I Wish I Could Talk to Rosa Parks

(image courtesy: Wikipedia)
I wish I could talk to Rosa Parks.  I'd ask her about the eyes staring at her as she did something very simple, the simple act of participating in a public activity.  Many others were in public with her, yet the eyes were burning hard in her direction.

I wish I could talk to Rosa Parks and ask her if tension followed her wherever she went.  I'd ask her how she convinced herself that it was better to endure isolation in jail as she stood up for herself rather than follow the crowd.   

If I could talk to Rosa Parks she might have said she relied on prayer.  She may have had long talks with God about her worth as a human being and that she deserved to express her worth in a way that was courteous and fair.

I wish I could talk to Rosa Parks and ask her how she held her composure while angry, panicked people overreacted to her quiet act of independence. I wonder if she was just tired of trying to discuss the obviously misguided beliefs impacting so many lives.  

I wish I could talk to Rosa Parks and thank her for her courage as all the eyes watched her be taken away by police.  I would thank her for her decision to not let Emmett Till die in vain.  I can't help recalling the men and women throughout history who died defending our Constitution.  It is such a dishonor to all of them as we too easily agree to recently enacted laws that violate our inherent freedoms. 

I wish I could talk to Rosa Parks about the fear within her own home as she recounted her grandfather gripping his shotgun while the Ku Klux Klan marched down her street. I would ask her what she thinks of our 2020 slogan that we are safer at home.  While she may not have felt safer at home, I would tell her I felt as if I am banished to my home. 

I know how the recent stress has impacted my psyche and health.  I can't imagine anyone's neurotransmitters tolerating this for a lifetime.  Rosa Parks lived a long busy life until the age of 92.  I wish she could tell me her secret to remaining upbeat and energetic around so many negative people.  

I now dread going to the store, even though I have a right to buy what I need.  Spontaneous conversation among strangers rarely takes place in a town I consider to be friendly. I bet if I could talk to Rosa Parks she would tell me to cut out the self pity and stick with my personal mission. 

I live in a state that was given an executive order by its governor to wear a mask if social distancing cannot occur.  With plexi-glass hanging everywhere and colored dots spaced out on floors, social distancing is quite easy to maintain. But now that's not good enough. I dared to step away from the majority even though social distancing is quite attainable. 

Masks have become a badge of honor and not wearing masks is the new scarlet letter. 

Rosa Parks couldn't hide her skin color.  I surely do not hide my stance on wearing masks.  But there's no time for respectful conversation regarding masks being unnecessary.  Instead, I have to leave.  And as I leave I feel a sudden surge of sadness. 

I am overcome with disappointment because the fear has won without  a proper course of due process.  So called "emergency orders" continue to feed the raging fire of fear. It has been successful because truth is set aside over dogma.  

Fear is the enemy that breaks down the immune system.  Fear creates the biochemical change in children that can leave them emotionally dysfunctional for their entire lives as demonstrated by the 1995 Adverse Childhood Experience study.  

People who are already at a disadvantage early in life now have a surge of debilitating cortisol under this new stress.  It adds more fuel to the comormidity conundrum that is killing a lot of people. 

If I could talk to Rosa Parks, I would ask her if she believed adverse childhood events impacted her negatively every time she stepped on a bus or walked down the street.  I know I have that rotten pit in my stomach whenever  I am social distancing inside a store.  

I am not a mind reader of others around me, but the verbal backlash I've experienced by a few workers makes me leary of the ones who don't speak to me.  And how do I notice welcoming facial expressions?  Their faces are covered up!

Now, I am prejudging everyone.  I assume they are angry and hateful toward me because I social distance without a mask.  I could be correct in my prejudging or I could be wrong.  But either way I am prejudging based on my negative experiences with a few uptight people who barred me from their businesses.  As it turns out they are just as prejudicial  because they fearfully believe I am a dangerous germ spreader.  

If I could talk to Rosa Parks I would ask her about the snowball effect of this constant prejudice.  I would ask her how to  encourage more friendliness inside the stores. 

At this time, I am only comfortable in my home, my office, and my car.  Thinking about going anywhere immediately puts my nervous system at some level of fight, flight, freeze or faint.  If I could talk to Rosa Parks  I would ask her how did she decide it was time to stand up for her freedom rather than give in?  

I bet she would have told me she was always standing up for her freedom.  It was in small ways at different times. She was educating herself, meeting with like minded people, and constantly giving back to others with kindness.  She wasn't waiting for that moment to attract attention and get arrested.  But the moment came and she made a decision while Emmett Till's murder was very fresh in her mind. 

Emmett Till may have changed the world as a teenager.  Rosa Parks also made a major impact on us while she was in her early 40s.  What are we going to do in 2020 while facing certain challenges?  What are we going to do in the next ten years?  The next twenty years?  How will we equip our children to do the same?

I wish I could talk to Rosa Parks.  

What If I Did More Than Nothing?

Wow, I surprised myself. 

(Amazon Link Here)

May 2020 Update: OK I'm at it again.  I have gone to a carnivore style of eating, so I don't count my carbs like I used to do.  I transitioned to the carnivore style back around July 2019.
This book is still useful for people who are just beginning to reestablish a better eating plan.  And good for you.  Keep it up.  My goal is to help people lead themselves and to find the journey meaningful and rewarding.  Enjoy!

There is a long drawn out story if you care to read it.  I'll keep it short.  A year ago I published on Amazon The Low Carb Success Journal.  It was a tiny book with a listing system so you could count your carbs and keep track of them everyday.  

(Visit the Counting Coach on Facebook)

I forgot about it the rest of the year.  I had a Facebook Page called the Counting Coach and I ignored that, as well.  I wasn't making updates and I wasn't keeping in contact with my readers. 

The funny thing is I kept receiving royalty deposits for $1.76.  I didn't know how to look up my sales to see which book was selling.  (I have some small ebooks on Amazon, as well.)

A few weeks ago I decided I needed to tweak my diet some and that included writing down my carb counts.  I made a simpler way to count my carbs and created a new edition of the book calling it now: Low Carb Currency.  

It is slimmer  size paperback and I lowered the price by $1.  

Now, I did not promote the book, yet I made about 10 sales without trying.   The website has millions of books with thousands of keywords. 

So, I need to challenge myself.  If doing nothing gets me a few sales here and there, what if I did something?

So look for my musings at The Counting Coach on Facebook.

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Low Carb Currency: The Better Way to Journal

Authored by Lisa Ann Homic

List Price: $5.99

5" x 8" (12.7 x 20.32 cm) 
Black & White on White paper
74 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1548125158
ISBN-10: 1548125156
BISAC: Health & Fitness / Food Content Guides

Discover the upgraded way to keep a food journal.
Welcome TO THE Low Carb TURN AROUND Why do you need a low carb journal? 1- Because journaling has been proven to work. 2- Because your diet is worse than you admit. Yes, you can reach your health goals with a low carb diet. In fact, it is the only way. Don't be the millions of folks who say, "I eat a healthy diet," and still struggle with diet related health concerns. This is the only way to prove yourself right. The numbers don't lie.

The Back Porch Society Keeps Me Sane

Some interesting events taking place this week have helped me organize my thoughts on the whole topic of information sharing.  This includes how we receive information, how we decide to accept or reject information and who controls the information.

Actually who controls the information?  At first glance it is the media.  The TV news outlets, radio and internet, often controlled by one major company sifts through information and presents the public with stories that the companies assume will bring in the biggest ratings.

Now we know, they are all biased.  And this is fine.  We expect them to be biased.  It is called a niche.  They report to a niche audience.   News no longer has to be objective.  Was it ever objective?

This past week Bill O'Reilly was fired from FOX News.  He was there for 20 years and built the FOX brand.  Nice way to thank the talent who made your name famous. Whatever infighting or controversy was going on behind the scenes his style was heavily watched by the public and he dominated the ratings.  How will his departure impact all the popular news outlets?  We shall see.

Also this week, Tucker Carlson interviewed Robert Kennedy Jr. about the attorney's questions regarding vaccine safety.  Mr. Kennedy noted this interview was the 2nd time he was allowed on a television news show in the last 10 years.  His first time on the air was on Bill Maher which doesn't have advertisers.  Two times in ten years to share compelling information with the public.  But some corporate big-wigs have held it back for a decade.

Now, if you have been following the mysterious deaths of holistic doctors, you have read that the number is about 50.  A number of writers have been keeping track and noting these are very talented, altruistic doctors who are dying young mysteriously or violently.  It's no secret that scientists and doctors who make breakthroughs in disease treatment have their careers ruined, or they die suddenly.

Do I like to keep track of conspiracy theories?  Perhaps.  But I am not the only one who wonders, if there is a better way of doing things, why are new ideas laughed at, mocked as crazy, or buried from public access?

Parents are fighting to maintain their right to avoid vaccines.
Parents are fighting for their right to control their children's education or home schooling.
People are fighting to have access to non-GMO foods.
People are fighting for health freedom in how they make medical decisions.
People are fighting for privacy rights.

There are a many concerns that we have to choose from  and assert our constitutional right to stand up for ourselves.

Now, in the meantime, I need a little relaxation.  I like to let my mind just get away from serious topics and read some of those silly magazines highlighting movie stars and other famous people. As I thumb through the pages, I realize the entertainment media pushes exorbitant and stratospheric reports from paparazzi overwhelming us with the private lives of famous people.  It is quite nauseating to hear about their bizarre lives.

While news outlets limit what's reported, often edited to meet their biases, and the overload of nonsense stories from the world's rich and famous to further numb our minds, how do we make sense of it all?

Answer:  The back porch society.

A Re-engineered Society Has Wrecked Us --- But We Call It Normal

I've dedicated this post to the people who are quietly trying to change things within their own families. We're supposed to have a voice in our society but it's not that evident.

My thesis: We are in a re-engineered society.
We are a mess.
Now, so many generations have lived through it, we are officially blind to it.

The problem: The school system.  It is as American as apple pie and it's time we learned to hate apples.  (just a metaphor.)  And, P.S. 70% of people hate their jobs as you will read below.  So, it just keeps getting worse.

In 1918 all states required every child to attend elementary school.  Without going into the evolution of public education into present day, we can all agree there are

1- Children must be in school a certain number of days or the parents get in legal trouble.  Even home schoolers have to check in with their local school district like teenagers rushing home to beat curfew.  Private schools also answer to the government.  There is not much independence in a private school.

2- Parents do not have a say in what is taught, how it is taught, and how children are assessed.  It's been going on for so long, most adults don't question it.  They had the same education and don't question whether it's been useful or not in the lives, so they put their children through the same so called rite of passage.

3- Your transcript has become an invisible profiling tool. For good or bad, it labels you for quite a bit of your life until you're old enough to laugh at it and not care.

4- Schools are used to track your child's medical history.  I thought medical records were confidential? The vaccine registry? ( Remind you of anything?) I don't even have time here to delve into the ADHD problem and how schools try to practice medicine without a license.

5- Vaccines must be given and tracked in order for a child to attend school.  Since we're so brain washed (sorry I couldn't come up with a water-downed word to make it sound less harsh) that children must be in school, we rush to the doctors office getting the shots, even though it is a civil rights issue to raise your child as you see fit.  Many families do not want this medical intrusion and don't want vaccines and now must put that in writing.  Putting it in writing is egregious.  It is still nobody's business.

6- Dare I add this?  Since school is a requirement and we are taxed  in order to fund these money eating social projects, both parents work outside the home,  deteriorating the family.  How many parents are scrambling to find day care when schools are on break?  The family dynamic goes into a temporary upheaval.  And since both parents are compelled to work, for benefits and insurance, they can be trapped in unfulfilling jobs that rob them of their health (but they have insurance for that).  Bosses take advantage of this and really instill burdensome work policies, intolerable work environments.  Workers stab each other in the back.  Work politics are dirty and people take it out on each other. When you think about it, the work place is  a rehash of the intolerable dramas of our school days.  The project is a complete success. (Check out the 2013 study that shows 70% of people hate their jobs.)  Oh!  I almost forgot about before and after school programs in place to solve our problems....

The solution?  You first have to  agree there is a problem.  The solution is freedom.  And perhaps a re-definition of freedom? Where would you like to begin?

 I picked on schools because public schools have been around for a long time, so we expect it to be wholesome and wonderful.  But we've backed ourselves into a corner with such strict, limiting beliefs.........  

As I said: Where would you like to begin?

The Shack Shock and What It Really Means

I have not seen the movie version of The Shack. I did read the book. Since it was  more than five years ago, I really don't remember much of the book.  I can tell you I felt the story line was "far out there" meaning the author was pulling the story line beyond typical expectations of character development.  

Since this was a book about a grief stricken man meeting up with the three persons of the Trinity, it is perceived by some as a Christian themed book that could teach the tenets of Christianity.  

However, as one reads through the novel, it is soon realized it is not a guide to the Bible.  It is a work of fiction that borrows some Christian thought.  

For me, I remember I was taken in by Mack's massive emotional pain.  Readers who have suffered their own misadventures and heartbreak can practically relive their own grief while reading this book.  It is very powerfully written and anyone with empathy can feel for this fictional character.  I brings out a piece of your own broken heart to the surface as I recall it brought me to tears, even though it was a novel.  After I read it, I didn't think about it again, until now when the movie debuted.

Here is where the controversy comes in:
People who are very strong in their faith will have tremendous worry over those who are not as strong in their faith.  The strong ones understand that a story like this can possibly draw others into a watered down version of Christianity becoming a roadblock rather than an open road.  

Strong people don't want others to be wrapped up in a gushing type of emotion, because that is not what Christianity is about.  Christians are challenged to be:
Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, "Be holy because I [am] holy."
1 Peter 1:14-16      www.usccb.org

People strong in their faith know it is not easy to be holy.  Strong people don't want others to be lured into a bubbly worship scene that might let them down later.  

People strong in their faith are concerned that others who believe The Shack could be a creative teaching tool of Christianity may replace a God-fearing attitude with a godlike fabrication that helps them meet their worldly needs rather than their souls' needs.  

Why do people who are strong in their faith give a warning to others about investing time in The Shack book or movie?  Perhaps it is because they have not forgotten what it was like for them when they were weaker Christians. 

They have a clear memory of what they were like when they stumbled over and over again, making up excuses, rationalizing their habit of sin.  

They remember what it was like to live a life where they ran from Christ, laughed at Christ, believed they stood fine on their own without Christ, and bragged how they knew better than an old-fashioned mythological person named Christ. 

They remember how easy it was to fall for lies, dress up their own ugliness and hide from the truth of their tragic decisions.  

Those who are strong in their faith don't want anyone else to live needless self-torture.  They would rather share their joy and help people skip the sadness.  

So, are they judgmental?  
No and Yes.
No, they are not judgmental of you or anyone else.  They love you. They want to spare you.  That is the point of making disciples of all nations.  And, yes, they are judgmental of themselves.  They are comparing their ignorant selves to their current more discerning selves. 

If you have enjoyed the book and movie, that's nice. If you're not so keen on the book and movie, that's nice, too.  It brings up interesting dinner table conversation.

Why do I call it Shack Shock?  Because it forces followers of Christ to have more patience with each other.  Each of us is on a different walk with Christ.  Sometimes we're behind him.  Sometimes we're side by side with him.  Sometimes we are kicking him.  Sometimes we are on the ground grabbing at the hem of his garment. Sometimes we are clinging to his hand squeezing it with all our might. 

College: A Bad Idea

Listening to Dave Ramsey, he wants people to pay for college without loans.  On his radio program he talks about the many ways someone can get through school without the horrible trap of debt.

From what I am seeing recently on television about activities on college campuses, no intelligent person should walk the quad or enter any building.  Young people are running around yelling at each other for having a differing opinion. Administrators are announcing what is acceptable speech and telling students how to initiate sex.  And we let our children, who don't have the lifetime experience we have, attend such places of so called higher learning?

What do you get with a 4 year degree anyway?  A lot of rejection and advice that a Master's degree should be next on your list.

A lot of courses don't even provide necessary skills training to be successful in the workplace. I don't want to expend the energy mentioning these unworthy courses.  Just google "useless college courses," and be ready to fall off your chair.  These are credit courses.  Really.

Colleges are a fantasy world all their own.  Folks in the late 30s and early 40s will tell you they are still struggling with school loan debt along with the regular expenses of life.  That means these institutions of higher learning are out of sync with the real economy.  The towns where they are located in are dying all around them and the administrators don't take notice. But the Stafford Loans are riding in on galloping mustangs ready to suck an unsuspecting student into financial ruin.

A lot of young people will admit that they learned more about the real world at their first jobs.  They learned management skills, how to talk to customers, and how to follow organized systems. I bet you know kids who had to return to their first jobs to make ends meet while searching for a position related to their degree.

And speaking of degrees, google "the most useless college degrees," and see which groups have lousy employment rates.  My advice if you are in college: take these as minors and pick a major degree in something you can immediately use upon graduation.  In fact, if these awful degrees are truly interesting to you, pursue them as hobbies in your spare time.  You will still find pleasure in them.

Since I have been out of college (the first college stint) 29 years ago I realize I was my own best teacher.  Experience sticks in your brain for life and it is free.  If you concentrate on good reading, writing, and math skills in your teenage years, you can teach yourself anything.  And, there is nothing  that doesn't top excellent communication skills to get you through important doors.

The biggest disappointment with college for me is the lack of entrepreneurial encouragement.  I was taught how to build a fancy resume and get a job.  A job is nice, but not a place where people should stay.  As much as business experts talk about anointing the worker as a creative and appreciated participant in a business or organization, the worker is usually treated with disdain as someone who can't be trusted and must be constantly supervised like an inmate in a prison yard.   Often there is a whole lot of back stabbing and not much promoting up the career ladder.

No one taught me how to make positive change in the world.  It must come from within.  We were taught how to blend in with the world and be followers.  All at a hefty price tag thanks to unrealistic college requirements.

It seems college instruction is like force feeding a baby nasty mashed up spinach, because students are fresh out of high school and vulnerable to this kind of financial exploitation.

Your own drive matters more than anything,   I suggest people work a year or two before college and start their own businesses.  Then, they can go to college with a better mind-set where they will have more of a say in how their tuition dollars are spent.



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We Are All Bullies (Part 2)

(Image Courtesy: CLICK HERE.)

The other day after I posted my We Are All Bullies post, I listened to an intriguing call on Dr. Laura.
She was talking to a husband of  22 years who was told for the first time that her spouse was sexually abused by a male sibling.  He was upset and felt cheated of a loving wife.  He struggled with her  intimacy issues for 22 years and then was expected to just continue this one sided marriage.

Dr. Laura then said society has maintained the sacredness of the victim.  The victim is not held accountable for their own behavior and end up harming most of their relationships.

It's honorable to help a victim get out of victim-hood.  It is terrible to be so overly sympathetic that the victim can become a moody, self-centered, annoying person who takes for granted the nice people in their lives.

So, when you dwell, you are a living hell.

Criticize me if you want, but you've experienced this same type of person in your life.