Anti-Torture Act of 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about torture lately. Not like the UN definition of torture, but our own personal torture. Maybe because I’ve mis-used the word more frequently than usual or maybe I just love the way the word “torturous” rolls off my tongue. Sort of like vomititious. I actually LOVE that word because it’s so expressive, effective and descriptive and it sounds like what it is. That doesn’t happen too often. AND you can really put your whole face into the word. Anyway, I believe that most torture is self-imposed. Some people love to torture themselves. Others succumb to it. Recent observations of my own or other’s torture include agonizing over the perfect wording in an email, swearing you’ll never say hello to someone in the hall again after you’ve greeted them in passing dozens of times with NO response, the analyzing and over analyzing of something someone has said to you, long hours of overtime where your body is very angry at your for keeping it working at a desk for so long, the weight of expectation of something etc. Torture comes from the word that originally meant an "act of twisting" it’s the English derivative of the latin word tortura. So maybe we are actually twisting things so that we see ourselves as a victim and that is why it becomes so unbearable. If we can just remove that ego from the situation maybe we don’t have to be tortured. If we remember that we are free to think anything we want, react anyway we want, respond any way we want and that what other people do probably has nothing to do you personally, we can set ourselves free from our self-imposed torture. So I’ve decided that for the rest of month I’m not going to be victimitious.

Naughty or Nice?

No! This post isn't about what you think...Since election time is coming up I thought this sight was a good quick view of where the candidates are on some of the environmental issues. I am really hoping that this year we are past the aligning the party with environmental issues, i.e. dems are the tree huggers and pols are the stump cutters and the candidates can stop looking at the issue from a need to pander to special interest groups perspective.

http://www.grist.org/candidate_chart_08.html?source=most_popular

A New Year

So should we retire the blog in 2008? It was a creative experiment. But maybe now its time to go? However, I will do the Renee version of highlights HL and lowlights LL of my winter holidays, of lowlights there really were few:
HL Pup sitting Jills King Charles dogs swamp thing and frisco* (names have been changed to protect the innocent)
LL combing through the back yard with a shovel and stick to coax squishy dog poo into a cleanup bag after the rain
HL Snowshoeing through Vermont wilderness with a Navy Seal
HL Going skiing at Okemo
LL Collision with the chairlift and getting sandwiched by Dennis requiring the crew to stop the lift and untangle me and my skis
HL Relaxing in the hot tub after skiing
LL Nearly getting gassed to death because I worse some kind of cheap dyed tank into the hot tub which created toxic fumes
HL New Years Eve with some of my fave peeps
LL Missing the New Years Day viewing party of Dawson’s Crack.
There you have it. I feel like 2008 is my year. Something special is going to happen.