In My Stylish Yet Affordable Boots

Love Your Body

When I learned that today had been declared "Love Your Body Day", I knew I wanted to write something about it, but I was kind of stumped. I've talked a bit about size acceptance, and more recently, about being awesome. What else could I possibly have to say on this topic? Let's see...

Earlier this year, I had a health scare. Ultimately, it turned out to be not serious, but I did have to make some changes to medication I was taking. Those changes resulted in me gaining 20 pounds in four months. I was...not pleased to realize that. It was discouraging. I felt defeated, as if all of my efforts in healthy eating and exercise were for nothing. I'm no slave to the scale, but seeing those numbers creep up, instead of remaining steady, started to make me feel bad about myself.

But then I recognized the trap I was falling into. I was allowing the negative to invade my thoughts, allowing the anti-awesome to win. So my body has changed again...now what? Instead of dwelling on the downsides, I needed to figure out how it operates now, and go forward. It's a process, but I'm working it. I've lost 5 pounds since I started to figure it out, which is nice. But far more importantly, I feel better and more comfortable about this new version of me - regardless of whether those 20 pounds go away or not.

And really, that's the key to loving your body and loving yourself, I think. You need to accept the way your body looks and functions as just another part of life, frustating as it may sometimes be, and figure out the ways to work with it that best give you the fullest life you can possibly have! Diet, activity level, self-care - all of these things are very individualized, and I can't give you the right answer for you. But I urge you to find out, and learn to love your body. No one can see the number on the scale or the tag inside your jeans. Why let that rule how you feel? The smile on your face, meeting other people's eyes, letting them know you're comfortable in your own skin - those things are worth much more in the world than any random numbers.

Be confident, be happy, be loving, and above all, be AWESOME.

How...reasonable.

I was reading an AP story posted on Yahoo News, about our tax rates, and tax rates on the "super-rich", when I stumbled across what is possibly the best comment I've ever read on a news story, and says - PERFECTLY - what I think about Washington. Since Yahoo won't let me link directly to a comment, I've quoted it below:

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

    - Bobby Sun Apr 17, 2011 09:10 am PDT

Now, I don't know who Bobby is, but I think he's kind of awesome.

A fundamental difference of opinion

I just finished watching Bill Maher's documentary, Religulous. (Seriously. It ended 1 minute ago.) While I agreed with a lot of his points, especially about the role of religion in the US government, his delivery of the material left a lot to be desired. Granted, it's Bill Maher, so the smug superiority of both his interview style and his delivery should not have come as a surprise. But what did come as a surprise was his flawed premise in a documentary about religion - basically a syllogistic fallacy:
1. Religion is made up of people of faith
2. Religion is responsible for many of the world's ills
3. Therefore, people of faith are responsible for many of the world's ills.

Unfortunately for his documentary, faith is not the same thing as organized religion, and not everyone who professes faith in a deity, or force of nature, or the universe, is part of an organized religion. The characterization of people of faith as inherently stupid, and lacking in intellectual curiosity and the ability to reason was, quite honestly, pretty offensive. In fact, I found it just as offensive as the words of fundamental Christians who claim to speak for all, as offensive as any extremist position that refuses to acknowledge other people have valid thoughts or beliefs as well.

I'm not going to delve deeply into my faith or religious beliefs here, largely because they're pretty personal and it's none of your business. ;-) But I will say that these are things that I HAVE spent a great deal of time thinking about, and still do. The suggestion that anyone who believes in something is an immature idiot...well, in this case, I think it says more about the person delivering the message than it does about the people he's describing. Perhaps Maher should take the advice of his closing words in the film, "Grow up or die". Minds that are that closed to alternate possibilities, in my opinion, are a kind of death.