I did promise some rambling observations….

Stuff on my mind as I walked this weekend. Walking alone is so great for working through things mentally!

In Maine we were talking about ways that Naples mom could get the wild monkeys in bed each night. Apparently her DH had suggested that she not spend so much time making dinner for them therefore alleviating some of her time and energy so that she can tackle bedtime (lets look past the part where HE needs to get off his ass, but I digress). She told us that she just can’t give up cooking dinner for them – it’s what she does to show her love and also something that feeds HER soul because she loves cooking and then sitting down for a nice dinner with everyone to share their thoughts about the day. It occurred to me then, that I miss doing that too. I’ve moaned a bit about my lack of cooking time due to the sports schedule, but I decided that I can do something about that. So my goal is to *cook* at least 4 dinners per week. Tonight it was pre-marinated chicken from Jimbo’s, rice and corn on the cob. Yum. The boys liked it too and it only took 20 minutes. Of course, Marcus may not like cleaning up after it 🙂

Bill Maher picked on one of the things that always makes me angry – the excessive commercialization/marketing aimed towards kids. Well, for me, it’s not even just about to kids but excessive product placement in general that I hate. I guess I am getting old. The thoughts in my head go something like “back when I was a kid, Disneyland was just…Disneyland!” You know, those life was simpler back then thoughts. Old codger thoughts. Anyway, for me what started my disgust at the process was the pharmaceutical companies. The first time I saw a tv ad for a drug I was floored. WHY was a drug company marketing to the consumer? WHY, unless it was the old adage Anything For Money? When Big Pharma is spending significantly more money on advertising and marketing than to research and development something is ass backwards. Yes, I did read David Sirota’s book Hostile Takeover about the dominance and control that Big Corportations across industries. But, all that book did is cement what I was seeing with my own eyes. We are kidding ourselves if we dont open our eyes to just how must of a stranglehold corporations have on the political process. We think the folks in DC represent us – HAH! They represent whoever pays them the most. Corruption is so rampant. And it isn’t just a GOP thing by a long shot. Sure, they have been in power most recently and are traditionally the party of Big Business so the spotlight is on them right now, but the Dem representatives are also quite happy to take a kickback or twelve in exchange for supporting or defeating a bill. After all, we have Dem senator “MBNA” Biden who pushed through the bankruptcy “reform” bill which essentially protects those poor suffering credit card companies from people defaulting on the credit cards which were essentially thrown at people’s feet simply for being old enough to have an account. Spare me. Corporate profits have skyrocketed across nearly every major industry while wages have remained stagnant. It’s disgusting how beholden politicians are to corportate executives. I could go on and on with examples, but to what end I wonder? It would just make me depressed and angry. What can we do? I don’t know for sure – I am open to suggestions!

(Here is where I loop back around to my original reference about marketing to kids, finally!)

One thing which crossed my mind is educating our kids. I seem to recall Nick having an assignment in his junior high health class about how to critically view advertising. He chose magazine ads and picked them apart for the subliminal messages being sent (smoke this brand of cigarette and girls will think you are sexy!) I was thinking that rather than being a section in a class, there should BE whole classes on dissecting marketing and advertising and the commercialzation of society. Perhaps then the next generation wont BE so susceptible to these things. I don’t know – but I feel like we need to do *something* to take back control of our lives and scale back on our utterly overboard consumer habits. After all, those big corporations are making those big profits not JUST because they get congress to give them tax breaks, keep labor costs artifically low, and back off enforcing current environmental and labor regulations. No, they are also making money because we are buying their products. We fall for the drug company ads that promise a quick fix to problems that can often be solved permanently by changing our eating and exercise habits – IOW, we would have to make some effort and sacrifice – horrors! NOTE – of course this is not true in all cases and many of the medicines being advertised are life savers for those who NEED it. I just think that is doctors who should be determining that need – not us. We fall for the concept that fast food is OK for busy families – obesity be damned! We fall for the idea that we need a pair of shoes for every occasion. That we need the latest and greatest gadget with all accessories. Most importantly, our kids fall for it and then we give in to them. Anyhoo – what Bill Maher said at the end of his show rang true to me. His point was that while the Mark Foley page scandal is awful, it is not the worst thing happening to our children. I see that and I am going to continue pondering on what I can do about it.

Oh yeah – and my hips still hurt and I am moving slowly, but once I get going..eh..s’alright!