I feel compelled to vent my spleen about the insane amount of phone solicitations I receive for additional "services" from my credit card companies. I don't sweat the charities asking for donations. What does chap my ass is the credit card companies making me feel like I might be at risk for identity theft or fraud and that I should buy a service for 9.99 a month that protects me from identity theft. Since they are at risk of losing money from identity theft, why should I pay to protect them? Seriously, I pay the credit card company between 8 and 12% interest for the privilege of using their money. I don't call them every month and ask them to pay for a security system to protect all the crap I buy with their card. It's a risk I take and I take it at my own expense. So why should I pay for a service that protects me from hackers who steal information from their databases? Fear is a powerful tool and it stands that autocrats and tyrants should use it to keep their subjects in line but I am already paying my credit card company as a matter of mutual trust that I will pay them back and that they will protect my valuable information.

PAX

Enough is NEVER enough...

I'm trying to sell my house. It is by far the biggest pain in the ass I have ever had to endure. Waiting in line at the Dallas County Courthouse to pay a traffic ticket is miserable. But at least you get to leave when you're done and forget it ever happened. Selling a house disrupts your entire life. You are at the mercy of strangers who want to wander around your house looking into the darkest corners of your closets. They invade your castle with as little as 30 minutes notice only to walk away with not so much as a "sorry for the intrusion into the only peaceful place in your life". I expect them to leave my house and go find some birds nests and knock them out of trees. So I run around like a madman sweeping, wiping, dusting, and doing away with clutter and when I think I have done enough... enough is never enough!

PAX

Children like mirrors

It is a common revelation to new parents that their children reflect the good and bad behavior of their parents. For us parents of young children, it is easy to focus on the really annoying things that our children do. Their misdeeds are ever before our eyes and under our skin. To make matters worse, our parents say things like, "Hmm, I've seen that before" or "The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree". The indictments from our parents only reinforce our worst fears: That maybe these nefarious ghouls that emanated from the love of two reasonably sane people are really just reflecting the true nature of their most present examples of humanity. Yes, maybe the crying fits and annoying repetitions are more a part of our adult life patterns than we care to realize. All this self-incrimination is far too simple to entertain. A more difficult task is to recognize the good that our children are emulating. When we see a flash of brilliance or moment of courage, we are wise to give ourselves a pat on the back because just as a plant can only grow where the soil is fertile, our children grow in the areas that we make amenable to growth.

PAX

Contention #1

I contend that life is nothing more than a story unfolding before the eyes of an Ineffable Author. What the reader sees at the last page is never entirely premeditated. What is written evolves before the eyes of the author. The Ineffable Author of life surely must sit back and watch his characters interact and then suggest what may happen next. It is such that we writers proceed in our attempt to tell the stories of our lives.

PAX