Thoughts from the Mountain Top

Women marry men hoping they will change... Men marry women hoping they will not... Having been in both couples and individual therapy a number of times over the years, I've heard this said a few times, both in a therapy setting and in the public at large.  I take issue with it. The world I got married in back in 1993 is quite different than the world is now.  I was on the "internet" back then, or at least Compuserve and several BBS having been a computer programming major at our community college.  It wasn't the intrinsic part of our lives that it is now.  I would say I spent far more time in the campus library than I did online.  Cell phones didn't exist for the most part.  Since my spouse worked on the road, he had a pager and I would beep him when I needed to talk to him about something and he would call me from a pay phone when he got the chance.  I used a program for all of our finances, even back then, but everything arrived in the mail regar...

I'm watching in my Disney groups as people freak out over a new policy announced at three Disney World Resorts: Beginning with the three monorail resorts near the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort Hotels will no longer provide guests with “Do Not Disturb” signs to put on their doors. The signs will be replaced with “Room Occupied” signs that will notify cast members that guests are in the rooms. However, these guests will be “disturbed” at some point, as it will now be required that a Disney employee enter their hotel room at least once a day to ensure guest safety. If you choose to forgo housekeeping on a given day, the Disney nomenclature states that “the hotel and its staff reserve the right to enter your room for any purposes including, but not limited to, performing maintenance and repairs or checking on the safety and security of guests and property.” Disney states that cast members will give reasonable notice prior to entering by knocking and announcing that they w...

Before I write this, let me preface this by saying I have the utmost love and respect for teachers.  I have friends who are teachers and I know most of the time they get a raw deal.  They spend way more hours than they are ever compensated for working for their students and classes, and often spend money out of their own pockets that they will never see back - even with the measly $250 tax credit that Republicans want to take away.  So if your response is going to be to tell me how much good other teachers do, relax, I already know . I saw this meme today, and didn't think much about it until someone wrote a comment: Those discouraging words stick as well. Sadly, students are more likely to hear those. I remember those discouraging words.  Those discouraging words are probably the reason I don't write professionally in any way and never pursued a career in any kind of writing, no matter how much I enjoyed it when I was younger. I was in the 4th grade and...

SPOILERS INCLUDED AHEAD!!!!  IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE, I RECOMMEND YOU DO NOT CONTINUE READING My first thought was how much I cried.  And it was for a number of reasons.  This was Carrie Fisher's last Princess Leia film.  It was not how her story was supposed to end, which make the events of the film even that more tragic.  The next film was supposed to be the "Princess Leia" film and you can see the foreshadowing as to what she was going to do there.  That story was stolen from us by the Grim Reaper. I cried because I'm sentimental.  I'm the person who can't throw things out because I know the story attached to them.  I can't even clean my kids room or throw away their school projects.  I have a whole houseful of my parents stuff that no one wants that I can't just throw away. It's apparent after The Last Jedi, that the Star Wars universe I grew up on is over.  The obvious plan now was Han Solo dies in movie #1, Luke Skywalker ...

This is the story of my faith journey.  If it doesn't interest you, don't read it.  It might provide some background for those who are interested though. Despite what others may think, the only qualification to call yourself a Christian is a belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God.  I firmly believe that.  I believe in God and I believe there's an after-life.  Everything else is up for grabs. There are many things we don't understand.  Some people can accept that.  Some people can't.  Some people need an authoritarian church where they are told what to think and believe.  Some people are fine with asking questions and examining beliefs and coming to very different conclusions.  I am firmly in that last camp and have been for some time. I don't remember the first Pastor of the church I attended very well.  He was more of the authoritarian type.  I'm glad for that.  He helped facilitate my adoption and for that I am grate...

Well I walked into the proverbial lion's den today. I've never been shy about expressing my faith and what it means to me.  I'm not an Evangelical Christian (despite the denomination I participate in being the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).  Indeed, I've been told by "those people" I'm not really a Christian because I haven't been born-again and I couldn't care less about their opinion.  I've found positive faith communities online as well that express how I feel in the writings of John Pavlovitz and The Christian Left. I have friends who are atheists.  I've never felt the need to preach to them or try to convert them.  We are all entitled to our beliefs or dis-beliefs.  Some of the most gracious, charitable people I know are atheists. There are always people who are radical in their faith.  We see that with Muslims and right-wing Christians.  There are also radical atheists.  I've experienced that more and more.  They are jes...

(warning, graphic sexual language ahead) Yesterday on Facebook I posted an article about how Faux News host Laura Ingraham lamented the face that all of these "new" sexual assault allegations were putting a damper on holiday parties.  The exact wording was "sexual harassment and abuse." The article in question had the headline:  Fox complains women reporting rape will make Christmas parties less “festive” .  I picked up on the headline and used my own comment: Yeah, just imagine how awful those holiday parties will be when you can't look forward to raping a co-worker. Imagine my surprise (not) when a casual friend of mine who is well-known for his right-wing views but typically doesn't feel the need to crap on other people's pages with them decided to take umbridge at the wording. That's right, not the behavior.  The wording. We're "throwing around the word rape" in his eyes. Well thank you right-wing white male, I'll consult with...