22 July 2019

I've been having a "discussion" with someone who is slightly younger than me about all of this hullabaloo which is going on.

I have lived in a little more than 7 decades, so I can't go WAY back personally, but I have taken a few history courses. So, while I have learned about past ages, I don't "know" them.

Since the beginning of time, basically, dogs have been man's best friend. I don't know where it all started, nor do I care to debate it. IF there is ONE thing I've learned from history, it's this. You can repeat it, you can do better, you can deal with it, you can revere it, you can accept what happened and keep going. BUT you CAN NOT change it. No matter what you tear down. No matter what you destroy. You can not remove it and pretend it didn't happen. It did. Everything happens for a reason.

This "discussion" I've been having with this other person, is in regards to "comments" in the work place. Among other things. She wanted a "list" of things I've experienced over the years. You may insert a face here which is appropriate to the face I may have made. One where the eyes roll and well, you get the picture. She says that those making the comments, mind you, from high school and all of the places I've worked, ALL of those making said comments, etc. should be fired! HAHAHA!!!. First of all, I don't think it matters. I know I don't care. I don't even think I cared when comments were made. When I was in high school, All in the Family was a hit show. AND they covered every detail and aspect of life at that time. AND from where I was in life, it was pretty true to life as I knew it and had always known it. Women, for the most part, stayed home. Men went to work. People said what they wanted. It was a far different lifestyle than what we know now.

In the Old Testament, there are verses which say everything happens for a reason and there is a time for everything. This is true. Those who lived in the 1600's had a far different life than we do now. BUT we can not change that. Nor can we change the 1700's, 1800's or 1900's. We can't even change yesterday. BUT what we can change is us. I can change myself. I can't change you, my children, my co-workers, etc. I can only change me. And I can't change what I did in the past. I can only change my future. The way I talk, think, act, etc. So, why these people want to dig up the past, chastise the past, hash it over day after day and try to change it is just futile. We said, did, acted the way they acted back then because that's the way it was.

Yes, I was basically a Susie Homemaker. My mother was born in 1919 and when I wanted to go to college, she said "girls didn't do that. They get married, have children, and that's it." Whatever. I did get married. I did have children. I did the homemaker thing. Did I die because of it. NO. I've been blessed. Did I go to college. Yes. When I was 40. I still have some classes to finish, and hopefully I will do that this fall. But I am NOT the woman from the 50's who my mother and aunts were. While I thankfully have a part of that in me, I am SO much more. I never saw my mom put gas in a car, check the oil, change the wiper blades much less help pull the engine and tranny out. I never saw her mow the lawn. Put shingles on a roof. Jump off of a cliff. Water ski. Roller skate. Fix a bicycle. Build anything. Use a skill saw, table saw, drill, etc. BUT I've done all of those. And I sew, bake, cook, draw, crochet, knit, quilt, embroider, needlepoint, write, design, garden, etc. I golf, play baseball, and football. Sometimes a little basketball. I grew up in a time when girls couldn't do everything, BUT did it anyway. OUR generation made the next generations possible. If it weren't for the way women have changed over the years, not much would have changed. WE changed things. We rock the cradle, and because we rock the cradle we change the future.