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bay witch musings

~ thoughts on parenting, paganism, science, books, witchcraft, nature, feminism, unitarian universalism, herbalism, cooking, conservation, crafting, the state of humanity, and life by the sea

bay witch musings

Category Archives: opinion

A bit of a rant on the “War on Christians”

21 Sunday May 2017

Posted by thalassa in Christianity, opinion, pagan, paganism, religion

≈ 1 Comment

The idea of the “War on Christianity” is something I find quite funny. When I hear it, I automatically think less of the person. A lot less. In fact, to Christians in America that think they are “persecuted,” I only have this to say:

On what Sunday in America did someone show up with guns to the steps of your churches and badger the congregation? On what Monday in Illinois were you fired because of your Methodism? On what Tuesday in Topeka were you refused service for wearing a cross necklace? On what Wednesday in Macon did your child’s teacher call you because another student has beat up your child because they believe in Jesus–the same student that has been bullying the child all year long, and despite many conversations with the school because being a Southern Baptist makes your child a fair target? On what Thursday in Phoenix did you leave work to find that someone has spray painted your car with slurs for married to a being a Jesus-lover? On what Friday in Missouri did you find out that your Lutheran friend lost custody of their child for taking them to church? On what Saturday in South Bend was a Catholic berated and publicly humiliated by a perfect stranger simply for carrying a Bible?

When you all can tell me that someone, on a daily basis, somewhere is actively harassing you, barring you from worship, holding Bible-burning bonfires in front of your house, beating you or your children up, refusing you service, or taking your children away simply because you are a Christian, maybe I’ll take this so-called “persecution” seriously.

…Because all of these things have and do happen to non-Christians on a regular basis, while your puerile whining over red Starbucks cups and sharing nativity scenes with menorahs and the kid with gay parents in your kid’s class highlights the log in your eye.

The fact that people are refusing to kowtow to your so-called Christianity any longer isn’t persecution…but I’m sure it feels that way to someone whose faith is so shaky that it can’t stand the diversity of the human experience. I feel sorry for you. But I feel worse for the people that are actually seeking to live a life with Christ, to love their neighbor (their Jewish neighbor, their gay neighbor, their homeless neighbor, their atheist neighbor, their Muslim neighbor, their poor neighbor, their PoC neighbor) because you sure make them look bad.

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Quick Guidelines for Information Discernment in Paganism (and elsewhere)

03 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by thalassa in opinion, paganism, privilege, wisdom

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

evaluating information, information discernment, UPG

Part I: Consider the Source!

huhBS and MUS (made-up-shit)* have been longtime problems plaguing the internet, Paganism, and (where these forces combine) Paganism on the internet.   I can’t even begin to lament the number of times I’ve shaken my head in sad resignation over comments made by well-respected authors that I like in a (hopefully edited) book, much less less regarded authors (especially online).  This is why, I believed that the most useful skill for Pagans to acquire is not meditation or holding effective rituals, but information discernment.

Information discernment, most simply described, is the ability to detect what is (or is not) accurate, valid, and factual about a given set of information and to judge its usefulness.  When it comes to information discernment, everything comes down to one general rule–Always consider the source!  (there’s a second general rule, but we’ll cover that another day) But when it comes to following that rule, there’s a lot of considerations to be considering…

Who said it?
Origin is important. How we get information and who we get it from often matters when it comes to the accuracy of the information itself.

  • I hate to be snobby…but what are their credentials?  What claim to authority or experience do they have in this topic?  Where did they get their experience? Don’t get me wrong, experience, authority, certification, etc, is no guarantee for competence, much less excellence…but it is often a buffer from incompetence.  Credentials don’t have to be some official certification or degree, they can come from life experience or from an area of interest, research, work, etc.  But, the person should have something to back up the idea that they have experience in the area they are discussing—do you know what it is?  If not, do they have information about themselves (or some other body of work) that you can evaluate to determine whether or not they can be generally trusted to give a fair assessment?
  • What is their source?  Hey, where did they get their information from?  Is it from personal experiences or insight?  From their bartender or their sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s hairdresser?  From a peer reviewed journal?  Do they document this source?  Have they given you references for the information being passed on?  Do they explain how they have come to their conclusions?  Do they show discernment in their evaluation of the information?  If its UPG or SPG, is it labeled as such (or at least not presented as fact)?  Do they site their sources, link to them, etc?  Do they
  • What is their bias? Do they admit it? Does it interfere with their conclusions or its presentation? Look, everyone has bias. The problem isn’t having bias, its being upfront and honest about it. How well do they identify and mitigate the influence their bias has on their ideas?  Do they present or acknowledge differing interpretations?  Do they defend their position, particularly if it is novel or not supported by evidence (more on this in a bit)?

Facts is facts:
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. While even a stopped clock is still right twice a day, its rather unhelpful the other 99.8611% of the time…

  • Is this common knowledge?  If its “common knowledge” –George Washington was the 1st President of the United States of America, the sky is blue, water is wet, etc, then it doesn’t need a source and we can take the information for granted.  The trick of course, is determining what “common knowledge” consists of–not every one has the same level of education.  Also, some “common knowledge” is wrong–bumblebees, for example, do not “break the laws of physics” when they fly.  My rule of thumb for disseminating “common knowledge” is that 1) I can find it in a dictionary, encyclopedia entry, etc and 2) I learned it before 12th grade…the problem there is that I had parents that thought that readingness**was next to godliness.
  • Is this uncommon knowledge?  My IRL degree is in biology and my IRL career is as a scientist (though not in the field of biology).  My husband is a Civil War reenactor.  My mom is a nurse with over 30 years experience and a master’s degree.  My best friend has a degree in outdoor education and has guided and taught wilderness classes.  My neighbor is obsessed with fossils.  All of us have highly specialized and compartmentalized areas of interest where we have likely done lots of reading and research, whether its a hobby or for work or because we just like it.  Because of this, our knowledge in certain areas goes beyond what is common knowledge for the average person.  If you know that the person has an area of personal expertise (this goes back to the idea of credentials), what seems uncommon knowledge*** to you might be something you can consider as common knowledge to them.  When it comes to uncommon knowledge, my rule of thumb is “Can I find a good reference that supports this claim in under 5 minutes on Google?”–personally, I then try to link that information, but sometimes things slip by.
  • Is this a personal interpretation on common/uncommon knowledge?  There is a tendency to assimilate information into our world view, either to reinforce it or to redirect it (both of which depends on how open minded and flexible we are).  For someone that is neither of those things (or lacks that capacity on certain topics), there is a tendency to deny or disregard those discrete pieces of information that do not agree with our pre-existing bias.  If someone is giving a personal interpretation or supposition based on their understanding of information, do they illustrate how they have come to these conclusions or built this point of view?
  • Is this a novel claim or a claim without evidence?  If I say something like “there is no god” or “there is one god” or “there are many gods”, I am making a claim without evidence.  While none of these are particularly novel statements (think something along the line of “Chinese scientists have invented a time machine” or “People rode dinosaurs like horses”), they are claims that cannot be supported with replicatable, independently corroborated, physical evidence.  This doesn’t mean that these ideas are wrong, but rather that they are not fact.  UPG**** has a very important role to play in personal traditions, but the presenter of the information should not pass it off as something that it is not, particularly as historically or scientifically accurate.

Is it written to you, for your needs?

  • Who is the target audience for the information?  Different audiences have different requirements for the verification of claims.  What and how I support information that I present here in a blog post or what I see when I read someone else’s blog post (where it should be expected to be my opinion on the basis of my experiences) is very different from what and how I support information that I present in reports for my job or for a presentation or research article (where my information and assessments are based on direct observation, testing, and a comparison to third party established limits and a fairly wide body of research).  Expectations for the latter type of support in the former type of format is unrealistic and excessive.
  • Is the audience general or specific?  While I don’t write for any specific “target audience”, its undeniable that my blog is of a Pagan, eclectic, pantheistic/soft-polytheistic, bioregional, and family-based tone.  Also its occasionally liberal, feminist, concerned with veterans issues, and environmentalist.  And, I’m white, hetero, cis, middle class, and married with a child that has ADHD.  So my bias (in what I consider “common” or “specialized” knowledge) will tend fall into those areas–not consciously or intentionally, but because I am those things, it goes to follow that those will usually be my inherent biases.  This means that certain words may have additional definitions or a subtext that another group may not think of–as a witch and someone that makes things with yarn, when I talk about crafting, it can go either way (or both)…for that matter, as a person that crochets, when I use the word “hooker”, its in the context of making things with yarn.  When we read something specialized from a different specialization or from a general perspective, we need to consider whether or not the author is intending their words in the way we are interpreting them, or if they are geared towards a more specific context due to their intended audience.

Addendum:
*I’m totally borrowing this acronym from PF member Thorbjorn!
**yeah, I totally made that up :p
***what I call uncommon knowledge is maybe more accurately called specialized knowledge…
****Unverified Personal Gnosis

(And stay tuned for Part II, WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK IT OUT!)

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Third of July Musings

03 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by thalassa in blogging, children, opinion, pagan, paganism, parenting, politics

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Hobby Lobby, magic for kids, music, Poseidon

I’m drinking tea… (is anyone surprised?) Peppermint and lemon balm

…and listening to music.

Why my daughter wants to learn to play the violin:

Get your munchkins to listen to Vivaldi, by listening to Frozen:

Same guys, different song, gorgeous video (Kung Fu Panda meets Chopin):

I’m pissed off about the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. It does not bode well for the religious freedom of individuals when businesses are allowed to have religion.  Lets play this out to its natural conclusion…

  • I’m a Christian Scientist and a business owner, I refuse to allow my business to cover vaccinations because its against my religion.
  • I’m Mennonite and a business owner, I refuse to allow my business to cover any sort of plastic surgery because its against my religion.
  • I’m a Scientologist and a business owner, I refuse to allow my business to cover mental health services or medication because its against my religion.
  • I’m a vegetarian as per my religious beliefs (there are several religions that qualify here) and a business owner, I refuse to allow my business to cover any nutritional counseling that includes meat, or any transplant or treatment where animal parts are used.
  • I’m a Jehovah’s Witness and a business owner, I refuse to allow my business to cover blood transfusions because its against my religion.  Because I am a particularly strict JW, I also feel that any organ transplant is against my religion.  I refuse to allow my business to cover those as well.
  • I’m a Catholic and a business owner, I refuse to allow my business to cover any birth control.  Also, I refuse to cover any treatment that puts an embryo or fetus at risk.
  • I’m a member of the Followers of Christ and a business owner, I refuse to allow my business to cover any medical proceedure, period.

Except that apparently only the Catholic example isn’t too “loony” for the conservative (Catholic) justices on the court (read Justice Ginsburg’s dissent for a short list of when the court has gone against the sincere beliefs of individuals).  Which leaves me to determine one of two things, the 5 men that came to this conclusion don’t think reproduction is something women have the right to control or they think corporations are more important than people (or some combination of the two).

Businesses are not people.  Businesses do not have religions, people do.  People are people.  People have “natural” rights (that’s a topic for another day), not businesses.  And your rights as an individual stop where mine start.   If your religion tells you to do X and not to do Y…then you do X and don’t do Y.   You don’t force your employees into a position where they are economically compelled to do X and not do Y in your stead.  If you can’t handle the division between you as an individual and your business as a secular and profit-generating legal entity, start a religious non-profit or get the hell out of business.

And fuck, religion should have nothing to do with health care anyway.

And fuck the broader implications beyond healthcare.

[/end rant]

And now, for something completely different… It looks like the worst of Hurricane Arthur will be out to sea when it works its way up to us tomorrow…

Thanks Poseidon!

Some pre-storm fun...

Some pre-storm fun…

Awesome quote (having mentioned Poseidon) I just ran across:

You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?

~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom

6 Posts I really think you should read:

  • Why I don’t trust the gods (at least not if I’m alone with one) by John Halstead @ The Allergic Pagan
  • Compostable plastics and bioplastics – and why they aren’t the “green” solution by Lindsay @ Treading My Own Path
  • Amusing ourselves to death: new Sciencegasm meme nails it @ Scholars and Rogues
  • Bottled Water: Just say NO! by Deb @ Small House, Big Picture
  • Bootstraps and the American Myth @ Mistress of the Hearth
  • Why its imperative to teach empathy to boys via Mind/Shift

And a bonus because I laughed my butt off…

Soap Crayon Munchkin Magic

Soap Crayons

2 tablespoons water (or herbal infusion)
~1 cup soap flakes
30-40 drops of foor coloring

Blend til smooth and paste-like. Fill an ice cube tray or in soap molds and let dry several days.

Choose colors and herbs (if you choose the infusion route) for different purposes…lavender and lavender for peaceful sleep, pink and rose for healing a sad heart, yellow and sunflower for Sun magic. If you want, you can even charge the water before hand using a appropriate crystal as well.

Use the crayons on your tub or shower walls to mark vigils, pictures, phrases, etc for ritual baths or shower meditations to bring healing, blessing, etc.

Why I love honey (Part I):

I admit, this is gonna read like a one-woman infomercial, lol.

Honey is deliciously drinkable!  In the summer, forget energy drinks, add a teaspoon or two of honey and a splash of lemon or lime juice, and a dash of lite salt (check for contraindications before using lite salt, which can be replaced by sea salt in these sorts of recipes, though you’ll be missing out on the potassium then) to your bottle of water.

Big-batch Honey Lemonade:
1/2 c honey
1/2 teaspoon lite salt
1/4 c lemon juice
7 1/2 c water

Mix. Makes 8 8 oz servings at 60 cal per serving, 17 g carbohydrates, 16 g sugar, 72 mg sodium, and 85 mg potassium. (Very Tasty Recipe from the National Honey Board)

Honey is bake-able! If you are interested in baking with honey as a replacement for sugar, there are a couple of tricks to keep in mind: Reduce the liquid by 1/4 c for each cup of honey used, add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and reduce oven temperature by 25 degrees. Use less honey than sugar that the recipe calls for–usually no more than half. Honey is sweeter than sugar, so you don’t need as much….though replacement requires some experimentation.  (If you are diabetic, keep in mind that honey is still a “sugar”…)

Also, honey is cosmetic!  Honey is medicinal! Honey is magical!  But I’ll get to these another time…

Hope you have a Happy 4th of July! 

Hail Mr. Franklin, Presidents Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Madison!

 

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…under gods, indivisible

04 Sunday May 2014

Posted by thalassa in education, opinion, pagan, paganism, parenting, politics, religion

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Pledge of Allegiance, under god

…Kids are mystified by most everything in the pledge. But “one nation under God” has the distinction of being a phrase that not even grown-ups are clear on. Congress inserted the words at the height of the Cold War in 1954 to underscore the difference between American values and those of the atheistic Communists. But its actual meaning is up for grabs. Does it affirm our faith in God or assert that we have his special protection? Is it a ceremonial deist formula with no especial religious character? Or is it merely a historical nod to the beliefs of the founders, as the 9th Circuit majority said?

…That ambiguity has certain advantages. But it actually came about because of a linguistic misunderstanding. The words were taken from the Gettysburg Address, where Lincoln asked his listeners to resolve that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” Except that in the Gettysburg Address, “under God” didn’t modify “this nation” but the following phrase, “have a new birth of freedom.” In Lincoln’s time, “under God” was a common idiom that meant “with God’s help” or “the Lord willing.” People used it to qualify a bald prediction or promise, mindful of the admonition against vainglory in the book of James.

Actually, my guess is that Lincoln would have inserted the words “under God” if he had written the Pledge of Allegiance, too, although he probably would have put them at the end. He would have been uncomfortable about describing the country as indivisible, just and free without adding a “God willing” somewhere.
from NPR

the original flag salute…

By all accounts, inspired by a sermon he attended, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to change the words of the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.  It was the height of the Cold War, and damn what the original author (ironically a Socialist) would have thought, we had to stick it to those godless Commies! And besides, it wasn’t the first time the thing had been changed.

Its been controversial ever since.  Fodder for both left and right.  Especially the Religious Right.

Source of annoying memes on social media.

like this one...

like this one…

*sigh*

Other than the irony I find in from people that repost this usually being offended about the idea of not saying the Pledge,  I don’t know what this person is talking about.   Sharkbait and Chickadee say the Pledge of Allegiance daily.

On one hand, I don’t care about the phrase “under god” because we (as a polytheistic pantheist family) have what is probably the most expansive possible idea of deity*.   But on the other hand, it pisses me off that we cater to the uber-Connies and the Fundies in this country and every time someone points that out, there’s some nutty “how dare you take my rights away, back in the good old days…” reaction.  At the risk of offending someone with my cursing (though if they are the sort of person offended by cursing, this entire post is likely to make them explode), Fuck ‘Em.

I’m sick of pandering.

Back in “the good old days”:

  • people owned other people as property
  • women could be beaten without recourse and sure as heck couldn’t vote
  • rape was something that happened but was almost never talked about or prosecuted (and there was a good chance she’d be married off to the bastard)
  • the government endorsed and participated in nothing short of genocide against the original inhabitants of this land
  • something like one in four or one in five pregnancies were aborted because there was no birth control
  • thousands of people died of preventable diseases (including STDs)
  • 5 year olds worked in factories and mines for pennies a day, 7 days a week, 12 hour work days instead of going to school
  • fingers and rats and sawdust regularly got ground up into your hamburgers
  • mothers drugged their children with opiates so they could be “seen and not heard”

So yes, the phrase “under God” offends me.  It offends me because I am offended by the people that would look back at our history as “the good old days”–something worthy of going back to or attempting to emulate in this epoch of our history.  Despite what these small minded people think, it doesn’t offend me because of the word “god”.  Unlike them, my faith and my identity is not threatened by the inclusion (or lack thereof) of a three letter word* in an oath that most kids can’t pronounce and don’t know the meaning of anyhow.

If anything, (linguistic incorrectness aside) the inclusion of the words “under God”, and the idea that every school child should be reciting it, should offend them.

Because when our family says it, we ain’t talkin’ ’bout YHWH.

Honestly, they should be considering the blasphemy that they are participating in as a result of kids like mine say the Pledge as it is written along side their children.  If they really believed in it as anything other than a (poorly phrased and overly conceited) political statement**, they would be worried about the wrath of their deity at being invoked as one of many, many gods–about this country being perceived as being under gods, not under God.

My daughter would be aiming for Poseidon…

And I really pity the fools should they ever manage to bring back school-led prayer to public schools.

 

Addendum:

*Just because this phrase doesn’t bother me theologically, does not mean that I am not troubled by the lack of regard for the diversity that this phrase causes.  We live in a country that is supposed to support freedom of religion and not believe in special tests of such…the recitation of the Pledge, whether it is legislated or not, serves as a social test of religion that children are forced into to satisfy the political and religious inclinations of some parents.  I just happen to be more troubled by the vile hatred that is spewed forth by those claiming special ownership over this country and what it means to be American (and Christian).

**If nothing else, these uber-Connie Fundie types should also be offended at the mere notion of a state-sponsored anything as antithetical to their vision of small government and whatever brand of True Freedom™ they are sniffing for the week and…you know, particularly the notion that this nation is indivisible.  Heck, one would think, in the interests of intellectual consistency, more of them would rally to abolish the thing in its entirety!

36.768209 -76.287493

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Etiquette and Religion, Revisited

15 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by thalassa in blogging, interfaith, opinion, pagan, paganism, religion

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

interfaith etiquette, religious differences, religious discussions, religious tolerance, respect

Look, people are going to disagree in life.  And they are going to disagree even more about religion, which many consider a vital part of their identity, culturally and individually.  The problem is not disagreement, the problem is the oft-perceived idea that disagreement is a personal insult to oneself followed by the wielding of disagreement as a weapon as a result of that insult.  Disagreement is not a statement of unworthiness of another, or superiority of one’s self.  Really, its not.  

But maybe we need to learn to disagree with one another better.  This is where manners come into the picture.  I don’t think that having manners means leaving disagreement behind.  In all actuality, I think that part of having manners is being respectfully honest.  The honest truth about religion is that the only thing that determines “right” is belief.  It goes without saying that I believe I’m right (or at least more right than the next guy), or else I’d have different beliefs. It also goes without saying that people with diametrically different and even opposed beliefs believe that they are right as well.  This leaves us with the problem of having equal claim to “rightness”…and it means that we need to work on how we express ourselves in such a way that is compassionate and respectful to one another as people.

Two years ago, I felt compelled to write a list of “Interfaith Etiquette” guidelines.  Every once in a while, I feel compelled to post them again.  Heck, I even followed it up with a “Netiquette” version, specifically geared towards blog posting and discussion.  I’m going to repost the pertinent part to both of those  (again), but first, I want to direct your attention to this very excellent post over at Pagan Activist, which happens to be right in line with this train of thought.

Okay, now that you are back…without further ado (because we can all stand to be reminded from time to time):

Etiquette Guidelines for Interfaith Discussions

1.) If someone asks about your religious beliefs, share (respectfully and with compassion). If they don’t ask, don’t assume that sharing will be welcome and go out of your way to do so.

2.) If you feel compelled to ask someone else as a way to spark a discussion about their beliefs, back off if they aren’t interested.

3.) Make sure the setting is appropriate for the discussion so neither party will feel uncomfortable.

4.) Don’t act like your truth is everyone’s truth–it isn’t, because if it were, there wouldn’t be a conversation on the matter. When expressing your beliefs, use I-statements to express your personal beliefs.

5.) Refrain from using absolute or exclusive language, but don’t assume that absolute or exclusive statements are made with negative intent.

6.) If you are in a mutual discussion of beliefs, don’t use your theological opinion as a tool for condemnation or insult.

7.) Realize that the people who vocally use their beliefs about religion as an excuse to be a jerk are louder than those that don’t, if you want to be a good ambassador for your faith, act your ideals, and even share them, but don’t preach them.

8.) Language is imprecise–different religious and denominations have differing terminology; understand the limits of your religious literacy and ask for clarification if you are unsure of one’s meaning.

9.) Disagreement is not an automatic insult or attack. Try to refrain from taking offense to comments that may be well-intended, but poorly phrased.

10.) Courteously and constructively correct misinformation. Do not get drawn into an argument (as opposed to a debate). Be polite, even when the other person is not.

11.) If things start going badly, be the adult and back off. When this happens, don’t wait for the other person – do it first. If you are a person that has to have the last word, remember that walking away with dignity while the other person brays like an ass is its own last word.

A particular challenge in discussions about religious and spiritual beliefs is when they meet the internet.  In addition to blogging and other forms of social media, I’ve been a member and then a moderator,  and finally an administrator and co-owner of Pagan Forum for at least a decade now–I’ve had plenty of time to observe and engage in discussions of religion online.  Internet interaction, I think, calls for some extra guidelines…

Netiquette for Inter/Intrafaith Discussions

Responsibilities of the Writer: 

1)  Know your audience.  As a writer, you should know who your audience is–its just sort of common sense that one needs to know who they are writing to, and what interests and perspectives readers might have, in order to appropriately address topics.  But part of knowing your targeted or expected audience is also knowing that some of them might just be curious drop-ins…  If your goal is to foster thought and discussion solely within one’s community, that’s fine (though a consideration of how they could be taken by others might be a good idea)…but if your goal is to spark discussions across communities (either sub-groups within the same faith group, or between faith groups), then perhaps its a good idea to see what your words feel like from an outside perspective and model them appropriately.

2)  Strive for accuracy and honesty.  Try to emphasize when something is a personal opinion (albeit a hopefully educated one) as opposed to a fact-based statement.  Particularly when discussing contentious topics (in which case, try to acknowledge if not address different opinions) or in environments where you could be construed as a subject matter expert or a representative of a particular view.  If you know you are biased on a particular topic, ante up and admit it.

3)  Write  with respect.  The bottom line here is to write with respect for one’s subject matter and one’s audience.  Sometimes that can be a quite difficult balance to achieve.  There are a number of ways to do this: cite sources, admit bias, use inclusive language, make ‘I’ statements, and overall…be kind–or at least as kind as possible if and when criticism is necessary.

4)  Make it readable.  I admit, I’m totally guilty of tl;dr at times…and UAWA (using abbreviations with abandon–and yes, I totally made that one up as a joke), incredibly bad humor, and overuse of ellipses and parentheses. Look, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be able to be read and understood without too much difficulty.  If most people struggle to read it, there isn’t much of a point to have written it!  Things like format (hello, paragraphs!), punctuation and spelling, syntax and grammar matter, as does clarity and specificity in language (terminology matters!).  And for the love of all that you consider holy, use paragraphs–I won’t even bother to try to decipher a total wall of text, it hurts my eye balls and my brain.

Responsibilities of the Reader:

1)  Know the audience of the writer.   Lets be honest here, writers write with a specific audience in mind.  So be mindful of whose internet home you are walking into.  Don’t jump down someone’s throat for disagreeing with you when you wandered into their site (this doesn’t mean you can’t disagree with them).  Religious beliefs are opinions, and a person that wanders into a community with different opinions from theirs should expect to disagree with them.  Don’t automatically take disagreement, even at a fundamental level of how your own beliefs are viewed, as a personal insult.

2)  Read with an open mind and an open heart.  Try to see things from the writer’s perspective and experience.  You don’t have to agree with them, but try to see where they are coming from and why that background could lead them to see things as they do.  Don’t take a general opinion as a personal attack, even if that is how they feel…often people have opinions that they have absolutely no real world experience with (and usually those opinions are the most offensive ones!).  A decent person can still have a shitty opinion, so try to refrain from passing judgement on a person, instead of their ideas and reasoning.

3)  Give some “benefit of the doubt” to the writer.  Writing well can be hard and writing well on hard topics can be even harder.  Sometimes people say things in a way that is not immediately clear what they mean, or they give insult where none is intended because the words they use are not understood in the same way they were meant to be delivered.  In light of an entire post, try not to take single comments out of context, unless they are an illustration of overall disagreement.  Unlike a face to face discussion, where a person has instant feedback and can see that a conversation is starting to go off track and clarify points or ask questions, internet discussions are dependent on when someone can get back to it (and a whole lot can go wrong in that time).  On the other hand, the key word here is some–some comments need to be challenged, whether it be for their sheer offensiveness, or because the author is someone that should know better (and if they don’t they need to be told), etc.

Responsibilities of the Responder/Commenter:

1)  If you didn’t read it all, don’t comment/respond…9 times out of 10 I’m willing to bet it will leave you breaking my next “rule”.

2)  Don’t be an ass.  A responder/commenter is both a reader and a writer and is responsible for behaving as both, the only additional duty you really have is to not be a jerk when you respond.  Ask yourself questions like “Will this contribute to the conversation?”, “Am I voicing a legitimate concern or critique that shows alternative points of view and furthers the discussion?”, “Do my comments get the author and other readers additional insight into the situation?” and “Would I say this to my mother/spouse/child/best friend?”.   If the answer to questions like those is “No”, then perhaps a rewording or rethinking of the comment is in order.

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None is as free as one born on the wave, Born on the wave to the song of the sea; None can be brave until they are free, Free of all, but the call of the sea.

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*Just an FYI: If you are wondering why there's not been a new post recently, new posts have been a bit slowed down by the new job...*

I am a (occasionally doting) wife, a damn proud momma of two adorable and brilliant children, a veteran of the United States Navy, beach addict, (American) Civil War reenactor and Victorian natural history aficionado, lover of steampunk, canoeing fanatic, science professional (and amateur in my preferred field), graduate student, and semi-erratic blogger.

If you have found this blog, you have also figured out that we are a Pagan family.  More aptly, I would describe my theological belief as a pragmatic sort of pantheism with a polytheistic practice and my religion as Unitarian Universalist Pagan.  I practice a bioregional witchery and herbalism (foraging ftw!), mainly working with domestic and elemental magics, and I have a thing for sea deities. For the most part, my blog covers a bit of all of these things, with a bit of randomness tossed in from time to time.

I enjoy playing with my kids, chillin with the hubster, swimming, being nerdy, the great outdoors, NCIS re-runs, chai tea--iced or hot, yoga, trashy romance novels, singing off key, kitchen experiments (of the culinary and non types), surfing the internet and painting.  I also like long walks on the beach and NPR's Science Friday and Neil deGrasse Tyson.  I love to read, sleep in on the weekend, and make the Halloween costumes for my kids every year. I am passionate about watershed ecology and local conservation efforts and vehemently anti-disposable plastics. But most of all...I'm just trying to take extravagant pleasure in the act of being alive.

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