Halloween

I had this entire rant going on Halloween and how it has been destroyed on so many levels by fearful Pharisaical Christians over the last several decades. Memories of my mom and her love for the holiday entered in, etc., etc. Nahhh ... I'll just leave it alone ...

So, since I'm not going to rant about that ... I have other things that annoy me. I think this might be happening because I've had a headache all day. Rather than take it out on Max, I'm just going to complain.

Competition. My father did his best to raise us with that 'killer instinct.' He was a fierce competitor and wanted us to always be the very best at anything we did. Never accept second place. He had a tough time with me. I saw early on that competition at that level was inane. I've never been a good 'Type-A' personality. I know what it is, I can do it if necessary, but generally, it's not necessary. And if I have to be on top, that means that a lot of other people don't get a chance to be there ... it's just not that important to me. So, I will raise the bar and do everything I can to encourage people to achieve high levels of excellence and then ... I let them go on. I don't need it. I certainly don't need the pressure.

I had a 'friend' in high school. We competed for first chair flute every single year. I won every single time. I was damned if I was letting her have it. She would challenge me - I'd whomp her ass. Just to prove that I could. So, she did what any good competitive girl would do - she went after my boyfriend. Well ... I fooled her. I let her have him and moved on quickly to bigger and better things. The problem was, though she had won she destroyed the poor guy - married and divorced him and removed his kid from him. She won? Oh well ...

Competition isn't fun for me. I don't like it. This would really have disappointed dad. I can live with that.

Organizations. Wow, am I not a joiner. I guess I've always known that, but the older I get, the more pronounced is my behavior regarding these things. Good thing I don't need them for a career. I'd be SOL!

Rules & Regulations. I'm such a Libertarian. I do not like people telling me what to do. In fact, I don't much like people making up rules for other people. Now, because I don't like organizations I'm not going to end up doing much about it. And I recognize that there isn't going to be much I could do about it whether I was in an organization or not. But I do not like it when rules are made up for the sake of making up rules. I don't like it when laws are passed in reaction to a terrible situation. I just plain don't like it. My poor husband has to listen to me bitch and complain a lot.

Rigid Biblical Interpretation. I think this goes along with the whole rules and regulations. I'm not a fan of people interpreting scripture to suit their needs and rigid belief structures. I don't think God is as picayune as we are and I don't think that He would appreciate us putting our own imprimatur on His Word. But, I'm pretty sure He'll have the final say in that one.

Franchise lifestyle. I'm damned tired of franchise restaurants. I know, I know ... I eat in them all the time. But, our world is really tending towards the mediocre. Everything is moving to a singularly bland lifestyle. Everyone shops at the same place, eats at the same place, begins to look the same. Individuality is frightening. I noticed a lot of this while we were traveling. Even the franchises are starting to look the same cross-country. It used to be that you could travel to different areas of the country and run into different franchise structures. Nope. When we stopped in Brighton, CO, they were building nearly an exact replica of the shopping plazas in LaVista and western Omaha. Same stores, same look, same restaurants. Oh, dear heavens! I kept looking for new and interesting franchise restaurants while we were traveling the Interstate - nope ... same things. So, we just had to look a little deeper for locally owned restaurants. If you find those - support 'em!

I'm tired of a lot of other things. It is difficult to read the news every morning and find that there has been another shooting in Omaha. My sister tells me about kids that show up in her classroom - they're traumatized by the lifestyles their families are leading. How then can they learn? She does her best, but somedays it's all about maintaining the order of things, not giving them new ideas to consider. It saddens me to realize that there are millions and millions of children that will never get the opportunity to enjoy their childhood like I did.

You know what? There is one organization I've joined. And I'm thankful to have one small chance to help one small child. Compassion International.

The other organization that keeps sending me stuff and I refuse to join is AARP. I get an email from them nearly every day. If someone out there put my name on their list, I'm going to have to get nasty with you! I'm not that old yet!

Alright, there's my rant for the day, maybe the week or even the month. Ahhhh ... maybe I'll take some more Advil to release the headache.