Mixed up in Verbosity...

I had to write a professional competence exam this week and have never encountered such a poorly presented course.  I cannot help but wonder why human beings have the tendency to complicate matters unnecessarily.  Are we testing competence on a matter or are we testing the ability of candidates to discern between essential information, peripheral data and absolute bullshit.

These days bullshit detection is a skill that seems to be in high demand on a daily basis. 

And which, incidentally, seems to be something that the average adult even seems to be struggling with...

I mean really, I piqued the interest of a married man this week.  The problem was, I simply couldn't get past the idea that some men actually think they are so special that a woman should be flattered when they get ‘come-on’ by them; men, married, as they are.  Like so here’s the offer:  I have a wife and kids but I will find an hour or two a week to come and spend it with you to relieve myself. 

Wow!  Is that supposed to be flattering?  Because to me; it is not.  Not at all. 

What makes you think you are that special?  What makes you think I would allow you to use me like that?  What makes you think that I also cannot get a man for everyday of the week if I so wanted to? 

Incidentally there is a guy I know who says the majority of men cheat and he figures about 10% of women cheat.  Unless the majority of men are cheating with men...(me thinks), - he failed mathematics...      
  
Since he is so sure his wife is not among them, I didn’t have the heart to correct him... moron. 

And so we work very hard to package what we want to believe.  We end up making things very complicated unnecessarily, perhaps even to deceive ourselves.  We live in a world whereby we would like to be so different from one another, exclusive, special and so in addition to the usual excuses for discrimination like race, gender, language, etc., we have added yet another; verbosity. 

What the hell is verbosity?  You wonder.  And no, I did not make that word up.  It actually means long-winded and wordiness.  Essentially the ability to make things more complicated than necessary.  And I think it is a trend that seems to be growing. 

You see these days we have MBA graduates who still do not understand that in order to become wealthy, there needs to be more money coming in than going out.  I mean this is a concept that can actually be taught to a five year old.  But it would seem that governments and experts alike seem to be struggling with the same principle.

We try everyday to tell ourselves that we can make it alone.  But anyone who’s ever made it, had some help along the way.  Perhaps it was parents who paid for schools, a friend who opened a door, a scholarship, someone who saw potential and invested...

We have convinced ourselves that love uses people to get what it wants.  ‘Love bites, it bleeds’.  Love hurts sometimes.

And that’s the kind of bullshit I am talking about.

Love does nothing of the sort. If love is real: love does two things I am sure of. 

Loves gives and love shows up when needed.   

Its time to stop buying so much bullshit... 

 

 

Someday... Girls Might Just Grow-up

“The girls that get chosen for the basketball team are the ones who look good in their uniform” I am candidly informed by my niece (14).  Sadly, there are high schools fifteen years later (plus-minus) that still exist in a time warp even worse than the one I attended. 

Now that is still tragic.  When it is no longer about the sport and even there out on the basketball court, it is about how you look, I wonder what women will be doing in twenty years, if anything at all?  When will it be about what you can do and not what you look like?

Yep, the change addict is an ugly duckling, you’re thinking... so many words, so few pictures; there must be a reason...

Imagine if both genders functioned like this.  A whole world of very pretty but entirely useless people.  A booming beauty industry, but that is about all there is.  The pursuit of beauty the be all and end all.  Lots of plastic surgery and the endless pursuit of the fountain of youth. 

Yep, that’s it, she’s one of those, ‘nice’ girls.  You know all personality, not too much else...

If women were placed in a ‘separate development’ social construct, I fear that many would be living in shacks, well because engineering would be beyond our intellect or at least our interests, the roads would collapse and never get repaired, because well... we wouldn’t want to break a nail.

I understand that given biology, the survival co-dependency between men and women ensures that this scenario will remain a case of gross speculation and little far-fetched. 

But isn’t that what women have been sold?  Check ‘women’s magazines,’ it’s not all that far off.    

...Oh dear, even worse, the change addict must almost be a man... must be... No ‘good-looking’ woman would talk like this...   

I cannot help but ask myself is this really the fruit of the hard earned women’s suffrage movement and the generation of women who determinedly burned their bras in their quest for equal rights? So women can now vote, but their value still comes from how they look not what their accomplishments are, what they stand for or who they are. 

Amelia Earhart was the first woman who flew solo across the Atlantic, but just how good did she look in her stilettos?    

What saddens me most is that places our value as women externally.  It is based on someone else’s approval and the question is:  Why would you give somebody that sort of power over you? 

This culture of ‘haters’ needs to go.  Talk about debilitating. 

...Yep, must be a man...  

The inability to see value, talent and potential in another human being says more about the person seeing than it does about those being seen.  It says that they are unable to see intrinsic value in themselves and in order to make themselves a little bit bigger, they have the need to look down on other people and make them small. 

That attitude also guarantees nothing will be accomplished that is bigger than we are. 

And no, I am not a man, I have a biological daughter. 

Science may be good... but not yet that good! 

 

 

Due to a Donkey Shortage...God must be Bald

God must be bald. 

I know there are things that you just don't say, and that statement might be one of them.  But let's think about this for a moment. 

Have you ever considered how many times you get irritated in a day?  Then out of the irritations, calculate how many of them are actually caused by other people either in your life or through daily human encounters, at the shop, on the roads...

Factor into the equation, how many of those incidents are sparked by highly not so intelligent behaviour and or intellect...

And how many times do you really feel like pulling out your hair on a weekly basis? 

...

Multiply that by the population and factor in the number of incidents calculated from the beginning of time. 

See?  God must be bald. 

By now he has pulled out every hair He ever had and has gotten tired of speaking into the world every rotation for additional hair which probably by the time the earth is halfway back to Greenwich Meridian time, is long gone again. 

No seriously, consider all those very serious issues that ‘Christians are busy with’.  (I am picking on Christians assuming that those talk to God on a more consistent basis.)  I mean very serious things like whether it is okay to be associating people of other faiths, or being seen in a pub  or how much grass has been consumed for the pardon of sins (seriously there is a church that does that too).  

No wonder non-believers would prefer to keep their distance.  Raving bunch of lunatics we are, not to mention the stress of having to pick the right church because according to the ‘other churches,’ most members of those ‘other churches’ probably ‘ain’t gonna make it’ to heaven either...

Eish.  High Stress.  Total Confusion.
 
And how about wearing hats in church...  There, now that is serious.  There are some churches who do not allow women in church without a hat.  God created male and female naked in the garden in the Garden of Eden, and now, hats are seriously high on His to do list in the midst of starving children, wars and diseases. 
  
No, I understand, there is a verse in the bible and maybe you’re right that scripture has nothing to do with modestly and character and everything to do with the hat.  I personally, seriously ‘doubt it.’  But hey; ...maybe!
.....

Sorry, what was that you were saying?

.....
Yes, I know, I will not be getting into heaven through the front door. Thanks for that.    
    
And how about... dare I say it... women in church office.  Now there’s a very serious issue.  Churches have even split over this issue.  I kid you not.  Sadly.  Women should not be allowed to lead in church.  I mean God is seriously worried about this issue.  I mean it’s right on the dividing line between heaven and hell and so we simply cannot afford to get this wrong.
 
So let’s consider the following:  God used a donkey to warn Balaam not to go up and curse the Israelites.  The donkey saw an angel in the path and actually spoke (Numbers 22).
     
So if need be: God is willing to use a donkey. 

And the bible also says that if the disciples did not praise him ‘the stones will cry out’.  (Luke 19:40)

And so, well God’s calling of the following women prophets and leaders; Huldah (2Kings 22:14), Anna (Luke 2:36), Deborah (Judges 4), Queen Esther (Esther)... etc. to mention a few known examples, could only have meant, that there was a serious shortage of donkeys in the land.    

So multiple all that intelligence by the world’s population and there you have it. 

GOD MUST BE BALD!

Miss, Mrs, Ms, ...

I tend to buy strongly into the philosophy of 'common sense' rather than holding someone that society has deemed ‘an expert’ in high esteem.  I suppose it is possible that this might be a direct result of my obsession with the ‘why’s’ of life.  Or a conclusion based on multiple experiences over the years which resulted in my wondering just how it was possible that this person is an 'expert' in their field regardless of the position he / she may have held at the time.  Try and sit through a random conversation about having your cervix stitched close and see if you view doctors the same way.    

I think the level at which knowledge is available and added to in modern society, almost negates the idea that someone can maintain expertise without a constant quest and focus in a specific area of learning.  And so I have a high level of scepticism when it comes to ‘expertise’. 

Perhaps it is a reflection of my own quest for knowledge which has led me to question regularly what is generally considered to be accepted knowledge.  I’m pretty okay with concepts like 'gravity;' we used to play 'circus' as kids and believe me when I say we always came down, but struggle a little bit more with ideas like 'identity' for example.  I prefer to define myself.     
    
But despite my general scepticism of ‘experts’, I am still considering attaining a PhD.  I know..., but I did tell you that I reserve the right to change my mind. 

Actually my consideration has more to do with the title than the actual papers ‘ascertaining my expertise’. 

“But what about your comment about position and it not being held in high esteem”...blah, blah, blah or something like that, you’re thinking... 

No, I am afraid it is a much more trivial reason than attaining a title linked to professionalism.  I am simply seeking a title that is not linked to my marital status. 

You see, growing up, I was a ‘Miss’.  Got married and became a ‘Mrs.’ Now after the divorce I am forced to go by ‘Ms’. 

If I were a man, I would have simply been ‘Mr,’ despite the changing circumstances in my personal life.  So as far as I can tell, the only title as a woman that you actually keep and it belongs to you, is ‘Dr.’  Because now if I marry again, the cycle starts all over... back to ‘Mrs.’ ‘take two’.   I am simply a little tired of the double standard and so I think becoming a ‘Dr,’ just might need to be looked at  more seriously.

Has anyone ever asked besides me, “Why is that”?  Why are there different titles for women that communicate clearly her marital status?  Seriously, just who was that intended to benefit?  Definitely not women.  

Men, out of curiosity, how many of you are guilty of checking out a woman and referring to the title section of the form she has just filled out for her marital status?  Yeah, I thought so.              

If nothing else, the title ‘Dr.’ can survive marriage, divorce and the death of a spouse.  Society gives that to men for free, am I the only one who finds this double standard a little hard to swallow?  Incidentally, if I ever suffer from Alzheimer’s disease someday, I wonder to which title I will regress. 

But at least it’s good to know that at least there is something that men will remember.