I Believe...............

I was roaming around reading blogs this morning and ran across this question: What do you believe? An interesting question and one I feel like answering. The question was not faith directed or any other kind of directed for that matter, just………what do you believe?

1. I believe that two people who truly love each other and want to care for each other for the rest of their lives have the right to get married, legally. Doesn’t matter about the gender, the ethnicity, the race, the religion, none of it. It doesn’t matter. It’s about two hearts and love.

2. I believe that dogs truly are human kind’s best friend. Nobody else in my life will ever love me with such complete and total devotion, with no regard for how I look, how I smell, what I think or how I feel. There is nothing I could do to make these two, currently lying at my feet, stop loving me. Nothing. That’s pretty special and cannot be duplicated by any other creature that I know of.

3. I believe that it is incredibly unfair that my two nieces, both of whom will be exceptional, wonderful, sensitive, talented and understanding mothers, are struggling with infertility and adoption issues. And yet, right here in the city where I live there are women giving up babies, throwing away babies, mistreating babies and I am unable to get the two sides together.

4. I believe that the public school system in our country is failing our children and that the “dumbing down” of the system is causing them to go backwards rather than forward. My Dad learned more in a tiny, one room, country schoolhouse 75 years ago than too many of today’s students are learning in the beautifully built and air conditioned schools of today. Let’s go back to the three ‘R’s and to heck with political correctness. Those kids NEED geography and history and physical education and music as well as many other subjects that have been dropped from curriculums in too many schools. They should memorize multiplication tables and diagram sentences. Too bad if it’s hard. That’s how you learn! And you don’t get to the next grade unless you know the material from the current grade. No kid left behind is BS. If you can’t do the work, you should be left behind until you can.

5. I believe the majority of American women take their right to vote for granted. You don’t appreciate the blood and suffering that occurred to make it a reality. Put “Iron Jawed Angels” in your Netflix Queue. You’ll never miss another election.

6. I’ve come to believe that teaching is the best job in the world. Unfortunately, I came to this realization late in life and so will not reap the true benefits that can be gained from a lifetime career. Where else can you work 9 months a year and get paid for 12? Get all summer off from work? Have 4-6 weeks off work over the holidays? Get a week off every Spring? Only have to physically show up at work 2-3 days a week for a few hours (college level teaching)? Etc. etc. etc.

7. I believe that each of us will have dozens, maybe hundreds, of acquaintances as we go through our lives. However, the numbers of TRUE friends, REAL friends that we meet and go through life with can be counted on your fingers. If you’re really lucky, those few are not only friends, they are family members.

8. I believe the life our parents led and the ways in which they raised us has a dramatic impact on the adults we are today. If you are one of the lucky ones whose parents were together as a loving married couple for their entire lives, count your blessings. If your Dad was a strong, good man who was always there for his children, count your blessings. If your parents loved you and wanted you, count your blessings. If drugs or alcohol or violence were never a part of your childhood, count your blessings. There are way too few of us.

9. I believe that one decision can change your entire life. The Road of Life offers us many choices, but the path we choose to take is the one that determines our fate. Think about it. One decision.

10. I believe that our sexuality exists on a continuum. At one end is extreme and exclusive heterosexuality, at the other end is extreme and exclusive homosexuality. The vast majority of people are in the middle. So much depends on #9.