Why I Use the Title of Writer with Pride

Lately I have been reading several articles on being a writer and the embarrassed feeling people get when they own the title of “Writer”. I have never paid much attention to the public perception of a writer and truly find it strange that someone with such a creative mind can be dismissed as easily as a musician. I mean people like that are usually called flakes because we as a society have made it so very difficult to have jobs in the field of being creative. We gravitate towards work in construction, business or education as the paying jobs. Why are artists not as gainfully employed? Maybe it is just that where talents lie I always see direction when it comes to artistic people like myself.

 

I mean here I sit now with my day totally organized, my new career path as a personal trainer mapping out a little more every day, dinner cooking, dance gear organized, laundry done and in comfy clothes to sit and writer for a few minutes. It is almost a guilty pleasure to be able to spill out the words onto the screen and let it a fall where it may. And I suppose for most artists it is that way as art can never be called work. It is just not able to qualify. It is fun to create art, it is fun to be and artist and draw characters and then write about them. As a musician telling a story set to music and using poetry to balance the two that marry so well together is just not work.

 

Please understand I am not putting down artists I just think they have the best job in the world and feel very fortunate to be part of the creative and artistically strange and misunderstood segment of the population. I guess at this point I could bring up compensation for the jobs of being an artist. For the most part it is little to nothing. I know nothing as I have never been paid for writing and for my other artistic skills I have received very little in the way of finances. That goes for most of us. There is a passion that drives artists and it is not money. Some of the richest artists in the world are not great artists what they are, are masters at hiring the right person to mass market them and hitting a niche market that spends money on the fame. Not always the best, and sometimes the best are hidden away and never seen by the public. Can you imagine if the world was full of artists only? How dull it would become to be a human being on this planet.

Diversity speaks loudly when it comes to artists. The genre is diverse and within each genre is more and more to focus on. Sometimes as an artist it is difficult to find what it is you with to focus on and you want to do everything as most artists are very talented in many ways and can touch on several genres at a time. Be careful not spread yourself too thin. But to call myself a writer I do not feel like a flake. I happen to like flakes, especially snowflakes. And I do not feel that we should shy away from calling ourselves what we are. We are writers and we should be proud. Yes it is a comfy job when it pays and we get to live in our pj’s if we choose. So why are we frowned upon? Using the mind to help create play for others is not wrong, but glorious and entertaining.

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Children are Our Children, Not Kids

I often discuss respect and maybe today is no different but this one drives me crazy!!! Kids….kids….kids. No not my children, they are not driving me crazy, although sometimes other people who do not parent their children and their children are out of control drive me crazy, but not this time. It is the word "kids" and its constant use to refer to a human child.

 

Children in society have very few rights, have little say is the world and are one of our most vulnerable of populations. We often ignore them and disregard what they say as unimportant. So that with standing why is it that we continue to insult them further and not only insult but patronize and demean our most precious asset in the world, our children, by calling them kids?

 

It was my understanding that a kid was a baby goat, not a human child. When I gave birth to my children I do not recall giving birth to goats. I do not recall the sound of Nanny goats is the delivery room and I do not recall the smell of hay, nor do I recall any one calling my new born infant anything but a child, with respect.

 

We deliver such little respect to children in a general sense that calling them something they are not just seems to pile on the ignorance by the adults. My children are accustom to being called a child or the children. We have never addressed them any other way since they were born. It just seemed the right thing to do. After all they are not goats they are humans.

 

After some general research on the web I was unable to find any information as to why we call our children this sad and insulting name. Some of you may find goats cute and baby ones at that might be cute. My best guess as to why, is it came from the days when we were farmers and hunters and food was more scarce and some poor soul went and had some milk right from the goat like the baby did and maybe that stuck who knows? It is only a guess and a thought.

I never liked being called a kid when I was a child and remember fighting over that with people usually my older brothers even at times my parents. I just found it to be something that lowers a human being to the ground. And when we look back at the movies from the past and you can see the older man waving some change at young boy to get him to run an errand and shouts out to him “Hey kid.” That image of the elder taking respect but not giving it to the child runs in my mind and draws me to the present day and hearing people talk and how casually they will use the slang "kids" to describe their children.

 

 

I suppose I am never going to change the world but I hope my little corner has some understanding in this idea of respect to our children. Those who know me know that I stand with integrity and do my very best to be respectful to others. This includes the little ones around me and I call them all children with respect.

 

Give respect to our children by calling them children they deserve that.

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Islands of Plastic

 

It is amazing to me that I do not have anything to complain about and no curmudgeon to report. It actually is a very good feeling to not have a beef and an axe to grind for once. But now that I think of it that is sooooo not ture. I was speaking with a friend last night about the garbage dumps in our oceans. You know the ones we ignore and do not even realize are there!!!!!!

That is right human race we have created islands of garbage that float around in our oceans. There are about 5.2 trillion pieces of garbage mostly plastic according to The Nation Geographic magazine. That is astounding when I was a child the oceans were clean and we as people could enjoy the waters and see aquatic life on TV. Now it is just a dumping ground. So what gives us the right to turn our planet into this dumping ground?

 

Well nothing does, nothing gives us the right to raid the planet and leave it raped of its resources. That reminds me of the movie Independence Day in which the aliens that come to invade earth are really here to take the resources of the planet and use them for their own needs. That is what we are doing here. If you dig into some article you will find that we have out grown the planet as a population and the planet can no longer recover and regrow from what we take from it every day. Tis to me is very distressing. What do we need so much plastic for anyways?

 

I have yet to see the value of a plastic mayonnaise container and plastic pop bottle or even plastic anything for that matter. When the stuff burns it is toxic, it is toxic to produce (go ahead I dare you to do the research into that statement), it is non compostable, meaning it lasts for a multitude of years before it breaks down….well we could say the same thing about glass but at least glass is a natural product made from sand and it 100% recyclable. Oh there is the next rant ready and primed.

 

 

So recycling is it a myth or magic? Personally I believe that it is myth. Why you ask? Well considering I have seen our local refuse collector dump both boxes being grey and blue into the same compartment of his truck it leads me to wonder what happens next. Now I have never followed the garbage truck to personally see this but what really is the truth behind the recycling game? It has been reported by news magazine TV shows that it is not managed the way we believe it is and that it goes into the landfill, which I am inclined to believe as I do not see many products on the market claiming o be 100% recycled material. I am going to encourage you to look that one up too.

 

I guess I am just sick and tired of the human race being so destructive and so ugly over it all. I cannot stand the Kurig cups, plastic water bottles, sandwich bags, individual pudding cups or yogurt, even coffee cup lids and plastic cutlery, the list goes on. We abuse our planet by creating single use items and being lazy over convenience. And this pollution has all taken place over the last 100 years give or take a decade. What is so wrong with doing things far more green? Using a cloth sandwich bag and washing those bags. My family does that, we send real metal cutlery to school and have taught our children to bring home these items. I guess I have an expectation on the human race to be clean and neat and to stop being such complete assholes to this beautiful planet we have. Well maybe, just maybe my expectations are too high. I never though cleaning up after yourself was an issue.

 

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