HAPPY HUMP DAY… IS THAT RIGHT MY YANKEE FRIENDS?

Posted by: ann on: 6 December 2006

• In: thoughts
• 25 Comments

Good morning fellow campers… sorry, bloggers…

Thank you Deb for sending me this most wonderful gift… I’ve set it as my background and I am thrilled with it. I love it, love it, love it. I saw the lovely Mandy one you did for Jill too.

Thank you Madd for tagging me… hmmmm… thank you indeed said with tongue embedded in cheek. Madd wants to know six weird things about me; only six and then I got to thinking, well what is considered weird and what isn’t? We all have our idiosyncrasies; those things that make us who we are. Of course we are all different… life would be so boring if we were all the same, but acceptance of our differences is another story…

Last week two friends were attacked. My eyes were opened firstly by rantings vitriolic and venomous in the name of religion and secondly in the name of sensitiveness rather than sensitivity. Hatred was rampant in blogdom. I have learnt over my many years that when people say they are sensitive and easily hurt, they are really sensitive to their own feelings, but have no thoughts of anyone elses or the damage they cause.

Even my kneejerk reaction was to say how sorry I was someone was hurt and the person who did the supposed hurting should be ashamed. I was wrong. Nobody did anything to anybody other than live their life honestly and openly and they were attacked for it.

I have spoken before a long time ago on a dear friend’s blog… a young black girl who is converting to Judaism and I used to do a Friday slot for her. I once spoke about the following, which I have lifted from this link. Here is the Jewish stance on the harm words do.

“The Power of Speech: Judaism is intensely aware of the power of speech and of the harm that can be done through speech. The rabbis note that the universe itself was created through speech. Of the 43 sins enumerated in the Al Chet confession recited on Yom Kippur, 11 are sins committed through speech. The Talmud tells that the tongue is an instrument so dangerous that it must be kept hidden from view, behind two protective walls (the mouth and teeth) to prevent its misuse. The harm done by speech is even worse than the harm done by stealing or by cheating someone financially, because amends can be made for monetary harms, but the harm done by speech can never be repaired. For this reason, some sources indicate that there is no forgiveness for lashon ha-ra (disparaging speech).”

“A Chasidic tale illustrates this point: A man went about the community telling malicious lies about the rabbi. Later, he realized the wrong he had done, and began to feel remorse. He went to the rabbi and begged his forgiveness, saying he would do anything he could to make amends. The rabbi told the man, “Take a feather pillow, cut it open, and scatter the feathers to the winds.” The man thought this was a strange request, but it was a simple enough task, and he did it gladly. When he returned to tell the rabbi that he had done it, the rabbi said, “Now, go and gather the feathers. Because you can no more make amends for the damage your words have done than you can recollect the feathers.”

“Speech has been compared to an arrow: once the words are released, like an arrow, they cannot be recalled, the harm they do cannot be stopped, and the harm they do cannot always be predicted, for words like arrows often go astray.”

My friends despair of me because I really do hate gossip. I try so hard to avoid it. I feel if they talk about someone else to me, then they can just as easily be talking about me to someone else and I know I won’t like it. It really is a very very hard law to observe; it is one that I am well and truly aware of and I know I am guilty as the next person when sometimes I break it.

One of my “annisms” is if you can’t say something good, then say nothing.

Right back to Madd’s tagging… in as few words as possible, since I have already gone on somewhat.

1. I do not open my mail… usually to my cost!
2. I drag my heels about going to bed… I’m like a child!
3. I eat chocolate at midnight… should’ve gone to bed earlier, shouldn’t I?
4. I don’t eat breakfast… don’t usually think about food till midday. Probably because I eat chocolate at midnight! (Gosh is that the time already, no wonder I’m hungry)!
5. I will not leave the house without wearing make up or matching lingerie (actually even if I’m not going out)… not sure that one is weird or very normal… hmmmm?
6. I don’t like the feel of a peach skin
7. there are more…. but thank goodness only six were requested… thanks again Madd…. huh!

I’m supposed to tag six more people, but I know you’re all perfect. If anyone feels they have six weird things they would like to share, be my guest.

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Just had a guy round to sort something on Rachel’s new laptop, so he’s played around with this computer too…. let’s just say everything looks different and as blogdom’s biggest computer incompetent I feel rather intimidated when things look different… although everything that looks different looks quite nice. So thought I would see if a pic of me could actually look quite nice… nah, still eeeeeek worthy. I know Channukah is a time for celebrating miracles, but that would take more than a miracle… LOL

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