Childhood is sacred

 Have you ever craved a time when you were free from society's expectations -- able to simply explore your own relationship with the world?

That special time is called CHILDHOOD and is essential to human growth and development. When short-circuited by conformity to expectations, the consequences are long-term not just for the individual, but for the entire society in which they live.

School, unfortunately, artificially promotes a sense of sameness by grouping according to age, rather than ability. Kids learn to look sideways rather than inward to determine what choices to make -- how to look, what to say.

In America, we have become so busy acquiring commodities, we lose the greatest (and most limited) one of all - time.

Now that Christmas is around the corner, my heart breaks for the anticipation focusing on acquisition of "stuff" rather than delight in time spent together.

FEAR AND HYSTERIA must not prevail over REASON AND LAW

  It is time to tell this story far and wide, so that all Americans know what can happen when fear and hysteria prevail over reason and law. 

https://abhms.org/about-us/mission-stories/minidoka-pilgrimage-american-story-times/

Great Aunt Elma Tharp worked at a relocation camp in Idaho - apparently the Minidoka. Seeking to confirm this, I found the Baptist website here linked. (Elma was a Baptist Missionary to Japan prior to outbreak of WW2.)

Consumer-driven life

When we lost income abruptly, we found an amazing freedom from an enslavement of which we had been unaware - the pressure to constantly evaluate and improve on what we possessed. Being unable to entertain the notion of unnecessary expenditures freed us to savor where we were and what we had in ways that enriched our lives so much more than the income we lost had ever done.

Education should be subversive... and lead to autonomy and independence

 Chris Hedges:

"Education should be subversive. It should give us the intellectual tools and vocabulary to question the reigning ideas and structures that buttress the powerful. It should make us autonomous and independent beings, capable of making our own judgments, capable of understanding and defying the “cultural hegemony,” to quote Antonio Gramsci, that keeps us in bondage."

Your Money or Your Life

 “Spending money is not an assertion of your freedom. It is the key to your next enslavement,” Robin tells me.

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Ind ependence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Tilford, Monique, Dominguez, Joe, Robin, Vicki

Published by Penguin Books, 2008

ISBN 10: 0143115766 / ISBN 13: 9780143115762

ART

 authentic expression of unique personal perspective

ART

Society needs more arrows in their quiver for conflict resolution - seems too many have only one: violence

 When training dogs or children, it's quite obvious scolding and punishing do not work. All that is learned is avoidance and temporary compliance - and how to scold and punish.

It's possible to train differently - to use redirection (rather than DON'T, give a DO). When the dog chews the rug, bring him an acceptable alternative (his chewy toy).

With kids it's a little different - they are testing what works and what doesn't work. If you indulge when whined at - whining will continue. If you calmly state as reality certain protocols (wash hands before eating, use the restroom before traveling, etc.), you are creating reality rather than controlling behavior.

Setting limits need not involve anger or punishment. Limits are extremely important and ultimately create security - but they need to be clear, unemotional and consistent.

We seem to have a society that knows only anger and destruction as an outlet for frustration or dissatisfaction. What if, instead, we created the opportunity for all our young citizens to be exposed to and experience a culture of courtesy. Guess what... we demand each one of them to attend public schools. If they are not learning civility there, we are wasting our taxpayer dollars.