Sophie's Story

   Most people who hold a professional license have to do continuing education. There is a certain amount of cedit or hours that need to be done every year or two in order to renew the license. There are many ways to get CE (continuing education) Some go to seminars or classes put on by colleges, drug comapines or professional organizations. You can also get CE by subscibing to publications that send you lessons once a month. There are some poor unfortaunte souls who have to take "live credits" which means it has to be a seminar or something where there is an acutal teacher. I'm lucky  because there is no live CE requirement. I can do it all on the internet from home.   I needed to do some CE so I could renew one of my licenses. I looked through my file of lessons that I had not yet completed. There were many and the topics were varied. As I paged through them I realised that I have some very strange interests. I put them in order of ones that are most interesting...

    I like to read the comments at the end of articles I read on the internet. Other people's thoughts interest me. I'm constantly amazed at the varying reactions any one article will generate. This is especially true when the article is about a church or any other religious topic. There are those who are staunch supporters, those who are in favour, those who don't care and those who oppose. Sometimes those who oppose are vehement in thoer opposition. I've read comments from people who see religion as a fable for mentally weak people to those who think all religion is dangerous and must be removed from society.  I can understand to some extent those who think it is dangerous given that religious extremists  of many faiths get a lot of attention. They see instances where people use their faith as justification for bigotry of many types. They don't see the whole picture, mainly because those beneficial aspects of faith are not that noticeable and don't garner m...

   C and I are planning our yearly trip to South Carolina. Now that my vacation time has been approved we can start making plans and reservations.   This year I have decided that I don't want to buy anything. We don't need any souvenirs. I don't need any more yarn and I certainly don't need any more hats. Instead of spending our money and time on things, I want to spend it on experiences.   Part of my attitude about this comes from my new friend Ellen. Ellen recently married Mac, who is a long time friend of C. They decided that she would move out of the large house where she had lived while she was taking care of her mother and into Mac's much smaller house. Ellen told me that she wanted to live a minimalist lifestyle. She wanted to spend her time out doing things instead of collecting and caring for a lot of possessions. Now that C has transitioned out of his job, he has been spending time doing the organizing that neither of us has had much time to do. He...

   A few weeks ago I read an interesting article in the Washington Post. It was titled 'We are sending kids the wrong message about adulthood. Here's what needs to change." The author is Judy Mollen Walters. It was an interesting article. She writes about how there are books out there teaching parents how to teach children to become adults.  She assumed that this was just something that naturally happens as children grow up. She also wrote about how many people seem to be giving kids the message that being an adult is bad.   This idea is spread on places like Facebook where there are memes about not wanting to be an adult. People saying that they wish they were young again. Parents saying that teens don't know how easy their lives are. According to the author all these things give the impression that being an adult is a bad thing. It's too hard. It's too stressful.   What this leads to is young people who never really grow up. They don't make any c...

  Someone sent a clip of Meryl Streep's Golden Globe speech to me. I liked the speech. It was thought out, classy and delivered in a  calm but firm tone of voice. There is one quote from that speech that I would like to write about today. Here it is taken from the text published on the CNN Money website    "And this instinct to humiliate, when it's modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose." She was talking about a clip where a person who was running for president mocked a disabled reporter.   This hit home for me because it is a lesson I learned early in life. I went to school with a girl named Kay. For various reasons, Kay was picked on by our classmates. Kids liked teasing her about her first name. S...

   Social media is becoming one of the preferred means of communication for many people. Certain sites have the ability to help find where your friends are, send out invitations to events and notify you when birthdays are coming up to name a few things. You can look at pictures and sign petitions. It's a good tool for staying in touch especially with those far away or for large groups.   A few month ago I started to contemplate the downside of social media particularly Facebook. A few months ago I unfriended Annie. It was not an easy decision. The only time I've ever seen anyone unfriend another is when one person is angry with someone else. To me it seems so junior high, "I'm not your friend anymore." I worried about what Annie might think. However, I felt like I had a very good reason.   Her posts were beginning to be a bit hard for me to read. Several of them were pictures of her new bikes, her new car and her new business. There were posts about cruises...