One More Reason to Live Within Your Means

If you follow my blog, you have read the other day that my husband and I had quite a lot of snow to shovel recently. He has been wonderful and has continued to keep the driveway clear as the storm refuses to move away. This job has been made easier by the fact that our cars are in the garage. This isn't the case for many of our neighbors. Their cars are in the driveways since their garages are filled with other things. I'm guessing they have an excess of stuff that doesn't fit in their homes so they store it in the garage. That means their cars go in the driveways, which makes shoveling the driveway difficult. If they would pare down and simplify, they could park their cars in the garage making shoveling easier.

Perhaps this is a silly reason to think about living within your means. People are so interested in acquiring things and our society supports this quest. But where does this stuff all go? Instead of surrounding ourselves with a few meaningful pieces that bring us joy, we purchase more. The reasons are varied: the neighbors just got one, I have to have it, HGTV used one in one of the shows. There isn't much thought beyond that like where will I put it, will I get rid of something else, and do I really need/love it. But, once this stuff enters our home, we are reluctant to get rid of it. There is an attachment to it because we have spent time and energy on it. Therefore, it piles up, in the basement, in the garage, and in storage areas we pay for every month.

But we have all experienced the frustration of doing a job because there is too much stuff in our way. We can't just do what we need to do without first cleaning up the clutter or clearing out the area that needs to be cleaned. A simple job turns into a day-long project and we end up feeling defeated before we even begin. If we were to live more simply though, having only what we really need or love around us, tasks would be done with ease, freeing our time for things we really enjoy. It would mean clearing out the clutter, admitting that we made some bad choices when we purchased things. There would be some hard choices involved and some soul searching. How nice, though, to park a car in a garage and have a nice clear driveway to shovel at your leisure.

Something to be said for Shoveling

It has spent the past 36 hours snowing here. A low stalled just east of New Jersey and we ended up with somewhere between twelve and twenty inches of snow. It is impossible to measure because of the drifting. My husband shoveled twice yesterday. I went and shoveled with him this morning because there was a lot of snow out there. The morning was peaceful. Birds were chirping. Wind-chimes were adding their melodies. Snow was coming down. All in all, it was a beautiful morning to be out.

A neighbor walked by and offered his snow-blower. It was a tempting offer. We don't have a large driveway, but it appears to double in size when there is so much snow on it. But the neighbor still had to finish his driveway before we could use it, so my husband graciously declined and we kept shoveling. At first, I was a little disappointed. But my husband pointed out the benefits of shoveling and then I understood. Once you start to use a snow-blower, you need to continue. There is a certain noise and odor to a snow-blower. But by shoveling, we were able to stop periodically and enjoy the scenery. We could still enjoy the sounds of nature. We were able to work together and we enjoyed a good workout as we tackled the driveway.

Perhaps as we get older, our shovels will give way to the snow-blower. But, today, although I am sore from a morning of shoveling, I am grateful for the opportunity.

Making Sense of Today's News ... Not!

"There was a shooting today at the Ft. Collins campus of Colorado State University. Hundreds were killed after a student opened fire in the main dining hall. Within minutes, the scene was described as an old-fashioned shoot-out at the OK Corral. People were firing on each other from behind over-turned tables, chairs and anything else they could use as cover. An investigation into what occurred is difficult since very few who were in the cafeteria are either alive or able to talk."

What a horrific news story this would be! How outraged people would be if this actually occurred! But, from what I heard on NPR this morning, a scene like this is not too far beyond the imagination. Colorado State University is considering a policy that would ban carrying concealed weapons on campus. I believe that is a prudent move in light of the increase in school shootings. But many on the campus oppose the policy. First, Colorado state law allows for people to carry concealed weapons. Most people do not think that the school should, or has the right, to go against state law. (They can by the way.) Second, many students see it as a violation of their rights. The kicker, in my eyes, is that the local sheriff will not jail anyone found in violation of the policy, if it goes into effect, because he doesn't feel the school has the right to make this policy.

In another news item this morning on NPR, people now be allowed to carry concealed weapons in national parks as long as the state that the park is in allows it. I'm not sure why. Travelers could keep their guns locked away in their trunks if they were visiting a park so this one is baffling. It becomes even more puzzling when you consider that it is still illegal to discharge a weapon in a national park. Last time I checked, the rate of violence in national parks was low, you can't hunt in national parks and you still would not be able to use the concealed weapon against rampaging squirrel. Someone please help me make sense of this, beyond the NRA giving key congressmen some nice vacations.

I think what we have here in both cases is a lack of common sense. It makes no sense to allow weapons on a campus when the rate of violence on campuses is increasing. It makes no sense to allow people to carry weapons in very peaceful environments. What does make sense is that the world is one step closer to being a more violent place. Instead, of encouraging non-violence and harmony, we are enabling disharmony. As if there wasn't enough of that in the world already.

Olympic Fever Runs Rampant

My family and I are Olympic junkies. Although we would usually turn off the tv in search of more mindful pursuits, when the Olympics are on, we watch incessantly. Yesterday found us cheering on an US medal contender in the Nordic Combined. I didn't even know there was a sport like that. We watched the Pairs Figure Skating short program and were amazed by the Chinese pair. We have mourned with the Georgian team as they lost one of their athletes. Yet we watched the Luge and were thrilled by the speed and skill necessary to ride down the ice with a pair of rails attached to your back. I am honored that Apolo Ohno is one of ours but feel badly that two Koreans got in a crash so Ohno and Celski could win the silver and bronze medals. And I love watching the moguls. I can not imagine how physically grueling that sport must be but am thrilled by the air they get on the jumps. Whenever I watch, for a split second, I get a rush. I admit that I am most looking forward to the curling. If you haven't seen it, imagine shuffle board on the ice and you'll only get part of it.

Olympic fever starts the day of opening ceremony in our home as we are introduced to a country and its culture in a way that would never occur any where else. It ends the day of the closing ceremony but its effects linger for days afterward. For a few short weeks every two years, we are truly part of a global nation cheering on the best and the brightest the world has to offer.

This is why I don't understand when people say the money spent on the Olympics could be put to better use elsewhere. Of course the millions of dollars on the opening ceremonies alone would feed and house people for a long time. But sometimes an event has an intrinsic value that can't be quantified by the purchase price. No where else does the world come together with the stated goal of true sportsmanship, honor of the team and glory of the sport. Everywhere we look nowadays, people are out for themselves first, using whatever means necessary to get ahead. It is refreshing to see people who are there to compete. The majority of athletes in attendance know that they will not medal; they are looking to finish and enjoy the experience. And for a few weeks, this is the model that is held up to all the world.

So, I will continue to be a junkie. And I will cheer on the underdog and the favorite. At times, my loyalty will lie with other countries. I will do all of this because I think that the Olympics highlight the best the world has to offer, both on and off the field of competition.

I Agree with Tea Bags

Let's not get too carried away. I will not be joining the Tea Party any time soon. Any group that has Sarah Palin as a keynote speaker is not a group that I want to join. But, as the news was reporting on her speech last night at the Tea Party Convention, I saw something with which I agree. Someone was wearing a button that said "You can't blame it all on Bush." This is what I agree with, but not in the same way I'm sure. You see, I also blame part of society's ills on the generation that taught us that we could have anything we wanted when we wanted it. I also blame the people that have encouraged us to reach for more than we need and the people that thought it would be good to teach children that everyone is a winner.

Earlier generations shunned credit. They preferred to work and earn money for something they wanted. If they couldn't yet afford it, they waited and worked. But eventually, we learned that credit lessens the waiting time. What was better was that credit allowed us to buy things first. I could get a new living room of furniture, new appliances and three more televisions for my home long before my neighbors or friends did. I then feel more important because I was the "Jones" not keeping up with them.

But of course all this stuff means that I have to have a place to put it all. So we learned that we need big houses to put it all in. The houses were so big that we needed more stuff, on credit of course. Not only did we need bigger houses, we needed more food to fill the cupboards and big cars to park in the garages. We got so wrapped up in the need of big, we even "super-sized" junk food! We learned that it was okay to take more than we need, use more than we need, buy more than we need, even if others truly needed more than we.

One of the ways that we learned all of this is because we learned that everyone was a winner. At some point, someone got it into their head that a child would feel better about himself if he did not lose. So instead of having a chance to learn about losing sometimes, instead of realizing that we aren't all entitled to whatever we want, a whole generation of children don't know what to do when they lose, don't know what to do when they don't get their way. People don't understand that instant gratification is detrimental in the long run.

So I agree with a tea bagger. We can't blame all of our problems on Bush. We can blame the people that have encouraged us to want more now even if we can't pay for it because we deserve it because no one ever loses.