We Are All LAB RATS

YOU and I are lab rats.  Your KIDS are lab rats, too. Unless you grow and consume all your food yourself, YOU are held hostage by the food companies.

Think about it.  Everything thing you eat -  e v e n   those so-called ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ foods probably are tainted in some way with something.

I know too much.  I have my roots in the local food movement, but they stretch way back to the environmental movement.  What I do here, and on my website an other blogs, is try to EDUCATE.

For the most part, the average consumer has their head up their butt when it comes to food and the environment.  They think it’s not their problem, that it doesn’t concern them and that it doesn’t affect them.

Do you send your kids to public  school? Do they play sports?  Do they eat school food?  Do you take them to fast food joints?  What do you buy for them at the  grocery store? Do you eat in restaurants? What DO you eat when you eat? What DO you drink when you drink?

What about your home life?  What products do you buy:  laundry detergent, body care products, beauty products, perfumes, lotions, hair dye, nail polish?  What do you paint your walls with?  Where did you get your furniture? Do you use any bug killing preparations?  What about your lawn?  Do you have a lawn care service and do you KNOW what they put on your lawn?  Have you had a pest company assure you their ‘chemicals’ are safe around kids and pets?  Do you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy lawn care products to keep the nasty bugs away?  Do your KIDS PLAY ON YOUR LAWN?

Where do YOU choose to shop?  Is Wally-World your best buddy because you have fallen victim and been brainwashed by their  ‘save money, live better’  catchphrase?

Big business, especially the likes of Wal-Mart, does NOT give a shit about you.  Look at the way they treat their own employees?  They’ve been convicted on a vast array of charges in recent years of labor violations.  Going waaaay back, and I have a copy of the article in my files here…. they even wanted to move a Native American cemetery because they wanted to build a store!  Do you think, in this day of corporate greed, that it’s gotten any better, that they’ve become a kinder, more gentler Wally?

There are numerous links detailing environmental disregard -and- total disregard for human life on this planet BY food companies and agricultural chemical companies.  You and I and this planet are being POISONED by thousands of chemicals a day because the likes of Monsanto and Bayer… those kindly aspirin people.

DO THE RESEARCH.  Do it for your kids, your friends, your family, your friends and if you care enough – our planet.

Friends Part 2

I’m getting better at spotting users. They’re sneaky bastards, though. You find yourself getting talked into doing things that you don’t want to.  Before you know it, you’re on the list of “usables.”  Take for instance a friend whom I’ll call Beth.

She lives about an hour and a half from here.  At first we’d get together for lunch.  I’d pick her up at home because she had no car.  Her twenty-something year old vehicle died and couldn’t be feasibly repaired.

At first I did this because, well, it was something to do.  Then I found out that I was being conned. The first hint, and it should have been the last, was one day when she called me up saying that she’d signed us up for a workshop given by her friend.  When I asked the cost, she said it was about $40.  What the hell, it was something to do.

Turned out that it wasn’t what I really wanted to do;  it pertained more to her business (being a ‘psychic’) and networking.  Not to mention that she lives in a metropolitan area.  I live in BFE (Bum Fucked Egypt in the boonies). THIS networking  was good for her but bad for me!  So, that was a waste of time. Not wanting to be included on his e-mail list, I wrote a fake address.

I asked the presenter how I was to pay and he said that I had to go to the front desk of the art center. So, I wandered up there, enjoying the art work on display as I went.

“I want to pay for Slash’s workshop.”  I told the woman at the desk.

“That’s one hundred dollars.” she said

“WHAT!!!!! I thought it was $40!” I screeched in astonishment.

“No, he gets $60, we get $40.”  the woman replied.

I was in shock!  I was also NOT amused and started to fume at being sucked into something.  I could barely contain my anger at having to lay out $100 which I could have used elsewhere.  I wasn’t working so this really hurt!

When Beth arrived at the desk I wanted to choke her.  I found out that since she was a friend of this guy, she’d made an arrangement to pay him a little at a time.  I’d already swiped my credit card so it was done.

When we got out to the car I remained as calm as I could, telling her that she should have TOLD ME it was going to be $100.  I would have gladly dropped her off and come back to pick her up later. She swore she didn’t know, but I have a feeling that wasn’t the case.

Scenario #2 was when she called asking how far away Bedford was from my house.  I guessed 2 or 3 hours.  She said that ‘somebody Windwalker’ was having a weekend retreat and she thought I’d be interested in going.  She wanted to go and didn’t want to miss it.

THIS ONE I caught right off the bat.  “Oh, let’s see.., Bedford is about 3 hours from here.  I’d have to come there to get you. With 3 hours round trip to get you and come back here, that would be a LOT of driving.”   Oh – add to it that I’d have to go to something I didn’t want to do (sound familiar?) and God knows how much THAT cost!  I nixed that idea fast!

The last time she tried to get me was after that instance described in the post, “Spiritual-Self-Righteousness Part 2″. We’d taken lunch to her ‘business manager’ who was mooching off another couple.  He had no car and we went there with lunch.

She tried to con me into doing another few  ‘business lunches’ but I knew better.  SHE just wanted ME (the sucker) to drive her around to see her friends.  Over and over she baited me with “Eddie and Cecilia want to see you again.”  I didn’t fall for it.  I begged off time and again and finally she just dropped the whole lunch thing.

Some of these people probably don’t realize they are doing it. Perhaps they think I don’t mind.  For the most part, that’s true – BUT – when it becomes obvious that it’s ME who does all the running, then I put an end to it.  I’m not a taxi.  They know friends like me want to do what we can to help.  There is a fine line between helping and being taken advantage of.

Don’t be a bloodsucker!

Friends?

I used to be a better friend.

I used to WANT to be a better friend ….but all that ended about 15 years ago.

When I was a kid I wasn’t accepted by others.  I was the one with the funny name, clothes that were hand-me-downs,  never the latest fashion.  I had terribly buck teeth.  In school I tried to make myself as invisible as possible.

To make up for this, as many kids like me do, I developed what I call the ‘puppy dog syndrome’.  I’d go out of my way for people, be as accommodating as I could so that they’d be my friend.  This carried over into my adult life.

I had two good friends.   Both had families and lots of responsibilities.   One had a business at home on her farm, a metaphysical gift shop.  The other had a bunch of kids and was very involved in community activities.

All was well until the day I realized I was being used.

Oh, I guess I was a friend, alright… but it began to seem like I was a ‘convenient’ friend.

I only got a phone call from either of these women when they wanted something.  They never called just to chat or say hi.

The one with the shop would call me when she was having a workshop or class and needed another ‘body’ in a chair.

The other one, who didn’t have access to a car, would only call me when she needed to go somewhere.

I know that part of being a good friend encompasses helping your friends.  When it becomes obvious that one person seems to be doing all the ‘helping’ and the other is always doing the ‘taking’, that seems a bit one-sided to me.

I called them both on this after I’d realized that they never, ever called me.  This was a lopsided friendship:  me calling…, me going..,  me doing…,  and them…, taking.  I’d cried so hard and agonized over this realization for weeks, feeling bad that I’d been used and not stood up for  myself.  I also felt bad that I had been used;  not treated as a friend but as a ‘taxi’ and a ‘body’.

When confronted, both of these women said the same thing:  “Well, it costs money to call YOU.”

I replied:  “Well, I don’t get to call you for free, either, but I do!  It costs ME TOO to call you!”

They didn’t know that.

Gee wiz…..

I shut down after that. I guarded my actions – and still do- although I have found myself falling into that old routine again.  As soon as I realize it, though, I stop and pull back  immediately.

I think that there are those of us who are natural givers and those who, not realizing it – are always the takers. it is the ying and yang of relationships I guess.

Spiritual Self-righteousness

Some of my ‘acquaintances’ -rather than say ‘friends’, are into self improvement or the realization of their true divine selves.  This is a fine, worthwhile activity.  I was into it for awhile but I gave up chasing the dog’s tail.

I know a spiritual path is a journey but I got tired of walking.

I walk, then I sit it out for awhile.

One person comes to mind as being so ‘spiritually self-righteous’ it is disgusting.  She is a sham, a fake, disguising herself as ‘healed’ and a ‘healer’, she has done some of the most reprehensible things to her own family and  longtime friends. She will deny that there’s anything wrong with what she’s done, despite the fact that many around her can verify her vicious acts and totally condemn them.

It’s been a few years since the departure of the ‘Queen‘ of spiritual self-righteousness’, my former friend whom I will simply refer to as ‘C’.  She jumped on the New Age bandwagon early in the 80′s.  She became a Reiki master and then was made a ‘minister’ of some ‘Pyramid of Light’ or something like that, church.

As she became more ‘enlightened’, she also became more critical of her family and friends. Instead of accepting them for being on their own path, she  cast them out. Any activity or lifestyle which wasn’t acceptable to her she condemned vehemently:  smoking cigarettes, pot, drinking and the list goes on.  If they weren’t tossed out of her circle on their asses, many of them just walked away after witnessing her actions toward her own family and others.

I believe that in some respects, people are drawn to religion for a sense of superiority  and belonging because of psychological problems.

This woman, C, surely was a candidate.  She always had to be in the spotlight.  The more she ‘healed’ herself, the more vicious her unprovoked attacks on others became. What didn’t come to light until years later:  she had a coke habit, which probably had a lot to do with her erratic behavior.  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

She  always hated her step-son.  When he graduated from college she refused to let him come home to live.  The kid  had no job and no place else to go.  My sister took him in.  That’s where things started to get ugly.

My sister was a recipient of a   ‘You’re not my friend anymore because of what you’ve done’   attack.  Totally unfounded was C’s belief that my sister was trying to steal her family.  Absurd claims against my sister regarding C’s son and step children championed her fight against my sister, who, stood dumbfounded asking, “WHAT did I DO?“

C literally walked away from her best friend of 20 years.

Her only son was sent to Iraq where he died in the fall of 2003.  Afterward she accused her step-son, who is gay,  of raping her son years before on the sole basis of a ‘channeling’ she’d received!   This added more fuel to the fires of C’s self-created hell.  Without actually confronting her step-son and asking if this was true, she launched full blast into him via other family members and to my sister.  Justice came around when her whole ‘step family’ barred her from ever seeing the grand kids again, or having anything to do with the family.  Serves the bitch right!

This isn’t just a case of ‘spiritual self-righteousness’ but one of cruelty and mental illness. This woman has used her blanket of ‘spirituality’ to spew hatred toward her family.  She is a sad, sad case.

Isn’t spirituality supposed to be acceptance?  Not everyone can be on the same path as you are.  We all have different beliefs, lives and situations and lessons to learn. To insist that you’ve done a lot of healing, then to turn around and be a hypocrite isn’t healed.

Have fun in your own private hell, girl!