Sunday, August 30, 2009

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.

10 comments:

Elaine Denning said...

How much noise do you want to hear, Irene?

I am the result of a society - a marriage - which was dominated (in a very unhealthy fashion) by males. As such, I spent the first half of my life getting myself into situations in which I had little control, and the second half of my life trying to have too much control in order to balance it all out. Neither way has been right for me. I strive to find the happy medium, which is extremely difficult to do (for me, at least).
I don't want to passive, yet trying to be proactive in a relationship with a man has - in my experience - caused all sorts of problems.

I think I'm happier on my own.

Maggie May said...

I guess I was very black & white when I was a teenager but the older I have become, the more shades of grey in between. And I'm not just referring to hair colour!
I find I get cross with myself for nodding off in front of television. it always happens when I really want to see something. The same if I listen to the radio while in bed. Never hear the end of interesting discussions.
Hope your day is warmer than ours.
There is a cold bite to today's weather & slight rain. Enjoy whatever you have planned to do. X

Gail said...

I was lucky to be raised in a family where women were valued equally to men.

I was always told I could do and be anything I wanted to then I met the real world and discovered it did not work that way.

VioletSky said...

I grew up with parents who were very black and white, so my grey view of most issues was most frustrating. It took a long time to feel confident in my opinions as I was always seeing the other side.

But, I want to talk about coffee. I learned to love koffie in Holland. So many places here do serve dishwater tasting coffee or, like Starbucks, bitter coffee in an effort to make it stronger.

That is one opinion I am very confident about.

anon said...

I'm with Gail, my family didn't under value us females at all. In fact, I may have a bit of a superiority complex, hmmm.

So your cats prefer ceramics to plastic?
Well, I agree with them as well : )

Wisewebwoman said...

Oh I hear you sister!
and yes, me too, far too black and white with my highly vocal opinions, I need to work on grey.
And my coffee at home is so much better than the bilge I can drink in any so-called cafe. Even in Paris.
XO
WWW

Lucky Dip Lisa said...

You think very black and whitte about yourself too, it's refreshingly honest. That dosn't mean 100% right but at least we know you will say what you think!

Very glad to hear the pc arrived safely...I hope it cheered you. It really did feel like the perfect card for you.

xx

Dorset Dispatches said...

I like opinions. As long as everyone realises that everyone is entitled to an opinion of their own and it doesn't have to be the same as the one that they have expressed then we are away.

With you every step of the way on the coffee front. You should try Bosnian coffee. It is great and I love the whole ritual that goes with the making of a cup.

Thanks for stopping by mine.

lebanesa said...

LOL I sometimes sleep with the radio on. Then people I know start telling me very clever things in dream conversations. They may turn out to know all about some Art movement, or Science or my friends are having a heated argument about something quite surprising. When I wake up I discover some expert talking away on the radio or a panel discussion. LOLZ -

hugs

Maureen said...

I have to laugh when people bash Starbucks... I love their drinks and pastries; wonderful concoctions that I would never make at home like peppermint mochas, pumpkin spice lattes, and the like. No, I don't go for regular coffee; I can make that at home. But when I want to treat myself and sit for good conversation or a quiet place to rest at the mall; it's Starbucks for me. And no, I'm not just saying that because daughter is a barista... I was a Starbucks fan before she got hired there!