Texas in Late September.

You know that you are finally coming out of the Texas summer when you are sitting with friends, as I was on Saturday at noon, watching a youth soccer game, when someone comments about how chilly it is getting. You get in your car, and notice that the outside temperature is in the lower 80s. Riiiiiiight..., chilly. Teresa would definitely have needed a sweater.

Philosophical moment coming....., Life is just sort of like that, we get so used to things being just one certain way, then any small change happens and it seems so major. It is funny how we often perceive change, any change, as being far more traumatic and drastic than it probably really is.

But, thank goodness that the worst of the hot weather seems to be behind us now, that is change I can get behind, even if it means I feel a little chilly.

I give up.

This article was posted today on MSNBC.com. I am clearly fighting a losing battle when I say that we shouldn't care what entertainers think about important issues. Granted this sort of stuff brings publicity to what is going on in Washington, but I can't help but believe that there are people out their with legitimate opinions, as well as the credentials to back up their arguments, who have been denied this same sort of access to government policy-makers. When our elected officials would rather laugh and entertain themselves than do their jobs, then there just isn't much hope. Bring on the meat dress. We are only several poor decisions away from President Flavor Flav.

Verbose loquaciousness

OK, lets play a game. Make sentences using as many of the words listed as you can.

vacuous
vernacular
virulent
voluntarily
vuvuzela

Please no cheating, and as always wagering is expressly forbidden.

Dear highly overpaid entertainer(s),

I know that there are literally thousands of people hanging on to your every word, and there are innumerable hangers-on and lackeys that surround you daily feeding off of you like remoras on a shark, and this utter dependence on you for sustenance has you thinking that the rest of the world must wonder what you think on a veritable panoply of topics, but please be advised, I do not. I don't care about your political views, I don't care about which particular laws you find offensive, not stringent enough, or just plain meaningless. I am sure that you have great thoughts, I imagine you fancy yourselves as deep thinkers, but when it comes down to it, your function, purpose, your raison d'etre is to sing, act, and/or entertain (period).

On tattoos and such....

A friend of mine told me the other day that she was having a conversation with someone, where they mentioned that they would never get a tattoo, because the Bible forbids it. My friend said, "Well you know I have a tattoo, don't you?", to which she received a mumbled response of some sort. Anyway, it made me wonder, seeing as how I recently got a tattoo myself...

The section of scripture that the person was referring to is from Leviticus Chapter 19, Verse 28 (NIV); "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord." It appears to me to be talking about the ritual practice of defacing your body in grief, such as was practiced by some of the people at the time, in order to appease the gods of death, etc., so I guess if you are getting a tattoo for idolatrous reasons that would be wrong. But isn't it interesting how we can sometimes take things like this passage out of the Bible and apply them to others, without worrying about the rest of the reference? For instance, in verse 28 it says, " 'Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." and in Verse 19b; "Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material". Hmmmmm, perhaps I need to re-examine my wardrobe, and change my personal grooming habits.

One section of this Chapter of Leviticus that really jumped out at me though was verses 33 and 34; "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

Somehow it seems to me that this admonition has much more relevance and applicability today, for me anyway, than a warning that I should not breed different kinds of animals together. (Verse 19a).