The Road Not Chosen

Who’s Biased? Not Me!

The White House Communications Director, Anita Dunn, told CNN Sunday regarding Fox News “…what I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party." Oddly she made no mention about CNN being a wing of the Democratic Party.  Let’s just all agree to the truth, which is all network news is biased one way or the other. Good. Now that it’s out of the way….

This lead me to start thinking about bias as opposed to impartiality. Honestly, is it even possible for a human being to be totally impartial? We all have opinions on basically everything. For instance, eggplant. I think it is a yucky tasting vegetable. Now eggplant has never done anything to me. I’ve never choked on it or tripped over one and sprained an ankle. I could just ignore it but I can’t because I am not impartial about it.

I thought really hard trying to think of something I am of no opinion about. Can’t come up with a single thing. Some of you who know me well will be saying, “Duh! Because you are SO opinionated about everything!” which appears to really be true now that I am unable to find my subject-of-no-opinion.  (Feel free to help me find that elusive subject.)

Onto another subject: the use of over-familiar terms of endearment. Harold just got a voice mail from someone he doesn’t know. It started out “Hey, bud,…” That reminded me of one of my biggest pet peeves: men I don’t know who call me “hon” or “honey”. I’m twitching just thinking about it! The only group of men who can call me “hon” all they want are really old guys who have no smarmy intent. But otherwise, watch out!

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago I am writing with fountain pens most of the time now. This has led me on a hunt for the perfect red ink. There a several brands and colors to choose from. I just ordered samples of the following:

 

J. Herbin Rouge Caroubier   J. Herbin Rouge Opera

Diamine Monaco Red   Diamine Passion Red

Of course how they look on a computer screen and how they look on paper are going to be entirely different I presume. This brings to mind the Forrest Gump “life is like a box of chocolates” quote for some reason.  Speaking of chocolate, I think I’ll get up and get a piece of lovely dark chocolate that one of my students gave me Friday before their huge grammar final. If I can be bribed with anything, it’s dark chocolate!

Have an enjoyable week!

Water everywhere

I stood at the water fountain yesterday filling up the large half gallon jug I keep in my office fridge. As I stared idly at the wall the realization of what I was really doing hit me. I was getting water. From a fountain. Clean water from a fountain inside a nice building. The blessing of that started to sink in.

Do you know how many people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water? I didn’t so I looked it up.  Over 1 billion people drink from unsafe water sources. 4,000 children die every day from preventable, water-borne diseases. Those are some horrible statistics aren’t they?

My Dad loves to tell the story of when he and my Mom were in Kenya for a month on a missions trip. In most places they had to sanitize the water before it could be drunk. About half-way through the trip they spent a few days in a village that had a huge tank that collected rain water. It was quite the treat to just be able to drink clean water from a spigot. The village was in the process of setting up a new tank as the existing one was pretty beat up. My parents helped transfer the water, gathering it bucket by bucket. When the tank was almost empty someone got on a ladder to look down into the tall tank. At the bottom lay a decayed animal. (1..2..3…Ewwwww!) Point being what some communities may assume is clean might not be so clean.

Today as you stand at the kitchen sink to get a drink or when you bath your children tonight or wash the dishes remember to thank God for the extreme privilege of being able to have clean water. Then pray for those in other places who can’t do that and for the scientists who are searching for ways to help the world have more clean water.

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