7 Things You Probably Don't Care to Know About Me...

I am participating in a chain blog message.  I hate chain messages of any sort, like the forwards you receive through texts stating: If you don't pass this on you will have bad luck for X amount of time (so don't send me those!).  But at the behest of Devin Berglund, another blogger, I am going to give this one a spin.  Mostly to see what seven things I will pick. :)  I should really re-title this, Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me.

1.  My mom was involved in a religious cult when I was young.  I remember a man in a black robe with a rope tied around his middle delivering the services.  Obviously she broke free and went on to speak against cults to many students and churches over the years.  I have been fascinated with them ever since.  I recommend the book, Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, by Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, for additional reading on the topic.

2.  I eat the same snack virtually every night.  A mixture of almonds, dark chocolate, and dried cranberries.  I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and my blood sugar levels respond well to this concoction.  I may even keep this snack and the gestational diabetes diet after pregnancy.  I actually lost a few pounds when I first started but don't worry I had fat reserves to draw from and it didn't affect the baby.

3.  Politically I am a Libertarian and in regards to religion I am a Christian.  This fits the blog entry perfectly because people hate to discuss their affiliations.  When I say I'm a Christian I mean exactly that.  I don't pick and choose what I think will work for me from the Bible.  I understand I am imperfect and not following God's entire word and I expect to be held accountable for my behavior someday.  It is also why I have a hard time attending churches affiliated with the ELCA now.  As an organization, they have decided to pick and choose, like they are picking out ice cream toppings, and that is completely disrespectful to God.  My political beliefs have also hardened over time (dare I start using the word crotchety?).  I remember my misspent youth and how "open my mind was".  Looking back, my moral compass was all over the place and I wasted a lot of time on very foolish things.

4.  I am awful to travel with, especially on long flights.  My poor, poor husband probably has visions of shooting me with a tranq gun on these voyages.  It starts out well but I quickly degrade into an irritable, complaining mess.  By the end of it, I wish I had tranquilized myself.  For instance, when we traveled to Germany it took me at least three days to even resemble a civil human being.  I said awful things, broke down in tears, stormed off not once but twice, etc...you get the point.  I love the experiences I've had traveling but for me and my traveling companions there is a price to pay and it's almost worse than the cost of the ticket.

5.  I had my fifteen minutes of fame on television and it was mortifying.  I was involved in the dance team my senior year of high school and we were asked to perform at the North Dakota State Class B basketball tournament.  It was on local television and my grandparents taped the event.  I eventually watched the tape and they did a close up of me.  It was all good until I realized they did a close up of me and my giant pit stain.  Unfortunate timing but it makes for a funny story.

6.  I love reading books from the author Betty Neels before bed.  She is a celebrated author in circles of the Harlequin variety.  I particularly love these books because of their innocence (the dude gets a kiss from the lady and that's about it).  They generally follow the same plot structure.  Young gal from England, in meager circumstances, meets handsome older gentleman, who is usually Dutch.  They are forced to work and/or be together due to a social arrangement and eventually they fall in love.  It's formulaic but soothing.  These books are my Ambien.

7.  I almost went to work on a dude ranch!  It seems inconceivable to me that I would even consider that, knowing how long it takes me to get ready.  But in 2002 I was accepted to work in Durango, Colorado.  I was deciding in between that and living with my friend Jess in Fargo.  Funny how things work out.  If I had decided to head to Colorado, I probably wouldn't be married to my husband and best friend.  I'd be married to some cowboy and we'd have little bowlegged children running around.  :)             

All Roads Lead to Mediocrity and The Death of the Space Shuttle Program

During my last semester of college I took a history course on the rise of the Third Reich.  It was endlessly fascinating and one of my favorite classes.  I was tasked to do a report on Nazi weapons development.  I had little knowledge of the topic.  My primary focus was on the V weapons programs, the V-1 and V-2 rockets.  In order to gain a better understanding of these weapons my husband and I made a trip to Hutchinson, Kansas to a place called the Cosmosphere. 

The Cosmosphere is truly a diamond in the rough of Americana.  It is one of only a few places in the world where a surviving V-1 and V-2 rocket are on display.  It also houses a chronological development of the space program as we know it today.  Now that the space shuttle programs have officially ended, the importance of this museum cannot be underestimated.  It is a receptacle of dreams, of those who looked up at the stars in wonderment.  People like Dr. Goddard, and Wernher von Braun.  Their vision was simple, how to go from point A to point B.  In a post WWII world, their dreams became reality and the United States became the pioneer and leader of the race to space.

Harriet Tubman once said, "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world".  Unfortunately with the death of the space shuttle program and NASA budget cuts under the Obama administration, we are being told the stars are too far.  Americans are now encouraged to strive for mediocrity, to stay on the same level playing field as everyone else.  

The space shuttle program represented more than just mankind's desire to explore beyond its boundaries.  It symbolized the spirit of the individual that made our nation great.  The United States succeeded where others failed simply because the ideas were organic and freedom of expression was allowed.  They were not coerced or brought about by threats.  It is that very same spirit that is threatened today.  We are being told that we should all do our fair share, pay our fair share, have the same shot at the opportunities in this country.  What this creates is a hive-like mentality.  Instead of working for our own individual goals as deemed by our creator, we are putting the collective ahead of our own needs.  

The collective rarely ever gives back what it takes.  It will take your tax money to pay for everything everyone else wants, it will take your individual privacy for the sake of the safety of the herd, it has no restraint and like locusts in a field it will strip away everything.  Our founding fathers knew how dangerous the collective was to freedom.  They put certain checks and balances into our Constitution to prevent the death of the individual.  However, we seem to have arrived at a juncture where our leaders no longer heed those words that were meant to protect us.

The loss of the space shuttle program and the NASA budget cuts are highly symbolic of a President who not only wants to level the playing field in his own country but to make us subservient to the rest of the world.  Any student of history will acknowledge that someone always fills the void of supremacy on the world's stage.  I fear these maneuvers will only leave our nation vulnerable in the eyes of those who wish to usurp us.  Losing these programs represents the decline of America into a scientific and technological dark age from which we may never recover.  

So I leave you readers with this photo.  The juxtaposition of the death of the shuttle program and the beacon of freedom that welcomed those who had very little and only a dream in their heart.  Although achieving success and reaching as high as you can dream are no longer encouraged, I hope the younger generations will look back and realize what was lost.  Not just the ability to go where no man has gone before but the loss of the American dream.