Making Marriage and Family

Marriage today is a hot topic, with Supreme Court hearing different issues about marriage. Should same gender couples be allowed to marry? Should mixed race couples be allowed to marry? Should working class be allowed to marry out of their class.

More importantly, at least to me, is the question of whether individual sites or the nation as a whole determine who can marry whom. If your state has decided to accept it, can the Feds refuse?

 The truth is, they can. they made the decision to do so way back in the 1990s when the great US of A decided it no longer needed to recognize common law marriage, no matter what the states said. These marriages -- made in homes, not courts or churches,  made in private, not in public -- these marriages made after the effective date, are simply not recognized by the Federal government.

Also not new is the ability of one state to ignore a marriage legal in another state. Part of the Cultural Revolution was an attempt to consolidate divorce laws. Many people had to go and get their divorce in the state they were married in for the divorce to be legal. To this day, different states have different requirements to become divorced. Waiting period, legal separation, mediation, etc.

As you can see, the marriage question and Federal meddling is not a new issue.

Federal definition of a family is a newer consideration. In the olden days, families, even mixed and adoptive families, were a group of people who resided together in a private residence. 3 sisters could live together, or a sister, a son-in-law and an unrelated widow could be the Smiths or the Jones family. It wasn't a big deal to anyone -- until the government and the money-makers got involved. The insurance companies, who are my version of the Antichrist.
Once upon a time, an insurance company decided it didn't have to pay a survivorship policy to the unrelated widow who had "kept house" for decades.
Grief-stricken, old, possibly alone, and probably poor, she couldn't or didn't fight back.
Other avaricious industries took note, and began following that precedent. By the time someone was willing and able to fight, the precedent had become policy.

"Family" should be decided by proximal society, not by moneymakers.
"Family" should be defined by other family members, not those who don't know sense from cents.

Spring, oh Spring

where are you, Spring? The calendar says you are here, but a look out the window says it just isn't snow. I mean so.
Because it is snow. In places, it is a lot of snow.

I like snow. It has a way of prettying up a drab world, abd it spreads light in a dark season.  It isn't rain, and it isn't dull gray sky and it isn't soggy dripping, muddled brown trees. It' snow, and it's clean and bright.

But it isn't spring; it's not a usual part of Springtime.

Last year, we had no winter, practically. We had record-breaking, record setting high temperatures. Without a proper winter, we skipped from right into summer, skipping over spring.  Flowers and fruits rushed to cstch up, and cheated themselves of the leisurely growth that adds flavor and color to the fruits and flowers.

 The weather-wise, in February, began shaking their heads and murmurring about "a BIG one". It seems someone says that every year, but there's usually a truth beehind it. Weatherbalances itself, and if thete is a wild careen on one side of the scale, the reciprocating bounce can be vicious.

Last year, the year of no winter, was proof of that. No winter rushed into Early summer, witha twist.

Make that twister. s.

People I knew, places I've been were harmed by that rush into summer. (For me, no immediate family, but I shudder still at how close it was.) Many people lost homes and family when warm weather came too quickly.

I, like everyone else I know, am tired of winter. I'm ready for Spring.  I want the green and groeing season, sun on my face, earth on my hands, blooms before my eyes.
But if Mother Nature this year wants to bless us with snow -- if "the big one" this year will be the cold covering beyond its time -- that's okay with me.
Coast-tocoast winter suits me more than coast-to-coadt whirlwinds. And that's just fine with me.

Moving up -- or is it down?

 We are looking for an other home, my husband and I. Age and health are making it difficult to keep up things where we are now, and those same factors have us a little homesick for the 'good old days' that get gooder as we get older.

We would like to go back to Mt. Orab. That's where we lived the longest, and our daughter and her child(ren) are there. We've lost time with the little one, and with the new boy due to arrive any day now -- or April 1) we don't want to lose any more time.
Plus not really knowing how much time Rex has.

After Mt. Orab, we would like to go to Georgetown, Williamsburg, or Bethel. Georgetown because it is close to Mt. Orab, and also closer to Bethel, where we both have family, and Ripley where I do. Williamsburg for the same reasons. Bethel because it's home for us both' before there was an us.
Of course, any surrounding neighborhood will do as well.

What we can pay in rent will depend on what utilities and such we will have to pay for additionally.Neither he nor I can do yardwork, and we are hoping our stay at home daughter will move on and away. We want to be long term tenants.
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We have looked into government housing, for the simple reason that I won't be evicted when he dies. But, government apartments, that Great Refuge ofWelfare Whores,serial petty criminals, Baby-Makers (for income) find themselves "Unable" to help hard working people who have always paid their rent.

But -- our credit report is bad. None of the bad is rent, utilities, or other (with one exception) housing costs.

Therefore, we must continue to pay our rent and utilities in a place we can no longer afford. We must strive to maintain a yard with equipment we can no longer maintain or replace. Or use, as far as that goes.

This is how the State of Ohio supports their now unemployed and unemployable working class of the last several decades.

March Madness

It's the media-popularized time of the year known as March Madness. Once again, despite war and accidents, despite car crashes and violent smashes, despite missing children and murdered mothers, despite life and death proceeding as always, the most important question on the public's mind is "How are your brackets?"  

Some media outlets are brave enough to query "What do you think of March Madness?" The only acceptable response is of course what great fun it is and how it is looked forward to since last April, I presume.

Oh, they will occasionally cite a negative response so that the rest of the world can chuckle and shake their head at whatever the poor sap is missing. 

March Madness used to be about cabin fever, when winter and being confined made us crazy to get out and just go outside and do anything. Or stay inside and commit murder. March madness was the grass growing and the sap flowing and life surging against the icy bonds.

This modern definition of the term is to stay sitting inside, huddled around (or worshipping at the feet of) an electronic device while watching others run and jump and play. The worshippers then scribble and draw patterns on paper. Sometimes this is for the privilege (?) of being right; often it is for the exchange of other pieces of paper, usually green.

March Madness indeed.

When the green is showing beneath sludge and snow, peeking out from odd corners,; 

when the sun pours gold upon all who venture out; when daylight outlasts the dark night' why does anyone WANT to remain huddled in allegiance to a radiant square? When the air is fresh and clean and by breathing in you can taste the tang of green-and-growing things, why does anyone want to remain in a place that reeks of months of confinement? When spring is in the air, it is madness indeed to remain in stasis.