Sunday Musings

I should really call these “musings” posts, blogging for the ADHD crowd!  I’m sure Sharkbait (once he learns to read) would approve…

Last pot of tea, yesterday: Chamomile, lemon balm and mint–very relaxing!

First pot of tea, this morning: Sassafras–very refreshing!

First real thought of the day, courtesy of Facebook (as opposed to that “just woke up” fuzzy head): Standardized testing sucks!  (I’ve even mentioned it in my discussions of the Delphic Maxims) Here’s why, in a share-able pic:

But there may be (maybe) hope in sight!  Teachers in Seattle are boycotting the test (seemingly supported by their school officials) and even in Texas, 80% of schools and teachers have signed a national resolution against standardized testing.

Funny story on the idea of an individual’s score varying from day to day… When I was a junior in high school I took the ACT.  Both times I took it, I got the same overall score, but wildly different subject scores.  The first time I took it, I had a 102 degree fever and felt like crap.  I scored awfully in math, but awesome in the reading portions, and better on everything else (but still not great).  The second time, I was in my first car accident…and for some reason, I scored really, really well in math and sort of ‘meh’ in everything else (not badly, but not great). Combining my best scores gave me a 34…combining my worst scores, a 22…and my overall composite score was a 30–which is a damn good ACT score, don’t get me wrong.  But the point is that taking a test like this isn’t indicative of what you actually know, and what you are actually able to do.

And here’s more of the “to Pagan or not” debate that I blogged about the other day.  This blogger has a huge list of other bloggers that have covered the subject so far…and here’s another post on the subject as well.  I’ve been reading through some of these, and I can’t help but think the real problem really is that (as I said in the comments discussion of my post), “I honestly think these people really do feel like they have been left behind, or have moved beyond what they think Paganism is now. Except Paganism now isn’t much different than it was 10 or 20 years ago–except more accepted in some public arenas…so there is also part of me that wonders if their expectations weren’t being met and that Paganism just isn’t what they had made it to be in their mind.”  To me, all this kerfuffle really does seem like the problem is more that the criticism over who the “real” Pagans are (or are not) is that they just don’t “like sharing (their) toys with those Other People that also want to be Pagan.”  Perhaps its an unfair assessment, or maybe we are watching The Pagan Reformation!  More likely than not, its just round 143 of this same old, same old.

And now for something completely different, how about some random thoughts? 

• I saw this fabulous t-shirt, and I thought of a fellow blogger.
• I’m almost through with Star Trek TNG, and ready to embark on the original series–I have 5 episodes left!
• The Chinese New Year starts on the 10th of February and runs until the 24th of Feb…I’m trying to decide if we are going to celebrate it as part of our afterschooling, and take the time to learn about China and Chinese culture.
• I’m sending The Hubby to the store to pick up creamer (for him), cereal (for the kids), and chocolate ice cream (for me)…just to get the kids out of the house!

A few more pics for the #firstthirtyone photo challenge…

12- Flakes
Since we don’t have any real ones…

13-Cabin Fever
Its been foggy and rainy, and kids without outdoor time go a little crazy indoors, even when you don’t even need a coat outdoors!

In the meantime, I’m trying to decide which version of t-shirt bag I want to make, with a stack of shirts otherwise destined for the rag bag…the no-sew or the cool meshy one.

Moment of Zen:  10 minutes of Mindfulness

And a poem for parting for the cat companions in the crowd…

Felis Cattus, is your taxonomic nomenclature,
an endothermic quadruped carnivorous by nature?
Your visual, olfactory and auditory senses
contribute to your hunting skills, and natural defenses.

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
a singular development of cat communications
that obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
for a rhythmic stroking of your fur, to demonstrate affection.

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents;
you would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aide in locomotion,
it often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.

O Spot, the complex levels of behaviour you display
connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.

~~Data’s Ode to Spot from Star Trek~~

The Pagan Checklist

In a bit of an aside from the Pagan Values Blogject (I figured a rant/ramble in a PVB post wasn’t pertinent) I find it interesting that once again (as it was when I last participated) that the to-call-thyself-Pagan-or-not debate has apparently once again gone viral (or did it never go away, and I stopped paying attention?) and reared its superficial head.  Yes, I *really do* consider it a superficial debate–you don’t generally notice Catholics being so petty as to go stomping off, disavowing the term “Christian” because the Mormons claim it as well.  Instead they just disavow each other…something that is often ridiculed amongst some Pagans (evidently with more than some hypocrisy) .

What I *can* get behind, in the vein of the move to consider “Christianities”, is the concept of “Paganisms”, except that there is still a problem of what makes a paganism (big-p) Pagan, and wouldn’t that still make the practitioners of any (big-p) Paganism, well…Pagan?

To me at least, it all comes down to the idea of defining the term Pagan polythetically, a checklist sort of approach of the characteristics of many of the Paganisms (and I am not the only person that has thought of this concept), to describe what can be considered a wider descriptor of Pagan…because, at the very least, I don’t know many non-Pagans that want to read a dissertation or listen to an hour-long monologue about someone else’s religion in response to small talk along the lines of “What church do you belong to?”.  Lets face it, depending on the deliverer, that either makes us look like like a bunch of elitist jerks, or a bunch of flighty morons.

Even if we don’t agree on every point, having a univocal label gets more mileage in terms of recognition and respect (look at the VA headstone issue, now pentacles are allowed and there is a framework for the fair approval of symbols for Druids and Heathens any other path that is interested).  While individual practitioners may not care about respect or recognition, for those of us that have been in environments where we are an unknown, alone, and often disparaged quantity (like the military), where “in the closet” can literally mean that there is no where to go or practice (there is no such thing as “personal space” on-board a ship), having that greater term that covers all the bases, so to speak…that word means a lot, even as it often means so little.

Instead of stagnating the discussion of what it means to be Pagan (and more than occasionally sounding to this momma like a three-year-old in a temper tantrum), how about moving it forward?  Or as a friend of mine is fond of saying, “Start cooking with whatcha got, or get the heck out of the kitchen and order pizza…people are hungry and waiting!”

What criteria can you come up with that would both be inclusionary to the wider Paganism, while being selective and adaptable to individual Paganisms?