The Medium is the Message

I'm sure you've heard that said before.  I learned in church, yes church, that this phrase was coined by some guy in the Sixties.  He was talking about how technology itself changes the world and the people in it, not the content of the technology, but the technology itself. 

Apparently, "technology" includes anything that is made by people, which means clothes are technology, which means your clothes are a message.  Well, dang, I've thought that for ages.  It's a no brainer.

Here's where I think we run into trouble though.  Let's say that you choose to dress in a black cape and nine inch platform boots, but you don't want me to jump to conclusions about you? I'm supposed to figure out that you are the opposite of the message that you're sending, the message that says, "Stay away from me.  I'm angry and I might yell at you."  Well, then stop sending me mixed messages!  If you don't want me or my children to stare at you, why the heck did you pierce every available body  part and die your hair purple?!  You want to be unique but you don't want anyone to notice you?  Right.

I get that sometimes people's clothing is sending a message that they didn't intend for reasons beyond their control, but no one gets a dog collar around her neck that attaches to her boyfriend's wrist by circumstances outside of herself.  I am entitled to think, "That girl has gone around the bend."  If you don't want me to think that about you; if you don't want me to be all "judgey," then stop sending me messages that are so darn confusing.

All I'm saying is, don't get mad at me because you can't communicate.

JD, Where Did YOU Learn THAT!?

Driving home on Sunday Abby said something about, "I got no..." something or other and everyone corrected her grammar at nearly the same time.  We laughed about that and then started joking about people's bad grammar.  

After a little of that I said, "Where do people learn to talk like that?"

JD's VERY prompt reply, "George Bush?"

It May Be Obvious to You, but It's Not to Me

I might be naive, I'm sure I could easily get at least one person to agree, but our current health care debate makes no sense to me. 

On one hand, I understand that state health care in Europe, Japan and Canada has some serious problems.  So, I understand that people are concerned that if we copied them we would also copy their problems.  Not to mention, people with money can afford to get better care than what the state provides and so large inequalities still exist.  Also, many Americans don't like the government to be too involved in private affairs.

On the other hand, having the majority of health care funded privately isn't working out so hot here  in America either.   Lots of employers can't or won't pay for health care.  If you wanted everyone covered privately, you'd still have to mandate that somebody, each employer or each citizen, pay for it and then you'd be back to the trouble of the government being too involved in private affairs.  If you don't mandate that everyone be covered privately, the government is still involved because people's health care costs end up making them dependent on state aide.

On the other hand, there are plenty of people who believe everyone should pull themselves up by the bootstraps and take care of themselves and if you need to sacrifice nonessentials in order to pay for health care for your family, by golly, be a grown up and do it!  Except, if you look back through history, the only people that's ever worked for is rich people.  Poor people sacrificed and saved and did all they could to take care of their families and ended up paying for it with their lives and the lives of their children.

I know that nothing is easy and the solutions are going to have to involve some things that I don't like.  I'm cool with that.  I don't see how any answers are going to be put into action though, because like so many other debates going on, it seems like too few people want to work it out. Most sides just want to win. 

It's Sort of Funny

Spring as finally arrived after a most wintery winter. We finally saw fifty degree weather on Saturday and even warmer weather on Sunday.  It felt so good to take off my coat and gloves for the first time in months.  I loved that the sunshine was actually warm on my cheek again finally.  It smelled warm and damp outside, delicious.  Everything about it created a sense of hope and excitement.

It's funny to me though that those same temperatures in October feel different, smell different and even conjure up different feelings.  When the temperature is mid to high 5os in October it smells crisp and spicey.  The air feels cool and the sunshine feels weak.  I love fall, I missed it when I lived in Houston, and enjoy winter, but I can also feel a little melancholy at that time of year. 

Could it really be, despite the artificial, climate controlled environment that I live and work in most of the time, that the death and rebirth of the earth still has a strong hold on me?  Could it be that even though I enjoy things about all four seasons, my heart and mind are still tied to creation and so I also follow a cycle of death and rebirth that no amount of logic can dismiss?

I'm fascinated by the thought.