Here it is Sunday night and I’m looking forward to another week at work. And I mean that sincerely. Work has been kind of odd lately, with some people coming into work very cranky. I try to be as upbeat as possible, trying to set a good example, trying to be the best that I can be. But it seems like some people bring all this baggage to work with them. I don’t mean to sound cold, but when you come to work, you have a job to do. You should leave your problems at the door and you should focus on the task at hand. And you should enjoy it. If you don’t like it, then you shouldn’t be there. Simple as that.
There was a time when I didn’t enjoy my job. I was Program Director of a Top 40 radio station (owned by the company I currently work for). During the last nine months or so of that position, I was starting to feel a moral conflict with myself. Over the past ten years or so, Top 40 music has gotten very angry. Especially since I was programming a “rhythmic” station – lots of rap music, Eminem and the like, along with the usual ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys and that sort of thing. All the rappers seemed so very angry. I always hated it when they took a great song from the 70s and starting spewing garbage rhymes over what used to be great music. I despised the fact that I had to play a “clean version” of a song, yet the record company gave us CDs with parental guidance labels on them for giveaways. I never understood why Top 40 music had to be that way. But that’s what got the ratings, and I guess like every other Top 40 radio station, we had to do what the public wanted. But by doing that, were we just feeding the hate? I was very happy when the owner of the station came to me and said he was selling it. I was offered a chance to go with the station, and it’s an offer I happily turned down. I didn’t want to contribute to the unrest in the world. But when I was doing that job, I didn’t complain about it. I wasn’t too miserable about it. I did what had to be done and I made the best of it. And that’s what I expect of the people that I work with.
I went for a bike ride yesterday along the canal trails. It had been about 10 days since my last ride, and my body complained about it, but I did it. Ended up getting caught after sunset, so I had to have Earl come pick me up at the end of the trail, rather than riding home. Today I mowed the lawn for the last time of the year and Earl and I put the lawn furniture away. It’s been a wonderful summer. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to next summer. I’m going to do that week-long bike ride next year. And I’m going to train for it all winter long.
I gotta say that I love the fall though. The crispness in the air. The way the leaves sound when the chilly wind blows through them. To me, there’s something very spiritual about the fall. The month of October always feels so mystical to me. Like there’s a certain magic in the air. It’s something that I only feel in October. Summer is too hot and heavy. Spring is full of the bloom of life. In the winter, Mother Earth is resting. But there’s something about Fall that I find so moving. I spend much more time outdoors, even at night in the fall. I don’t care that I have to bundle up. I don’t care that I can’t wear shorts. I just need to be outside.
As I was bike riding yesterday and mowing the lawn today, I found my thoughts drifting to my spirituality a little more than usual today. I really want to get involved with a Novus Spiritus study group here in Upstate N.Y. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Gnostic Christianity. It all makes so much sense when you really think about it. It frightens me how “Joe Public” can tend to put such a human face on God. Why would God want to punish his creations to eternal “hell” just for being different? Just for being themselves? It doesn’t make sense. I laugh when I think about Dr. Laura saying that God “made a mistake” when He made people gay. O.k., let’s take that one step further. If God made a mistake when he made gay people, how are we to know He didn’t make a mistake when He was telling his disciples what to put in the Bible? How do we know He wasn’t making a mistake when He made man? God doesn’t make mistakes. But Dr. Laura does. She’s human. He’s not. What also amuses me is when the Catholic Church said that if you ate meat on Friday, you were going to hell. Then they decided that you could eat meat on Friday. What about the people in hell? Do they get a “get out of hell for free” card? There’s God making a mistake again. “You can come up now.” Please. God is all-loving, all powerful. He’s not human.
We never made it to Syracuse this weekend. We ended up going to the Remsen Barn Festival on Saturday – which is a big street festival with crafts and food and everything. Earl and I have gone every year we’ve been together. We bought some of those canned recipes – the canning jars with all the ingredients for something yummy – you just add oil or water or whatever and bake it. Today I made “beer bread” and brownies. Both came out wonderfully. We also bought some Champagne and Garlic mustard that is out of this world.
I’ve been trying very hard to get rid of my Central N.Y. flat accent and trying to sound a little more distinguished when I speak. I think I’m focusing on Canadien radio too much or something, because Earl said I was sounding very southern-Ontario. Which I think is delightful. I love the way Canadiens speak. Kind of like Gwenyth Paltrow losing her British accent, I suppose.
Speaking of her – we pay-per-viewed “The Royal Tenenbaums” last night. Very dark, but enjoyable nonetheless. I don’t know if I’d watch it twice, but I think we enjoyed it.
I’m going to call it a night!
