A Father's Regret: One of Them Anyway

I don't remember what prompted the angry outburst. Maybe when I found my plate block stamps helpfully separated into single stamps so I could use them easier. Maybe when we were cleaning out the nook under the house and he dropped an antique punch bowl. Maybe something else.
But I remember what I said in anger: "Matt, if you do that again I will cut off your fingers!!!". Then within microseconds of the words coming out, I realized a couple of things; One, it was a hollow threat because I would never do that and; two, he will realize I didn't mean it. But I said quickly "I am sorry I said that. I would never hurt you. I just got mad."
The words were out before the brain really engaged. A frontal lobe failure. And not just some brain, but MY brain. And he was a young child. Maybe he didn't know that I wouldn't hurt him.
I know probably most parents say things in anger to each other or their kids that they don't really mean, and mostly the things we say get forgiven. But obviously not all of them get forgotten.
The lesson in this? Try to be very careful what you say. Because even if you follow up something nasty with "I'm sorry", the words may cut too deep to be excised.
And I am truly sorry.
Please, just be careful.
Image: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/p480x480/922870_484950154909697_353493361_n.png

Little Angels Pissing Contests

 

I was reminiscing with my brother the other day about some of the things we did when we were kids. I would have been less than 10 and he less than 13 (based on where we lived at the time.) We eventually got to the “dueling stream pissing contests” we would get into. One of us would start to wee, and then quickly the other would unlimber and try to knock the stream to the side with his stream. Lots of fun. Then Tom said “remember the cigarette butts?” Oh yeah, I said. Pop would pee and sometimes throw his unfiltered Chesterfield butt in the toilet afterwards. He usually didn’t flush if he knew we were next. So Tom and I would both stand in front of the bowl and try to “sink the butt” with our powerful jets of pee. We would often shred the butt to pieces, but only if we didn’t get diverted by trying to knock the other’s stream aside. Uninhibited kids do amazing things, don’t they? Anyone else ever engage in this kind of jousting?

Image: Angelic brothers

Christians, Atheists, Agnostics and Others

I know lots of people. Most but not all are Christians. There are a sprinkeling of other types including atheists, agnostics, and Buddhists. No Muslims though. Not from choice or exclusion but rather from a lack of opportunity. See, I don’t seek out people based on their religion.

So, when I hear statements (1) that we have to watch the Anti-American and Anti-Religion activities on college campuses it makes my blood boil. For starters, the so-called “Anti-Religion” crap is a tired retread of the right wing cry “They [whoever “they” are is never defined] are trying to kill Christianity” in America. Nobody with a brain bigger than a pea actually believes that. Well, a lot of people actually seem to believe that, but they are all pea-brained morons. The people pumping that crap out are shrewd manipulators of the public they control. But I digress.
I have been on college campuses since 1958. Continuously. I have seen the civil rights era, the Woodstock era, the Vietnam war era, the shameful Nixon era, the fall of Communism era. I have seen, heard and been part of many different kinds of protests. WAKE UP RIGHT WINGERS!!!! This is AMERICA where freedom of speech and association is guaranteed by the same Constitution that you thump about guns.

Calling for the separation of Church and State is not an attack on Christianity. Keeping religion out of public events is not an attach on Christianity. It is the exercise of a Constitutional Right. You know, like the one to bear arms? And for the umpteenth time, THIS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION!! We do not have a national religion.

In America we all have the right to protest what we want, to be free of religious coercion and to hang around with whomever we want. GUARANTEED BY THE CONSTITUTION, so quit whining about the demise of your faith and read the Constitution instead of the Bible. You might actually learn something.

1. Private correspondence

Image: http://www.heardcitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/we-the-people.jpg