggs, i gathered them on the table and when James got home, i was standing outside grinning bigger than my face and waving him in. COME SEE! COME SEE!

And then we put them in an egg carton and carried them to his dad's so we could show him and Suzanne.

And then we carried them home and took pictures and scrambled a couple and ate them for celebration's sake.




And now i'm sharing my good news with everyone i can find on the internet.

WE HAVE EGGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am beside myself. Just look right there. Here i am typing, and right there i'm still dancing and woohoo-ing.

Thank You, Lord God, for the miracle and coolness of eggs from chickens and for the fabulous blessing of a sign of success!

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

today and yesterday and other days and years and stuff

Yesterday was my dear mother's birthday. I wasn't feeling as prolific, so she didn't get the then normal holiday honorary blog. I will just say that my affectionate feelings for my mother are deep waters that can't always be expressed, and i am very happy she was born and continues to live.

This year (yesterday) when i called my mother to say Happy Birthday, i was especially conscious of the great blessing that she is because i was also in the presence of my little neighbor friend who lost his mother shortly after he turned only six years old. More than 2 1/2 years later, he still sometimes becomes sad, and when you ask him what's wrong, he says, "oh i was just missing my mom...." I'm pretty sure i would be too.

A good and loving (and living) mother is a bundle of very great blessings (and rare these days), and i consider myself to be blessed abundantly, and without proper expression, in that regard.

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Yesterday is also the 5 year anniversary of our (mine and James') last significant house fire. Dates like that tend to stick in one's head better than most things. I wish the good dates stuck better than the sad dates, but then again, sometimes the sad dates are really the dates of new beginnings and new strengths and new triumphs. If you can remember them that way, it's better.....and probably more beneficial. I remember on that day that i somehow felt bad that we had something bad happen on Mom's birthday. It's not like we planned it, but i still felt bad that she was having to feel bad for me (1000 or something miles away and able to do nothing about it) instead of celebrating.

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Also, this month it has become time to look into renewing our homeowner's insurance. The time passed by so fast! I've still been saying that "we just moved here," but we've been here almost a year now. We've been homeowners for almost a year, and that is very exciting. We hold out hope for us and everyone else in our vicinity that we will also celebrate a whole year without a major hurricane. How would that be?

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