Where's Mac When You Need Him?

"This 'I and mine' causes the whole misery." Swami Vivekanada

We had to have the handyman over again last night. Everything seems to be falling apart at once. We MacGyvered together something out of rubber bands and paper clips to fix a door until he can get the part he needs hopefully today. I could sure use a MacGyver in my life right now to help keep things together.

Mom is sick again and will be going back to bed in a couple of minutes. I've got her to the part time stage at work but need her out of there completely before the stress kills her. If stuff doesn't stop falling apart maybe I can convince her to go ahead and retire completely. I am trying to convince her that her children would rather she use the money she has for retirement rather leaving it to us after she goes. She is more important then money.

My biggest headache is trying to get through the thick skulls of two of my brothers. One is so irresponsible that he can't hold onto a dime. I pushed and pushed until he got his disability so he can live and he should be able to do so without having to borrow from Mom but he fritters the money away. Mom has to stop bailing him out and when she goes I won't have the money to do so.

The oldest brother is finally getting part of his Army pay although they still owe him a heck of a lot of back pay. That pay plus his salary is more then adequate and borders on the excessive. However he is so obsessed with his looks and not looking 60 that he is spending hundreds of dollars each month on high price "beauty creams" that are worthless. I told him the results of the Consumer Reports study and all he would need is one or two jars at the most of something reasonably priced but he has his ultra right wing mind into a mindset that Consumer Reports is nothing but a left wing anti business organization trying to take down the American way of life. He can't seem to understand that they are independent and are trying to make sure that what you buy works. I fail to see how making the manufacturer responsible for coming up with products that are worth the money we give them can possibly be bad.

In the meantime we had a meeting at work on Friday to try and stop the infernal fighting and pettiness that makes work a chore over and beyond a crappie computer system. My boss waited until last to call on me because I think she knew what I was going to say. What I said was, "at the risk of sounding like Pollyanna we really need to get along better and be nice to each other. We need to listen to what the other person is saying and moderate our tone of voice when talking to each other. We need to work together as a team or with this new system we have we are all going to go nuts." I could just hear my bosses mind screaming "YES!" She reiterated what I had said that we need to work as a team. I'm sorry but I am not pulling a Brittany Spears and shave my head so I can come in barefooted in a white sari and play Mahatma Gandhi. I did that all day Friday and I'm tired of it.

I am tired of the divisiveness where people feel that there is only one way and that is their way and anyone who dares disagree is "evil." People can have a different opinion without being the enemy. One of the things that has impressed me about Barak Obama's The Audacity of Hope is that even though he disagrees politically he is still polite and refuses to demonize the other side. We can debate and still be civilized.

I raced through my sixteenth short story last night once I had finally realized that I was at an impasse in the story because I was trying to force a story line around my own core beliefs. I was angry when I started it and I was using that anger to fuel a motivation that didn't exist to make a character a villain that shouldn't have been. I was demonizing him because I was angry at someone who I was basing aspects of the character on. I was sabotaging my own work. Once I stopped to look at the whole story I had one of those MacGyver "Ah Man" moments where I knew what was needed to fix the problem. The end result is a story I am proud of and a character who is to be pitied because he allowed hatred to turn him from the path of good and set himself up to be used by evil. I will have the story up on line. It is called A Heroes Lament and can be found at http://members.aol.com/michelesstorys/heros.htm.

Real counter 4465