Why?

Paragon of virtue I am not.

Being a mortal being with a WHOLE lot left to learn is hard on me and the people who must wade through mortality with me in their lives.

However, having said that, I have an important question to ask.

What is with the rush of celebrities, sports figures and other notables revealing the seedy side of their lives with reckless abandon?

I don't want to know about their foibles! Dealing with my own is taxing enough.

While we look up to other mortals in a somewhat unrealistic fashion, most of our hero worship is rather harmless. When harm comes is believing even for an instant that those very fallible heroes are perfect and not subject to the rules the rest of us out of the spotlight must endure.

I don't want to know that some celebrity has failed at keeping their marriage vows nor do I want to know who has decided to come out about his/her/its homosexuality.

I have no desire to know every tick on the clock of their lives. My own clock ticks loudly and chimes like Big Ben frequently enough to keep me busy.

I long for the days when people had manners and when it was still considered gauche to discuss private matters in public. I miss the news being the news instead of a moving version of the gossip rags that adorn grocery store display racks by the check stand.

While the idea of knowing about a celebrity seems appealing, it only SEEMS that way.

They have problems in their lives that money can't fix, sponsorship can't erase and for which consequences show up just like it does for the rest of us in the great unwashed category.

I deeply want to believe my fellow man and woman to be people of character and decency until proven otherwise by cold hard facts, not tabloid innuendo.

Years ago the Soviets proclaimed that they could take over America without firing a shot because our morality was slipping and we would, in time, undo our own national fabric and let the influence of the immoral take over.

That remark didn't make sense to me when I was an innocent and naive child. I simply assumed that our greatness came from God and that we would collectively and individually always be grateful to Him for His Divine Hand of Providence.

Now I know there are people who thumb their noses at God, ignore him and still expect to be favored and blessed.

Now I know that our world is slipping into a sort of debauchery that took Rome down. The same sort of creeping sickness that destroys all great societies in due time - it's the disease of ease.

We have too much leisure and not enough responsibility for our actions. We have been too busy making things "better" for our children, that we have forgotten the lessons that remain when things are worse.

Far too many people have taken the opportunity to grab 15-minutes of fame by sharing dirty laundry in the public forum as if it was so worthy of time that everyone should share in its filth. And that makes more than the laundry dirty.

Momma used to say "Sweep around your own doorstep first before telling someone else how dirty their house is!"

The message is pretty clear to me now that I am older. It wasn't so much about the use of a good old-fashioned broom as it was the application of a clear conscience.

We have allowed things forbidden to become tantalizing and exciting by a repeated pronouncement of how 'open' we are becoming.

It's past time to post a 'closed' sign on private business.

That which degrades cheapens everyone, no matter how skillfully it is written up and spewed out. Filth is filth even if the reporter delivers the news sincerely. Regardless of presentation, there is nothing you can do to a pile of manure to turn it into anything but what it is... plain old poop.

But we have forgotten that and are eager as a society to lay hold upon it because someone somewhere said we needed to know and we are entitled to the information.

Maybe it's now important to say 'no thanks'.

If we don't buy the party lie delivered in a slick package, then that is one less dollar they earn from the gullible soul who thinks everyone else should be forthcoming... unless that truth is demanded in the same measure from themselves.

It's like the story about the kids who wanted their Dad to sanction their choice to see movies which were inappropriate - not just for kids, but for ANYONE.

The Dad had said no so many times that he was running out of inflections and emphasis.

Finally, he baked a special batch of brownies. Just like a tabloid rag, he extolled the ingredients that made the brownies worth their time and interest. And just like the tabloid rag, he left out a certain element of truth in the recipe until he was certain they were hooked.

The special ingredient was poop. It was just a little poop and hardly even worth mentioning.
His kids didn't want the brownies now. In fact, they recoiled from the horror that was now before them. How dare he defile the tasty brownies with something that rendered them disgusting!!

But that is what the point really is.

People are not perfect. They make mistakes. But public vilification and public pronouncements of personal sins doesn't make us stronger. It takes us further away from a moral center and closer to a society that only seeks for the next morsel of sensational crap.

The danger is there, but the excitement in revealing the shameful secrets and passions of another trumps decency.

Think about the poop filled brownies the next time a story is run that is meant to destroy personal morality. They are easy to spot because they are all sensation and no substance.

And just say no.

Shopping and other thrilling moments

Online shopping is a form of escapism. No crowds jostling my elbow for the cardigan I am trying to size, no irritated people expressing their desire to be home, and most definitely no store hours to accommodate.

I like the immediacy of online shopping. If it's in stock, there is a little indicator to tell how many of whatever is in stock in their warehouse in Dubuque.

This allows me to sit idly sipping peppermint tea and shopping in my pajamas and sox while the rest of the civilized and not so civil world pounds the putty out of someone for a three dollar candle that is on sale for a nickle. Never mind that the scent is liver and bacon and you never would have considered it before, but because it's marked down to a nickle SOMEONE will be getting this delightful gem all wrapped up and tied with a bow.

IT WAS ON SALE!!

Yeah!

Several someones will receive gifts that make no sense because they were on sale. Not because any thought went into the purchase of said gift. Nope. Nosiree Bob! It was a matter of box-checking, money saving, penny pinching perfection. Without another thought at all.

Aunt Mildred will be receiving that delightful hand knit dog fur sweater that was only a buck twenty-five on sale!! It doesn't matter that she is so allergic that her hives break out in hives. IT WAS ON SALE!!!!

Don't you people understand? A sale price is only good if the item being sold is worth anything to begin with...

Spare me your Christmas Eve I shopped for you at eleven-thirty naked lady mudflaps that you thought were oh so wonderful. First of all, I have no semi to which to attach them and secondly, the van looks bad enough without adding mudflaps to it, and a big final thirdly, if I wanted mudflaps at all, I'm more into Yosemite Sam or Bugs Bunny. I do have standards, you know!

Now, while I was preparing to brave both the icy cold and the rabid shoppers, an odd thing happened. The plan was to go out and bring home the supply of food and sundry goods to keep us from having a mutiny. Reaching into the recesses of my closet, I pulled out and
slipped on a coat I haven't worn in over a year. Feeling something odd in the left jacket pocket, I unzipped it to discover that there was MONEY in the pocket! WOO HOO! MONEY!!

To be on the safe side, I checked the other pockets of coats hanging in my closet just to make sure no money goes unspent during the peak shopping season before the Holy time of Christmas is actually upon us.

I didn't find any other money. Serendipity is like that. You get a blush of excitement and a happy surprise, but it can't be longer lasting. If it hung around, you'd never appreciate it.

Sort of like learning to appreciate the benefits of shopping without the agony of fisticuffs over an item that no one truly wants but is motivated by adrenalin to purchase. It is why I like shopping online. I can take my time looking, instead of being lemming-like forced into purchases that I can't ever justify. The rushing frenzy makes me buy stupid things when I am in a crowded store!

As an example - no one truly wants that disgusting farting Santa or a three pack of festive holiday undies with a matching bow tie (Just what is THAT combo supposed to suggest? I'm sure I don't want to know why you'd need a ratio of THREE pair of undies to the ONE tie!).

People who receive this type of holiday splendor smile and act happy, but it's just because they want to be more polite to you than you were to them when you paraded out the revolting desperation gift that says everything but how much class you have.

Another trifle... don't go shopping with someone who has no taste. I mean that seriously.
Everyone has someone in their circle of friends and acquaintances who simply has no taste, no couth and precious little understanding of why you don't just wildly spend money to buy a gift that has nothing to do with either the person or their likes and interests. I just hope I am NOT that kind of friend to someone else... the one everyone knows is a social pariah, but no one speaks up because they are too kind.

It may be one reason gift cards are popular. It's a way to give something to someone without either fighting the maddening crowds or exposing one's own lack of culture and refinement. It's a kind of gifting anonymity. Oddly soothing, and a shield of protection from your own bad taste.

I don't mind gift cards. They are far easier to use and explain than the naked lady mudflaps.