Joined in Love - Our Darling Delanie

Our darling Delanie got herself married on Saturday. She found her soulmate, her one true love, Colin Irvine, and they were married in a beautiful wedding on Spruce Creek. The couple was radiant and we wish them all the best.
Delanie and Colin, I hope that your marriage will last a lifetime and that as you share your innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams, your love grows stronger each day. Cherish each other always.

Speech Therapy

Sometimes I just have to spout off--- and last week was one of those times. Following is my letter to the editor of our newspaper, which they chose not to print. And they *always* print my letters! Maybe it was the goat thing. Too much? Still, I felt better for having written it, and am passing it on to you on this momentous day.


Well, wash my brain and hang it out to dry. I do believe I've heard it all. A small but vocal faction of our citizenry, including Florida's own Jim Greer, is objecting to President Obama's upcoming address to the schools, decrying his speech as the brainwashing of America's youth, and the promotion of a socialist agenda. Huh? I thought "work hard" and "stay in school" were generally accepted,even cherished,American values. Apparently not to these folks, many of whom, in fact, plan to keep their kids out of school that day as a sort of "you can't make me" response to the President's message. This vocal minority got me to thinking about the history behind United States Presidents and their conversations with America's children.

Contrary to the reports of folks who groove on turning up the fear, like nationally syndicated talk show host Alex Jones, President Obama's address to students is not unprecedented. In fact, it doesn't earn any points at all for innovation, having been the practice of every Republican president since 1981. I always thought that those broadcasts were meant to encourage students in citizenship, patriotism, and respect for our country. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe there is a subversive underbelly to it all. I do seem to recall that President George W. Bush was reading a book about goats--a frisky little farm animal which also happens to have long symbolized the darkest of spiritual elements-- to a classroom of elementary school students at the very moment that the horrific events of September 11 were unfolding. At that time, I considered the story to be an age appropriate, curriculum related piece of literature.

But now that the power abusive, brainwashing agenda of leaders of the free world has been brought to my attention, I can only wonder--was it coincidence or conspiracy? His father, President George H.W. Bush, addressed the school children of America in 1991, urging them to--uh--"work hard" and "stay in school". Again, at the time, I thought President Bush did a pretty good job of getting an important message across to students. But now my curiosity is piqued. If I were to play his speech backwards, would it say "Paul is dead?" If memory serves me, I do believe that President Reagan also addressed America's school children, and on several occasions. At the time, I felt him compassionate and communicative, but now that the True Executive Agenda has come to light, I realize how naive and unsuspecting I was. I am seriously reconsidering my stance on this. After all, Jim Greer says that I should be appalled that the taxpayer's money goes to fund Presidential broadcasts.

It all sounds pretty silly in this light, doesn't it? Well, that's exactly what the spin on President Obama's upcoming speech is--political nonsense. Only this time, children are involved in the spin. We have come to a sorry state of affairs in our country when we polarize and propagandize our children in order to promote political agendas. And that is exactly what is going on. Is that really what--and how-- we choose to teach them?

JR

RIP Senator Ted Kennedy

Ordinary Americans, like me, are deeply saddened today by the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. I consider myself a middle class ordinary American. I have never known government without a Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy was only one of a handful of politicians whom I would trust to use government for helping the us - the middle class. I fear that his passing will cause us to be far worse off than when he was watching over the laws that passed.

And, will bipartisanship ever be? Although Obama and McCain both bellowed about their bipartisanship during their campaigns, it was Senator Ted Kennedy who demonstrated it throughout his political life.

President Obama said it well: "Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time."

My sincerest and deepest sympathies to the Kennedys, Teddy's extended family and the country. R.I.P. Senator Kennedy.

Radical Honesty, What A Concept!

"Have we become so adept at lying, that we've forgotten that we are, in fact, lying?"

On Friday, January 16th, 1999 John Stossel of the ABC 20/20 News team did a story on Brad Blanton's book "Radical Honesty: How to transform your life by telling the truth." I watched it because I wanted to find out what exactly he meant by "radical."

As it turns out, Radical Honesty is ....well....honesty. What astounded me most about the program was that people thought telling the truth was a radical idea. Don't you find that just a bit odd?

At the end of the story, Barbara Walters even warned viewers, "don't try this at home without someone trained in this." Tears ran down my face as I rocked with laughter and disbelief. Don't try this at home?!? Honesty?!?

Are we so lost that we regard honesty as a dangerous pursuit without a trained "non-liar" at our sides?? Has the world become so warped that we consider telling the truth, a dangerous exercise? It seemed extremely bizarre to me.

But upon reflection, maybe it's not so bizarre. Haven't all of us been taught that it's better to lie to someone than to hurt their feelings? That there are just some things you simply never, never tell another? We're not supposed to tell anyone when we've had an extramarital affair, especially not our spouse. And God forbid we’re honest with each other about sexual matters.

But have we become so adept at lying, that we've forgotten that we are, in fact, lying? Have we forgotten how to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Perhaps we were taught to lie because we as a society believe we actually CAN hurt another emotionally. We believe we have the power to make another person feel something emotionally. "You know how it is when you decide to lie and say the check is in the mail, and then you remember it really is? I'm like that all the time."
- Steven Wright

So who's responsible for how we or another chooses to respond to words? If you truly had the power to make people feel certain emotions, then you should be able to create other people's reactions at will. If you said the same thing to a thousand people, you should be able to get an identical emotional response from all of them, right? But the fact is, you’d get as many different responses as there are people. Each would react according to their belief systems and interpretations of your meaning.

Let’s do a silly exercise. Lets go around the country saying, "you have a big fat behind" to everyone we meet, regardless of their physical size. Men, women and children - no one escapes our little experiment.

Now, what do you think the reactions would be? You'd think most would be upset, wouldn't you? But you'll find some children will run away, and some will giggle. Some women will breakdown right in front of you and some will smile and say thank you. Some men will knock your lights out, and some
Will look at you like you've lost your mind. One statement, thousands of reactions.

The surprising thing is, the size of their derrière wont even be the deciding factor in how they respond. Some people think their tuckus is huge, even though they're tiny. In some cultures, large bottoms are considered attractive. Some people LIKE them.

So where is your power? What about your ability to make someone feel angry or hurt?

Seems each individual you spoke to, made the decision about how they would respond. People's responses are based on many factors, all of which are personal and have nothing to do with you.

If people understood everyone is responsible for their own emotions, we'd feel freer to say what we think and feel. Most times, it's our own lack of trust in ourselves to be able to deal with other's reactions, that is the stumbling block to our honesty. "How will I feel if this person reacts badly" we ask ourselves. "I might feel guilty, so I'll tell a little lie."

Because face it, sometimes people will get angry and hurt in reaction to our honesty. But the alternative of living lives filled with lies is not much of an alternative. We end up walking around on eggshells, monitoring our every word, and trying to predict how others might respond. It's a slow, awkward process of communication.

I agree with Dr. Blanton. Honesty about everything truly does open the doors to intimacy, love, and dynamic relationships. Without it, we're all just actors on a stage, reading our scripted lines. And to some degree, I think everyone knows we're pretending to be truthful. It's like we're all walking around holding dead chickens in our hands, making deals with each other.

"Pretend you don't see my chicken, and I'll pretend I don't see yours." It's a scam, but one we're pulling over our own eyes.

I have this impossible dream about everyone on earth standing up, and all at the same time shouting out, "I'm a liar!” And as we all look at each other, we could start anew and begin fresh. Then, we could continue our lives with a willingness to trust that its okay to think and feel what we do, and have
the courage to speak our truth.

Imagine being real and genuine with each other. Imagine what the world would be like if you could actually believe what people tell you. It might get a bit rocky at times, but it would "radically" change the world.

So maybe honesty is a radical idea in this day and age, but let us do our part in "telling the truth" so honesty becomes common place. The love that would follow would be far from common.

Brenda

Hello!

My name is Brenda and I am a mommy of a little red head named Breanna. She is my little angel and means absolutely everything to me.
I enjoy being able to stay home with her. Working here at uscity.net gives me that opportunity. I was working for an ice cream shop but, now I'm happy to say that I was able to quit that job. I clean condos every Saturday morning. It's really good money if you do a lot of them. I just went through a divorce... that was fun... I have seven dogs. No need for a security system... come to my house and you'll see/hear why..... I enjoy going to the beach and playing pool. I ride my bike a lot which really chills me out. I just recently lost over 60 pounds... pretty proud of myself for that. I love my friends and family. I live with my boyfriend Shea He's amazing. Besides my daughter, he's the best thing that's ever happened to me. He and his family are a major blessing in my life. In the future I hope to go back to school. I'd like to get my nursing degree someday.
For now, I'm taking life one day at a time.

~*Brenda*~

New Orleans

I am just back from a spur of the moment trip to New Orleans I took with my husband, who was seeing about an out of state job. We had a terrific time. We ate red beans and rice, jambalaya, muffalatos, po'boys, seafood and of course, beignets (a fried French pastry we ate at the world famous Café Du Mond). Food is a very important part of New Orleans (also something I am way to fond of!) and we tried our best to taste all we could in the three days we were there. To visit some of the websites of the many restaurants in New Orleans, click here. We rode the streetcars everywhere and it was FREEZING. We walked along the Mississippi, hung out in Jackson Square (photo above) and window shopped in the antique/gift/voodoo stores. They have great old bookstores too.
One of the really cool things about this trip was how the streetcars took us everywhere we wanted to go. This is me all bundled up on the streetcar.

I loved the live music - jazz, blues, rock, rap, opera - you name it, they got it - would you believe that the only type of music I did not hear was zydeco! I just now realized it. But we did meet a true blue French Creole who played the 'frottoir',(a washboard with no wooden frame and two straps that go on your shoulders, you strum it either with thimbles on your fingers, just your fingers or sometimes a whisk broom. We were just walking down the street and listening to all the bands - sometimes dancing in the street (mostly me dancing, and George holding me - LOL) and we did stop in one blues bar on our last night there - before we could get to our seats, the singer grabbed me and started whirling me around the dance floor while he sang to me, George didn't even know and he kept on walking to his seat, it was really funny. After their set, the bass player came over and sat with us for a while and we heard his Katrina and the aftermath story. Sadly, he had lost an uncle, the uncle who started him out playing his music. Our hearts went out to him and to all these people affected by Katrina and its’ aftermath and we felt honored to meet them, share their memories with them and learn their stories.

My favorite part of New Orleans was the people we met -- almost all of them had been through Katrina and they were so upbeat about their lives, it made me ashamed. No "poor pitiful me" for them, they were happy to be home (even if there was no physical home) and ready to re-build - their lives and their community. We met one guy who had seen dead bodies floating down the street next to the hotel where we stayed and one whose neighborhood was entirely wiped out. They are a lively, patient, spiritual bunch.

Hurricane Katrina took over 1800 lives and displaced almost one million people, many residents of lower-income areas like the 9th Ward, are permanently displaced because they have no money to rebuild. Some of these people had homeowners insurance, but because of loopholes and laws which allowed insurance companies to NOT pay them, they will not be able to rebuild and some not even able to come “home”.

According to those we met, the French Quarter was up and running very soon after the storm and the people we met, most of whom had either rebuilt or lost their home, understood that the area needed to put money into tourism because that would be the best way to bring money back to their area. The businesses on Bourbon Street and around Jackson Square were the first to open.

We also visited Audubon Park in the Garden Districtand walked around, enjoying the live oaks and swans. On our way to New Orleans, we stopped in Biloxi and went into our first casino. We liked the Hard Rock the best. We stayed across the street and lost $6.00, gambling, decided to go get some snacks at the bar in the hotel and I found $50.00 on the floor. So I guess I will take my luck where I find it. Lucky is what I feel for getting to know the good people of New Orleans and I wish for them only the best and hope that we get a chance to meet again.

On the way home, we stopped in Mississippi at a state park and ate some muffalatos we had gotten in New Orleans. Mmmmmmmmmuffalatos - what a sandwich!

For more information on what to do and see around the New Orleans area, visit the New Orleans City Guide by clicking on this sentence.

George on Bourbon Street