I am here at Vox.

I rarely come here now, there are many reasons why I don't.

I just came across a person's blog and there were some old familiar names; not the names of people I would call "nice." 

Then it hit me, a rush of anxiety and a sinking feeling of dread and my skin is still crawling.  I cannot tolerate these people any more and I don't want to run across them in my travels.  We are taught to be tolerant, but I am sorry i cannot be tolerant of people who want to harm others and think it is their duty to do so.

Life is tough and why do people feel the need to make it even tougher for other people.  Why can't people just leave people alone if they are not hurting them.

Oh and by the way, I do not need to be saved or converted to your way of thinking.  I am fed up with people who tell me they respect me and then they try and change me to their religious views.  Either you do respect me and accept me for who I am or you don't and if you don't then leave me the hell alone.

To the few friends I have left here at Vox, I apologise for not visiting but I just have not been able to face Vox and I know some of you will find that strange.  Sometimes it seems no matter how hard I try and just keep to myself someone will come along and be a total killjoy and I end up wondering what is the point!  The fact is my life is bloody tough and I rarely complain and I don't need people bringing me down.  Everyday for me is a struggle and some days it is actually a struggle to keep going. 

These days because I know just how tough life can be I just have no patience for people who want to make life even harder for people, no time for people who want to interfere in people's lives who have no business doing so, no time for people who want to prevent people from expressing their real and devoted love for each other, I think anyone reading this will get where I am coming from.

Just so I am perfectly clear on a few matters which people seem to have issues with:

I do believe in gay rights and same sex marriage.

I believe that unfortunately sometimes abortion is necessary, but at the same time we should try to do the best to reduce the number of abortions.

I do not believe in the traditional Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Hindu god.  I do believe we are all connected by some force but it is not what people traditionally call god.  That does not make me a evil person.  I am still very spiritual, but I repeat I do not believe in god.  But if you do believe in god well that is just fine, so long as you don't oppress people with your beliefs.

I am centre left in my politics and I am not about to change.

I do think love is the answer to a lot of the world's problems.  The problem is most of us are too selfish to really love enough to allow others a foot up in this world; because to allow others a foot up will most likely mean that we have to take a step down.

Oh and then there is the environment.  Yes people I do believe we humans are destroying our planet and we do need to do something about it for our future generations.  No I do not think that climate change is some divine plan from a loving god and we should just continue on as normal.

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Thank you to Vox for showing me just how loving and wonderful people can be and at the same time opening my eyes to just how absolutely horrible other people can behave.

Well I should go now.

"Oh, life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight, I'm
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough

Every whisper
Of every waking hour I'm
Choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt lost and blinded fool, fool

 Oh no I have said too much, I haven't said enough, I set it up.

Try, cry, why try?"

Peace.

P.S. This is not goodbye.

It seems I bamboozled a couple of kind people when I wrote a post which included that fact that I was about to increase my MP medications.  Some of you have been here with me from the beginning of my treatment, so you have an idea of what I am going on about, but some of you are new friends and missed out on the intro so to speak.  So here is what is going on.

First I will give you a brief bit of background.

In May 1995 on a Saturday at noon while alone I was closing the pharmacy that I managed and I was the victim of an armed robbery.  The offender took money and sadly enough drugs to do himself in.  He left me bound and gagged and took the keys and locked the pharmacy from the outside as he fled.  Luckily I was able to free myself and call the police.  The event was rather traumatic and unfortunately it was the trigger for an illness which would eventually be diagnosed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or ME/CFS for short.

For 5 years I battled on working as a pharmacist, raising a family, hiking, and camping and I was a Venturer Scout leader (boy scouts from 14 to up to the age of 18).  It was a battle; I fought total exhaustion, incredible muscle pain and felt like I had the flu more often than not.  But I kept going until it was impossible to carry on and in 2000 I experienced three bouts of the common cold within 2 months and one day I collapsed at work.  I was so weak and ill I spent at least 6 months totally bed bound, followed by a long period of being house bound, mainly just going out for doctor’s appointments.  After about 2 years I slowly started back at work, but I was still no where near being well and my life was still very much restricted. It was an extremely slow process of increasing my working hours.  Unfortunately after working so hard at getting back to work I once again succumbed to a number of viral infections and I had a severe relapse and as hard as it was for me to believe, this relapse was even worse than the first serious bout, because there were new symptoms which were intolerable. I could not handle any light or sound, which meant watching even a DVD on a laptop was out of the question, there was nothing that could take my mind off the situation I was in.  I was bed bound, so weak I could barely feed myself and I could not lift my head off the pillow without the blood dropping from my brain and causing me to nearly pass out (neurally mediated hypotension).  The problem with ME/CFS is that it stuffs up your immune system and your neurological system and nothing works properly.

Thankfully I found a doctor who specialised in this illness and thankfully a medication was prescribed which dampened down my intolerance to light, sound and smells – the medication worked instantaneously and although I was still bed bound, at least some of my life was tolerable. I know that if I did not get relief from those intolerable symptoms I would not be here today, because everyday was a nightmare.  Going to sleep at night was a nightmare, because I knew what I would once again wake up to.

With time I improved, but never getting anywhere near the point of a full recovery and my life was still very much restricted.  In 2006 I started blogging as a way of communicating with people.

In 2007 I made the difficult decision to start the Marshall Protocol as a form of treatment for ME/CFS. This treatment is not a mainstream treatment and is still very much experimental.  I began the protocol in 18^th September 2007.  I won’t go into to much depth as far as the reasoning behind the treatment and how it is supposed to work, but the goal is to have an improved life at the end of the treatment. The treatment itself is very challenging.  To be honest it has been more of a challenge than I had prepared myself for and at this stage I am unable to gauge if it is helping.  It is difficult to gauge if it is helping because the treatment comes with its own side effects which can be debilitating too. Some of the side effects resemble the symptoms of ME/CFS.

I am unable to actually name the medications involved in the treatment because I am now in stage 2 of the protocol and the medications are not to be disclosed to people until they are ready to enter stage 2, due to the serious nature of some possible adverse reactions.

But here is a bit of an outline of the treatment.  It is extremely important to decrease vitamin D levels in the body to a very low level, so this means no exposure to sunlight and no consumption of foods high in vitamin D.  When the vitamin D levels drop to very low levels the eyes become extremely sensitive to light, so special dark glasses have to be worn both indoors and outdoors.  Obviously to avoid being exposed to any sunlight is a major task and it means most of the windows in our house are blacked out.  I very rarely go outside and when I do I must be completely covered with clothes which do not allow light to enter.  Just 5 minutes of a hand exposed to sunlight can be too much.  If you want to get a laugh go to this post which I did back in September 2007 about my “Anti-Sun Clothing”

The point of the MP protocol is to kill off an over growth of cell wall deficient bacteria which are believed to live in the human cells of people with ME/CFS. 

The first medication “O” is taken every six hours or every four hours if I have been exposed to sunlight.  Medication “O” is usually used to treat blood pressure, but it also has an effect on Vitamin D in patients with ME/CFS and helps expose intracellular bacteria to the immune system and to antibiotics once they are commenced. “O” also is said to help protect the body from damage by the dying bacteria and damage to the body by huge surges in Vitamin D levels when a patient is inadvertently exposed to sunlight – trust me I know when I have had too much sun, I do NOT feel well at all.

Once the vitamin D is low enough and symptoms are tolerable a low dose antibiotic (“M”) is added to the regime, it is taken every 48 hours. As the bacteria is killed off toxins are released which cause unpleasant symptoms and these symptoms can be very debilitating and they typically resemble the symptoms of a very bad case of the flu.  The dose of this antibiotic is gradually increased every few weeks once each level is tolerable. 

Once the maximum dose of “M” is tolerable then another antibiotic (“A”) is added to the regime and it too is very slowly increased and the rate depends of how well the symptoms are tolerated.  To give you an idea of how slowly “A” may need to be increased, it has taken me 6 months to increase from the last increase to this current increase. Now I am in a state of shock because this is the first time I actually realised how long it took me to move to the next level.  Urggghhhhh.

Once I get to the maximum dose of “A” then another antibiotic will be added to the regime. After that who knows.

So that is a bit of an explanation of where I am at with the Marshall Protocol. I am still unable to work due to the symptoms of my illness, the unpredictability of the adverse effects of the MP Protocol and also due to the problem with exposure to sunlight.

Thank you to those of you have taken an interest in my ongoing battle with my illness, I really do appreciate it.

Yesterday was the first day I visited Vox in about 3 weeks.  In the two years since I have been blogging I have never been away from a blogsite for so long.  Never has the desire to post anything left me until 3 weeks ago.

It is true that I have been exceedingly busy, but that is not the reason I haven’t been here, the truth is I just couldn’t face Vox.  I couldn’t face blogging.  The desire to come here left me over night on the night of the 14/03/08.  That is when the straw broke the camels back for me and blogging.

I was listening and watching the Winter Soldier commentary.  I wasn’t shocked by the returned service men and women’s stories; I was expecting them to be as devastating as they were.  That was the problem, there was no surprise.  Five years ago the US and the Coalition of the Willing went to war with Iraq and I was totally opposed to the war, not because I am a pacifist because in reality I am not.  I was opposed because I knew the war was based on poor information and there was no real justification for going to war with Iraq.  I also knew what the consequences would be if we did go to war, a long drawn out occupation, many killed and injured on both sides and the risk that the world would become an even more hostile place.  I wish I was wrong, I had hoped when the statue of Saddam Hussein fell that just maybe I was wrong, but I wasn’t. It didn’t matter that I was against the war for what I believe to be the right reasons, it didn’t matter that I spoke out against the war, the war still happened and I was powerless to do anything about it.  In reality I am just as powerless today.  Even with all of that death and destruction, people still want to plough on and cause more death and destruction.  My faith in humanity left me three weeks ago.  But like I said the Winter Soldier commentary was just the straw that broke the camels back, my faith in humanity was already well and truly on the slide before the 14/03/08, I had just been trying hard to fight it.

Unless I say what I need to say now there is no way that I will be able to blog again.  I need to say what I have to say so that I can move on.  Yes I know very melodramatic.

I live by a very simple principle, I try and treat others how I would like to be treated and I expect people to treat others and myself with compassion and respect.  As long as a person is not hurting others or me with their actions then I am okay with that.  I don’t care what your race is, what your gender is, what your skin colour is, what your sexuality is, what your culture is, what your religion is, what your education is and any other label that can be applied to some one, as long as you treat others well, then I will be in your corner.  However, I don’t take much crap from anyone these days, treat me unfairly and I won’t hang around for too long and take more of your crap and I certainly won't happily and silently watch on as you inflict your crap on others. 

Yes this is leading some where, I have said I have lost my faith in humanity, well it isn’t just humanity I have lost my faith in, the biggest loss of faith for me is in organised religion.  You know religion that self professed bastion of humanity, compassion, love, truth and well apparently all that is supposed to be good in the world, yes good as distinct from evil.  Oh yes there some members of organised religion who seem to display those good traits, my own grandmother was certainly one of those saintly figures. 

To all who belong to an organised religion I am not criticising you, like I said if you treat others well and don’t use your religion to kick others in the guts, well you have got my respect and support. But as for me, I am jumping off the religious bandwagon because it is not for me; I have lost my faith in religion.  Way too many hypocrites, way too many people using their religion to knock people around and way too many people hiding behind their religion instead of using their brain and thinking for themselves. It is not okay to oppress others just because you believe your holy book or your spiritual advisor seems to indicate that it is okay. In case you missed that last bit I shall repeat it again, your religion does NOT give you the right to oppress people, or to dictate your beliefs onto others.  If people are not hurting you or others then leave them alone, mind your own business.  Stop spreading hatred and intolerance and hiding behind your religion, hatred and intolerance of people who are not hurting anyone is WRONG!

So just to make it absolutely clear I am no longer associated with any organised religion.  I want to be free to express my own views, to have my own opinions, to be free to think for myself and not be answerable to religious thought police who seem to be around every corner. I know what is right and what is wrong and I am grown up enough to think for myself.

So now that I have said what I needed to say, I can now move on and deal with this planet and the people on it. Luckily there are enough good people out there to restore my faith in humanity and they come from all walks of life and some prefer to belong to a religion and some like me don’t.

Chezza

2 comments

Anyway here is some great music which basically sums up how I feel.

wear my heart on my sleeve,
I'm not afraid to say what i mean,
Mean what i say.
I set myself up, let myself down,
I may be a fool to spread it around.
But i just wanna let you know,
Sometimes i find it so hard not to show,
So i sigh and i let my feelings go.

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

Supertramp - The Logical Song

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Crazy - Gnarl Barkley

Thanks to a fellow crazy friend for 'dedicating' this song to me.
Poor thing she is as crazy as me.

Black Eyed Peas- Where Is The Love

And to another great friend for telling me about this song.

James Blunt - No Bravery

The utter futility of war.

It has been a while since I have mentioned my treatment, so I guess it might be time to give a bit of an update.  I have been on it now for about three and half months, so I guess I am about on track time line wise.  I am now nearing the end of phase 1 and if all goes to plan, I will be starting phase 2 in about three weeks.  In total there are four phases.

It has certainly knocked me around physically.  Prior to starting treatment I had started doing a couple of hours work at the local pharmacy, but I haven’t been able to since shortly after starting treatment.

The exposure to sunlight restrictions have been an absolute pain, as I have felt like I am living in a prison.  I found that too much time in a car travelling extended distances even though I was totally covered, still allowed enough exposure to sunlight to be a problem.  So I have to be extremely careful how much exposure to sunlight I have, which is not much at all.  As a result I have missed out on some family trips away; luckily I can handle my own company.

The extremely hot weather spells have not been met with my approval and have added to my restrictions in terms of getting out of the house.  Getting out in gear that totally prevents sunlight exposure in 40+C heat is not very much fun at all, plus the heat increases tissue penetration of the antibiotic and therefore results in an increase in symptoms.

The days when the antibiotics kick in are not pleasant to say the least, and I found that the last increase in antibiotic M two weeks ago really had a major impact and I have experienced a lot more unpleasant physical symptoms.  It has made for some rather depressing days.  There are days I wonder why on earth did I start this, but I know I cannot and will not stop unless it gets to be totally unbearable.

The good news is that my blood tests are showing that something is definitely happening in my body and my immune systems is in fighting mode and that is why I am experiencing the symptoms and that is what is supposed to happen.  I am used to wearing sunglasses whenever I am awake and my eye’s sensitivity to light has decreased when I compare the sensitivity when I initially started treatment to now.

At this stage I cannot say whether the last 3 months have been worth it, as I have got at least another 12 to 15 months to go in full treatment mode and therefore a few more bad days to come.  Hopefully one day my Mum will understand that I cannot say if the treatment is helping me and one day I won’t have to regularly say to her, “No Mum I do not feel better yet. I am not supposed to yet, as I have to feel worse before I can feel better.”

So that is the update.

I am still here and I can still smile on most days!

Marilyn

T'is the time of the year to be jolly.  I would say "Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Christmas" but that is now politically incorrect as I  maybe referring to some one's whore and there are some that don't even like the "Merry Christmas" bit.  So I guess I shall say, "Have a good one!" whatever 'one' is.

Nah stuff it, "Merry Christmas" to you all and have a BONZA 2008.

Thanks to all who dropped by and read some of my posts.  Thanks to all of you who wrote interesting, thought provoking and amusing posts (sometimes all in the one post) and shared your inner thoughts with the world.  Thank you to those who shared their beautiful talents in so many varied artistic forms.

I am grateful to all of the friends I have made along the way and the support I have received from many of you.  Sorry to the odd one or two I set free along the way, I sincerely hope that you are doing well.

This past year has been a big year for me, especially the 2nd half of the year.

My youngest son decided to play Aussie Rules football for the first time, so I became a 'footy' Mum.

I lost my grandfather just 5 weeks short of his 102nd birthday.

One son was married and he and his bride bought their first house.

I started a new treatment for my ME/CFS. There have been tough times along the way, it has not been smooth sailing but I am working through it day by day.  Since starting in September time seems to have just escaped me.

This month has been eventful.  Our daughter and her partner bought their first house and they became engaged the night they moved in.  Last weekend it was Hubby's mother's 90th birthday party - that was a big event.  I have had a couple of 3 hour (each way) trips to Melbourne for various reasons and they have zapped my energy.  December has also been a month of continual dramas with internet and phone companies for one reason or another.  The latest drama was so ridiculous that for the first time in Chezza history I will be making a formal written complaint.

The Christmas presents have finally been bought and wrapped.  I have never left buying Christmas presents to nearly the last minute, it is a huge relief to have them finally sorted out.  *Big Sigh*

We haven't put a Christmas tree up.  Not one Christmas card has been written - Oh dear will they ever forgive me.

Tomorrow the Christmas celebrations begin with a visit from part of my side of the family for lunch. 

Then Christmas Day we will have a family breakfast with the kids and then head off to Hubby's extended family's Christmas lunch.  Naturally I shall be in blackout gear to repel the nasty sunbeams.

Due to a mountain of things I really must attend to, I will not be around much for a while.  I have a "To Do List" that MUST be done and there is only one way that it will be done and that is less time hanging out here.  Of course I am addicted to this place so I am sure I will be around just a tiny wee bit.

Christmas Nativity

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Christmas Reindeer

3 comments

Oh one huge event I forgot to mention, the Australian Liberal (RW conservatives - don't let the name fool you!) Party fell in a landslide election defeat and now Australia has a new Prime Minister and the Australian Labor Party is now in power.  Hopefully good things will come from the change in government.

As Catholics were responsible for writing the New Testament (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit), the Catholic Church doesn't "interpret" the Bible. We explain it. Protestants can only "interpret", because they are not the author (guided by the Holy Spirit), and therefore, can only guess at the possible meaning of a chapter, passage or phrase, just as anyone can only guess at any author's intentions in any other book. As the author, the Catholic Church is the only proper authority to consult in matters pertaining to the Bible. (Source)

Interesting statement isn’t it.  Rather pompous actually.  It didn’t come from a mainstream Catholic source so that is refreshing and no I am not about to start bashing the Catholics.  It is a great example of how some people, groups, churches believe that they have the monopoly on Christianity and what they believe is the only way.

Well I have recovered from two weeks spent examining the “Young Earth Creationist Theory”.  I honestly thought they had put me off Christianity for life, but I was wrong.  I woke up this morning and there had been a shift in my thinking.  No I haven’t been struck down by some awe inspiring revelation and have become a born again Christian, I am just me.

I have decided to close the book of the Old Testament as I don’t feel I need it.  I am probably not a typical Christian, and maybe I am a “cafeteria Christian” and I am fine about that.  If a day of judgement comes then it will not be other Christians who judge me, so I am not out to please other Christians and do it their way.

I try to be a good person and I don’t always succeed and that is okay.  When I think of all that should be good, compassionate, loving I have an image in my head and that image is Jesus.  Unfortunately it is white Jesus, but that is because I have seen his image so many times that it is who I see even though I know in reality Jesus would be of Middle Eastern appearance.

From what I can gather from the gospels Jesus did not concern himself with things such as did man live with the dinosaurs and a whole lot of other stuff that people seem to needlessly concern themselves with.  I think the basic teachings of Jesus are love, compassion, acceptance, and looking after the unfortunate in this world.  Trying to do the best that we can, knowing that sometimes we will fall short and it is okay.

Shouldn’t our number one priority in life be to help others, rather than attempt to control them and dictate what they can and can’t do and what they can or can’t think.  Wouldn’t it make sense to lead a good life and hopefully inspire others to lead a good life as well?

I see Jesus as an inspiration for me to be a better person and I believe that is what he would expect of me.  It doesn’t even matter to me that some people don’t even think he existed, as for me it is what he represents that matters.

As far as the Bible is concerned I actually don’t care what some authors say, I really don’t care what Paul has got to say.  I am more interested in what Jesus had to say and I honestly cannot say that he has been portrayed accurately in the Bible, but I know what he represents to me and that is all that counts.  It doesn’t take much to know right from wrong; I don’t need to read every passage of the Bible to know right from wrong and I don’t need Bible passages to justify my actions.  I accept my actions as my actions.

If I see Jesus as love, then it makes sense that only good can come from that.  I don’t need to believe in Genesis to know Jesus is love and it is ridiculous to waste time debating things such as that when there are people in the world who need help. They don’t care if Genesis is true or not, they just need help.

If it is important to you that whatever creation theory supersedes the theory of evolution then fine spend your time, energy and money debating it.  But I will not be, as there are far more important things in life than worrying about where we came from and whether dinosaurs walked on the Earth side by side with men.

The arguments put forward by the “Young Earth Creation Theory” nearly turned me away from Christianity.  When the pathetic, grasping at straws actions of Christianity look stupid in the eyes of others it can only do Christianity harm. 

For those that don't know I am currently under going medical treatment where I have to avoid sunlight, this is just me having a bit of fun with some of the clothing.  The black clothes are undergarments and they are quite often used for extreme weather outdoor activities such as hiking.  The hat is called a Frillneck Urban Turban.  The glasses are special sunglasses I have to wear inside and outside due to an increase in sensitivity to sunlight.  The mask is called a Buff and they are also used by outdoors people to protect them from the elements - I intend to wear it more as a scarf than use it to completely cover my face.  Due to the configuration of the hat it can cover my face if needed.

Would you buy a very dusty used car from this person?

Practising for the World Pole Dancing Competition

Prepare to be attacked!

Prepare to die!

Time to meet your maker!

Nice puppy dog

2 comments

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No I am NOT a terrorist

Arrrghhhh

So much to comment about, so much to write about in regards to the injustice in the world, but at the moment I just have to try and ignore it all.  I can't afford to get into any serious debates, as I may not be able to follow through with my arguments due to my health and I hate it to look like I pull out when the going gets tough in a debate and using my health as an excuse is not really an excuse - according to some (I haven't had that charge levelled at me, but I know someone who has).  I have one post which I really want to get back to about Israel/Palestine but I can't because I know how much energy it will take out of me.  I know that the world will still keep turning whether I am here or not, but it is still frustrating.

I was hoping to go to work today for a couple of hours, but it is not going to happen due to my health and new treatment regime - Bugger!

Anyway if the pain and other symptoms means I am heading in the right direction with my treatment, then it will be worth it.  Still frustrating though :)

No need to comment just letting it out!

Is it my imagination or is the font slightly different?  Probably just my mind playing tricks on me.

My last post was about a few things really, it was about what is real news and what is just ‘news’ designed to dumb us down and make us fight over the less important things, while the more important stuff is pushed along and we don’t even realise it.  I consider what is happening over in Burma real news and warrants attention.  I consider the Sally Field Emmy Awards ‘incident’ very incidental. 

Another point to the post was to disclose what I consider hypocrisy especially from some so called ‘Christians’.  It seems that the Christianity that I was brought up with and is still a part of me, is not the same Christianity that others consider Christianity. My view on Christianity is one of love, kindness, forgiveness, speaking out against injustice and when speaking out we do so in a reasonably respectful manner. I do not in my opinion see that it is our right to condemn people in God’s name; I believe that is God’s role.   I am not perfect and I do get angry and say things I regret out of anger, but I am generally the first person to admit such a thing and if tackled on it, I will at least consider my stand and refine it and apologise if required and hopefully learn something from it.  That is what life is about learning from mistakes, learning as much as possible and trying to do some good in the world. Christians are not perfect, nor are they meant to be, but I think that they do need to set themselves some reasonable standards of behaviour in this world.

I don’t watch the Emmy’s or the Oscars or the Grammy’s none of that stuff interests me, it is so superficial, so I would not have even known about Sally Field’s ‘incident’ at the Emmy’s had I not come across a post in the Catholic Group.  I was curious why the post was in the Catholic Vox group? Yes there was a reference to using God’s name in vain and the fact that Sally Fields had been the “Flying Nun” but the rest of the post was full of spite, anger and in my opinion a post just designed to tear some one apart. I felt disgusted that a post such as this was allowed to be in any Christian Group.  The name of the post was, “I’ve had it with Has-beens!”  I made some comments to the post and I didn’t get very far with my views, but that is fine I don’t expect people to agree with me.  I had hoped that the moderators of the group would have deleted it from the group, but I knew that they wouldn’t due to some in house politics.  I have posted to the group before about Christianity and have posted the same posts to other Christian Groups.  In the other Christian groups I have had some very good discussion and I was grateful and learnt a lot and the whole point was to get some open discussion.  However in the Catholic Vox group, I was virtually told to get out because I didn’t sound like a Catholic.  A Catholic voxer that I know posted to the group and was once told the same thing, “What are you doing here you don’t sound like you are Catholic?” There was also a reference that the Voxer did not use the word God enough.”

So my post from yesterday was partly in response to the post at the Catholic Vox group and I figured that if a hate filled piece (in my opinion) was allowed in the Catholic Vox group then why shouldn’t mine.  I had a feeling that it may get thrown out of the group, but in my opinion if my post was to be thrown out, then so should the other post.  Yes I was testing them, guilty as charged but I just wanted to test how hypocritical the group moderators were.  Well I came online this morning and guess what my post has been removed from the Catholic Vox Group and the other post titled, “I’ve had it with Has-beens!” is of course still there.

If that is the type of image that they wish to portray then so be it, not my problem but I really think it is a poor reflection on Christianity that such a piece is allowed to demonstrate to the world what Christianity is all about.  Atheists would love the post in question as it would give them so much material to work with.

If the writer of the post wants to do a character assassination on Sally Field, then fine it is none of my business.

If the writer wants to chastise Sally for saying the G-Bomb well I haven’t got a problem with that either, but a character assassination is not required to do such a thing and that is what I object to and that is why I do not believe the post should have been in the group.  If the post was not a character assassination then I would not have a problem with it being in the Catholic Vox group if its sole purpose was to chastise Sally about her use of the G-Bomb and how it offended the writer because he/she was a Catholic Christian.

I believe that Christians have a reputation to uphold and this sort of article just makes me sad.  But I could be wrong, may be I have the wrong idea about Christianity and that also makes me sad, but I don’t think I have got the wrong idea regarding many Christians.

The Catholic Vox group will be happy to learn that I shall be withdrawing my membership shortly after posting this post.

Have a safe and happy day to all :)

I thought this quote had a fair bit of meaning for me at present as I embark on my treatment for ME/CFS:

Having committed yourself to certain practices, be steadfast and never transgress the promises you have made. Let go of everything that could tempt you to do so and devote yourself entirely and single-mindedly to the accomplishment of your aims. For six years the Buddha did not waver from his practice of the meditative stabilization known as "Pervading Space." This meditation focuses on the fundamental nature of phenomena, which is present wherever there is space. Everywhere throughout space there are suffering living beings on whom this meditation also focuses with the compassionate wish to relieve their suffering and the loving wish to give them happiness. Thus it combines essential wisdom and skilful means.

--from The Three Principal Aspects of the Path: An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications