In talking, reading and writing- do opposites attract ?

     I generally laugh at horoscopes if my eyes happen to land on them any time I'm reading the paper. The advice can often be unclear and quirky, to say the least, but yesterday I found a rare pearl in the following sentence. It is so apt and relevant to my life right now.

Someone in your daily life means well and can inspire you

but

at the same time can make goulash out of

the most precise communication and situations.

- from the Denver Post horoscope for Virgo 9/8/11

by Jacqueline Bigar

     Keeping a good attitude often involves ignoring someone else's bad attitude. If you don't believe me, try telling someone exactly what you think when they make you angry. Just remember that you alone are responsible for your words, action and character. Responding out of emotion is never exactly clear and often conveys intentions and definitions that are opposite to what you wanted to communicate. Before you say that sentence, do this: Ask yourself, "Is this true ? Is this harmless ? Is it necessary? If it isn't don't bother to say it. 
   

     Understanding people well involves more work than most of us are willing to exert. It is for this reason that I am more inclined to write my communications than say them verbally. I have found that unless the distractions around me are deafening, no one can mess up a clearly written and ruminated sentence. Through my writing I can convey my intentions much more clearly than when someone is forced to actually listen well to what I am saying. If someone misses the details from my writing it becomes their own problem rather than a failure on my part. This is what it means to be a good writer. An excellent writer is a diplomat and is well on his way to mastering his thought life.

Just The Castle Lady...

reading you loud and clear !  

Debt Deal Sounds Like Let's Make a Deal

     Have you ever watched Let's Make a Deal on TV? The show is still on the air, believe it or not, and the deals can still be quite sour if you happen to pick the wrong curtain in lieu of a few hundred dollars in cash. Something about those clunker deals reminds me of the Debt Deal which is going down in Congressional meetings these days. Their compromise is as bad as any ideas they have come up with in most recent years. In the hands of Congress they never get any better- they always get worse.    

     Are you more than a little upset about the debt deal struck by Congress? This deal calls for a Super Committee to recommend spending cuts with a ceiling in the vicinity of $1.5 trillion ! If it seems a little fishy to you it's not without good reason. I'll bet you're wondering where the cuts are going to come in and who they're going to affect. Thanks to our Presidents input and compassion (among other politicians and advocates for saving Social Security) the elderly beneficiaries will continue to get their checks at least until the end of this year. Thanks to those who care about the elderly in this country who live from one social security check to the next we are only reassured for a limited time and the spending cuts loom in the minds of those who haven't any other source of income.

     All the faces you see above are what Congress is calling a Super Committee and they're out to reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in ways that are totally unacceptable for anyone who has to live off the money they paid into Social Security alone. These short term cuts could be devastating. Believe me when I say that no one could possibly ever get rich by having to live on Social Security and those senior citizens who shrug it off never had to worry about actually having to live only on these entitlement payments.

     The truth is that Super Committee has only one agenda. They want to plunder the funds which remain in Social Security to cover a debt they incurred and we are not responsible for- and we never were. Social Security is a wonderful program that was instituted by FDR- the greatest President we ever had- and is being attacked by the very politicos that didn't want the program instituted at all from it's very inception. There is no other government fund gathered as taxes from the people that is more efficiently run than the United States Social Security Administration and I would challenge those people who want to take an axe to it to prove that the problem is not a problem at all but a large sum of money they want to practically rob from us.

     This Super Committee's ideas are to raise the retirement age, slash benefits to new lows or completely destroy the program by privatizing it. I'm sure you won't mind having to work at your backbreaking job until you have to do it on crutches, start eating Alpo and Mighty Dog instead of Hamburger Helper or trying to figure out how to get a stockbroker to make $5 out of 2 pennies for you, will you ? All kidding aside, it is time to tell the congressional looters of our government mad money to keep their filthy hands off the only back up we have when this economy finally tanks. If you don't believe me, take a look at what is actually in that fund and tell me they're allowed to take anything out of it at all. They stole our payroll tax surplus to the tune of $2.6 trillion and left a bunch of IOUs in its place. Does it sound like they have your best interests at heart?

     My suggestion is this: if you're smart enough to be outraged, call someone on the committee- or everyone of them if you have the time- and tell them to fix it this way:

     "Admit that you have stolen money from the people to pay off debts they never agreed to pay, restore the system's backup for fiscal soundness by locking the trust fund amount, fully apply the payroll tax on your rich buddies and make the increase in payments like it was promised to us when you started applying the increase in 1984. It sure as heck wasn't so you can go flying around in jets everywhere."

The Castle Lady

laughing with and not at you ! 

Love is like a balloon....

Man is in love
and loves what vanishes.
-W.B. Yeats

Lord, it's morning !
Your sun- on easter feet-
has creeped into my room
and called me
from my slumber tomb:
"Arise, be risen,
and spread the news.
It's morning !"

With kisses that take flight,

The Castle Lady

 

Mary Jane's World

The T.V. has finally gone out

Digital is no longer a possibility

Can't afford cable, dish, satellite or any form that will bring that

series back to your daily life.

Do what I do...

Read a book, go for a walk and look at life

clean that shelf...

There's much more to life than what is on the boob tube.

Lovingly,

The Castle Lady

Why Buy Travel Insurance ?

For most of my life I have traveled without travel insurance. The first time I purchased insurance was for a tour in Europe at the insistence of the travel agency. It certainly paid off and I am now an advocate for flying only with insurance for long tours or expensive vacations. Could anyone have predicted 9/11? My dream vacation of a grand tour of all the major European castles coincided with this world changing disaster. Without the insurance I took out, I would've had to pay for a week's worth of hotel rooms in one of the most expensive cities in the world for accommodation- Munich. I had to pay for all my meals at that point and I never saw a McDonald's. To top it off, one of my bags became so damaged I had to replace it. This and several other problems created by my delay in returning home became a source of loss that would've been financially devastating.
I'm sure most people think of travel insurance as a waste of money because there are so many insurance policies we have to deal with and pay for continually. I can clarify my position with one sentence. Bad vacations happen to good and bad people alike. Accidents and injuries can happen along with delays, emergency situations back home and baggage is lost and delayed every day of the week. Everyone should carry travel insurance each time they fly big ticket trips. The convenience of paying for insurance far outweighs the expenses and aggravations if you don't carry insurance, depending on the severity of the problems which can occur.
Your coverage is often determined by your own needs and there are many choices out there, as far as companies go, but you should go with a company that specializes in travel insurance if you want to get the best rates and a comprehensive array of coverage. What should you look for in insurance? Make sure that the company offers these basics:
1. Cancellation, interruption or delay coverage.
2. Medical expense and evacuation coverage
3. Lost, delayed or damaged baggage coverage.
4. 24-hour emergency assistance
Many people assume that their medical insurance will cover them outside the U.S. but in fact, most do not. A good travel insurance company will offer coverage for injuries or medical treatment that requires a visit to a physician, transport to a medical facility or home. Evacuation coverage is key and is often preferred in cases of sudden sickness especially in severe cases. The most important aspect of buying a policy is that the carrier comes highly recommended and several web sites give you the opportunity to review the terms and costs prior to using an unknown company. I recommend InsureMyTrip.com or SquareMouth.com to get more information about what's available and what to look for concerning each individual policy. Don't wait until you receive the papers for the terms of your policy. Find out specifically what you will need and make sure the terms make sense before you have bought the farm. The trickiest part of buying travel insurance is knowing what coverage you will need before you need it.
When I went on my castles trip my carrier was Trip Mate who were courteous on the phone when I made my claim. They gave me a time frame of how long it would take for them to make a decision on my claim and they did follow-up to my phone call reassuring me, by mail, that they would process it quickly. Within two weeks I had my check by mail in the full amount I requested for hotel bills, meals and intercity travel. I got a refund on the amount it cost to replace my bags and the hotel bill amount was there in full. Travel Guard is another good carrier which covers all four of the basic policy coverage with the same courteous and quick handling. Once you've done your homework in checking out the company your agent approaches you with or the recommendations you garner and everything checks out you're good to go. Travel insurance generally doesn't have a high cost. You'll pay more in landing fees and taxes and if you have to make a claim you'll be glad you took my advice.

Just keeping my readership happy and informed.

Kisses !

The Castle Lady

Barbie's Ken Reaches 50th Milestone

     Barbie's boyfriend, Ken Carson, turned fifty last March without much fanfare or brouhaha. It's probably because he's a man, I suspect, but they made a much bigger deal about Barbie's fiftieth birthday almost two years ago. I guess the real truth is a little hard to take. He is slightly younger than her but he hasn't accomplished anywhere near as much as Barbie® has all these years!     

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018403/Barbie-gets-Malibu-mansion-chandelier-hair.html

See my entry http://thecastlelady.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/be-a-barbie%c2%ae-girl/

 

     Ken had rather scrawny beginnings but he was reinvented quite a bit, anyway, just like Barbie® has been through the years, if only superficially. Ken was a little bit dorky-looking in the early 70s and was a total wash-out in 1991 as Totally Hair Ken® but everyone has bad hair days- why not bad hair years ?

     More recently he's appeared younger than he did when he started out ! How the heck did that happen, I wonder?!! If I go by doll years he'll go down in history as the best looking man to ever go through the middle-age crazies! Who wouldn't want a piece of that... uh... let's not go there ! Even though I suspect that Ken is a gay male fantasy, it's still rather fun to think that middle-age savvy could be incorporated with handsome-blonde blue-eyed twenty-ish looks. Talk about your dream man !

     Well, all this just points to the fact that everybody ages if they don't die first. Some of us just age better than others I guess- if you're plastic enough, however, you may improve with age.

 

NOT !

 

With ageless kisses

 

The Castle Lady

 

    

Talk about your cat and mouse games....

Just in case you missed this in May,

Lovingly,

The Castle Lady

I have a date with destiny !

      I recently viewed the summer film Soul Surfer at the dollar movies and was pleasantly surprised at the presentation of Bethany's story. I'm not sure what I expected since I knew what had happened to her from the newspaper articles which came out at the time of the attack in which she lost her left arm. All the basic details were in the first article of how it happened but I (and the rest of the country, I suppose) could only imagine what she would have to go through in the ensuing months and years after she survived the attack.

      At one point in the film she has recovered and is unsure about continuing to surf competitively or to quit completely and she goes to the spiritual mentor of her youth group to talk. She finally breaks down in front of the mentor and cries, "How can this be God's plan for my life ?" Her mentor has no clear answer for her but she is very sensitive to her plaintive sublimation even though they both know the answer.

     It states in the Bible: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope.

      Early in the movie, Bethany wins the surfing championships and finds a sponsor. Soon after, her mentor reminds her about the commitment she had made to participate in a youth outreach in Mexico but Bethany turns her down because of the competitions she'll have coming up and she wants to get in practice. This is a major error that many on-fire and committed Christians make and I will admit that I have made myself, sometimes. By doing this you are giving God a big fat, "No." A greater error could not possibly be made because it's a defiance- no different than sin which is also a defiance of God's laws.

     However, this is not about God seeking revenge. When you defy God in this respect you have taken a turn in the road. You have officially left the path he had for you and now you are on unsafe ground- not unlike a sheep which has left the fold. There are wolves, sharks and whales out there ready to waylay and destroy you. Fortunately, an allegory which Jesus related to a gathering tells us all we need to know if we have only temporarily become waylaid. This was the story of the two sons who were both asked to go to the vineyard and work. (Matthew 21:28-31) One son refused and left. Later on, something happened and he came back to the Father, asked forgiveness and went to work in the vineyard. The other son said he would go to work immediately and then never showed up. Jesus asked his listeners which son had done the will of his father.

     This is obviously just a question of character but on second thought- is it? The question with the Soul Surfer story is weather Bethany was in the first category or the second. In truth, she made the error of the second son who said he would- but changed his mind for no apparent reason. When I was a child I remember my mother and church members talking about their children walking out of the arc of safety. What is the arc of safety? It is a road that you have been warned not to take. It is a sin you return to or can't seem to defeat. It is going to the exact place that you were warned not to go and out of defiance or willfulness go anyway. The term speaks for itself. 

     "You are now on unsafe ground. You are in the devil's territory and he will win because you're willing to play games with him."

     Your destiny as a child of God is one of victory. If you want to remain victorious then you must follow the path that God laid for you. If you take any other you are on ground which must be repaved by the Word of God. Are you strong enough to blaze a trail and keep a ring of Godly fire around yourself ? My advice is a biblical one. Only fools walk where angels fear to tread. Angels do not defy God, they obey him. You cannot walk his path and branch off another way. If you do this you are only being foolish and will be defeated at what you are trying to do on your own. 

     I have a date with destiny. The Lord says this is my destiny and has given me his guidance- clear and concise on how to get there. I will follow his plan and I will arrive victorious. I have what he says I have. I am what he says I am. I will do what he says to do. I will win because he's on my side.

Oh confess it, girl, confess it !

Jeremiah 29:11 

Matthew 19:26

The Castle Lady 

    

      

Wake up laughing

This has been an interesting day- so far. I can certainly tell that summer has arrived. Very first thing- before I even opened my eyes- was laughing at a Boulder D.J.'s banter about how Bono had hitched a ride somewhere in Canada and the driver boasted that he had picked him up without knowing it was him at first. Taking the whole matter too far the D.J. continued,


"You, of course, wouldn't pick up Bono- no! - you'd get some psycho."

After about five seconds of dead air silence he rejoined,

"I'm not saying that everyone who hitches rides is a psycho."


Upon hearing that- practically unconscious still- I roared in laughter knowing full well what I just heard but not yet awake enough to realize what I was laughing at or why. It did keep me chuckling through the morning.


This is called a good start to a wacky day. I had to go to the bank and I got a few errands done on the way. When I got to the shopping center some cops had blocked off an entrance to the shopping center. No explanation was given or supplied. As I kept reaching different entrances they were systematically blocking off each entrance I approached. What is this stupid game? I'm thinking to myself. By the time it was apparent I wasn't going to get to my bank at this shopping center I moved on and went to another branch at a different location, thereby defeating the short trip into a long drawn out affair. I got my business done at the other branch and then tried to figure out where I would get ice cream as I had intended. I ended up bringing home some ice cream treats rather than a tub of ice cream like I had intended. Rude!



All the while I was detoured I mulled over what I had encountered and decided that one of the many businesses must have been robbed shortly before I arrived. What were the chances of that ?

When I got home there was a short news flash on the T.V. and sure enough the King Soopers that I had intended to go to for my banking and for my ice cream had been thieved and the cops had chased him into Home Depot. According to the report he disappeared in that store and they never found him. It has occurred to me, just now, that if I had picked up a hitchhiker it probably would have been that guy that stole something (ice cream?) at King Soopers. Now I have another good reason never to pick up a hitchhiker- it wouldn't be Bono that's for sure !

Keep laughing !

The Castle Lady

Poetry for all Seasons and Reasons

     At the beginning of this month I spotted an article in the Denver Post newspaper which gave a lackluster viewpoint on the future of poetry in print. It seems that with all the new Nook and Kindle electronic reading devices, poetry has been left in the dust as far as accessibility. Why would any poet want to be published in print ? Interestingly, the author of the article, David Milofsky, had to acquiesce to the fact that most people who are still reading books or collections of poetry want to buy a book with pages you can turn. That is very encouraging to me because it says that poets are still the most visible authors. Perhaps we'll take over the book stores someday. Well, we can dream can't we ? 

     While Milofsky may be encouraged by the fact that well recognized poets are still being published, with the dubious honors and distinctions which were already in place, the unknowns, who may be better, worse or at least equal to their fellow stars have been using the electronic medium to reach their reading public for going on three decades. I have personally been posting my poetry online for more than a decade now, selling my first edition poetry book, Seasons of the Heart online for almost as long and have enjoyed a certain amount of recognition from common people and people who love poetry all the while. It hasn't made me a publishing superstar yet, but I remind myself that starving poets are legend. It's a shame that people are so ignorant to the fact that they are actually addicted to poetry and they are unaware of it. How so, you say ?

     Well, think about all the music with lyrics you listen to in a day. Perhaps you watch a little T.V. each morning before you go to work. I guarantee that you will hear at least several commercials with jingle music on them before you've even had your toast. How about the alarm each morning ? More music, more poetry. Then, when you're driving to work you'll hear anywhere from 5 to 10 songs on the radio along with some more commercial jingles. Pardon me but that's a lot of poetry to listen to before you even get to work. If you have piped in music where you work there's more right there. It's true that much of the elevator and office music may not have lyrics to their MOR washed out noise but if you work in a mall or retail store you're more likely to listen to whatever is the most contemporary to back to the 80s full on with lyrics by the original artists.

     As you drive home you'll hear some more from your radio or CDs or MP3s depending on what you have going on in your vehicle. After dinner you'll probably watch shows that all have their own ditties and more music on the shows you watch. You know what ? That's a lot of poetry~ every day. Somebody writes those lyrics for a living. Some may be passable and then there are genius lyrics which elevate our souls and we feel it and may still be unaware of what we are enjoying. Listen to the lyrics of George Harrison's Across the Universe and it will make a believer out of you.

     Now that you have been enlightened to your dependence on poetry you will certainly appreciate what you have been enjoying all along a little more now won't you ?

I thought so.

 

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup

they slither wildly as they slip away

across the universe....

 

The Castle Lady