THREE QUESTIONS FOR YOU
06.29.06 (8:16 pm) [edit]My favorite "ice breaker" for the beginning of a new group/class is this: Each person is asked to bring in three things to explain about each. 1: One thing you really wouldn't want to live without. Why? 2: One thing you really don't like AND wouldn't mind living without. Why? 3: One thing that tells who you REALLY are. Why? Our class found this exercise to be very "enlightening" as to the characters of all the participants. SO NOW I WAS WONDERING WHAT YOUR ANSWERS MIGHT BE....
Do you know that spouse of yours?
06.27.06 (10:40 pm) [edit]My husband and I had some couples over this past weekend. It was the "kick off" for our small group. To help everyone get acquainted and feel free to talk and interact we did a simple quiz. The quiz turned out to be fun and had everyone laughing and chatting. It really felt good to see all the different couples trying to be top scorers. It started with simple things like Your spouses D.O.B. and Your Anniversary date. As it turned out...I was the lowest scorer in the group. My husband scored many more correct answers about me than I did about him. The couple that had been married for the shortest time period knew each other the best and were the winners. (Wonder why?...I'm sure it's just that I've had about 26 years to forget all those things.) Some of the couples commented on how the quiz had allowed them to learn some things about their spouses they had not ever known. Personally I was really surprised when my husband knew my favorite city. I really had never said anything other than a casual comment several years ago. I've had to promise the group to get better acquainted with my spouse. They were all amused by us and kidding. Next time we meet the group will begin the Love Language Sessions. My husband already knows his...I hate his!!! He is very resistant to that of mine. That should make for some sort of discussion time...We many have to call in the professional marriage counselors for help. I have a couple of them on standby. We all learned we have room for enrichment in our marriages. As strange as some relationships may appear...all the couples seem to really care about their spouses and I do believe that is a great beginning.
JOHN GLENN SAID
06.21.06 (10:16 pm) [edit]THE FOLLOWING ENTRY IS NOT MY OWN. IT CAME TO ME IN AN EMAIL FROM AN HONORED FRIEND AND VETERAN. THIS POST IS IN HIS HONOR FOR THE TWO DUTY TOURS HE GAVE OF HIS LIFE IN VIET NAM. I'M NOT BIG ON POLITICS, BUT I DO CARE HOW MY FRIEND FEELS ABOUT THEM. JOHN GLENN SAID Things that make you think a little: There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq. When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following: a. FDR led us into World War II. b. Germany never attacked us; Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost ... an average of 112,500 per year. c. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us.. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost ... an average of 18,334 per year. d John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. e. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost . an average of 5,800 per year. f. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions. g. In the years since terrorists attacked us , President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and, North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking. But It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation. We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records. It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick. It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!! Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high! The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts But wait. There's more! JOHN GLENN (ON THE SENATE FLOOR) Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:13 Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the armed services do what they do for a living. This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of the military. Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn): "How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?" Senator Glenn (D-Ohio): "I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank." "I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day... to a veteran's hospital and look those men ... with their mangled bodies in the eye, and tell THEM they didn't hold a job! You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and Orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee... and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DADS didn't hold a job. You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags. You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job? What about you?" For those who don't remember . During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA. Now he's a Senator! DON'T EXPECT ANY POLITICAL RETORIC FROM ME...I JUST RESPECT THE MAN THAT SENT THIS TO ME.
Calluses
06.08.06 (2:45 pm) [edit]So if you hands have calluses it is suppose to mean you are a hard worker and people normally respect that in a person. Some people develop a different kind of callus. Ever worked on board and ambulance? An ER? Trauma Unit? Burn center? Or the like? The calluses developed by these people don't leave marks on your hands...and no not even on the tookus. They form on the mind, heart, soul, spirit, and sense of humor. Most of the people I know in these work fields have a different sense of what is funny and what is morbid. Even when their emotions are deeply effected their professionalism will in most cases keep them hidden. I have heard people talk about a nurse, doctor, paramedic or whatever as being insensitive and uncaring. Sure there probably are cases where that is the truth of the matter, but not always. There is the other side of the coin. Ever been around a medic that has just worked a fatal accident and the scene is cleared. The patients are either at the hospital or in the care of the coroner...now the medics are dispatched directly on to another scene before they can get back to the station house. Someone is possibly in the midst of myocardial infarction, knifing, gunshot victim, or it might be a child with open wound trauma...In either case or a dozen other scenarios...the medic has not had time to process and debrief from the fatalities they worked earlier. At last all the emergencies are over and the crew are back at the station house. Say George, "What's that stuff on the bottom of your boots?" Naturally in the normal realm of things neither you nor I would find it amusing or funny in most cases...but George is probably going to reply something like, "Oh that, hmmm, must be brains" or "That seems to be spaghetti and meatballs, yep, our last patient blew chunks. Anyone up for Italian?" These are the calluses I am speaking of today. No, the medics, nurses and other staff are not being insensitive to the feelings of those they have tried to help and the families. It is a coping mechanism. Some of these public workers will joke about the scenes, but are they uncaring? I have seem them afterwards when the joking and kidding around subsides. At some point you will see each handle their grief for the loss of their patient(s) in the still and quiet of their own minds. It stays on their minds, it goes home with them, but they have to prevail. The work related calluses are there to help them carry on in case you need their immediate help.
A Struggle
06.07.06 (5:49 pm) [edit]I don’t know how you all do it. I cannot come up with a new post for days or weeks. Some of you post daily. How? I am boring myself and I don’t want to bore others too. I have stuff going on in my life, but I guess I just keep it all in until it just sort of begins to be more than I can hold. Most of the time, when that happens I’m too explosive to write…My mind begins to travel faster than my fingers can type…and I know how to type. When I am really mad…oh I can come up with some things to say…but I won’t say them on a blog or to anyone. I come in my room and shut the door and GRRRRrrr… until I feel better and I haven’t harmed another with hateful words. I figure that way, it is between me and the Lord and as soon as I get over my irate tantrum I can begin praying for forgiveness. I don’t want to do or say anything to anyone that might hurt my witness as a Christian. It is really hard to maintain that control sometimes. Like when “road rage” kicks in and I have a hand that wants to throw a few signals of its own. I hate when someone sits behind me and blows their horn. The other day a fellow did that and my hand went flying up…before he saw it the fingers all got together and became a solid hand…I started laughing because it was like I’d simply tried to “backhand” the fellow. Thinking to myself; well Toz, that was pretty good old gal. You didn’t do anything ugly and gave yourself a laugh and probably made the man behind you think you were waving at him. I wish I could be more like that ALL the time. I do worry about the things I say and do that others witness. I know for certain “THE ONE” that matters sees and even knows my thoughts. It is a daily struggle to keep myself “in check.