The Christianville Spirit: Fear of Difference

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Makes You Wonder

January 25th, 2017-TCS # 530

Howdy, My Readers! That is Texan for Hello. So, Whenever The Late Joan Rivers wanted to talk about something deep and meaningful, She was always say “Let’s Talk”. So, “Let’s Talk”. So, It really bothers me to say this but There is a lot of Hate going around across Everyone and Across The World. Blame it on The World Leaders, The New US President, or A Certain Group of People, but I would rather not. I blame it on Something that is NOT Political nor should it be. Really, It should fascinating as to Why. So, Why exactly? Because of Something called Fear. As in Fear of either another Person or Culture. Now, Fear comes in Many Ways. I hate to Watch Scary Movies, More because of Distress than Fear. You can be afraid of People of Special Needs too, believe it or not. I am not because I have Special Needs.

 Although, In High School, There was a Girl in a Wheel Chair that was, To Say The Least, Overweight, but It was because She had a Special Need called Pica, Meaning that They eat Everything and Anything, They can’t help it. Imagine that, Any Time You went Anywhere, You saw Something that You just wanted to Eat, even if It was not Food. Annyway, People including of My Friends, ridiculed her, Not having a Clue why She was Overweight, for all They knew, She was Fat (Pardon The Expression). Yes, Even I looked at Her a lot wondering Why She looked that way and I was afraid to talk to Her because of a Fear of Myself being Ridiculed. Eventually, I did get up The Nerve to talk to Her and Ask her why in The World as She like that. “Pica” She told me, It took a while for Me to figure it out but, I did not care. She and I actually became Good Friends and I would help Her with Anything that She needed. So, Yeah, Fear happens to Everyone. 

 The Biggest Fear that I feel that People have, are those of Different Cultures. Why? Well, Because of The Word, Foreign. They are Foreign, as in Not like Us. Not like Us, meaning Americans, Canadians, Europeans, and Yes, even The Group of People who We are Fearing in The First Place! We are as Scared of Them, as They are of Us. I bet That Girl I mentioned was afraid of Me coming to talk to Her and She did not know if I was going to be Supportive and Curious, or Mean and Hateful, You don’t know. You just hope for The Best. Perhaps The Reason of Fear is that We are Afraid, but at The Same Time, Curious. But, Too Afraid to ask. So, Who are You afraid of? That Brings me to the other Reason of Fear, Stereotype. Yes, Some Stereotypes are Funny because You know that Most of Them are True. 

So, Let’s do a Quick Tour of The Curious World (without Fear). So, The Top Fear of Americans would be those who seem to be Different. Whether They eat or don’t eat Certain Foods, Drink Alcohol or not, Dress and/or Look a Certain Way, Skinny or Overweight, Short or Tall. Now, Yes, There are “Bad Apples” everywhere. but, Not All People are Bad. So, Being a Worldly Person, I am trying to learn about Different Cultures, What makes us The Same and What makes us Different.

 What do I know and/or Curious about, a lot of Things, What I do know is The Media tends to stir up Fear. What I want is for People to Love each other and The World at Peace.  That Fear barrier is there for Many People. Now, That Reason Why, at least, for Me is that I would not want to ask a Question about Why People do XYZ and They get Offended. Truth is, like I said, They are as Scared of Offending Us as We are Them. It makes me wonder, What it is it about Us that They find Odd. My Guess, Our Food and Large Meals maybe? 

We have Fears but, Really it is that We are Curious about Other Cultures and Different People like for Example; I have always been curious about My Friends from India.

So, India; They have Tech Support, Bollywood (Which is an Indian Version of “Hollywood”), and Pre-Arranged Marriages. Very Interesting! But, The Things that I feel that Indians would want you to know the most is that They hold the Animal known as The Cow Sacred. And Yes, in High School, for Geography Class, We once Watched a Bollywood Movie to see what It was like and One of My Friends made us Vegetable Curry which was Really Good.

Indians, I feel, like Their Movies to be Ceremonial with Lots of Dancing. Their Weddings are Very Much like that. Now, again, I love to know about Why They hold The Cow sacred or The Dancing in The Movies. Also, Answer them as to What They would want to know about Our Culture. Exchange of Differences, Makes Great Friends. Although, not all The Time. But, You hope that it does! 

The Next Country is Thailand. Now, I am not afraid of Thailand because I want to see it personally. What I know about Thailand is that They have Great Food, Thai Royalty is a Big Deal, and Buddhism is the Religion of The Country. The Oddest Thing that I have heard that They do is that They have Festival which They feel that in order to Connect with Some of The Buddhist Gods, They stick objects in their Faces and Lips. It can get rather graphic but, They believe that that is a Way to Connect to Their Gods. Not that I would want to see it in Person but, I would be curious about Why They do that. I hope to One Day visit Thailand and to see all The Culture that They have there. 

And, Finally, We end Our Short World Tour with Asia in General. Japan is Very Technologically Advanced; South Korea is too, They have Interesting Food there to say the least. Not sure if There is much fear about Asia.

All in all, It is all about The Way You see things and Whether You let that Fear control how You see The World. So, Embrace The Good Differences of The World and Don’t be Afraid to ask Someone who is Different than You a Question about Their Culture, Appearance, or Yes, even if they have Special Needs. Just Love!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Wrap Your Arms around The World. Love Everyone!

The Christianville Spirit: About The Airplane Gods

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Makes You Wonder

January 18th, 2017-TCS # 529

Hallo, My Readers! So, This is a New Greeting and A Very Easy One! It means Hello in German, most likely Swiss German. Did I mention that My Mom’s Side of The Family is Part German and Part Italian? I think I mentioned that a Time or too. In case I have not, My Mom’s Side of The Family is German/Italian and My Dad’s Side is Part Puerto Rican. By The Way, I learned the Swiss German “Hello” from a Book I am reading about Someone Ex-patting to Switzerland, I will let you know more about it, as I continue Reading It. It is called Swiss Life: The 30 Things I Wish I’d Known If You want to Read It Yourself! So, onto This Week’s Newsletter! So, In My “Happy New Year 2017” Newsletter (Refer to That Newsletter), I had Mentioned about Hoping to Travel a lot and Something that I referred to as Airplane Gods. Now, Folks! I want to let you know now, Anything I say in This Newsletter is not to Offend or To Sound Sacrilegious, but Believe Me, Everyone has thought of This anytime They Travel. So, Airplane Gods, What are they? Most People refer to Them as “Travel Gods”, but for Me, It is Airplanes Gods. They are The Gods responsible for Preventing The Airplane Traveller from Certain Annoyances while Flying. Now, For The Record, I do not mind Flying, It is Quick, Fast, and Gets You where You need to go. Honestly, I prefer Driving, but that is just Me. In The Times that You can’t drive or It takes too Long to Drive, It is better to Fly. So, The Airplane Gods, depending on a lot of Things, can be Really Good (Hello Free Upgrade, First Class, and Window Seat. Ohhh Yeah!) to Not-So-Great (Loud or Annoying People, a Very Long Flight, and a Crying Baby and/or Toddler). So, What makes a Perfect Airplane God flight for Me. 

Well, I think My Biggest Concern with The Airplane Gods that be, are Babies and Toddlers. Now, Yes, I know Sometimes, Parents of These Kids do not have an option of Where to Sit, Although These Days, IF They want to Pay More They can select a Seat that Helps Them The Most. I am told that It is the Bulkhead on International and Front of The Plane (Average), nearest to The Bathroom for Domestic. People have Their Reasons for Why, Mine is because I don’t like People or Animals in Distress. To Me, Hearing a Baby crying or Toddler crying is them being in Distress and I feel helpless because I would like to help them. I have heard that IF You have to sit near a Baby or a Toddler, Most People say, The Baby because, There are Ways to help The Baby in both the Parents end and the Helpers end. Toddlers, not so much. they will more than likely Kick the Seat if They are Bored! So, In My Airplane God Hopes in Flying, Not sitting in Hearing Distance of a Baby or Toddler is at The Top of My List. 

So, The Second Thing on My Airplane God Hope list, Two Words, Window Seat! Now, Come on, Who doesn’t want to sit in The Window Seat? hmm, Perhaps those that are Scared of Flying. I would be happy to trade your Window Seat that You are Dreading for the Aisle Seat, Kind Sir! When I was a Kid, flying on Southwest Airlines (Good Airline!) with My Brother to San Antonio to see My Dad every other weekend, In My Little Mind, It seemed like EVERYONE wanted The Window Seat. Now, baring in Mind that It was Free Seating and Not Assigned like Most Airlines. There were Times when My Brother wanted the Window Seat and So did I, We argued about it. Sometimes, I let Michael do it and Mostly I would get it. Most Likely because He was not Interested in looking out The Window like I am. These Days though, to Get a Window Seat on Assigned-Seat Airlines, You have to Pay more! For Me though, It is worth it! I get to See where We are, See a Town and either know What Town it is or Guess What Town it is. So, as I have learned, on International Flights, Window Seats aren’t The Best because It is Hard to Sleep. or Maybe It is just me because I am so Excited about Where We are going.

That brings me to The Third thing on the Airplane God Hope List only applies to International Flights. You Must Sleeeeep Yes, Folks! For Me, It is as Hard to Sleep on a Plane as it is for Me to Sleep in The Car. This is where I hope that There aren’t Annoying People on The Flight. When We flew to London to go to Stockholm, We had People talking Very Loudly and Kicking My Seat. When We flew to Madrid on Iberia, My Mom and I got to have a Bonus of NO Middle Seat! It was actually Two Seats-Four Seats-Two Seats. It was hard for Me to Sleep even meeting most of My Hopes. 

And, Finally, Let’s talk about The Final Thing on the Airplane God Hope List. Extras In an Ultimate Dream, I would Love to Ride in Business or First Class going on an International Flight. I would Love to Ride on a Double-Decker Airplane to really get a feel of How Big It Is! When It comes to Boarding The Plane, It take me a little longer to get in and get situated and It can bring some Anxiety, so I have now started boarding The Plane first so that I can get My Self Situated and that has really helped to calm My Anxiety of trying to get situated without People getting upset with Me. Now, I don’t have to Worry about People trampling Me because I am slower when I am getting My Stuff up. All in all, That is My Airplane Gods Hope List. What’s Yours?

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Next Time You have to Fly, Talk to The Airplane Gods

The Christianville Spirit: The Three Pillars of Faith

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Makes You Wonder

January 11th, 2017-TCS # 528

Aloha, My Readers! That is New Greeting or At Least, I think it is anyway. In case It is a New Greeting, It means Hello in Hawaiian. So, I am sure that You remember me mentioning very briefly in My 2016 Year-In-Review about a Relative of a PTLS Family Member passing away. So, As Hard as It is to Write a Newsletter about This Person, because This Person named Faith was a Person of Utter Brilliance. To be Honest, I am a little bit in disbelief that Such a Person like Faith passed away. You See, She actually passed in November of Last Year but, Because it was The Holidays, I did not want to dampen The PTLS Family Members’ Christmas, and I did not want to write about Something Depressing during The Holidays and Out of Respect for Her Family. It kinda dampened My Own Holiday in some way because She was that Amazing. Yes, Folks! THAT Amazing, up there with a few like My Mom; Lynee’s Mom, Dona; and, Faith. So, What gave me This Idea, to write about Her? Well, One because I saw that Newsletter that I had written about My Mom’s High School Friend, Cindy Lockwood (Refer to That Newsletter), and Two because I feel that Faith herself deserves this. I am going to tell you, not of Her Passing but, What She was either Good at or Loved to do. I present to You what I am referring to as “The Three Pillars of Faith”. 

So, Faith Thompson, Mother of PTLS Member, Danielle and Daughter, Melissa, to Top all Things, The First Pillar, Family and PTLS. The One major thing that She absolutely lived for was Her Family. Sure, She loved Everyone including Her Loving Husband and Two Daughters, but, She loved someone more! Her Grandson, Grayson. It just so happens that The Thompson Family would have a Twist of Fate of Epic Proportions, Her Grandson, Grayson turned out to have a Unique Syndrome known as Potocki-Lupski Syndrome. You bet they were Thinking, What in The World Is That?! After information was Learned and attended a PTLS Conference, Faith Thompson took Grayson’s PTLS by The Horns! She did not just go with it, like People do, She RAN with It. She would Take Care of Grayson, literally any chance that She got, With Glee! More Information to Learn and Teaching herself about PTLS through My Mom and I but, Most Importantly through Watching Grayson grow. So, after a While of Observing, Faith was ready for Action. Action Movie, Folks!  Faith decided to wear a Shirt with The PTLS Logo, using Her Favorite Colors, Pink and Green. By The Way, Pink was always her Favorite Color and Green, from PTLS was Her Inherited Favorite Color. I remember once that She actually stood in front of Her Church and Proudly showed off Her Faith-ized PTLS Shirts to Raise Money for PTLS! Because She was Dedicated and Determined to Raise Money for The PTLS Foundation. I actually saw a Picture of It, thought Nothing of it at the Time but, I knew that She was One Proud Grandma! Now, The Conferences, She would be at Grayson’s Side, most of The Time and Of Course, doing what She does Best, Observing.  She would Observe and Be Proud and vice versa, Wondering and Always Wondering about PTLS and How She could help even more in Raising Money for The PTLS Foundation. She probably could Wonder a lot about What was going on in not only Grayson’s Head, but Other PTLSers’ Heads as Well. There is more of course, than PTLS and Family to Faith, but That was The Biggest Pillar in Her Life.

 The Second Pillar, I will Call, Sporty, Aren’t We?! Okay, so Faith was not THAT Sporty but, There was One Sport that She loved in Her Latter Life. A New Sport, known as Paddle Boarding! If There was One Thing that She loved in Her Free Time, that was it! I personally have never done it, but Faith told me that It was totally worth it! Yes, It is a Tad Challenging and A Little Harder than It looks because it requires a lot of Exercise, but Totally Worth It! Honestly, that is What I will miss about Her, but Maybe that was because She told me that She would teach me how to do it. Anyway, Again, She took This New Sport of Paddle Boarding by The Horns! Just like She did with Grayson and His PTLS! She found out that, No You don’t always have to do Paddle Board leisurely and Nice anndd Sloow. Actually, You can Paddle Board Race as well! Once Faith got the Hand of Paddle Boarding, again that Action Movie Faith came out and Thought, “I don’t want to JUST Paddle Board Nice and Slow! Nah! I want it Faster!” and, Faster She did. She and Her Pink Paddle Board (There is that Pink again, Folks!) did Several Paddle Boarding Races! I believe She even did one on a Big Lake in The Rain! She loved it either way! Perhaps, Her Spirit will guide me to a Soft Lake and Help Teach me how to Paddle Board myself. I think it would be Fun. So, The Third Pillar is kind of Minor compared to Pride of PTLS and Grayson but, I figured that It is worth mentioning! 

The Third Pillar of Faith, I will call For The Love of Food! Now, Yes, Any Human loves the Thought of Food, It makes their Mouth Water. But, With Faith, She liked Food of all kinds but, If She had to pick a Favorite, It would be Cuban Food. Well, Maybe because Faith’s Family, not The Thompsons, are Part Cuban. Anyway, I remember that Faith loved Cuban Food. In Fact, We went to a Cuban Food place when We saw her at Christmas of 2015. I probably mentioned in My Newsletter then, Refer to That Newsletter. Maybe She loved The Taste of a Good old Cuban Sandwich, The Rice, The Meat, What is not to Love about that?! I would guess that She loved The Cuban Sandwich the most. All in All, Faith was a Brilliant Woman and We lost her way to soon. She will always be in Our Hearts anytime that Ourselves feel like Observing, Being Proud, Paddle Boarding (or Watching It) or Maybe enjoying a Good Cuban Sandwich.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Life is like a Movie, You pick The Genre!

The Christianville Spirit: Happy New Year 2017

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Makes You Wonder

January 4th, 2017-TCS # 527

Welcome Back, My Readers! I would Love to Welcome You to Another Year of Inspirational, Encouraging, and Newsletters about Things that Just make you Wonder in The Year to come! But first, Happy New Year and Welcome to 2017! By The Way, The Tagline for 2017 is The Spirit that Makes You Wonder. Now, You start to Wonder, see What I did there, Who came up with This Tagline? Well, actually I did. Yes, Okay, I forgot the Tradition of Asking for Feed Back and Suggestions for The New Tagline as I do Every Year, but Time got ahead of Me and I chose it Myself. I chose it because My Newsletters this year will You Wonder, Ponder about The Topic at Hand that I am writing about.  

Boy, I’m sure that Some of You are Happy to hear those words, Happy New Year and Welcome to a New Year, The Year of 2017. Yes, I know to some of You, You just could not wait until 2016 was over and Now, You get to start a New Year. So, Here comes a Question that How do You exactly Start a New Year. Well, You count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...Happy New Year! Right? That is all You do, Roll The Credits. Well, Sorry to Scratch The Record here, buuuuuttt, It does not stop there. You actually have to do stuff! So, How then? Well, People do New Years in Different Ways! I learned that in Madrid, Spain; People gather in front of Their TVs or at Puerta Del Sol (sort of like Times Square, only More Architecture). Anyway, Just before Midnight, They listen to the Clock Tower and with Each Gong of The Bell, They eat a Grape. The Goal here is to Each all 12 Grapes (Each for 12 Months of The Year) with Each Gong for Good Luck. Sounds like a Challenge, I would think. But, Anyway. People use Different Methods of Starting a New Year off. The Things They do are Resolutions, Goals or Plan of The Year, or Starting Out Fresh, Literally.

 So, First Thing that Most People are Familiar with is New Years Resolutions. Some People (and, It is Rarity) are Very Faithful about Making New Years Resolutions. As In, They actually keep their Resolutions and Can say Mission Accomplished at The End of The Year. Most People, however do New Year Resolutions and Don’t Get Me Wrong, They try to be Faithful about it but, usually Fail about Mid to The End of January. Common New Years Resolutions are To Stop Smoking, To Be a Better Person, and Most Importantly, To lose to Weight. To Be Honest, I tried that New Years Resolution on The Wii Fit We got one Christmas and I only made it to like, February or something like that. So, I don’t believe in New Years Resolutions for those Reasons. 

Now, The Next Way that People Start a New Year off is like I did Last Year, You set Goals or a Plan for The Year to Accomplish. My Goals of This Year, I really do hope to Finally find The Woman of My Dreams and Of Course, Work on My Independence, Get that Laser Hair Removal because It will help me Majorly with My Independence. That is The Biggest Dent of it, As I wrote about Last Year (Refer to “Dents in Independence” Newsletter). Meet More PTLS Family Members, I am hoping to get France, Sweden (again), and Norway accomplished. Now, I would love to get Australia in there too even if It is a Horrifically Long Flight! Business Class, perhaps? Be on My Side This Year, Airplane Gods, Okay? That would be Brilliant and I will Praise You Forever. Praise The Know-All Airplane Gods! I probably should go into Another Newsletter and Explain about “Airplane Gods”. More on that, Another Time.

The Final Thing that People do to Start a New Year, I do but, Some People do it rather Extremely. So, In High School, I had to be taught about Figurative Language in order to be able to Communicate better with My Peers. They had a Whole Class on it! Anyway, There was one called “Wipe The Slate Clean”, Once I understood what it meant, to Start Fresh or Anew, It became one of My Favorite ones. I tied it to New Years. When You said, Happy New Year, It basically wiped whatever was on My Slate last year, clean. So, With that Said, I usually throw away My Old Year Calendar, Write down My New Tagline, and Flip My “Day Markers” to January and Whatever Day it is. Some People, however, take it a bit Extremely. They would be Okay with Getting rid any Negative Forces (Any and All) from The Old Year even if That Means, Dumping Friends.  They clean Everything on New Years Day so that Everything is Squeaky Clean, or Maybe They completely change their Behavior in a Matter of a Day. Not to say that, that It is a Bad Thing. It can be a Good Thing. But, It can be Good or Bad depending on The Way that They Swing.  So, as You can see People bring in The New Year in Many Different Ways. All in all, I want to Thank all My Loyal Readers for Sticking with Me this long, I am proud to say that We have made it to The 11th Year of Writing and I just want to begin The Year of 2017, by Thanking all of Loyal Readers for Being some Awesome! What does Your New Year look like?

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Happy New Year 2017! Let’s Start Fresh and Make it a Good One!