| Rayne Today Searching for dharma, in spite of the weather...
WELL OVER MY FUNK NOW, DAMN IT… Nothing like righteous anger to get me out of my funk. I am royally, F*CKING PISSED OFF. Out of the blue, my daughter came home and told me that French fries are freedom fries from now on. Why? I asked, shocked this would come out of her mouth. Where in the hell did she get this notion, television? Kids on the playground? When my teacher found out that French toast was being served for lunch (in the cafeteria), she said, oh no, we’re not calling this French toast any more, it’s Freedom Toast. And she said French fries were supposed to be Freedom fries. WHAAAAT??? Yeah, that’s what she said, because the French aren’t helping us. This, from a 9-year-old. A kid in third grade in a public school. We’ve just concluded a half-hour discussion complete with maps and excerpts from General Wesley Clark’s Salon interview, the causes of Gulf War, the rationale (or lack thereof) behind 9/11, Saddam Hussein and the last 12 years, through the current Iraqi military action. My daughter’s been set straight and told that other countries do not agree with the Much to her credit, she talked with other friends on the playground, questioning what was said. My daughter hasn't forgotten that by heritage, she's primarily of French extraction. (My maternal grandfather was French Canadian, as were my husband's maternal grandparents.) You bet your buns there’s going to be a letter demanding a cessation of editorials in the classroom, as well as a phone call to the principal tomorrow morning. (Groupthink at work here, Kriselda, and it wasn’t even coursework!) My tax dollars are NOT going to be paying for this kind of crap!  comment []Kicking my own behind I’ve spent the day in a funk, kicking my behind, hoist with my own petard. This is not at all what I had in mind at all five years ago when I persuaded my hubby and my stepson both to consider my stepson going to the service first and college afterwards. Over the past four years he’s been stationed in the Let this be a lesson to you: be careful what you wish for, you may get it and then some. comment []The temptation of denial It would be so easy not to turn on the television, the radio. It would be so easy not to turn on the computer. It would be so easy to pretend the phone had not rung. It would be so easy, with my husband on the road traveling, to pretend he’s not worried sick. It would be so easy to pretend he and his ex-wife haven’t been consoling each other through tears on the phone. It would be so easy not to tell my children, let them go about their tender lives. Or would it? Would the reality of a son / stepson / brother going to Would dealing with the entire outcome later rather than now in bits make any difference? Will pretending this is all right, this is the required thing, make the truth any less ugly? comment []
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