rambling rosemarie

I wrote a paper once for one of my psychology classes. I attended a Christian college and the class was on the theories of personality. The paper was on self-esteem. It was a project done as a group. (Oh how I loathe group projects but that's a post for another time.) We were a group of three people so we divided our work into three distinct areas. One member wrote about about the benefits of having positive self-esteem. The other member wrote about how to recognize the differences between poor to positive self-esteem. I wrote my section of the paper arguing that self-esteem was neither biblical nor beneficial. I was not the favorite student in the class. My research took me on a journey through studies on the penal system where it seems that the most violent offenders often had what seemed to be the highest self-esteem. It's logical if you think about it. If you love yourself more than others, it's much easier to hurt them or steal from them to satisfy your needs.

Parents used to raise their children with the idea of getting them to adulthood having the tools they would need to survive. Good health, good education, (one that actually teaches you to think critically so you can determine right from wrong), and their best chance for a vocation that would see them through their lives. One day that began to change. I don't know where it started and why so many parents have succumbed but suddenly befriending your child and making them happy has become the aim of many parents. Little John and little Jane need great self-esteem and happiness more than the ability to think or have manners. They need to have their wants satisfied more than they need the discipline of waiting to grow up for their rights of passage. Today I was watching Good Morning America and they had a segment of the show that absolutely astounded me. Should Little Girls Wear High Heels? There was a debate and folks on both sides of the issue sounded off. One mom let her 5 ye

When I am studying something that bothers me, I do just about anything I can to stall. In doing so I stumble upon a lot of odd information. I love history and any student of history will tell you that most everything we are familiar with has had an odd beginning. Sometimes there will be different odd stories regarding the genesis of a myth, folkway or idiom. Somewhere in the mix the truth can be found. You just have to look. While I lived in Australia I went to a visit a little town on the Murray River called Echuca. Echuca has a wonderful history and boasts the largest collection of paddle steamers in the world. It also has a coach house and carriage museum. It was during my visit to the carriage museum that I was told the origin of the expression to 'drop off to sleep.' According the docent, the carriage cheap seats were the ones outside and on the back. You had a platform to sit on and a rope or rail to hang onto for dear life. During a long trip a poor unfortun

When you were young was there ever a song that played on the radio that had a catchy tune and whose lyrics you thought you knew but you weren't quite hearing them correctly? One of those infamous tunes was Bad Moon Rising by CCR in which my friend Mark clearly heard, "There's a bathroom on the right!" Mark was also certain Dobie Gray was singing, "Give me the Beach Boys to free my soul." Beach Boys? Are you serious? With so many wonderful songs out there why on earth would he be referring to the Beach Boys? I had a lot of laughs at Mark's expense. Mark wasn't the only person I knew who had trouble with the lyrics. Here are some of the classics I remember. "Hold me closer, Tony Danza." "On a dark desert highway, cool whip in my hair." There were songs with lyrics that weren't really meant to be understood. Good Morning Starshine comes to mind and of course, Louie Louie. I dare not speculate what the Kingsman wer

A young scientist wanted to help people with disabilities and decided to do some research on the effects of various disabilities by engineering some experiments with frogs. Randomly a frog of average size and good health was selected and placed on an X painted on the floor. The scientist stood behind the frog and used persuasive means to get the frog to jump. "Jump! Frog, Jump!" The frog jumped, the scientist measured and then recorded the distance the frog jumped. The initial jump was 25 feet. Next the scientist took the frog and surgically amputated his right front leg and following the exact same formula compelled the frog to jump. "Jump! Frog, Jump!" The frog jumped and the distance once again was recorded. "Right front leg amputated, frog jumped 20 feet. And again the experiment was repeated. This time the frog's left front leg was surgically removed and the distance he jumped was 15 feet. And thus the experiment continued until all four of

My friend writes a great blog. She wrote today about a letter she read that was written by Susanna Wesley , to her son, John Wesley . Carla asked me to read it and give her my input. I love the discussions Carla and I have regarding just about anything so I jumped at the chance. I tried to comment on her blog but I am too wordy and after cutting tons of points out of my response, my comment was still too long. In desperation I have decided simply to link to Carla's article and post my opinion here. I am lazy and verbose, a bad combination I admit. Carla's article is here . And the Susanna Wesley letter which Carla has painstakingly typed out can be found on her blog or here . And now for my opinion.... I love this letter and I think this woman was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant and spot on with what we now know about how people learn best. The first thing she did was set her children into a routine. Studies show children do far better and are more confident when they know