No private bubbles available

No man is an island and you don't live in a bubble. We may want to think and joke that "we live in a bubble" but we are connected indirectly and directly to others and yes, it goes beyond families and friends. Our behavior impacts others in ways you probably never think of. Let's talk about abortion, suicide, divorce and those ugly topics most people don't want to talk about. If I talk about myself, I will mention the first time I was affected by abortion. I was about 6 years old and my parents paid for lady to do door to door drop off to and from school. I was in a new city, Miami, and school was new too. It was the first time I was away from my family for a prolonged period of time. I remember arriving home and before we got to the front door I saw the police and various neighbors in front of my home. I actually remember this as if it happened yesterday and this happened way over 40 years ago. It turned out that it had nothing to do with my family but someone had come to use my family's telephone and the police where there because our next door neighbor had an illegal abortion in her bathroom. This is the same family who's mother had gone on a date around Christmas time and her date had been drunk and they had been in a fatal car accident. This family had a lot of tragedy which not only affected this family but in fact the neighbors and this 6 year old child was awaken to the ugliness of the world via neighbors. I also had a teacher at my elementary , she taught in the room next to mine, have a heart attack and die in her classroom. All these situations obviously deeply affected family members and those directly involved but there was also the community around them which were the people that came into contact with them on a daily or regular basis. Divorce is also something that affects more than the just the two people being divorced. It obviously affects the children, but it affects the extended family, friends and event he family pet. Life changes and awareness is altered. In essence divorce is an earthquake not only for the couple and family, the foundation and landscape changes. Suicide is another one of those issues that stretches out it's tentacles. All the issues I have mentioned affect many beyond the core people involved but with TV and social media they are touching many more lives in a new way. We only know what happened death, suicide or what ever, we don't know these people, but it's told to us and we internalize it as if we did. Just like the little girl sitting in her classroom and having her teacher have a heart attack or coming home to the police next door, yet we only know what a producer or writer gave us and we add ourselves to it. Sadly we already know how the media exaggerates news or massages the news to make it more dramatic or interesting. In essence we must be careful not to allow the media to work with our minds and break our spirit. That being said, I think we also have a responsibility to behave well, and be mindful of how our behavior will in fact affect other people. We don't, after all, live in a bubble. We are parts, intertwined, of a much bigger picture. Don't let anyone or thing break your spirit. If you allow yourself, the puzzle piece that you are, be destroyed you are destroying the bigger picture.

Is it an ASSet?

Ok, so the news du jour today was Kim K's buttock. Apparently it was to break the internet. As if we care, our eyes were violated by the sight of Kim pointing her buttock towards the camera. This for a magazine called Paper. It was all cover the internet and various news sources. Then Chelsea Handler took a selfie of her's and posted it on the internet. Wow, of the other news in the world we were graced with buttock comparisons. What does that say about our culture? We have just had some interesting elections this month, we should have concerns about how Congress and our President will get anything done. We have major health care challenges, we have had an Ebola scare, we are having issues in Broward regarding feeding the homeless, where a 90 year old volunteer is repeatedly arrested for feeding the homeless. Hey folks, we have some serious socio-political issues who cares what Kim's buttock looks like. Pretty sad that her current claim to fame is appearing "greased and oiled" in the front page of a magazine with her buttock sticking out. Insanity and or shallowness at it's best. There is the stupidity of it all and also the underlining misogyny of the over exposure of the female body. Women are in fact being maimed and are dying in their pursuit of the " perfect body". Women spend much of their income on beauty products and procedures that somehow they were socialized to belief they needed. For what again? It's interesting to look at current fashion for men and women. Men wear flip slops and cargo pants. Their weight and waistlines are rarely issues. There are even "belly flop" contests on cruise ships. Now for women, shorts have gotten shorter, heals are higher and weight is an issue as is cellulite. Add the clothes women are expected to wear and the messages sent to women and what do you have? Misogyny's dark, slick, undermining influence who's goal is to destroy women's self esteem and feelings of self worth. I guess I should include something about how to make this situation better since this is really pathetic. This also at a time when "plus size" models are a size 10 when in fact, the clothes they are modeling are for women sizes 20 plus. Again, insanity. None of this makes sense. So I think we women need to wake up and empower ourselves. We are not the size of any body part, we have heart and soul and we have a brain. We have purpose which is not to be eye candy or decoration.