Letter to the rich guy

Dear rich guy,  

I was over on realtor.com looking through some houses in desirable locations when I came across yours.  At $2.4M you were slightly out of my price range, but I had to have a look to see what that looked like on your 6 acres, so through the pictures I went.  I have to admit, my heart did a flip-flop when I saw your indoor pool and sauna.  It was a real pool, too, 25 yards and all, with several lanes.  I looked at your marble fireplace, and your seven bathrooms, with a separate tub and shower and heated floor tiles in the master bath.  

I started to imagine what it would be like to live in your house, all 11,000 square feet of it.  Your all mahogany library was quite a doozy.  I guess my Target bookshelves wouldn't have to make the move and I could really keep all of the books I read, instead of sending them out on paperbackswap.com or giving them away to Friends of the Library.  Your kitchen could house five of my kitchens and then some.  And then I looked at your bedroom.  It seemed the size of a gym, enhanced by those totally stupid cameras that make houses look all weird (realtors: for crying out loud, those are the DUMBEST things ever).  I thought, "How empty!"  

And that's what it is, I think.  

Empty.  

Yes, I admit.  I live in a mid-century house, not even 1/11th the size of yours.  I have the smallest house out of anyone I know.  I live in a city that I would trade in for pretty much any other on the planet (minus two I can think of off the top of my head).  l have to sit on the end of my bed and move my knees to open my dresser drawer to get to my pants.  It would be nice to not have to do that, obviously.  It would be a bonus if my backyard were as big as your living room so I could have chickens without my German Shepherd dog killing them.  It would be nice to have more than 22" of closet space.  It would be really nice if I could choose to use a different bathroom instead of the one the whole family uses since I think they secretly have a love of peeing all over everywhere except inside of the toilet.  

But you know what?  I wake up everyday to a family who loves me and I love them.  We have meals together and I cook all of those meals from scratch every single day, because that is what I love to do.  I garden in the spring and summer and we eat what I grow.  We do the dishes together, go for bike rides together, watch Jeopardy together, and do life together.  I get to raise my children.  My husband is a talented go-getter, with quirky things that make me love him more every day (plus, he's hot).  I don't want to trade my kids in for other ones (most of the time, unless they're peeing on the floor).  I don't have stupid amounts of bills.  I live simply and keep my house clean.  I don't even have cable TV or a smart phone.  I have a ten year old vehicle that I am happy with - because I don't find my identity in my car.  I have best friends who I could literally tell anything to (and have before) and they would still love me no matter what.  I have peace with my Maker (not because of what I've done, but because of what He's done).

Maybe you have all of that, too.  I really hope you do.  But I thought about what I would think if I lived in a house like yours.  I would start thinking that I would have to put on a really good show for people, I'd have to buy a Modigliani painting and put it in my living room, and those things are freakin expensive.  I'd have to have just the right kind of drawer pulls, because if I didn't, I'd have all this house that was supposed to be top-notch and here I was with horrible drawer pulls and that would be a tragedy.  I'd have to have 2,189 channels on my TV because if I didn't, people would wonder what the heck is up with me.  And if I didn't have heated tile floors in my bathroom, well, I'd just be a peasant.  

But, dude.  I now live without any of those things and I am happy and content and even joyful.  For me, I can have my entire day made by simply seeing sunshine through my kitchen window while I sip my organic black tea.  I can see that in every person there is something interesting, and as I walk past them or when I talk to them, I wonder what makes them tick.  They aren't a commodity, they aren't expendable, they aren't there to help me get from A to B, they're something amazing.  I'm not better than them and they're not better than me.  If I lived in your house, would I think to start comparing my awesomeness to their outward pathetic-ness?  I don't know.  I might be tempted.  

So, you know what?  Even though your house really is beautiful, I think I'm just fine where I am, even if I had an extra $2.4 million laying around.  Thanks for the tour, though.  I hope you sell it and find what you're looking for.  

Peace and love, 
Ms. Daisy

Letter To Senator McCaskill: going after Dr. Oz for liking green coffee beans

Dear Senator McCaskill,

I've read recently about your confrontation with Dr. Oz regarding green coffee beans and I am very concerned, and I believe you should be, too.

I am not what I would call a "fan" of Dr. Oz (I've seen his show once), but for you, as a senator, to call him to a trial for suggesting that green coffee beans might help weight loss is alarming to me.  There are a few reasons why this is so.

First of all, it seems to me that there are about fifty (billion) other more pressing and dangerous issues at hand and you have chosen to waste my money (and that of others) to call out a TV doctor about a weight loss claim.  Are you aware of what is going on in Iraq?  Do you know that we are in a crippling state of debt and that foreign countries who back the dollar are feeling that we're probably not worth it anymore?  It seems to me that if these are important to you, perhaps you would be spending your energy doing something that matters instead of hunting down a quasi-celebrity for suggesting that a supplement might help some fatties.

Second of all, besides making you look very foolish for pursuing such things, it makes people question who backs you and your campaign.  Are you bff's with the drug companies that you have to climb onto your podium and defend them from a couple of fat people trying green coffee beans instead of their product?  Besides my first thought of thinking you have obviously nothing more important to do than chase Dr. Oz, my second was that you are either funded by Merck or GlaxoSmithKline or some other big drug conglomerate and you don't want anyone thinking that they could live without them.  Were you put up to this by them?  Or are you terrified that relatively cheap green coffee beans with no major side effects (blindness, liver failure, blood clots, etc.) might take away profit sharing from GSK?  It makes you look bad, to be perfectly honest.

Please stop wasting everyone's time and money and please use your time in office for important things.  Go fight for things that matter.  Even if the media are on your side, I can tell you that the public is raising their eyebrows at you - at the very least thinking your pursuit unimportant and at most, thinking you are engaged in total buffoonery and ought to be relieved of your office to make way for someone who will pursue things that actually matter.

If you're so concerned about obesity, perhaps you should call Jamie Oliver to revamp the school food systems.  Or maybe you could make a motion to stop subsidizing genetically modified corn (that is used to make high fructose corn syrup, which encourages weight gain).  Perhaps you could support people growing their own fresh food instead of gobbling up Big Macs.

No?  Or just go after Dr. Oz.  

Yeah, that makes sense.  

Have a great day.

Ms. Daisy



 

Letter to Her Younger Self Re: Abortion

Warning: PG-13 material follows

Today I want to share with you something from the heart of a dear friend of mine.  This is a letter that she writes to her younger self, who is facing a terrifyingly frantic and life-altering situation: unwanted teenage pregnancy.  If you have experienced an abortion, perhaps you will identify with these feelings.  If you are considering an abortion, think deeply on these words.  This sweet, passionate friend of mine lays this all out in her own way, transparent and raw.  May you be encouaged, comforted and loved through her words.  And even more, may you know that peace of the Almighty Creator.

Peace, love and forgiveness,
Ms. Daisy


If I could go back in time and talk to myself, while still being who I am today, I would put my arms around the young woman sitting in that chair with her face covered in tears. I would tell her that I understand how lonely she feels, how scared she is, and how she feels like she can never do anything right. I would also tell her that one day soon the term "a blob of tissue" will no longer be used by anyone because it will be recognized as a scientifically and medically wrong term. It will simply be referred to as a fetus. The fact is, my sweet girl, that you have a life growing inside you.

I know, oh how I know, that you do not feel ready to be a parent yet. I understand the feeling of having to take care of (what seems like) a problem and the want for it to go away. Please trust me, no matter what you choose to do, your problem, your situation, will never go away. You cannot erase this time in you life out of your memory however much you wish or try to. The hopelessness you feel, the confusion, and frustration that lives inside of you will not go away just because you end the life now growing inside of you.

There will come a day in your life, a day that you cannot now imagine or ever believe to be true, but the day is going to come when you will understand life in a whole new way. That day, you will once again be struck by what you have done. Pain you now only think you understand will grip your heart and almost drown you. Your eyes will be opened to a whole new world, a spiritual world where you will see yourself for who you really are. You will weep like you never have wept before as you are allowing yourself to be embraced by the Almighty, Triune God. Before you are able to utter the words that are rising up inside you, you will already be forgiven. You will become a new creation, you will fall in love with a Heavenly King.

As you walk on this journey as a new creation, as a forgiven person, you will meet people that will bring your thoughts back to what you did all those years ago. You will meet husbands and wives that will share their inmost desire of having a child of their own. You will look at their faces, you will see the pain in their eyes, it will be as if you can feel their longing to have a child, but for some reason they cannot conceive on their own. Your feelings of guilt will once again rise up. What if you would have been able to give the life growing inside you to a loving husband and wife like that?

One day, not so terribly far away, you will meet a man that will happily become your husband despite all your baggage. The day will come when you will find out that the two of you are expecting a baby together. You will rejoice, but once again, you will be reminded of this first time you found out you had a life growing inside you and tears will involuntarily stream down your cheeks. Then, the beautiful day will come when you will experience a new kind of love - the love of holding your baby in your arms for the first time. At that same moment, you will experience a new kind of pain and sorrow. You will look at your beautiful baby and you will realize that this baby once were at the same place inside of you and began growing the same way as the life you decided to end.

No one will ever again be able to convince you that you are not a murderer. I cannot forgive myself, but I praise God that He is so much mightier than me. I praise Him for not depending on me forgiving myself in order for me to have forgiveness in Him.

Open Letter to Senator Blunt: Creator of the Monsanto Protection Act

Dear Senator Blunt,

I understand that you had an integral part in devising what has now been nicknamed the "Monsanto Protection Act" and I write to you today to ask you to think about the eternal consequences for doing so. 

According to many sources, you claim that you are a Southern Baptist.  If this is truly your conviction, you believe that in the beginning God (through his Son, Jesus) created the world and declared that it was good.  If you adhere to other Southern Baptist doctrine, you believe that God is the author of life and He is supreme and the authority over our physical world (as well as spiritual). 

Your decision to support, create a bill for and protect the biotech company Monsanto spits in the face of God as sovereign creator and protects a business whose unquenchable thirst for money and power disturbs, destroys and disfigures the world that God created and the people in it.  I am sure you are well-read enough to know of the sterilization and death that comes as a result of the consumption of genetically modified crops and seeds.

At your hands, you have allowed, promoted and protected a company who will be at fault for death.  The blood of those who will be affected is on your hands.  However you thought of this or justified it, it will eventually come to you and be your condemnation.  Your children Matt, Amy, Andrew and Charlie (along with your grandchildren Davis, Eva, Ben, William, Brooks and Allyson) will live in the world that you have helped make exponentially more toxic and sick.

Perhaps you can use your 30 pieces of silver to buy yourself a good field.

Sincerely,

Ms. Daisy