The face of change

Autumn has come to the flat lands. And just when you start to think it's all about the colors, look around for the textures. This past weekend I was hiking with a friend through a prairie field. In the distance were beautiful trees dressed in their wonderful colors of orange, red and yellow. As we stepped to the edge of the trail to look at the wild grass, these seed pods caught my eye. Their dead, gray orbs stood in stark contrast against the warm grasses. Autumn felt more dimensional with this discovery. It's not just the leaves that are changing with the seasons. Everything is changing.

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Here it is, your moment of zen.

Testing - testing - testing

I am attempting to load a small video clip to this blog entry. It is an entry that means nothing - it's only a test.

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Here it is, your moment of zen.

MY MOM - AGENT OF CHANGE

     I suppose most folks think of October and autumn as the end of things. The growing season is finished in the garden. Summer is over.... real over! And the kids have gone back to school... the party's over! They don't call it "fall" for nothing. It's easy to get a little depressed this time of year. Even with the autumn
sunlight being so vibrant, depression can sneak up on a person like some ghoul out of a horror house.  
     Yet, for some reason, I've been thinking about change lately. My husband and I were watching "This Week" on ABC this past Sunday morning. They were hosting a special with a title of "Does America Fear Muslims?"  (or something like that). It was a very interesting question and answer session with about 100 people taking part - either as experts  on Islam - either pro or con or as audience members.
     Somehow, I got to thinking about my mother. I grew up in a religious section of the country... namely the south.  And what I am about to say may sound old fashioned or slanted or something but sometimes I think that what some parts of the Muslim world are experiencing can be related in someway to what my mom and the women of the 50's were experiencing before things started to change.
     When I was a little girl, my mom stayed at home with us kids. Then she decided that she wanted to have a job. She wanted her own money as my dad did not see the importance of having the things that she did, (like an indoor toilet).  And I can remember the two of them "discussing" her having a job. His argument was that he was the breadwinner, she didn't need a job. Her argument was that the baby was just a couple of years from going to school and opportunity was knocking. They went round and round....  and mama got a job.
Well, dad settled in on the idea of his wife working.  He wasn't totally ridiculed by his peers, as he'd feared, about his uppity, working wife. Truth be known, his peer's wives were getting jobs too.
     Then came pant suits in the 60's! That fashion trend rolled into town and my mom was thoroughly ready to hop aboard! She loved pant suits! And she wanted to wear pant suits. This caused a BIG argument between my mom and dad. My dad was the only one wearing the pants in that relationship! At least that was his stand on the subject!  I am not sure how my mom won that argument but she did wear pant suits from then on. And not only did she look marvelous, but nobody would have mistaken her for a man.
     So how does this relate to the Muslim world? Well, I remember hearing or reading that the  leader of the September 11 tragedy left instructions that no women were ever to step foot or come near his memorial or attend any memorial services for him. He left all kind of anti women instructions. So how much of the anti-west thinking is a result of the friction that is resulting from the Muslim women craving change?
I don't think that the majority of Muslims are anti women but the hard core ones are running scared. Is this their pant suit moment?

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Here it is, your moment of zen.