Let it All Hang Out

I had a good and bad day today.
Good: Had energy, woke up somewhat untired due to some new herbs and a treatment from the acupuncturist.
Bad: While it smells like orange cinnamon, I think he snuck in some extended release crack because I can't sleep either without dosing myself with allergy meds (my typical caffeine counter). I guess I'll just take the herbs in the AM now.
Good: I spent some late night time working out various solutions for working bookcases into the woodwork.
Bad: Sleeping might have been a better idea.
Good: My process development at work is working out so far. It might work, it might not, but so far so good.
Bad:Our schedule might slip on a big project due to 1 part in a huge kit of parts being delayed.
Good:After learning about the possible delay I got back to my desk and found an email from our other facility offering me their spare of that part, totally out of the blue. My boss thinks the tool karma is turning around.
Bad: Someone in the book club used one of the phrases that drives me insane. "If you don't like it here, why don't you just leave?" How about "I'm rubber, you're glue, what bounces off me sticks to you?" It's at the same mental level and an equally useful 'argument' that instead of addressing the issue at hand says "you have no right to an opinion here, you have no right to express an opinion here, it's my way or the highway." The thing that really gets me going on it is that people say this line and claim patriotism and freedom of expression. "We like it here, so you should be grateful for such wonderfulness." But by its very nature, this expression is about shutting down the expression of anyone with a different opinion. It's about implying they have less right to expression than you do. That's not freedom, that's not a reasoned argument, That's being a bully.
Good: I stepped in and called the bullshit bullshit.
Bad: I stepped in instead of just letting it go. (I justified it because while it's ok to ignore unpleasantness, it's not ok to ignore a bully. When nice people see that bullies are allowed free reign on the playground, they decline to come back to play.)
Good: I found a new, cheap Vietnamese place and had dinner there.
Bad: The restraunt took over the space of my first favorite local breakfast joint.
Good: While driving there, I heard a great piece on "Fresh Air" on NPR by a bible scholar and professor whose studying has turned him agnostic. (Interestingly enough on LAink just now a guy got a tattoo of the very passage being discussed.) And I felt compelled to lay out why, here. (No, you didn't do anything to deserve this suffering.)

He was relating the 'Lot' story about suffering in a very clear and thoughtful way and I realized afresh how much I detest that story in all possible ways. It teaches all the wrong things:

• If someone harms you, let them keep harming you. BAD.
  
• If someone harms you, don't ask why or expect an answer. BAD.
  
• It's ok to let people in power walk all over you, even more you should embrace this behavior indefinitely. BAD.
  
• Kids are interchangeable and easy to replace. (Did they ever ask Lot's wife how she felt about bearing ANOTHER 10 kids after the first 10 were wiped out on a whim?) BAD.
  
• A divine being can cause unnecessary suffering and still be considered good. BAD. I was just reading an essay whose author defined good an evil based on their actions around "unnecessary suffering" which resonated with me. Lot's suffering never had a point, except that he was a patsy on a string. There was no reason for it - divine entertainment not being sufficient reason - and since no reason was ever given to the people it was supposed to be a lesson for, so it was entertainment. Suffering for no reason, or for entertainment, is unnecessary suffering. To cause such a thing is to be on the evil side of the good/evil divide.
  

Good:I came home and watched some of Obama's speech and it was wonderful. It addressed things I've been wondering about and was full of his trademark hope. He said that what he got from his family was love, education, and hope. I have yet to listen to him that I haven't felt buoyed up. That man has a rare gift.

So. There you have it. Perhaps I should not be left alone with my own thoughts so often. Hopefully letting them out here will keep them from echoing through my mind and gaining more importance than they deserve.