A recent study showed that today's working parents spend just as much time with their kids as stay at home parents in the past. Of course something's gotta give and that's the working parents' free time and sleep. Many consider having to have two working parents a necessary evil, but I have to wonder: if kids are getting just as much attention from two working parents today as they did with one stay at home parent in the past, then are kids who have a stay at home mom or dad getting too much attention? Quantifying how much is too much is a problem that extents far beyond the realm of parenting but, as member of generation X, with the next generation -- sometimes called "the entitlement" generation -- nipping at my heels, I have to wonder what our children will come to expect of this world: after they've grown up ensconced in safety measures, never knowing the bittersweetness that comes with having to wait for the post office to deliver your mail, and with their information and media desires, on demand. Will then understand courage that comes from fear, patience that comes from anticipation, and wisdom that comes from ignorance?
Lately, everywhere I turn there seems to be another article about global climate change. It's a welcome sight to be perfectly honest. The more honest discussion we have, the greater our concern for the environment around us, the more we will be able to shape the future, instead of just fumbling towards it. In case you're new to it, the main driver of the global warming argument is an increase in carbon dioxide levels. This is all very widely known and none of it is disputed. What is debated, is what, ultimately, will the effect of this change be and, to a lesser extent, what our role is in that change. In my opinion, carbon dioxide being the biproduct of a number of things: manufacturing, transportation, trade, breathing, etc. The simplest way to produce less, is to consume less. Sometimes I like to imagine a world where people aren't driving an hour or more to work. Where they aren't buying goods from china that they can buy here. Where people are more excited about finding what's around them, than what's a world away.
Monday morning saw me tearing labels and stamps off a used mailing envelope. For work. Because we don't have the budget to buy new envelopes. Granted, what I needed was a padded envelope for a CD, which is a little unusual. But still. Now I don't make as much as some people out there, but I make enough that spending 10-15 minutes trying to get labels off an envelope isn't cost effective. I think it's sorta cool that I reused something that's normally tossed in the trash. It's just not efficient.
I heard something on the radio that piqued my interest: "to sacrifice is to make holy." Usually when I hear the word sacrifice it's used in the context of things done for one's children or perhaps things done for one's country. Sacrifice in this form is, "the destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else," but another definition is "an act of offering to a deity something precious." I seldom hear the word used with the second definition, though I'm sure in ancient times that was the more common type of sacrifice. Still it's interesting that we've taken something divine and made it personal.
You've probably noticed that a great many of these entries are three paragraphs long. I suppose it's a habit of mine to try to find the common thread through disparate subjects. Today, I'm short one so I'm winging it. I think every now and then you need to take a moment and look at things a different way. Lately I've been stuck in a rut, watching projects sit while time flies by. I'm so used to procrastinating that it's like a security blanket. The irony is that I actually like finishing projects more than I dread starting them. Oh, sometimes in the middle I want to cry, but I usually don't get stuck there. Most often you'll find me at the beginning or at the end. Either looking forward to the possibilities ahead or looking back on what has been written.
Remember stressing about grades? Here's the skinny for those less link savvy: Student turns in project one day late due to school activity. Student gets F. Student sues school. This sounds rather insane to me and at first I was about to dismiss it as a byproduct of our hyper-litigious society, but I think it's really about something else. Two things really. First, communication. Seriously people, talk to one another. The teacher must have known the student wasn't going to be in class to turn in the project. The student must have known it was going to be late. Second, consequences. I don't mean consequences for being late. I mean consequences for letting things get out of hand. We don't go to school to beat people over the head with rules, we go to school to learn. And teachers, if they want to be successful in teaching, should understand that teaching must be a partnership. You can't teach someone that doesn't want to learn and if you're seen as being an unreasonable ass, guess how much teaching you'll really be doing in the future.
In other news, apparently there's quite a few people out there who simply don't pay taxes. There's even a few who think U.S. citizens don't have a legal obligation to pay taxes and that the government has no right to collect them. Now I don't agree with where half of my tax dollars go, but I certainly agree with the principal of paying taxes. Do what you want I suppose, but you'll be sorry if one day we really do run out of money. One of commentators said something particularly interesting: the greater your wealth, the greater your obligation to maintain the society that gives and protects that wealth. It's the concept of noblesse oblige, expect in more Machiavellian terms. You might argue of course that you have no wealth, but let's face it, if you're reading this, you have an internet connection and you're better off than a lot of people who really can't afford one. Unless of course you have an internet connection that's used mainly for WoW. In which case it's debatable whether or not you're better off than the average junkie. I'm kidding of course. Sort of.
I had meant to write every day this week, but the week is old now and I can't recapture all that has been lost. Still, I'll do what I can:
On Tuesday a butterfly landed on my shirt collar. Walking around the construction site, we saw a monarch butterfly resting at the base of a large pile of dirt. My colleague picked it up gently and it flew from his finger to my collar. I couldn't really see it as I cautiously pulled it off; it felt like any other bug, it's legs sticky with hairs that held it fast the fabric. It had a modestly large, black body and if not for the brightly colored wings, I suppose I would have thought it somewhat menacing looking. It was somehow unfair that I wanted to take it away from the area, fearing that it would be crushed by the earth moving equipment around. I doubt I would have done the same for a beetle or a roach.
Late last month C.H. mentioned the strange disappearance of half the honeybees in the country and today there was a public radio program about the topic. The importance of this was summed up by the oft used phrase "canary in the coal mine." Honeybees pollinate many of the crops that America produces and their unavailability to do so this year and going into the future would decimate those crops. Eerily enough, the bees have actually disappeared, there are no dead bodies in the colonies. Also, invaders, other animals that would gladly steal the bees' honey, kept their distance from the abandoned colonies. During the parts of the program that I heard, no one linked the disappearance to the phenomenon of global climate change, rather believe that the cause is likely to be pesticides or some unintended consequence of modern practices that we use. And nothing that I heard ruled out that this might be totally natural, since there doesn't seem to be enough data going back in time. But then wildfires are often natural too, doesn't mean I'd want to be in the middle of it.
I couldn't possibly close without a few words on Iraq. Today the House introduced legislation to force the president from continuing the war in Iraq. It saddens me that our political system has become so convoluted that the system of checks and balances originally envisioned, is itself a quagmire of poor compromises and doomed efforts. Two articles came to my attention today, one about the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, the other about a victim of our country's extraordinary rendition program. Many of us wonder if the ends justify the means. I wonder what ends these means will bring us.
Often, this space is filled with carefully crafted thoughts, avoiding less poetic topics ranging from profound to mundane. Today I'm decided those things are worth mentioning.
When I came into work on Monday, it seemed as if it would be a normal week. It has been anything but that. The Executive Director accepted the resignation of one of the Directors last Friday and now all the projects in my department are on the chopping block. It's the year of the Pig and I think Pokeland's going to start looking like a slaughterhouse.
This week the markets lost some serious ground, the Dow plunging over 500 hundred points at one point and then another 200 points a couple of days later. It made back a little of that in days and periods in-between, but 2007 is, as of the end of February, not a good year in the financial markets. Of course for some people, owning homes right now isn't a great investment either.
The wedding planning stalled for most of February. We only signed up one vendor in those 28 days. We slowly getting restarted. Hopefully by the end of the month we'll have the cake, the flowers, the officiant, and the costume wear figured out. Then the real planning can start.
Nothing particularly interesting, but now you know what plagues my thoughts on a daily basis.