Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

April 14, 2008

 Today’s Announcement

Call for submissions:  Storytime Tapestry is in need of more stories, please keep them coming in.

Help support the continued running of Storytime Tapestry join me on mylot and get paid while we talk to each other and others all over the world:  http://www.mylot.com/?ref=winterose  if the link doesn’t work just cut and paste

From my son Steven Roach:

I was thinking you should advertise the link regularly in your newsletter if the link doesn’t work just cut and paste

 
http://greenhorse.com/join_now.ghc?r=177952857
 
tell them it would help support the newsletter and they can earn money from it. They need to sign up and install it but they don't need to do anything else. They just do what they normally would anyways on the net and they earn money while it’s on. In other words they just keep it running while they are online. It’s small doesn't take up much system resources and they can earn more if they advertise their own link and get people under them as well. Let them know some people make 5-10$ a day on it and its been open since 2002. 

Happy Birthday greetings for Roger Emerson:    

Storytime Tapestry needs more stories, please write them and send them on, if you want to continue having a daily e-zine.

Don’t forget to order your copy of Angels Watching Over Me, the story of an ordinary woman facing less than ordinary challenges.  Angels Watching Over Me is a story of family love, sacrifices, poverty and an undying faith that makes heroes out of all of us. Here is the link in case you have forgotten it: http://www.lulu.com/content/964306

Important notice: Storytime Tapestry is a free e-zine, however donations are always needed to help with the operating expenses of running the newsletter and to keep Storytime Tapestry the quality newsletter you are so accustomed to.   You can make your donations to paypal at: winterose@videotron.ca, or if you would prefer to use the mail system contact the publisher at the same email address: winterose@videotron.ca

 ~**~**~

 Guess I'll have to Apologize

Sharon Bryant

A month ago I noticed a little pimple on the gum of one of my front teeth.  Years ago, more than 30 in fact, I had root canals done on both front teeth.  One recently became infected with a bacterial infection.  I was sent to an oral surgeon for a consultation to see if they could go inside and clean the infection out and I'd be good as new.  I wasn't that lucky.  The infection was growing and I had to go on antibiotics.  Plus I was told even if I had the surgery to clean the infection out, they would not give me more than a year to two years that I would eventually lose the tooth anyways.  It was suggested from looking at the

x-rays, that I have both front teeth removed as the other one was showing signs of getting infection at the root also.

Today was the day to have both my front teeth removed.  A little partial was made three weeks ago so I wouldn't walk around singing, "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth."

My dentist knew I'd had a terrible experience when I had the original root canals done years back by another dentist and I dreaded the shots that would be going into the roof of my mouth.  Gas was suggested, to "relax me" they said.  I'd never had gas before but I was willing to try anything to avoid the pain of those shots in the roof of my mouth.

When I got to the dentist office this morning, my nerves were tied in knots.  My stomach was churning.

My dentist told me everything was going to be ok.  The x-rays showed that my roots were very short and he said it would only take a matter of 3 to 4 minutes to get both teeth removed.  I thought to myself, "Yeah right."

Into the chair I went.  The smiling nurse was cheery but she knew how tensed up I was.  "You ready for your gas?" she asked.  "Well, sure, but I doubt this will work on me," I told her.  "Oh, you're going to feel just fine," she replied.

They put the little cup over my nose.  I felt no difference.  The television was on in the room and it wasn't getting blurry, which I thought it would.  So I told myself, "This gas is not going to work on me, I'm going to feel those dreaded shots."

A few minutes went by and one of my nurses came into the room.  "How do you feel?" she asked.  "I feel fine, the gas is a waste on me," I replied.  She just smiled and walked away. 

I'm not sure what I was thinking of doing, but I think I went to cross my legs in the chair, and my left leg just fell off the chair then my right one did.  In walked my dentist.  "You ready for your shots?" he asked.

"Not yet, the stuff isn't working," I said.  He smiled and said, "Oh, it's working."  I thought he was nuts at that point.

Then I said to him, "Hey doc, you know I've always trusted you and liked you so if this gas ever kicks in and I call you a nasty name, I don't really mean it."  He laughed and said, "That's ok, I'll understand."

He got the needle ready and said, "Ok, we're going for the first shot now."  I remember opening my mouth and saying, "Go on, hurt me, I know you can't help it."  He started laughing.  He was sitting there on his stool and I said, "DO IT NOW!"  He laughed again and said, "I already did it."  I didn't believe him.

"You comfortable in the chair?" he asked.  "Sure," I said.  Then I realized my legs weren't even ON the chair so I tried to pull both up and that was hard to do.

Suddenly I started laughing.  Doc asked what I was laughing at.  I said, "That I'm at the age I can just go in and buy my body parts.  You got any leg legs around here, I could use a new left one." I said.  He started laughing and then, (and I still can't believe I said this) I said, "Hey, you got a set of boobs somewhere in here, I'd like to buy a set."  Everyone started laughing.  They had called my husband in the room and I remember him saying, "I wish I'd have brought the camera with me today."

I guess I wanted to sing so I started singing "All I want for Christmas......" because I could hear others laughing.  My husband was trying to tell me to keep it low, and I told him I WANTED to sing.  So, I sang my song.  Too bad this wasn't December, it would have been a fit number for the season and reason!

The shots didn't hurt, which really surprised me.  The gas was wonderful.  I guess I asked everyone there to have a wine and cheese party because I felt like I'd had 3 rum and cokes already.  My husband was laughing.  (I've never been to a wine and cheese party, so I have no idea where that thought came from).

Being a bleeder, I'm packed good tonight, I have a tiny partial, and when the numbness wore off, an Advil was all I needed for the throbbing.  Back to the dentist in the morning to check me out.  Guess I'll have to apologize for acting like a nut today.

Sharon Bryant

Choklite@bellsouth.net

   ~**~**~

RELIGION IN AMERICA: SHOP UNTIL YOU DROP

Duane Bates

A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life shows that almost 40% of Americans have changed their religion since their childhood, with a growing number dropping any religious affiliation, choosing instead to be classified as agnostic, atheist or “nothing in particular.”  A link to the article is posted below.

The landscape of American religion is made of up many different faiths and non-faiths with about 26% following one of the evangelical Protestant beliefs, 24% the Roman Catholic faith, 18% belonging to one of the mainline Protestant churches, 16% “agnostic, atheist or nothing in particular and the remaining 16% being made up of many different faiths from historically black churches to Mormon, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu.

 A similar change is taking place in political affiliation, with more Americans declaring themselves political independents than Republican or Democrat combined. When I started voting in the 1960s you were either Republican or Democrat and usually voted a straight ticket.  Your political affiliation was usually handed down from your family, along with your religion and socio-economic status.

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Historically, throughout the world, your religion was the function of three accidents of birth:  when you were born, where were you born and to whom you were born too.  But things are beginning to change in many parts of the world, particularity those that are experiencing political, economic and social changes as the result of globalization.

In China, the former nations that made up the Soviet Union, India and Central and South America, the winds of religious changes are blowing strong, out with the old and in with the new.  Not surprisingly, this change causes conflict, with the government as in China and within the population as in India where Hindus converting to Christian faiths has resulted in street riots and violence.  Upsetting or challenging the status quo is always dangerous. Formal, organized religion in Western Europe continues to decline in terms of both attendance and belief, with church attendance below10% in a number of countries.

True individual freedom requires the freedom to change your beliefs, or non-beliefs, without the fear of violence or political, economic and social discrimination. Fifty years ago when I was in high school a Catholic friend, who secretly wanted to change religions, confided to me that her family would literally disown her if she did.  Today I have a friend who is a Methodist who is puzzled as to why her oldest son has become an Evangelical Christian, but she has not rejected or criticized him for his choice. Americans have certainly become more tolerant of religious diversity in the past five decades, even when it involves members of their own family.

Some Americans, however, refuse to accept the concept of religious diversity as a positive indicator of human freedom.  One writer of a letter to the editor in my local newspaper claimed religious diversity was a “despicable creation of Satan” and that religion is the “best tool of Satan to draw people away from Jesus Christ”.  A second letter from another writer states that religions (except for his, of course) “typically enslave rather than enhance human freedom”

Every nation and human society develops traditions, such as a common religion, to enhance group survival and cohesion. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution a radical change has taken place in the view of the relationship between the government and the individual. The concept of human rights is relatively new, and the view that every person has the right to believe or not believe as she or he wishes is even newer. In free societies individuals are no longer seen as disposable cogs on a giant wheel.  Democracy has reconstructed societies from a top down to a bottom up concept although it doesn’t always work that way it is supposed too. If we were to draw a graph of the world’s nations grouping them by degree of individual religious freedom, we would see that those nations with the highest degree of religious freedom also have the highest levels of economic growth and stability.

As long as the basic environment of a society remains stable it works well, but when the environment begins to change, the society must change or risk falling by the wayside. In every society there are those that will insist on clinging to old ways of thinking and behaving even when they are clearly no longer working. Since in most societies the elders generally have the real power, we simply have to wait for them to either adapt to the change or die before major changes can be made.

Economics and technology are now the major driving force in the world, influencing changes in every aspect of our lives, including politics and religion.  The growing religious diversity is a positive sign for human freedom, but it will also continue to create conflict when a society’s leaders still believe their nations can experience economic progress without allowing adaptive changes in other social institutions, including religion.

 Duane Bates

batesduane@yahoo.com

 http://pewforum.org/

Poetry Corner

~**~**~

 Tanja cilia page 3 of haikus

tanjachilja@hotmail.com

Bare rocks, gnarled tree trunks
Arid landscape of my heart
Longing for the rain

Bare trees stand proudly
Knowing that spring will return
To clothe them in green

Bare trunks stand up straight
Giggling when tickled by ants
How I envy them!

 Barely touch my hair
Grazing my cheek with your kiss –
Platonic friendship.

Beauty and tigers
Are both transient yet remain
Deep within my heart.

Beauty cast in stone
Coral on the ocean floor;
Like frozen flowers.

Beauty escapes me
Sorrow and pain are here to stay
The windmill grinds slow

Beauty is a trap
With jaws open to fool us
Through its devious smile.

Beauty in the night
Moonlight on the garden path
Ethereal Sea

Beavers build their dams
Changing the course of rivers –
And of history, too!

Because of the sun
Rainbows colour waterfalls
Beautiful nature.

  Mailbox

Here is our Storytime Tapestry Angels: Also, I would like to thank those of you who chose to be a silent angel and gave an anonymous donation to keep Storytime Tapestry up and running.

Clara Westerfer, Mark Crider, Rosanne Catalano, Paula Booher, Kay Seefeldt, Mariane Holbrook, Mary Ellen Grisham, Louise Nomani, Sharon Bryant, Angela Walker, Hart and Helen Dowd, Keith Ready, Ginger Morgenstern, Ellie Braun-Haley, Surinder Jandu, Bob Shaw, Carol Meeks, Charlotte Hilliard, Marilyn Sink, Victor Buhagiar, Clarice Hinson, Conrad