When I was your age... bla bla bla
The media and 'hollywood' really like to phuck with families. They are always going on and on about the role of 'father' in the family unit. About mom needing a 'career'. About how only kids under ten know how to set a vcr or do anything internet/computer-related. And they always have the kids telling the PARENTS how to live.
What a load of crock!!!
Why do we let them get away with that baloney? Frankly, I can't stand it. It just pisses me off no end! Hey folks. Guess what. It's the grown-ups who run this country, not the little monsters... err, children. Children should be seen and not heard. They have the right to be silent and obedient. There isn't a kid who wants to be jailed, but there isn't a kid who doesn't feel safer being on a leash. Rules are set by PARENTS not by kids. Kids don't know what makes the world go round, ADULTS do. I don't know anyone who doesn't know how to setup their vcr (and anyway, I use my dvd players a lot more). I don't know any kids who know how to use BUSINESS software better than their PARENTS. Kids know how to play 'games' on the computer. You know what? WHO CARES!!!! GAMES don't help a kid in the 'real world'. BUSINESS SOFTWARE does.
If anything proves that the media and hollywood are mostly working for the devil (not all of 'em, there are a few good journalists and media writers out there, but only a few) it's how fathers are portrayed. Why all this guilt because fathers don't spend a lot of time playing with their children? Look at any animal (and human beings ARE animals, after all), it's very seldom that the father is the one who plays with the kids. It's the mother. The father's role is to 'stand in the gap'... to be the 'final disciplinarian' (after the mom). The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Father. Remember when mom would say 'wait till your father gets home'? I do! And it's the way it should be. Obey your parents and if you don't, mom'll whack you with a wooden spoon or a stick or a rolling pin (depending on how many kids she has, my mom had a baseball team). And if that ain't enough to keep you in a state of obedience to the people who brought you into this world, then 'wait till your dad gets home'.
Today the focus is on 'everyone gets a turn'. There's another load of crock! T-ball. Yeah right! You know something? I played baseball when I was a kid. Or at least I wanted to, but I only got to bat once, in four years. ONE TIME. Yeah that was disappointing. But I wasn't a good baseball player after all. I was several years younger then the other members of the team so not as mature physically. Not getting a turn at bat. So unfair! WAAAAAAH!
You know what that experience taught me? Life is not fair. Not everyone gets a turn at bat. Not everyone gets to be the Chief, or the Captain of the team. And that's okay. It is as it should be. Not everyone is a leader nor wants to be.
So what do you do? You make sure you do what you love and that what you love is what you are good at (or vice versa). Doing that last step will save you a lot of trouble. I'm good at technical writing, and software engineering, and SDLC processes (oh and managing large teams), so what do I do? Exactly. That.
When I was seven years old, my sister and I had a lot of chores to do, everyday. We had to get up at 3:30 am to milk ten cows, each, by hand. Then when I was ten, we got milking machines, which definitely sped up the milking process and made it a lot less labor intensive on the milkers. Only when we finally got the milking machines, my parents decided our brothers were old enough to do the milking, so we were sent out into the fields to pick stones. Yup. Pick stones. Ever done that? Picked stones that weigh anywhere from two to ten pounds and throw them up onto a wagon? You know they never stop making their way to the surface. Every year there are more stones peeking up from the ground waiting to be grabbed and thrown to the back of a wagon. You ever see stone fencing? Where do you think those stones came from? Trucked in from North Dakota? Nah. Handpicked right there, now they guard the land they used to live under.
Milking cows by hand at seven, picking stones out of the fields at ten. Life is NOT fair'. So what? The thing is that if you have to milk cows at 3:30 am EVERY morning, and 4:30 pm every afternoon, then feed the pigs, muck the stalls, weed the garden, chop vegetables for dinner, pick stones out of the fields, fix the fence railings, etc etc etc... it's not just hard work. It's a Reward.
A BIG reward. What is known as a 'sense of accomplishment'. Something kids whose mommies chauffeur from fencing lesson to T-ball session to dance class never experience, couldn't define. But if you know what a sense of accomplishment is, then even though you know that life is difficult, you also know it is is exhilarating.
Stop playing those stupid computer games. They waste time. If life has taught me anything, it's that the biggest sin of all is wasting time. Games teach you how to focus for only short 'bursts'. That won't cut it when you have to go out into the dog eat dog world called "adulthood" and actually earn a living working 9 to 5. What's that you say? YOU won't be working 9 to 5 because you are gonna.... ? yeah, right. That's what I thought too!
Do you know what 'sin' means in the original Greek? It means "missing the mark". If you spend your childhood indulging in 'immediate gratification' things like game playing or overeating or not exercising, you will find yourself in real trouble once you reach adulthood. You won't know how to be self-disciplined when you need to be. You'll 'miss the mark' and end up leading a life of 'quiet (or not so quiet) desperation', focused on the wrong goals, on narcissistic 'pleasures'. God help you if you live to be old! You'll have no friends, no memories of anything worth remembering, just a backward focus on a life of frustration and angst.
Hey, guess what? Moms don't need a career; they have a career — taking care of their family and home. A career will seldom be soul-satisfying. Of course I can't convince anyone under the age of 35 of the truth of that last sentence, but anyone reading this who is over that age knows, but may not be willing to admit, that truth. Unless you have a 'service to others' career, it's pretty much guaranteed that eventually you'll not be happy in your 'career'. 'Career' satisfaction is usually very fleeting. Oh sure there are 'moments', but they don't sustain one like having loving, lifelong friendships or grown children who are living purposeful, happy lives and who love their parents and are grateful for the times their parents said 'no'.
You know something else? If you 'marry' a corporation, sooner or later you'll discover the awful truth. Corporations are amoral entities who will never, not ever, marry you. They'll toss your ass out the door the minute their bean counters tell em you are past your prime. Think about that!
Well, I sure feel better! Nothing like a little 'venting' before beddie-byes.
ttyl, Tante
What a load of crock!!!
Why do we let them get away with that baloney? Frankly, I can't stand it. It just pisses me off no end! Hey folks. Guess what. It's the grown-ups who run this country, not the little monsters... err, children. Children should be seen and not heard. They have the right to be silent and obedient. There isn't a kid who wants to be jailed, but there isn't a kid who doesn't feel safer being on a leash. Rules are set by PARENTS not by kids. Kids don't know what makes the world go round, ADULTS do. I don't know anyone who doesn't know how to setup their vcr (and anyway, I use my dvd players a lot more). I don't know any kids who know how to use BUSINESS software better than their PARENTS. Kids know how to play 'games' on the computer. You know what? WHO CARES!!!! GAMES don't help a kid in the 'real world'. BUSINESS SOFTWARE does.
If anything proves that the media and hollywood are mostly working for the devil (not all of 'em, there are a few good journalists and media writers out there, but only a few) it's how fathers are portrayed. Why all this guilt because fathers don't spend a lot of time playing with their children? Look at any animal (and human beings ARE animals, after all), it's very seldom that the father is the one who plays with the kids. It's the mother. The father's role is to 'stand in the gap'... to be the 'final disciplinarian' (after the mom). The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Father. Remember when mom would say 'wait till your father gets home'? I do! And it's the way it should be. Obey your parents and if you don't, mom'll whack you with a wooden spoon or a stick or a rolling pin (depending on how many kids she has, my mom had a baseball team). And if that ain't enough to keep you in a state of obedience to the people who brought you into this world, then 'wait till your dad gets home'.
Today the focus is on 'everyone gets a turn'. There's another load of crock! T-ball. Yeah right! You know something? I played baseball when I was a kid. Or at least I wanted to, but I only got to bat once, in four years. ONE TIME. Yeah that was disappointing. But I wasn't a good baseball player after all. I was several years younger then the other members of the team so not as mature physically. Not getting a turn at bat. So unfair! WAAAAAAH!
You know what that experience taught me? Life is not fair. Not everyone gets a turn at bat. Not everyone gets to be the Chief, or the Captain of the team. And that's okay. It is as it should be. Not everyone is a leader nor wants to be.
So what do you do? You make sure you do what you love and that what you love is what you are good at (or vice versa). Doing that last step will save you a lot of trouble. I'm good at technical writing, and software engineering, and SDLC processes (oh and managing large teams), so what do I do? Exactly. That.
When I was seven years old, my sister and I had a lot of chores to do, everyday. We had to get up at 3:30 am to milk ten cows, each, by hand. Then when I was ten, we got milking machines, which definitely sped up the milking process and made it a lot less labor intensive on the milkers. Only when we finally got the milking machines, my parents decided our brothers were old enough to do the milking, so we were sent out into the fields to pick stones. Yup. Pick stones. Ever done that? Picked stones that weigh anywhere from two to ten pounds and throw them up onto a wagon? You know they never stop making their way to the surface. Every year there are more stones peeking up from the ground waiting to be grabbed and thrown to the back of a wagon. You ever see stone fencing? Where do you think those stones came from? Trucked in from North Dakota? Nah. Handpicked right there, now they guard the land they used to live under.
Milking cows by hand at seven, picking stones out of the fields at ten. Life is NOT fair'. So what? The thing is that if you have to milk cows at 3:30 am EVERY morning, and 4:30 pm every afternoon, then feed the pigs, muck the stalls, weed the garden, chop vegetables for dinner, pick stones out of the fields, fix the fence railings, etc etc etc... it's not just hard work. It's a Reward.
A BIG reward. What is known as a 'sense of accomplishment'. Something kids whose mommies chauffeur from fencing lesson to T-ball session to dance class never experience, couldn't define. But if you know what a sense of accomplishment is, then even though you know that life is difficult, you also know it is is exhilarating.
Stop playing those stupid computer games. They waste time. If life has taught me anything, it's that the biggest sin of all is wasting time. Games teach you how to focus for only short 'bursts'. That won't cut it when you have to go out into the dog eat dog world called "adulthood" and actually earn a living working 9 to 5. What's that you say? YOU won't be working 9 to 5 because you are gonna.... ? yeah, right. That's what I thought too!
Do you know what 'sin' means in the original Greek? It means "missing the mark". If you spend your childhood indulging in 'immediate gratification' things like game playing or overeating or not exercising, you will find yourself in real trouble once you reach adulthood. You won't know how to be self-disciplined when you need to be. You'll 'miss the mark' and end up leading a life of 'quiet (or not so quiet) desperation', focused on the wrong goals, on narcissistic 'pleasures'. God help you if you live to be old! You'll have no friends, no memories of anything worth remembering, just a backward focus on a life of frustration and angst.
Hey, guess what? Moms don't need a career; they have a career — taking care of their family and home. A career will seldom be soul-satisfying. Of course I can't convince anyone under the age of 35 of the truth of that last sentence, but anyone reading this who is over that age knows, but may not be willing to admit, that truth. Unless you have a 'service to others' career, it's pretty much guaranteed that eventually you'll not be happy in your 'career'. 'Career' satisfaction is usually very fleeting. Oh sure there are 'moments', but they don't sustain one like having loving, lifelong friendships or grown children who are living purposeful, happy lives and who love their parents and are grateful for the times their parents said 'no'.
You know something else? If you 'marry' a corporation, sooner or later you'll discover the awful truth. Corporations are amoral entities who will never, not ever, marry you. They'll toss your ass out the door the minute their bean counters tell em you are past your prime. Think about that!
Well, I sure feel better! Nothing like a little 'venting' before beddie-byes.
ttyl, Tante
posted by Tante Waileka at 10:36 PM
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