Dear Empress:

I think it's a rare thing to find someone whose beliefs align with your own.  I think it's an even rarer thing to find people who are tolerant of others' when they don't align.

It's been several years since you made your choice, and several since I made mine.  Not once have I ever pressed upon you a desire to change your mind, nor have I ever used guilt, shame, or other underhanded tactics to force my hand.  However, you have repeatedly and mercilessly taken it upon yourself to make me a concern of yours, to pray for my mortal soul, and to challenge me with ideas that are merely myth and no more useful or frightening to me than the wise yet infinitely more plucky words of Aesop.

You walk about with your palms pressed, taking pity upon me and filling your own heart with woe.  If you were to ask me honestly, I would tell you that you are full of shit, and give you ample reason to question your own beliefs.  But I respect that you are in touch with your spirituality in a way that speaks to your heart.  All I ask is that you permit me the same luxury, and cease your endless prattle about my imminent damnation.  In your own words, and by your own faith, that is not your decision to make.  I encourage you, again, in your own words, to let go, and let God.

Happy Wednesday!

Rules are meant to be broken from time to time. If this is what you mean when you tell me you're going to play with your food, then I'm totally OK with it.

Dear Bill:

You never did tell me a story about bugs.  I'm still curious, and will wait forever.

Dear Village,

Culturally stunted, in a land peppered with historical buildings that are no more than evidence of suburban sprawl spanning multiple continents for nations unhappy with owning only local real estate, even at the expense of destroying whatever was and should be rich about the people and the lands they arrived at so that they may have someone to suck their teeth at.

If I sometimes look in the mirror and feel disconnected and underdeveloped and out of place, where am I to turn?  I am nothing more than a flower bent before it could blossom, a foetus aborted before it could mature, an idiot without its village.

I wish I knew which village you were, as I would simply return to you.  

Dear Empress,

While valiant and theoretically believable, your attempts to mask the facts are failing miserably.  Choose a better path.

Dear Monsanto,

Thanks for screwing up grain farming for all of eternity.  Also, thanks for putting growth hormones into stuff and fighting to not have the products labelled, in case we got scared to try them.  ~Whew~ sure makes me happy and all feeling safe and stuff.

Dear Empress,

I respect the fact that you are entitled to your opinion. You seem to not respect that fact I, too, am entitled to one. You feel that by badgering, guilting, belittling, drawing negative attention to, and publicly shaming your peers you are somehow making the world a better place. You don't bother to own your feelings, and believe that your circumstances ought to translate automatically into everyone feeling as if they're on the cusp of an epiphany if only you would guide us. I hate Brussels sprouts, but I don't stop anyone else from eating them if that's what suits their fancy. You too hate Brussels sprouts, but in your opinion, this should be enough to abolish them from the planet. Really? You're THAT right?

Humans are not so frail, though. While you would have us believe that your way is the right way, even if it is the best way it isn't the ONLY way. You are so quick to judge, to speak your mind, to condescend with no respect for those around you. You flinch when someone bites back, unable to defend yourself because your argument is one-sided, arrogant, and intolerant. You intimidate people not because you are worthy of awe and respect, not because you are a revolutionary or even a deviant, but because you are a tyrant. You mistake people agreeing with you for people just not wanting to listen to you go on any longer.

There has always been a fine line between activist and terrorist. If you continue to refuse that there is another side (sometimes many) to every argument, you do not enlist or endear support for your cause. Rather, you make people feel invalidated. You repel people, instilling in them the desire to revolt, to hold an uprising, to set fire to your flag because YOUR way is not the ONLY way. Rather than accepting that the pendulum can swing happily somewhere near the middle, you create drama, turbulence, hatred, and unrest instead of persuading us to draw our own conclusions based on a balanced presentation of the facts.

You attempt to brainwash instead of educate, plucking only the slivers that support your agenda from the forest, and offering your truth as the only truth. It is like this with religion, politics, circumcision, breastfeeding, and more, and I'm here to speak the truth: Some people raised as Christians grow up to be Buddhists, some people who grew up in homes that voted liberal will vote conservative the first chance they get, and uncircumcised breastfed babies have allergies and grow up to need therapy, too.

I remember learning about a soap ad in college marketing. Research was conducted and it was discovered that more people bought Dove than any other soap. This formed part of their advertising campaign for years. Now, on one hand, this is true - I believe it was something like 2% of the population bought Dove, while less than 2% bought any other one kind. However, 98% of the population used anything BUT Dove. Remember that I already know how this works the next time you start interpreting statistical evidence and throwing it in my face like law.

We're all going to make the best choices we can with the resources we have available to raise our babies as best as we can. We're all going to get some parts right, some parts wrong, and fumble our way through the rest. And our babies will all grow up to have opinions of their own, which aren't always going to be consistent with what we raised them to believe.

Someone who passionately educates is an advocate. Someone who openly refutes those who don't buy into their dogma is just an asshole. And Dear Empress, I assure you that right now your asshole is definitely showing.

Regards,

Hope