Since I haven’t made an update in a while, I thought I’d touch on a few random topics on this lazy Sunday afternoon.
Settled In and Loving the New Home
It’s been about three months since we moved into this house and I’m almost ashamed to say we’re still unpacking a bit. Of course we’ve been 95% unpacked for a couple months now, but that last 5% seems to be taking forever. That’s okay, though, because we’re in no rush.
We’re loving being next door to my parents. Having family close is a comfort for both of us at this exciting and stressful stage in our lives as we’re settling into our careers and making big plans for the near future. In today’s society, you don’t always get the privilege of being close to your family – a reality I’ve lived with ever since we moved here from Mississippi – so we’re happy to be able to take advantage of the circumstances which have allowed us to live so close to Mom and Dad.
I think my favorite part of living in a house rather than our condo is having my own lawn and plants to take care of. I believe I’ve inherited my grandmother’s fondness for gardening, and I also thoroughly enjoy getting out on a nice day and mowing the lawn. I get a lot of thinking done during that time, as the sound of the lawnmower engine drowns out everything in the world except for my own thoughts. It’s moments like that which make me realize that in the fast pace of our lives today, it is a rare opportunity for the conditions to be just right for any extended period of free thought. I wonder if this is to blame for what seems to me like a slow era in our world for true innovation.
I’ll try to get some pictures up sometime of our new home. The delay is pretty simple to explain: I never feel like our house is clean enough to justify taking pictures. We’re still adjusting to having 2,400 square feet to clean (in addition to the addition of yardwork to our schedules) rather than the 1,100 square feet of our condo.
Speaking of our condo: we sold it in about two weeks. I noticed that my last entry was discussing how we purchased our house before selling our condo, and my initial fear was going six months or more having to pay two mortgages. While we were prepared for that, it was a huge relief when someone put in a fair offer just two weeks after having it on the market.
George Zimmerman Trial
I feel compelled to weigh in on this subject, since it has been the source of intense debate recently. I want to start off by saying that minorities -and especially blacks- struggle in today’s world a lot more than non-minorities are willing to realize. As a volunteer for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, I have been mentoring a young black child for more than three years now. He’s truly a good kid with all the potential in the world, and for the first time since I met him, I just don’t know what to say to him about this situation. I want to tell him that if he continues to be a good person, people will see through the color of his skin and he’ll never be discriminated against. I want to tell him that. If I did, though, I’d be lying. The reality is that he will face struggles in his life that I couldn’t even begin to understand. I wish it wasn’t that way, but it is.
With all that said, I am strong in my convictions that the shear publicity of the Trayvon Martin killing does nothing to help the struggles of blacks in America. On the contrary, I think it is harmful. This situation has divided the country, and not for the betterment of mankind. It has created additional animosity among the different races, and served only to draw a line in the sand and give the majority of our population the belief that they need to stand on one side or the other. Where there was once a great deal of common ground, now there is very little. The shame of it all is that the media hand-picked this case for that very purpose. They picked this case among the thousands of other murders that took place in the last year because this one had the biggest potential for division and thus profits in the pockets of the corporations that own the media companies.
I’m not interested in discussing whether or not I “agree” with the verdict of the case. There are no winners, here. One life was lost and another life has been ruined due to that split-second decision. I believe the Martin family will eventually reflect and understand that while Zimmerman was not convicted, justice has been done. Conversely, Zimmerman will eventually realize (if he has not already) that though he was acquitted, he will never be free.
I’m going to wrap things up on that note, as I took a sleeping pill about an hour ago and my eyes are getting very heavy at this point. Hope you all have a great and balanced week! Enjoy!
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