believe me
Day 09
When I was in high school, I was known in some circles as “That Witch Girl”. At that time Wicca and Paganism were not very widely understood, and I fielded a lot of dumb and bigoted questions. The most amusing (though well-intentioned) was, by far, the one from the girl who ran up to me during chorus and asked “What do you believe?”
Could you… be more specific?
Actually I spelled out a lot of things that I believe in an old livejournal post (In the meme quiz, though most of my answer there are rather flippant - I crack me up, and in the comments with allewynde where I was much more sincere)
http://ladytairngire.livejournal.com/236977.html#cutid1
So what can I say that I didn’t say there? Where to start?
How ‘bout I just babble randomly, and if there’s something specific you want to know you can ask?
• I believe that every person has a purpose. This is hard to reconcile when people get wiped out en masse and indiscriminantly by natural and social disasters, which clearly suggest that nature has imposed population control measures, so I feel guilty thinking I avoided a car accident for a “reason” while thousands died in landslides in Asia, but… yeah. I do. Both.
• I believe that life on earth is a proving ground. I believe we are here to strive until we get it right. However long that takes.
• I believe in ghosts and I believe in psychic residue and I believe that haunting can be caused by things that were never human to begin with, but I do not believe that demon hauntings are nearly as prolific as Hollywood would like us to believe. Ghost haunting, though, are quite common. ;)
• I believe there is life on other planets… somewhere… out there…
• I believe nature and nurture are equally important.
• I believe women and men are not made equal - we are made equivalent. I believe society has it right to create “women’s work” and “men’s work” because nature made us this way, to complement each other, to need each other, and to support the family unit. That said, I do NOT believe that all of our socially-imposed gender norms reflect biological differences, or that every person must align with their gender’s norms (cultural or biological) or that one gender is better than another or that there are only two genders or only two ways to be. I’m just saying that a woman is not a man, and nature intended it that way.
• I believe that a woman should have the right to choose to carry a child to term. However, I believe that sentience begins very early in fetal development, and that a woman should make the decision to abort quickly, with great gravity. I believe that women who seek multiple abortions (more than one? two?) should be required to have her tubes tied.
• I believe that there should be a limit on the number of children you can have. Yes, I said that. I am in favor of drastic measures to limit the birth rate on this planet.
• I believe adoption should be government regulated and free. Why make someone pay hundreds of thousands dollars to give a good home to a needy child? That’s bass ackwards.
• I believe Sesame Street is one of the best television programs ever.
• I believe that George Bush Jr. was one of the worst presidents in American history.
• I believe they should get rid of Women’s History/Black History month in schools. I think they only continue the idea that minority groups are separate, rather than an integral part of our heritage. I think it is excessive to read about Martin Luther King Jr. and Susan B. Anthony once a year when there’s only so much history you can cover in a child’s academic career, and shouldn’t we branch out a bit instead of repeat ourselves? I think history should be inclusive, every month, and that’s that.
• I do not believe that affirmative action still serves the purpose it was meant to when it was created. I think it only turns the tables and prevents deserving candidates for “whatever” from getting “whatever” because of their race or gender. I think affirmative action mentality is now setting us back from becoming a truly integrated society. I also think white guys should be able to have white guy clubs if they want to, because there are women only clubs and minority only clubs and we are not the same country we were when people were forced to drink from separate water fountains. I think we should embrace diversity, not enforce it.
• I believe they should legalize drugs. All of them. I believe they should regulate their distribution. Take the power away from drug cartels, stop wasting enforcement resources on incarcerating petty addicts. I also think we should tax the hell out of drugs and use the money to provide health care for users. But then this would provide motivation for back-alley drugs, which we’d have to spend enforcement resources on to sniff out and regulate… so I dunno. I never said I have all the answers. I just believe criminalizing it creates a never-ending cycle of destruction.
• I also think we should tax the hell out of cigarettes and booze - again, put the proceeds into a medical fund so that when people get sick from lung or liver cancer, they can tap that instead of our tax funds.
• I believe in socialized medicine. Fuck you, rich bastards with your premium health care plans who don’t know what it’s like to not be able to get the treatment you need and Fuck you insurance providers for deciding arbitrarily what you’ll cover and what you won’t and Fuck you commercial drug companies who fund the next pill against impotence but can’t find a cure for fill-in-the-blank, and fuck you senior citizens who leech my social security but mumble against all those poor people who stand to get the same low-cost treatment you enjoy and Fuck You doctors who order MRI’s for a freckle and mind-altering drugs for children and, well. I got a lot of fuck you’s on this issue.
• I believe that chocolate and coffee are proof that god loves us.
• I believe that when I say “god” I’m referring to the same thing you are when you do, but not necessarily the reverse.
• I believe that spellcheck is a beautiful thing, but when you are tired and distracted and really babbling for entertainment purposes only, it is largely overrated. Cut & paste, however, is the best thing since sliced bread. BETTER even.
• I believe that’s a lot of beliefs.
the Meme:
Day 01 - Introduction
Day 02 - Your first love
Day 03 - Your parents
Day 04 - What you ate today
Day 05 - Your definition of love
Day 06 - Your day
Day 07 - Your best friend
Day 08 - A moment
Day 09 - Your beliefs
Day 10 - What you wore today
Day 11 - Your siblings
Day 13 - This week
Day 14 - What you wore today
Day 15 - Your dreams
Day 16 - Your first kiss
Day 17 - Your favourite memory
Day 18 - Your favourite birthday
Day 19 - Something you regret
Day 20 - This month
Day 21 - Another moment
Day 22 - Something that upsets you
Day 23 - Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 - Something that makes you cry
Day 25 - A first
Day 26 - Your fears
Day 27 - Your favourite place
Day 28 - Something that you miss
Day 29 - Your aspirations
Day 30 - One last moment
When I was in high school, I was known in some circles as “That Witch Girl”. At that time Wicca and Paganism were not very widely understood, and I fielded a lot of dumb and bigoted questions. The most amusing (though well-intentioned) was, by far, the one from the girl who ran up to me during chorus and asked “What do you believe?”
Could you… be more specific?
Actually I spelled out a lot of things that I believe in an old livejournal post (In the meme quiz, though most of my answer there are rather flippant - I crack me up, and in the comments with allewynde where I was much more sincere)
http://ladytairngire.livejournal.com/236977.html#cutid1
So what can I say that I didn’t say there? Where to start?
How ‘bout I just babble randomly, and if there’s something specific you want to know you can ask?
• I believe that every person has a purpose. This is hard to reconcile when people get wiped out en masse and indiscriminantly by natural and social disasters, which clearly suggest that nature has imposed population control measures, so I feel guilty thinking I avoided a car accident for a “reason” while thousands died in landslides in Asia, but… yeah. I do. Both.
• I believe that life on earth is a proving ground. I believe we are here to strive until we get it right. However long that takes.
• I believe in ghosts and I believe in psychic residue and I believe that haunting can be caused by things that were never human to begin with, but I do not believe that demon hauntings are nearly as prolific as Hollywood would like us to believe. Ghost haunting, though, are quite common. ;)
• I believe there is life on other planets… somewhere… out there…
• I believe nature and nurture are equally important.
• I believe women and men are not made equal - we are made equivalent. I believe society has it right to create “women’s work” and “men’s work” because nature made us this way, to complement each other, to need each other, and to support the family unit. That said, I do NOT believe that all of our socially-imposed gender norms reflect biological differences, or that every person must align with their gender’s norms (cultural or biological) or that one gender is better than another or that there are only two genders or only two ways to be. I’m just saying that a woman is not a man, and nature intended it that way.
• I believe that a woman should have the right to choose to carry a child to term. However, I believe that sentience begins very early in fetal development, and that a woman should make the decision to abort quickly, with great gravity. I believe that women who seek multiple abortions (more than one? two?) should be required to have her tubes tied.
• I believe that there should be a limit on the number of children you can have. Yes, I said that. I am in favor of drastic measures to limit the birth rate on this planet.
• I believe adoption should be government regulated and free. Why make someone pay hundreds of thousands dollars to give a good home to a needy child? That’s bass ackwards.
• I believe Sesame Street is one of the best television programs ever.
• I believe that George Bush Jr. was one of the worst presidents in American history.
• I believe they should get rid of Women’s History/Black History month in schools. I think they only continue the idea that minority groups are separate, rather than an integral part of our heritage. I think it is excessive to read about Martin Luther King Jr. and Susan B. Anthony once a year when there’s only so much history you can cover in a child’s academic career, and shouldn’t we branch out a bit instead of repeat ourselves? I think history should be inclusive, every month, and that’s that.
• I do not believe that affirmative action still serves the purpose it was meant to when it was created. I think it only turns the tables and prevents deserving candidates for “whatever” from getting “whatever” because of their race or gender. I think affirmative action mentality is now setting us back from becoming a truly integrated society. I also think white guys should be able to have white guy clubs if they want to, because there are women only clubs and minority only clubs and we are not the same country we were when people were forced to drink from separate water fountains. I think we should embrace diversity, not enforce it.
• I believe they should legalize drugs. All of them. I believe they should regulate their distribution. Take the power away from drug cartels, stop wasting enforcement resources on incarcerating petty addicts. I also think we should tax the hell out of drugs and use the money to provide health care for users. But then this would provide motivation for back-alley drugs, which we’d have to spend enforcement resources on to sniff out and regulate… so I dunno. I never said I have all the answers. I just believe criminalizing it creates a never-ending cycle of destruction.
• I also think we should tax the hell out of cigarettes and booze - again, put the proceeds into a medical fund so that when people get sick from lung or liver cancer, they can tap that instead of our tax funds.
• I believe in socialized medicine. Fuck you, rich bastards with your premium health care plans who don’t know what it’s like to not be able to get the treatment you need and Fuck you insurance providers for deciding arbitrarily what you’ll cover and what you won’t and Fuck you commercial drug companies who fund the next pill against impotence but can’t find a cure for fill-in-the-blank, and fuck you senior citizens who leech my social security but mumble against all those poor people who stand to get the same low-cost treatment you enjoy and Fuck You doctors who order MRI’s for a freckle and mind-altering drugs for children and, well. I got a lot of fuck you’s on this issue.
• I believe that chocolate and coffee are proof that god loves us.
• I believe that when I say “god” I’m referring to the same thing you are when you do, but not necessarily the reverse.
• I believe that spellcheck is a beautiful thing, but when you are tired and distracted and really babbling for entertainment purposes only, it is largely overrated. Cut & paste, however, is the best thing since sliced bread. BETTER even.
• I believe that’s a lot of beliefs.
the Meme:
Day 01 - Introduction
Day 02 - Your first love
Day 03 - Your parents
Day 04 - What you ate today
Day 05 - Your definition of love
Day 06 - Your day
Day 07 - Your best friend
Day 08 - A moment
Day 09 - Your beliefs
Day 10 - What you wore today
Day 11 - Your siblings
Day 13 - This week
Day 14 - What you wore today
Day 15 - Your dreams
Day 16 - Your first kiss
Day 17 - Your favourite memory
Day 18 - Your favourite birthday
Day 19 - Something you regret
Day 20 - This month
Day 21 - Another moment
Day 22 - Something that upsets you
Day 23 - Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 - Something that makes you cry
Day 25 - A first
Day 26 - Your fears
Day 27 - Your favourite place
Day 28 - Something that you miss
Day 29 - Your aspirations
Day 30 - One last moment