Lies

This week's question from Christian Women Online is...

What are some lies out in the world (secular views) today about women that contradict what God says in His word about how women should be/act? Diving a little deeper…What are some lies that are still out there in our Christian circles about women?

Hmmm, this is a question that I approach with caution for two reasons, firstly I am not as familiar with the Bible as this question suggests I should be; and secondly - despite the first reason I do know that there are sections of the Bible that we just would not dream of applying to modern life such as killing someone for working on the Sabbath (and I have to admit that I only know this because I watched the West Wing!)

My first thought is that the Bible was written in a vastly different era and while Christians should at least study it in order to develop a deeper understanding of their faith, I do not think that we should take it as written (!) that this is what God says. Which, I know, is a strange thing to say seeing as the Bible does form the basis of the Christian faith! But, what I do think that we need to remain aware of is that the Bible is God's word as interpreted by others, i.e. the patriarchal society that was in force when the Bible was written, and we need to reinterpret it according to today's society.

But that's getting off the subject! I think that one of the strongest secular views about women is that there is the perfect size for women, you know what I mean - women are denigrated for being too fat, too thin, too short, too tall, too whatever! So how on earth are we supposed to know what the 'perfect' image is if we are bombarded from all directions that we are too something?

I am certain that there are others who could select better snippets from the Bible, but like I hinted above - I am just beginning to find my way around the Bible and my own faith, so here goes...in Isaiah 29:16 it says

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? Shall the thing made say of its maker, "He did not make me"; or the thing formed say of the one who formed it, "He has no understanding"?

This to me completely throws out the general societal view that women should attain the perfect image, after all, who are we to say that God got it wrong by creating the tall or skinny or brunette or deaf or autistic or whatever else we may be! Okay, so I am not actually focusing on what the Bible specifically says about women, but the point is that there is no standard that we are held to other than we were made in his image as it says in Genesis.

I feel as though I could say a lot more about this, but then I get all tangled up in what I feel about this particular issue and how so many women (and men) deal with such emotional trauma because in the eyes of others they are not perfect or even attempt to attain a standard; when what we should really be doing is accepting each other for who we are rather than frowning at them because they have another biscuit or even frowning at them because they are picking at a salad and not eating enough!

Argh - like I said - I think I could waffle on for a books worth on the subject, so I will leave it at the point that there is no such thing as the perfect image and that there are far more important things in life to worry about!

Book deals

I read so many books that I am always keen to buy them at bargain prices, which is why it was so very annoying to see a pair of books (wrapped in sealed plastic) on sale at the local supermarket for a reduced price - something like £7.99 for the pair rather than £6.99 each.

However, the pair of books was Blood Brothers and The Hollow by my favourite author Nora Roberts. I have been waiting for The Hollow for a while now and already have Blood Brothers - they are books two and one in a trilogy, so as you can imagine it was rather irritating as I didn't want Blood Brothers - I've already got it!

I did ask the store staff if they had a single copy of The Hollow, but they didn't AND what made it even more irritating was that the sticker said something like £7.99 for the pair or £3.99 each, but they wouldn't let me buy an "each" because the books were sealed!! Grrrrrr

I suppose I could have bought them and then sold on the other or given it to someone, but it was the principle of the thing! And yet, I still don't have a copy of The Hollow, so I am reduced to pouting! Oh well, at least I know that there are copies in the UK and then Borders now probably has one sitting on the shelf, so I can make a raid soon if not today.

Update - I got the book!! And I got it as part of a buy one get one half price, so I also bought one my Triple Eight Challenge books - a book about Shakespeare by Bill Bryson, so I am suitably mollified!

paranoia

Hmmmm, I am going to need to rein in the paranoia that NaComLeavMo is instilling in me because no-ones commenting!!

I had lots of comments the first three days, but nothing today, and it slightly depressing to know that I will never ever, ever, be able to compete with Confessions of a Pioneer Woman who is currently up to 7206 (yes seven thousand two hundred and six) comments on one post because she is giving away a Zune! All I can say is that her inbox must be groaning and her eyes a bit sore with all that reading and that I am not in the least bit jealous! ;-) Updated the following morning to add that she now has 10528 comments and the competition is closed!!

I have to remind myself that not everyone wants to read what I say, nor has the time to comment on everything and that is it not the end of the world if I don't have another comment; and perhaps I should actually write something new (and interesting) if I want to catch your attention!

This may not necessarily be an interesting post, but it's all I can come up with at this moment! What I would like to know though is how do you overcome writers block, do you make something up, rummage around for yet another meme, delve into your memory banks, pick something that happened today and really focus on it!? What to you do to inspire yourself?

Memorial Day

As I was looking around various blogs yesterday I soon began to realise that it was Memorial Day, an American holiday that commemorates those that have fallen during conflict.

As far as I can tell, this holiday is beginning to take on a slightly different meaning in that it reminds people to say thank you to those who have joined whichever branch of the Forces and are willing to put their lives at risk.

Now, it may well be that you don't agree with why they are putting their lives at risk or feel that we shouldn't be 'celebrating war' as some see such events as doing. However, while I don't know about America, or any other country for that matter, I do think that here in the UK we don't do enough for our soldiers and their families.

There is a move afoot in the UK to have an Armed Forces Day - a holiday Monday some time in November. Again, this has stirred up all kinds of viewpoints, from the basic "yes, lets have another holiday Monday" which isn't the point, to the more complex views on how we should be supporting our men and women in better ways rather than having just another holiday!

Whatever your viewpoint may be I do get the feeling that here in the UK we no longer treat our soldiers with the pride and patriotism that we used to do, or at least that the photographs from the World Wars seem to suggest that we used to do.

Does anyone out there feel differently or think that that respect should be earned and not automatically granted? Personally I feel that we could show our support in many more ways and at the very least we should be far more open about out support for these individuals even if we don't agree with the politics behind some of the recent deployments.

NaComLeavMo begins

Well, actually it began yesterday - a whole month of efforts to leave comments all over other people's blogs! I am thoroughly enjoying it and it has made me realise that as much as I love getting comments I am not particularly good at leaving any!

However, that's the good thing about NaComLeavMo as you have to leave a minimum of five comments and return at least one that has been left on your own blog. The best thing is that once I get started I want to keep going, so it is very likely that I will be writing more than the daily quota of comments and hopefully establish a new habit as I know that it is not very motivating to be writing blog posts that no-one seems to respond to!

I have already had some new comments on my blog and have visited others and left comments and that's how it all starts, how you begin to establish bloggy relationships and start to exchange ideas and thoughts and generally discover a whole other world out there!

So, if you are wondering why your blog never gets any comments, then it is likely that no-one even knows you are there!! You need to begin commenting and taking part in collective blog events so that people know that you actually have a blog and will begin to visit and leave you messages!

And on a day like this - a very very wet holiday Monday - it is a good day to rummage around the blogosphere and see what been written lately!

Show and Tell

Show and Tell was never a part of my childhood education, probably because I am British and it just doesn't seem to be a part of the British educational system, at least it wasn't about 20 years ago, perhaps it is now, I don't know.

Anyway, Mel of NaComLeavMo (see button on the left!) fame has a bloggie Show and Tell on Sundays and I thought that was such a good idea that I am joining in.



Firstly I would love to claim this brilliant photograph as mine as it was taken using my (then) new camera, but I can't as that would be mean! It was taken by Sandy, the son of the family that I lived with for a year. And this is the point of my Show and Tell, that tap is in the kitchen that belongs to Sue, Jim, Sandy, and Mim; four lovely people who opened their home to me about three years ago when I moved from the North of England to the South and couldn't sell my home in time.

I remember having toast from home-made bread and sitting around the kitchen table chatting and laughing and generally having a good time discussing all manner of things under the sun while Sandy laid on the floor thoroughly exhausted from all the GSCE revision, or while Mim made spiced biscuits, or while Sue and Jim were talking about the bargain of the week from Tescos!

I have a smile on my face now just remembering that year; I just hope that they all understood how very grateful I was that they offered me a place to stay, how much I enjoyed their company and loved being part of their family for a while.

another ponder

What is a positive tradition or godly character trait that you learned from your extended family that you hope to pass down to your own family?

Given that last week's thought to ponder was about negative traits, I shouldn't be too surprised that this week's is about the positive! This one is slightly different though as it includes the extended family rather than just the generational line, so I think that this about seeing the positive wherever you find it and then encouraging your own family to emulate those behaviours.

Of course, this then raises the issue of just what the extended family is!? As the "extended" family is such a subjective term I think that I will leave that one alone and concentrate on the question that was actually asked!! As I think about this subject I begin to realise that it is surprisingly hard to think positively about myself because as many people will know - it is easier to focus on the negative rather than the positive.

I also think that it is quite hard to unpick what you do and where it came from because I think that if we are fortunate we are molded by more than one person so I think that it is not a case of identifying one tradition or character trait that you can actually pin down to one person! If we take the case of education as a positive tradition, my parents have always encouraged me to study, my teachers have opened my mind, my classmates challenged my thinking, and so on.

But, taking the same example, I can say that Pops (Dad's Dad) is the person that comes to mind when I think of life-long education because right up to the end he always had a pile of books from the public library - a pile that was usually evenly balanced between fiction and non-fiction as he was always interested in learning more, knowing more, and understanding more. I can picture him now, sat in his chair, pipe in his mouth, by the window with the books stacked up on the windowsill so that he could read in comfort whilst being able to look out at his beloved garden.

Along with many other positive traits, I hope, this is one that I would like the younger members of my family to absorb. This constant interest in the world around us, this eagerness to understand history, investigate science, delve into philosophy, in fact - anything! Just because compulsory education ends at 16 it doesn't mean that we should stop learning, but how many of us pick up a book that's non-fiction, how many of us watch something on television that's not drama!? (and, more to the point, enjoy it!)

Books versus Films

A few of the blogs that I read take part in a regular posting theme called Booking Through Thursday, which offers up a question for everybody to answer, and usually on some variation on the subject of books (naturally!) and until now I have never taken part.

This week's question caught my eye though and so I have decided to answer!

Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

The main reason that this question caught my eye is because a few weeks ago I bought four films that were based on four books written by Nora Roberts, so this is a relatively fresh experience that I can bring to mind. As you may already know, I am a serious Nora Roberts fan and devour each and every book she publishes as well as reading them again and again and again!

So, when I heard that four films were being made, I was both pleased and anxious. Pleased because I could then have a visual representation of the books, anxious because I just knew that the films would be different to the books and would perhaps put me right off ever watching a "film from a book" again. (By the way, those films were Angels Fall, Montana Sky, Blue Smoke, and Carolina Moon.)

When I watched the films over the course of a weekend as I just couldn't wait, I ended up with very mixed feelings! Although I can't remember which was which now but two of the films were slightly disappointing and the other two were about right, having said that, all of the films made me want to reread and enjoy those very books again!

The two that were disappointing were so because they strayed just a little too far from the books or didn't quite convey the complex relationships in Nora's books! A common element of all films was that the producers had to edit and change or exclude bits here and there in order to make 90 minute films rather than three hour films! Now, I can understand that but it does mean that the films will never be as good as the books, they just can't be!

The two that were about right did follow the books a little more closely or were at least more true to the ethos of the books even if bits were edited out. At the end of the weekend though, I did enjoy all four films, particularly on the understanding that they just would not be the same as the books, and I think that this the point - Books and Films are two very different mediums so we shouldn't really expect the same results from them.

Above all, I expect to be entertained whether reading a book or watching a film and if neither can do that then they have failed in their purpose; not forgetting that it takes different things to entertain different people so what I like someone else may loathe and vice versa!

So, despite my mixed feelings about books made into films, I am glad to hear that four more of Nora's books are to be made into films, using the same production company and I look forward to watching them! First, for watching them for the pleasure of a nice film and then for the pleasure of reading them all over again!!! ;-)

By the way, I should add that I will only go to the cinema if I have read the book first and that is because I am deaf and so few screenings will have subtitles, so I ensure that I get maximum understanding and therefore pleasure by knowing the story well!! In fact the only films that I have been to see at the cinema in the past few years is Harry Potter!! Of course, I know that there will be differences between the book and film, but it is good enough for me and means that I can enjoy the big screen effect!!

Arrrrgh!

I spoke too soon!! Went for a run this morning and at first all went well and then towards the end of the run my left calf started to hurt again. I kept going as it wasn't too bad, but has now been problematic all day - it's fine when I'm not moving around, and not so bad when I walk, but when I go up or down stairs or move a bit fast it is quite painful!

Fortunately I work somewhere where I have access to a physiotherapist!! So, I emailed the physio and asked her for some advice and she was pretty much able to diagnose me there and then. As it turns out, I have been doing the right stretches, but have been missing out a crucial one!

It would seem that most people are unaware that as well as the main calf muscle there is another one called the soleus and it is this one that I have not been stretching! Due to the nature and position of the pain, the physio has been able to say with some degree of certainty that I have small tears of the soleus and need to work on stretching the muscle as it is the "scar" of the tear that is contracting the muscle and making it painful!

Anyway - nuts! is all I can think at the moment, still I now have some specific exercises to do to strengthen and stretch the muscle and I shall see how I get on, but it is unlikely that I will run again for a few days which is so irritating and I have to keep an eye on getting back into it because, as I have said before, I know myself well enough that if I don't get back into it soon I just wont do it again!

Still, I'd rather be patient and work on the exercises rather than push on and then be forced to rest for much longer, buthopefully this is a problem that I can resolve and then get running again (awaiting the next injury to come along!!) ;- )

Woohoo!

It's a lovely bright and slightly chilly morning and I am back!! I went for a week three C25K run and it felt good - a bit tough after not running for a week, but with the sun shining on my face it felt great to be outside, if a bit breathless!!

I also changed my routine slightly to include a warm up and stretch from the Davina DVD, hopefully this will reduce any aches and pains like the one that stopped me running just over a week ago. I did have a tingle in that self-same calf this morning, but kept running and it soon went away - just under use I suppose!!

But yay - I am so pleased to be back in the running groove! I hope to do a bit of catching up in the running stakes so that I am not too far behind when it comes to the virtual 5k!

By the way, I now have a new mantra - "the only way you'll succeed is to keep going" (courtesy of Michelle as guest poster at 5minutesformom), this mantra is perfect for many areas of my life - running, losing weight, procrastination, tidyness, and so on!!