7QT - Happy Cows, Holidays, and How About That

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A Facebook friend posted this video this week. It's pretty brief, do watch it!

Earlier that same day, I had been playing with my puppy, and while I was pondering his sweet and playful personality, I thought of cows and other animals that are raised primarily for food, and wondered how their personalities might "magically" develop if someone were paying attention.

A year or so ago I debated with a friend who argued that animals are just as sentient and "soulful" as humans (I argued that humans have souls/are capable of relationship with God and animals do/are not). Since then I have come to have a little different view of nonhuman life. I still believe humans were created in the image of God, and as such, their lives take precedence over the lives of animals. But I think I consider animal life more precious than I used to. We share a world with them; our bodies operate the same way theirs do; and really, they do a lot for us. I'm not to the point of joining PETA yet, but maybe we should show more respect to our fellow earth-dwellers. Maybe even the vegetarians are onto something....

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In thinking about achievements...monuments, memorials, and so forth...I've always regarded them as fairly worthless/meaningless. Like...I remember for one of my jobs, I worked for a national office, and one of the things I did as an administrative assistant there was create certificates for people, either in recognition for service or passing various educational courses, etc. I remember designing the certificate on the computer, making up the fine words on it and checking it for spelling errors and all, and then printing it out right there at my desk, and thinking, "Someone is going to feel so honored to get this piece of paper I just printed off." And I didn't get it. Certificates and other awards lost pretty much all meaning to me at that point.

But you know, it's not the paper or trophy or statue itself that is special. It is the honor it represents. It is the fact that a person is being celebrated for some service or achievement...some contribution to life as someone else knows it here on this planet.

I saw several pictures or announcements for baby showers on Facebook this week. That, too, reminded me how people were getting together to celebrate a life - a life, moreover, that hasn't even arrived yet. The celebration represents the expectation of the joy that life will bring to his or her family and friends in the future, and the potential for, well, anything!

I'll go a little further with this thought.... There are times when I deal with feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness. (I do a lot better with that now; it used to be a huge issue for me.) Celebrations of me used to cause me great embarrassment. I hated being singled out for recognition, whether it be for academic awards ceremonies or birthday parties. I felt like I didn't deserve to be celebrated - it wasn't possible there was anything about me that would give anyone a reason to take a break out of their important, busy day and look my way.

Last week I talked a little bit about each life being equal in value to every other life. But I wonder how many people go through life without ever being recognized for anything good - no birthday celebrations, no awards, no cheap certificates of appreciation, no applause...nothing. Makes me wonder what I can do to bring a little celebration to the uncelebrated.

I'm going to give that some thought.

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Thinking about the April A to Z blog challenge. It'll be here in a few short months! I still can't believe I successfully completed it last year. I really enjoyed it and gained a LOT of followers through it. Found a lot of blogs to follow, too! So now I'm beginning to think of what I will blog about if I participate this year (which I probably will). Should I have a theme? Last year I tried to blog every day about something related to the theological nature of this blog. I could do that again. I could pre-write some or all of the posts. I could even take the beginnings of the novel I penned out during NaNoWriMo last month (which I did not complete) and work on a new aspect of that each day during April. That might be fun - A to Z from a fictional angle.

 

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Founder's Day.... So when I lived in Joplin, I'm pretty sure there was a Founder's Day parade and festivities. On Gilmore Girls, Stars Hollow had one. In it and another of my favorites, Hart of Dixie, the towns' Founder's Day celebrations commemorated a romantic heritage. It made me wonder about my own "Founder's Day" story. I've always known the gist of how my parents met...or at least that their relationship revolved around church and they were introduced by my great-uncle. But that's about it. So this week I asked my mom to tell me more about it. She told me a couple new details, but didn't respond when I asked her to be more specific (yeah, I was asking her through Facebook messaging). So, I still don't know details. But I know a little more. She said he was always coming up with crazy, off-the-wall things to say, kind-of like I do. They divorced when I was very young and I choose not to have a relationship with him, so I don't know him or his personality. But I wondered this week for the first time about their love story. If I had any details, I could have made this a more interesting take, I'm sure. I may keep trying to get more information out of her....

 

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Oh yeah - there was a holiday this week, wasn't there?! ;) I didn't do too much. My brother who lives in Joplin (Sam) went to Ohio last week for our aunt's funeral, but he made it a point to come back in time to spend Christmas with me. Yeah, he can be pretty thoughtful. My mom sent us both gift certificates to Outback Steakhouse, so we went there for Christmas Eve dinner. He told me the day before that I was to dress up. Normally, he wears a suit when we go out, and I wear jeans and a sweatshirt or something. That's how it was on Thanksgiving. But I made a little bit of effort on Christmas Eve, and we brought my friend along and had a good evening.

My brother and me.

 

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Christmas Day Sam went back to Joplin, and I, being a third-shifter, slept until late afternoon. Then I went to a friend's house. We watched some movies and then...well...I've been kissed. Merry Christmas to me!! :) (And now we'll see if anyone I know actually reads my blog lol.)

 

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A couple friends from work and I are beginning to work out a few times a week after we get off work in the mornings. We had a lot of interruptions in December, with weather and Christmas and all that, but now we plan to get serious about it. The last time was pretty fun. I don't think either of them expected me to be as loud as I am....

 

Welp, y'all, have a good week. I probably won't post again until next year. ;)

 

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