Julie Pippert: Using My Words

I've been subtly correcting my children lately. Persistence has anger management issues, which I realize is the definition of a four year old, but directing that from anti-social to acceptable communication is the definition of mother. "Stomp your foot, say I feel angry! That's okay! It's not okay to hit or say hurtful things!" If I had a dollar for every time I said that the private school tuition would be paid for. We used to say mad. But the phrase "I'm mad" began to get under my connotation, denotation, and grammatically OCD skin. I did not like picturing Ophelia. I did not like being put in mind of a mad bull, someone enraged; greatly provoked or irritated; angry; abnormally furious; ferocious; extremely foolish or unwise; imprudent; irrational. Although upon reflection, perhaps mad is the right word, after all. But we've stuck with anger. Angry sounds like something you can get under control. Mad, enraged, fury does not. Betty Draper is wa...

Hand me a tissue... Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye. It has been fun writing. And thank you Julie Readers for staying tuned in and putting up with me. I don't know how so many of you do it every day and so well. I have visited several different blogs during my 'sitting'. And I am humbled by the honest, graceful and relevant writing I found. I also, now, have felt (am feeling) the pains of writer's block. But, I guess that's okay, since I was billed as having less to say. :) Hopefully, you all will tell Julie I did a good job and she will have me back (If not, there's always the rogue route). Since my brain is frozen, like my computer has been lately. I'm going to leave a clip of one of my most favorite movie scenes of all time. It pretty much sums up my personality. You'll see, it's not hard to tickle my funny bone. http://lesstosay.blogspot.com/ Enjoy! (Please don't laugh but, you'll have to link to my blog because I cannot figure...

Last week, I had what could have been a very embarrassing moment. In the morning super rush-I quickly threw on workout clothes. Very very soft running shorts (from a sale bin, this will be important later) and loose t-shirt. I was in a hurry as usual-I was off to drive kids around, then go running. All of us suburby moms look like this, the new morning rush uniform. I dropped off Kiddos 1 and 2. Salsie and May at school, where luckily I stay in the car. Then, I had to drop kiddo 3, who calls herself Sauncy, at preschool, where I do have to get out of the car. Eyewitness point number 1. Then I went for a run- starting pretty much up and down the main street, past the 'gated' part of my development, right by several construction sights, then in front of the golf club. Eyewitness locations 2-20. Where I finally ended at the park to set kiddo 4, Willsie, free from stroller jail. Eyewitness location number 21. At the park, trying to cool down in 90 degree, 100 percent humidity, dri...

Patience is a scientist, no, strike that, a scientist extraordinaire . For example, she collects bugs for observation. However, it doesn't end there. In fact it doesn't even begin there. Allow me to share the process: Step 1: Observe interesting bug in back yard. Step 2: Find Insect Guide and determine type of bug. Step 3: Discover appropriate habitat for bug. Step 4: Build bug habitat from personal design. Step 5: Collect bug using tools from Insect Collection and Storage toolkit. Step 6: Observe bug daily, multiple times, under varying conditions. Test light, heat, dark, and environmental responses. Take notes. Step 7: Create chart of life cycle, daily routines, and reactions to tests, a la chinois (which means, begin writing bottom left, move right and up from that point---to appease mom write frontwards translation under backwards words). Step 8: Cry while releasing bug back into wild. Console self with thought of bug returning to family. Console self further by writing an...

Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered. Yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. --- Thomas Paine, December 1776 I've made very plain my feelings about the injustice inherent in a punitively-oriented society. By merely focusing on the negative and punishing rule/law breakers, we do not offer enough deterrents or incentive for many people to operate within the system. A successful society is a two-party contract that requires total buy-in. Society leaders (by which I mean government) not only must offer a legal means that is reasonable, but also must provide guidance and direction to how to legally work towards the desired end. This requires two key things: trust and fulfillment of guaranteed rights. If this sounds vague and confusing it is because I'm trying to apply a general moral/ethical principle to the rule of law. Bring it down to a specific case: the right to vote. This right is an evolving one. Here's a ...

My feathery friend, do not treat me fowl! I know...I know: what a random assortment this post is! So I'll get right to it. Kodachrome When I think back On all the crap I learned in high school It's a wonder I can think at all So Patience and I got caught up in the Science Channel the other day. We'd intended to tune in just to learn a little more about what-where-when about Space Week (starts next week). Patience has decided to become an astronaut so she can go into space and do experiments and explore. This is actually the ideal career choice for her so far. It's no stretch at all for me to picture her performing a necropsy on a gecko to observe the effects of zero gravity on the lizard after three months in space. This is why I am sending her to Space Camp this summer. She'll build and launch rockets, and build a scale model of our solar system. I wonder if it will contain Pluto. Which brings me to the trouble with science and education. Everything I learned in sc...

After being confronted with written evidence, Julie admits that she is a total attention whore. In some things, in some ways, sometimes I look outward for validation of my worth and existence. I admit it. It's my weak spot, my vanity spot . If you say I am clever, comment on a post, offer me an award, mention me on your blog, reply to a comment I left on your blog, or in any way flatter me as a writer...I am hopelessly, slavishly devoted to you. I will probably even add you to my blogroll just so everyone can see the list of all the cool kids who actually like me . The girl, she knows she is vain in this regard , but after much vanity discussion and navel-gazing , she has decided to love herself anyway, as she is (ironically) and will keep searching for (1) internal validation and (2) her first person . Until I reach a better point of self-actualization, though, may I just say that this week you people have been better than prozac and chocolate (together, with a side of white choc...

I want the record to reflect that Valentine's Day is not, in fact, merely a Hallmark Holiday. In the heavy and heady tradition of strong capitalism and commercialism, Hallmark, Nestle, Whitman's, Disney and every other big company that can get a foot in the door of this holiday has done so. So it might seem as if it is a big scam to part a fool and his (or her) money. But it's not. Let me go all Trivial Pursuit and Big History Geek for a moment. Third Century AD. Rome. This era is known as the Crisis of the Third Century , and is a period of time we should never forget due to the lessons it can teach: Crisis of the Third Century (also known as the "Military Anarchy" or the "Imperial Crisis" ) is a commonly applied name for the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284 caused by the three simultaneous crises of external invasion, internal civil war and economic collapse. The changes in the institutions, society, economic life an...