In Good Faith...

I was watching a very engaging comedian on television last night, but fell asleep on the sofa nevertheless. It was too bad, because this guy was actually making sense and commentating socially and politically, while making very astute jokes that were true and funny at the same time. I drowsed off and became slightly aware of the voice and the laughter in the background. I incorporated the noise into my semi-conscious dreams and became a little addled and thought the Exfactor was standing in the living room talking for a long time and getting no response from me. Thus I would wake up a little bit and become aware of my surroundings and the comedian's monologue and then drift off again. Don't you love it when that happens? You mix the real with the surreal and get the most unusual impressions.

I've just taken Jesker for a walk and it is just a bit chilly outside, but I like it very much. I wore my new jacket and enjoyed myself. We didn't go for a very long walk, just long enough for Jesker to do what was necessary and get a bit of exercise. I'll try for a longer one at noontime. Hopefully it will be as pleasantly cool. It's nice when the wind is just a little bit on the cold side and you feel that on your skin and you feel yourself cooling off. It's wonderful to feel cold inside your warm clothes and to be glad you're inside again.

I'm drinking my second cup of coffee from the "I miss you" mug. It's a good mug to drink from, because it's tall and narrow and the coffee doesn't cool of quickly. It can take two pads and it gives me wonderful strong coffee with a kick. That's the way I like it best.

I do so dislike a bad cup of coffee, especially if you are looking forward to one and the taste is bland and the coffee is see through and not at all black like it should be. That's one thing I disliked about being in the States. It was the fact that you could not get a decent cup of coffee anywhere, as opposed to here, where you can get a good cup of coffee everywhere. I know there is a Starbuck's everywhere you go now, but that's not what I understand to be a good cup of coffee and certainly not at those prices. Just think of all the money people waste on a cup of coffee that can easily be made better at home. Starbuck's is fine when you're on the road, but not a place to voluntarily go when you can make your own cup.

Oh, I know I have outspoken opinions on everything. It's the black and white thinker in me. I don't have enough gray areas. I know that's a pitfall in me and I have to watch that. I have a tendency to judge things harshly and to very easily think I'm right when maybe I'm not. I'm not easily swayed by the opinions of other people once I make up my mind about something. You need to come with very strong arguments to get me to change my mind. Logic works very well. If you can logically explain something to me, I usually will listen and I may even change my opinion. That's why I like the editorial and opinion pages of the newspaper. I do like to read other points of view if they are well laid out. I don't like shouters and emotional reactions. I like things spoken from rationality. Facts not feelings.

That's why it pays to always look around to see if a similar situation you're in, has occurred somewhere else before and how it has resolved itself or how it was resolved. There is so much to learn from other people and other cultures. You will find out, that when you look across the boundaries, many things have already occurred and been resolved in a satisfactory way and don't need to be invented again.

I think here of immigration and the subsequent integration that takes a few generations and the example of which we can so clearly see in the United Sates, which is a nation of immigrants. If we just looked at how it took place there, and I'm sure there are many studies about it, we wouldn't all be so nervous about it and react so overheated, emotions which crooked politicians react to and play with for personal gain and subsequent chaos.

I also think, of course, of more personal problems that turn out to be more universal and to be conditions of mankind or generational problems or specific female issues. Some of your own personal stuff can be resolved by being aware of these things, or finding out about them. It can shed a lot of light. I didn't realize, for example, that women of my generation and older, were very much suppressed still in a male dominated society, and that out of this situation many of our feelings and emotions flowed and shaped us and carried us through life. I hope that's different for the generations of women that follow me. Let me hear a noise if that is true.

When I say male dominated society, I think of such figures as Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney who, even up until a very short time ago, yielded the sword and who had women warriors at their side and not females who worked from the female model of how we see the world. The female point of view, which these women did not represent. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were prime examples of these male dominated society people.

Don't you just love the way I espouse my points of view? It's all so clear in my head that I have no doubts about it, but I realize they are just my opinions and that you don't have to agree with me. You may be less of a friend to me if you don't though, because I do like to see eye to eye with my friends when it comes down to it. In the end I suppose I do look for my peer group, but then again, there are going to be differences of opinions as long as the gaps aren't too wide. I guess we can span a bridge across them.

Jesker is barking at his food, because he doesn't want it, so I have to put it in the refrigerator until later. He wants something, but I don't know what it is. The cats have entered the building and seem to want something too. Maybe they want some milk. You see, I have a heck of a time trying to figure out my animals. They make noise and I interpret it to the best of my ability. They like to drink better from a ceramic bowl than from a plastic bowl, I have figured out that much.

Well, that's it for this morning then. Enjoy your day. I hope it is a pleasant one.

Ciao...

P.S. May all your opinions be bold and well formed and your own.