A "Quiet" Week

It's weird, nothing crazy unusual has occurred in the store's vicinity this week. Or, perhaps it has and I just simply don't notice anymore. Maybe I'm becoming like that frog in the pot of water; as the temperature increases I fail to notice the subtle shifts of heat that will eventually destroy me.

I'm not surprised that it has been a bit on the quieter side because it was the end of the month, and since a lot of our customers are on Food Stamps they seem to mysteriously disappear as the month ends. So I tend to wander around the store a bit, I joke with J-Dunks about the latest drama in the deli while he tries to convince me that the wheat grass really is greener on his side of the store (a point with which I cannot disagree), and that I should come over and work with him in produce. I'd like that. But he doesn't have as many fun conversation as I do.

Therein lies what I love about where I work. There is a real, and vital exchange across these vast social expanses whenever I talk with my co-workers or customers, it's awesome. I can't tell you that I have successfully converted all, or even any hippies over to my religiously traditional, and socially conservative lifestyle, but thanks to me....they might hate the rest of you a little bit less. It's a great privilege. I also love how the opposition of ideas has had a tendency to challenge areas of biased or untruth in my perspective. But really, I kind of enjoy the sort of mild shock that washes over people when they find out that:

A. I did in fact vote for Mitt Romney over Obama. (mind you, I don't like either of them....I just dislike Romney less, and while it maddens me that politics has come to that...c'est la vie)

and
B. I'm a Biblically-conservative traditional Protestant. One that listens to a lot of the same music that many of them all do, and occasionally crosses the  "work-place appropriate joke" line....to my embarrassment that actually means that every once in a while a joke I make is appropriate. I've seen a lot of movies that they have enjoyed, and can articulate my background somewhat well.

I can tell with some, that it's been unnerving to discover these things about me. Unnerving for two reasons I think. The first is that people are terrified of offending each other, so they worry that their demeanor or language has been offensive. Sometimes it has, but I don't take myself so seriously that I cannot talk with person who uses bad language. The second, and I think this is subtly more common, I stand for a lot of things that the people around me disagree with, sometimes with great vitriol, and yet they seem to enjoy my company and outlook.

It's a pretty cool thing to be able to "humanize" the enemy for people. There seems to be more credence seen in my beliefs now that I am able to chill out and let relationships happen before I point to the line drawn in the sand, and while I have actually had to point at it most people haven't treated me any differently for doing so. I know that, in conservative circles, we are being made to belief that the social sky is falling in on us. We will soon be crushed under a black miasma of liberal ethics, government entitlement programs, and the Oprah Winfrey channel, but I don't get the feeling that it's as bad as all that. Perhaps, and this might be shocking so make sure you are comfortably seated, some of their social agendas are good and helpful.

Still in your chair?

Perhaps we've been wrong in how we go about our perspective.

Perhaps some of them are also Godly, and reverent.

So, what's all this about? It's about disagreement, wonderful, lively, humorous, good-natured, and humble disagreement. Life is so hard if you always have to be right, so find somebody who disagrees with you, and become their friend.

Culinary Racism!

Everybody stop eating everything! Right now, seriously...get up from your computer go to your refrigerator and throw away anything that isn't corn, meat, beans, or potatoes. We are all in grave social danger of CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!! That process whereby one culture adopts the practice of another for aesthetic purposes. Never mind the fact that America is a wonderful hodge-podge of Northern European culture. Never mind the fact that we have a cultural open Nation state. I think back on the past month and a half with terror as I recall the St. Patrick's day feast my American-Dutch-Jewish Nuclear family consumed on that fateful day of March. Even more inappropriate is the religious appropriation committed as my Reformed Protestant family consumed a meal that venerates and Irish Catholic priest. We should have minded our own business, eating matzo soup with schnitzel, and challah bread on the side. Dutch cookery is out because cultural appropriation is kind of a general expression of Dutch culture. If you need convincing of this, try to take coffee out of an old Dutch man's hand in the morning.

Okay Matticus, what are you on about with this whole cultural appropriation thing? I'm bring it up in jest because we now have a "PC" term for what most folks would call sociology, and thank God it's another thing white people everywhere can feel bad about! Here's a definition of appropriation from a wikipedia article:
 Cultural Appropriation is the adoption of certain cultural practices by a different cultural group

I recently made an awesome soup at the deli. It had a ton of veggies from our awesome produce selection, and was seasoned with a combination of eastern European, Spanish, and French flavors. What else could one title such a dish except "Gypsy Stew" (which was apparently racist). I could have called the soup "Migrant European stew"...but aside from taking up too much room on our board, that name just seems kind of worse. So...I'm apparently a food racist somehow. 

I wonder if I can still make French Onion Soup?
 Do I have to stop eating at Mexican places, because I don't think life without sopes con lengua is worth it. 

Oatmeal.....oatmeal is now the only politically correct food anybody can eat without being racist. Oatmeal, without sugar....or raisins...or any spices. No, put the salt shaker down. That brown sugar is a south Atlantic island thing....how dare you!

I make fun because thoughts have major consequences in politcal policy, and social circles. The only rational approach to reverse a diverse culture like America would essentially result in us putting a bunch of people (including ourselves) onto a boat to send us all back from whence we came. My wife would go to Israel, I to southern Holland...my buddy Andy would return to Ireland, and you would have to go back to wherever it was you came from. Or perhaps we can grid the US out according to ethnic groups and original settlements. Sucks for you New York, the Dutch are taking it back! We can call them Racial Zoning Districts, and prevent districts from marrying outside of their zones to rule out the risk of culturally appropriated children. Ridiculous you say? I agree. It is ridiculous to think that two cultures could possibly come into contact with each other without learning something, more than ridiculous it's actually more of a racist thing to do than appropriated what one can. I can't help but wonder, if a suit is filed by a minority group regarding cultural appropriation in English....does it get thrown out by the courts because of the ironic hypocrisy?