cohesiveness – Sillyfrog's Blog

Unanswered Question: Who defines ‘what you *’need’?

Posted on 03/02/202303/02/2023 by Susan St.Pierre

These posts are posed as a ‘stream of consciousness’ evaluation of questions that I am asking myself.

The question I pose in the title is one that troubles me. If I were to choose a phrase that immediately ‘gets under my skin’ it is the statement from others about what ‘everyone’, or ‘someone’, ‘needs‘.
From my own sensitivity to other’s views, I’ve talked about trying to frame my comments in the arena of what I think or how I feel. I’ve learned that this is the most ‘unassuming’ and ‘fairest’ approach.
So, you may rightfully call me ‘sensitive’ to how others frame their comments. IMHO…I want to get-along and be listened to as much as anyone, but how would I know? 😉
I’ve taken exception to posts that were presented as “everyone agrees” or “everyone should” because of the pretentiousness it conveys to me.
The worst kind of statement IMHO is “they don’t need” or ‘worser’ “you don’t need” something.
I’ll admit my first internal reaction is “Who do you think you are?!” followed by the calmer, friendlier, question, “How is it that you know ‘what I need’?”

Examples of things I’ve heard are:
“People don’t need AR-15s.”
“Everyone agrees we should “Go Green”.”
“You don’t need to be that busy with your grandkids.”
“You don’t need to eat meat.”
“Everyone needs to take the “vaccine”.”
“Everyone needs to be kinder.” [IMHO… Everyone is not routinely nor purposefully unkind. So, I ask, “Are you seeing monsters that I don’t?” Should I be afraid?]
And
“We all need to come together.” This last one would be nice. I know cohesiveness in our communities is a wonderful thing.
IMHO…I think the first thing that would help in the ‘coming together’, is an effort by each of us to speak for ourselves and avoid telling others “What they need.”. It’s off-putting to me and may be to others. (But you don’t need to agree. LOL)

To my fellow Americans:
Our Constitution expresses to us directly that each of us have a right to pursue what we ‘need’ but not a right to tell others what they need.

*Oh, I understand that personal ‘needs’ are subjective and different from basic survival ‘needs’ which we all may pursue as ‘we see fit’.

Writing Prompts

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #255- Sacred Ideals

Posted on 11/03/202211/03/2022 by Susan St.Pierre

Photo prompt.

Image credit: Noel Nichols on Unsplash

The “Crimsons” had built their civilization on a yet to be mapped chain of tropical islands and it had thrived for more than 4 centuries.
Their relative isolation from the rest of the planet produced their most striking physical trait for although their skin tones varied, their hair was universally undeniably flaming red.
As legends evolve from partial truths, they had come to recently attribute their happiness and success more or less directly to this part of their appearance and now that once infrequent explorers happened upon them and had given them their current superficial name, they were embracing it more and more.
They were, by all standards, happily and productively ‘primitive’. Their children were raised by small community ‘parental pods’ each of which shared an identical cultural pride and common ‘spirit’ but this was incrementally starting to include a subtext of worship of the perceived magical property of their red hair. They also maintained excellent health and longevity due to ritualized attention to their diets and promoted, most fervently, the values of justice, honor, and humility.
They were ruled by a priestess who was like a queen in the requirement that she needed an ancient genetic lineage connecting her to former priestesses in order to reign. All had worked well until a necessary excavation for burial purposes revealed an ancient artifact. Priestess, Avea, claimed it immediately and refused to allow any ‘commoner’ to study it.

When Avea studied the ancient ‘time capsule’ she made a most unsettling discovery. Within the almost pristinely preserved contents was a skull. On the skull six long chestnut brown hairs remained attached and an ancient text in their own language lay beneath it. The text read like an ‘owner’s manual’ about a proper diet. It also promised their cohesive long-lived prosperity if they would adhere to the three principles of justice, honor, and humility. But nowhere was hair color mentioned! This could pose a problem to the newly established reverence for their common immutable characteristic and might just cause division among their communities who were unevenly committed to that ‘modern’ idea. Avea wisely realized that she held her people’s future directly in her hands.

On the third day, the priestess revealed her impression of the contents of the sacred artifact to the people in a speech declaring a day of celebration once a proper shrine could be erected to hold its content. She repeated the text but never mentioned the startling forensic evidence.
As Avea placed the skull on a pedestal in the newly built shrine at the start of their national holiday, she plucked those chestnut hairs from it letting them fall among the chaff at her feet. Division caused by any emphasis on appearance, simply wouldn’t be good for anyone.

https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2022/11/03/reenas-xploration-challenge-255/

In my humble opinion..., Writing Prompts

SoCS – 10-22-22 What are We Talking About?

Posted on 10/21/2022 by Susan St.Pierre

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “bowl.” Use it as a noun or a verb—use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

A bowl is a round container with a concave surface. You can eat soup or salad out of it. Wait… I’ve eaten salad out of square containers. Are they square bowls or not bowls at all? If they’re considered square bowls, either they don’t fit the definition of a bowl, or the bowl definition doesn’t allow for exceptions. I’m so confused!
Our language is fragile and often inaccurate, but communities, and on a larger scale, cultures have something more… common understanding. Language plays a role though. A common language is an essential core to human relationship cohesiveness. Last I checked, the U.S. has never ‘officially’ assigned any ‘official’ language. Whew… that’s a bit overdue. U.S. citizens have had a ‘common understanding’ (forever) that it’s likely, maybe, probably, English but foreigners from countries that have their own designated ‘official’ language might be afraid that their language is against the law here or something. Ugh… I’m getting more confused!
Well, at least we can agree on the time, right?
Wait…we have Daylight Savings Time, Regular Time, Mountain Time, Central Time, and who could forget “Time to make the donuts”.
Never mind.
There is, after all, consensus on our good ole American food choices.
Everyone I know loves a stack of pancakes for breakfast… or griddle cakes… or flapjacks… or hot cakes. Give me a break! Aren’t those the same thing? I think they are. So, the breakfast isn’t different, but it’s called a different name according to where you’re eating it. I wonder if your grandma made you pancakes in Connecticut and mailed them to Texas if they’d taste different under the Texas label of flapjacks? Even harder, at what point in their journey does the name change. If the plane crashed halfway to Texas, when the package from grandma is recovered, WHAT’S IN IT? Does it depend on where the crash site is, or does it depend on what region of the country the person who recovers the package is from?! I GIVE UP!
Happy Saturday Everyone! Do whatever you wish, I don’t want to know!

Here’s a clip from Good Morning Vietnam offering a coherent English lesson. Enjoy!