The weather was perfect, I'd guess around 60 something degrees and I had my iPod to keep me moving. This morning I discovered 4 things. 1) I love walking around the neighborhood. There are 3 streets in our subdivision and all incline (or decline depending on your direction) so I feel like it's a good "wake-up body" workout if I'm walking briskly. 2) Walking around the neighborhood gives me a chance to see what people have done to their houses/yards without seeming nosey. (took my camera so I could get pics of some yard ideas for Kj)
3) I should grab my cell phone and leave the camera. After my 20 min walk, I rounded the corner only to see my sleepy-eyed husband (he doesn't wake up til 7:00) standing in front of our garage looking for me. Apparently when I turned off the alarm system it woke him up and when he came to check and my car was still there (when it's gone he knows I've gone to the gym), he got a little worried. I don't know where I could have possibly have taken off to or what danger I could have been in, but it was sweet and besides feeling bad for not letting him know I was going so he could get his additional hour of sleep, I felt very loved.
4) It's been too long since I worked out b/c my legs were itching like crazy, which I know has something to do with circulation, but it makes me think that the cellulite and fat cells are bumping into each other. I may have to start walking with a loofah sponge. hehehe
So, on the way into work this morn on the radio they were talking about the funeral the NAACP is going to have for the n-word. Kudos! I was brought up to know that the word is hateful when spoken by ANYBODY and I'm glad to see society stepping up and stating the same. I believe this campaign is targeting more so the entertainment industry because music is the only aspect that I can think of where the word is used frequently without consequence or being reprimanded. It's not slang. It's not cute. It's not okay.
The radio dj had Sinbad {the comedian... I love his stuff} on the show and he said that he was actually at the comedy club when the Michael Richard's (Kramer from Seinfeld) incident happened. He made the statement that he believed it might have been the first time some of the younger generations have really heard the n word in all it's true nastiness and hate. Good point. I think so many times we become desensitized to things seen/or heard commonly that we "gloss over" how awful it really is.
Okay so the radio broadcast this morn, coupled with an article I read yesterday in which a mom tries to explain to her son why his peers say he's "acting white" made me think about things that are said and should not be said. Granted, I don't say the n-word and I'm very cautious of offensive racial generalizations and terms, (like Indian-giver. A friend of mine works for the Southern Poverty Law Center speaking across the country on promoting tolerance of different races/cultures and intolerance to slurs/ symbols/ negative actions and such. Anyway, B. pointed out to me that terms like Indian-giver are in fact offensive.) but I do/did have the tendency to say the word heifer when referring to a female that had got under my skin. Maybe not on the same level as the n word, but still offensive to females, right? Sometimes when you hear the very thing that you say come out of someone else's mouth, you hear how bad it sounds. Some friends and I were at an event where a group was singing and a woman behind us, knowing one of the girls in the group, yelled. "You better sing heifer!" Not in a mean way, but in a "you go girl" kind of way. Still sounded bad. So from that moment on, I made/make a conscious effort to not use the term unless I'm actually referring to cattle. (I've have adopted Cindy's term chic {pronounced chick} like "You better watch it chic." or "Okay now, chic" when a lady's overstepping her bounds)
Soooo, what brought all this on... just that radio broadcast and a 45 min drive to work to think how just like a good sermon in church, it may not hit you directly, but indirectly you can find pieces of yourself to always work on. This morning I woke up with the intent to work on this ole body. I've also decided to include working on this ole mouth (the things that come out of it) and this ole attitude (I shouldn't let people affect how I present myself, my demeanor...). Yep, always room for improvement.
Happy Thursday!!
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