Monday, September 14, 2009

hurricane anniversary, love, and disrespect

Sunrise at Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area, Texas
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp



Sometimes a majority simply means that all the fools are on the same side.
--Claude McDonald



Not sure what I'm going to talk about but it's been 10 days so I owe you faithful readers something right? This one is for Melanie! :)

One year ago today (ie Sep 13th, though technically being after midnight it's now Sep 14, but we'll pretend it's still the 13th) - Hurricane Ike hit (see my Sep 2008 blogs for pics!)! It wasn't a scary storm where I sat in my nice brick house. But in my neighborhood and all around Houston it wreaked havoc! Particularly where I live there are lots of trees (though they're disappearing daily for subdivisions) and many of the isolated ones fell on people's roofs! I was very lucky that I had no damage other than a single fence thingie (what are they called?!).

We had no electricity for someting like 11 days!! Again I was very lucky and blessed because my friend across the street (a majot street) had it from day 1! I don't know why she was so lucky, but the vast majority of Houstonians did not have any for days and weeks. I think she was on the grid with a hospital. Anyway, so I've lived iwthout electricty in my childhood so it was no big deal! And I had an absolute blast hanging out with friends and having a much more laid back lifestyle for a few days. It was a hurrication!

My son's birthday happened just after the hurricane, so he didn't even get a party... this year something happened again! Well his birthday hasn't happened YET but we had planned to go camping and tubing this past weekend but had to reschedule due to rain. Some may like it but camping in the rain is NO FUN for me, in a tent... yuk. Been there done that, no thanks. Plus tubing is also not so fun in the rain! So let's hope and pray that in a couple weekends from now, it will be sunny and warm!!

I was really irritated at SC Rep Joe Wilson screaming "you lie" at President Obama in the middle of his speech. What complete disrespect! I could go on, but I won't. And I was also very frustrated that people were so up in arms about Obama talking to schoolkids. The hypocrisy with which the very same people oppose the same actions they didn't think twice about with "W" astounds me. It's extremely frustrating that a man who ran without any insults and mud-slinging at McCain or Clinton (he attacked their policies but was not disrespectful or dishonest) - and he often says he wants people to know they can disagree without being disagreeable - gets the exact opposite treatment by certain people! You can disagree with his policies without being disrespectful...

Other than that, I'll share a few bits of wisdom that have come my way the last week or so. I get this daily wisdom email thingie and today's was, in part:

"He believed that the love of his life, if he ever found the Right One, would fill all the gaps of his own personality. She dreamed that her perfect match would always respond gently, never willfully. After the honeymoon phase they naturally began to find imperfections and disappointments. Both wondered if they had chosen the Wrong One. But in a sense, there is no Right One for anyone. In another sense, there may be millions of Right Ones."

Which is interesting because D&I just started this class on communicating in relationship based on Harville Hendrix's amazing book Getting the Love You Want. It's technically for married couples, and I had done a workshop on it with my ex, and honestly it was one of the few things that truly had a big positive impact on our learning to communicate better so since I do not ever ever ever want to get divorced again, so I want to make darn sure that I can resolve deep and painful and complex issues satisfactorily and peacefully... so I am excited about the class!!!

And what we learned tonight (of course it's not new to me) was basically the same thing as I got in the email above. I believe that to truly love someone is not a feeling we have in ourselves, but an action we show to others. And in showing love to another person, we reflect the selfless love that Jesus taught and we became his hands and feet in the world to one another.

3 comments:

tresgatos said...

Wendee, Reading your note for the 13th, I had to snicker about the fence 'thingie'... once I heard a comedian wonder the same thing, since the word fence sounds plural, he came up with the singular 'fent'. lol Not sure what other word there is, slat, perhaps? Board?

Love to y'all from the great NW!

txaggievet said...

You lie.... hmmm, I agree he should have waited to comment until after the speech, but it was much better than the treatment Bush got from Dems in the 2005 state of the union speech where they booed him multiple times. No one got admonished or had to apologize then. Also, he was far more respectful than Pelosi when she said all conservatives were Nazis. Plus Obama is lying, there is nothing in this bill that stops illegals from getting free tax payer funded health care.

Unknown said...

txaggievet - from my understanding the costs from illegal aliens gets MOSTLY paid for by the medical companies not federal dollars. Obamas bill specifically says no fed $ for illegal aliens. On the other hand, depending on the situation treating someone who is gravely ill and has no money to pay themselves is still a humanitarian issue. I don't have time to get into a big debate but just think that Wilson's behavior was disrespectful in that particular forum. In the House there are decorum rules that prevent it. When the Pres speaks to joint sessions of Congress there are no such rules because talking out is just NOT DONE. Bush had been in office a while by 2005 and had betrayed the trust of a lot of people, people like me who put our faith in him after 9/11 despite being of a different political bent. I don't honestly know (I should I suppose) if the state of the union occurs before both houses of Congress, but I do agree there should be some respect there, and there are other opps for voicing disagreement in whatever fashion one wants. Also, Obama is just starting out his term and it's just wrong (CNN fact checker said this) that the Pres is lying about his bill. That's not true.