It's About Godliness and Tidiness Things, and maybe a couple of other things ungodly and untidy

Dear America,

"It's a very strange phenomenon, 

but when we reduce what we own 

and essentially 'detox' our house, 

it has a detox effect 

on our bodies as well." 

 from the life-changing magic of tidying up, 

by marie kondo; yes, all in lower case.

so true

so true

and this is precisely what America needs right about now -- a good detox. In a less, is more, kinda way.

Maybe starting in St. Louis.

ugh, do not, i say, do not,  meet me in St. Louis....at least not for today.

  

About last night... 

Consider also, if you will, that a look back to Labor Day weekend violence (just two weeks ago)  is deemed, by the general population and duly noted within, just like every other weekend --  St. Louis style.

Just where is the genuine community outrage... outside of the domain of cops and robbers?  To date -- 142 have been killed in St. Louis; last year, this total was nearly the same, at 135.

So just to be clear -- so far, this year, One Hundred and Forty Two people have died by homicide! in St. Louis.   Just who is robbing St. Louis of its peace?

Well, we can't just pick on the picket fences of St. Louis, now can we?   Besides, who doesn't love their ribs?  Let's move on dot org to Chi town, shall we? 

 Here are those stats.

Stunning -- from Chicago Sun-Times News:

"The seven deaths this weekend, including the killing of a 15-year-old boy Monday evening, were the latest casualties of Chicago’s gun violence that has taken the lives of at least 438 people since the start of 2017, according to data maintained by the Sun-Times."

FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY EIGHT people!  438 people have died!  Died.  Dead and buried.  Died.

Just who is robbing Chicago of its peace?

Just love how they refer to it as "gun violence."  As if the gun just did it; one day, the gun woke up and just snapped.  Guns don't kill a soul; people kill... using whatever means necessary and available -- knives, buses, trucks, cars, trains, planes, rope, neckties, hands, poison, water, and yes, sometimes guns.

The toxicity of these urban cities is through the roof -- gun violence, drugs, gangs, assaults, robberies, rape, sexual assaults.

Our living spaces affect our body 

-- marie kondo knows.

To have a conversation about police officers and African-American men meeting up in the neighborhoods of the real world, we must look at the whole picture.  America -- the one big happy family that it is -- must learn to create relationships built upon mutual respect, a healthy amount of space, and pillars of good character, that are conceivably as neat and tidy as the environments we keep, dream, or intend, whether on the micro or macro level.

Though, even if we managed to get everyone into the picture, just when does a family portrait ever tell the whole story, right?

Lighting the town on fire, or pelting a mayor's home windows with rocks, is no way to begin a sit down and find resolution; a meeting of the minds has hardly a chance to come together when the room is chock full of animosity, hate, and prevailing mistrust, with the ill begotten bad sense to start with violence.  Who does that and truly believes its a good idea?   The violent riots begun by Anarchists, Black Lives Matter, Antifa....have no place in a civil society.  None.  [Would just love to see how they all live, just sayin.']

"Cleaning involves energetic movement, 

which would naturally contribute

 to losing weight and staying fit.  

And when our space is completely clean, 

we don't have to worry about tidying, 

so we are free to focus 

on the next issue that is important 

in our lives." 

marie kondo strikes again

And while this girl has blogged extensively about the facts on police shootings, courtesy of such notable and learned people as Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute....I'm not feeling the need to go there now.  Again.  ugh.   [But feel free to read that one about the facts, on big data, from a year ago. It's really good :)]

Now, getting closer to home -- according to Mac Donald's studies, the reality is this in one of California's largest cities:

"In Los Angeles, blacks between the ages of 20 and 24 die at a rate 20 to 30 times the national mean.  Who is killing them?  Not the police, and not white civilians, but other blacks.  The astronomical black death-by-homicide rate is a function of the black crime rate.  Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at ten times the rate of white and Hispanics male teens combined.  Blacks of all ages commit homicide eight times the rates of whites and Hispanics combined, and at eleven times the rate of whites alone." 

"When we put our house in order, 

the air inside becomes fresh and clean."  

just more marie

indeed.

After my girl returns to school in the fall, I play this game with myself, living off of the fridge and pantry for as long as I can without grocery shopping.  It becomes highly obsessive, as all the while it makes cleaning out the pantry in order to start anew all the more challenging as the days and weeks go by; it uses every creative gene in my body to come up with things to make, taking the Food Network's Chopped challenge, complete with its cult following, to a whole 'nother level.  This girl can follow herself like nobody's business...teehee.

It's all about the process of not wasting a single, many-a-splendored thing.  And honestly, I haven't skipped a beat -- now going on six weeks!  Sometimes, I even amaze myself.  [Point of advice:  check expiration dates on canned items....and eat them up in a timely fashion before wasting food and hard spent dollars.]

So in light of this day and where we began -- my heart is crying out across the land, from my home to yours.   What a waste of human life, in all of it's potential and full expression unseen, in the every day -- year over year -- when one human being takes the life of another, and throws it away -- whether in St. Louis, or Chicago, or Los Angeles, or Baltimore, or Charlottesville, or New York City, or Boston, or San Francisco, or Seattle, or Nashville, or Miami....we could go on and on and on.  It's not just one life wasted -- for its ripple effects fan out to the one who committed the crime, the families, the entire community which continues to grieve and take the hits.

Where is the community outrage, outside of the domain of cops and robbers?  That 15 year old, above, was somebody's baby boy -- could have been mine, or yours, or the neighbors, or the kid that lives down the street in the house with the neat lawn and a rainbow of flowers.

Just who is robbing who of the peace and quiet and contentment of a life fully lived?

America's proverbial HOUSE is clearly NOT in order.  Moreover, how can there be any 'restoring of order' when the House of Chaos not only exists, it usurps all justice and power and rule of law in it's path, leaving not a single foundation -- no matter if that path is tree-lined or not?

Wonder what would happen if we just cleaned ourselves all up?

Did you happen to catch the mug shots of the Antifa protesters at Berkeley -- rioting against free speech and Ben Shapiro -- just this last week?  It's like, c'mon dudes, cut your hair already -- maybe get a hot shave once in awhile; did you leave your house with clothes on the floor, too?  Or does your mom still pick up after you?  What's in the fridge,  is it even clean?   Have you ever in your life cleaned a toilet?  On the scale of 1 to 10, how would you characterize the clutter from room to room? [Don't hate; just a bunch of good questions.]

Tidiness breeds more tidy, while untidiness breeds more untidiness --  there's just no other way to say it.  It's the same law that applies to everything in nature; apple trees bear only apples, lemon trees bear only lemons.  We are what we eat, what we think, and go in the direction our hearts and minds take us.  Why would the alt-left, black lives matter folks, of St. Louis commit harm against each other and its city?  What are they thinking?

Part of the process of tidying up by marie kondo, delves into choices we make and how to identify what is truly precious -- and become the things we keep.

The more we tidy, the more we realize that the material world is a lot less complicated once we peel away all the stuff that really doesn't matter to us; that ultimately, we can find contentment in having even fewer things around us, which in turn, becomes our saving grace, a by-product of the process that comes almost out of nowhere, perhaps out of thin air.  Poof!  All of a sudden, we find ourselves complete; suddenly we become just a girl who has everything she needs and nearly nothing show for it....go figure.... and make that with a thinner figure, to boot.  Things that once were deemed toxic -- the broken, the unworn, the unloved, the bad ju-ju of lives and loves past, are all gone.

What would happen if America cleaned herself up?  One room at a time....

Trimmed here.
Cut back there.
Lived within OUR-All American means.
Extinguished entire departments altogether -- commerce, education, energy...
Didn't "buy" anything new, especially on credit
Reduced crony capitalism with term limits!
Made it unlawful to profit off of legislation!
yadi yadi yada...you know where I'm going with this.

Perhaps holding onto the things that truly set us free, the things we love with our whole heart --

 here's some House Rules for you --

A truly Limited Government...being content with growing smaller and smaller.
Be true to the totality of Life Itself, and all that God wants us to be,  being fully aligned with the pure, limitless aspects of the "Free Exercise thereof" of our religion! (what a beautiful thing!)
Right to keep and bear arms -- lawfully and respectfully...

Ah hell, might as well just call it what it is:
to hold tight to OUR CONSTITUTION
and the Rule of Law...our sovereign borders and all.
Respect the flag
Love our neighbor as ourselves
Respect each others persons, places and things
Follow the law
Raise our children well
Conserve energy
Recycle
Say our please's and thank you's
Open the door for each other
Take turns
Give back
Say our prayers

Oh and Stop violent protests of all kinds, and use our words -- calmly, collectively, no matter the conflict!  What a concept.

It would seem, the more we answer in the affirmative to the things that truly matter, the better all the world would be -- starting at home.

Ah from the fire to the frying pan -- America is the best place to live on the planet, as long as we prioritize taking meticulously good care of her.  Generation after generation, it is all about replicating Strong Americans from Strong Americans, in the safe guarding and keeping of America.  And this will take great courage, and time.   Renovations always take longer than we think...

If we take care of her -- she will take care of us; as right conduct multiplies, our duty to God and to country go hand in hand with the privileges and equal rights under the law.  And nevermind that my self-cleaning oven -- working as we speak-- makes even the practical joys of life all the more delightful.

May God bless St. Louis -- just the place where this day had her start; and may God Bless the United States of America.  Come to think of it, Godliness and tidiness may just about be the only two things we will ever need to know and love, inside and out.

Make it a Good Day, G