Old spice

I'm have been doing some research into our culture and how we look at men and women.  I want to ask why we call women "attractive".  What does that mean really? What is an attractant and do you really want to be one? I am thinking of the raw meat they hang above leg traps in order to capture coyotes in the west. What is it that makes us long to be alluring? Is it some deep inner unmet need? Or is it something we have been groomed to do?  Why do you wear makeup?  Do you wear it because you like the art?  Or do you wear it to attract the opposite sex?  If you attract someone because of your makeup... will you have trapped something worth having?

I was reading the label on an Old Spice product which said: "PREPARE TO BE KISSED ON THE BEAK OF MAN POWER"  Really?  It continues by saying, "When your body flesh is covered with HAWKRIDGE body wash there is nothing a woman can do but smell the tingly freedom song of a rapture lullaby and accept that science can not explain the feeling in their hearts."  Really?   Do I want to be captured by a rapture?  They rip the flesh off their victims you know!  This scares me.  I am angry!  I am a human being with value and worth!  I want to be seen, listened to... cherished.  Tell the guys that! Not that I can be wooed out of my senses by the stench of their cologne. 

If we want to be cherished, understand and appreciated for who we are, we need to rethink things starting with the motivation behind what we do... and what others do to attract.

Above all?

I have the coolest app on my tablet.  It is called "audio books". It connects to a free public domain audio book website called Librivox.org. Librivox has a collection of wonderful classics that are read by volunteers all over the world, one of which is the bible.  I am more of an audio learner than a visual one so listening to scripture can do me more good sometimes than reading it.  It's awesome because you can download whole books and then listen to them while you travel. 

So this morning I was listening to James and chapter 5 verse 2 caught my attention.  "But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath: but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; that ye fall not under judgement." I believe the Bible to be a very short book considering it is God's message to us.  I believe that everything in it is important, even the most boring of parts.  I believe that there are many passages and concepts that require great wrestling because they are "hard sayings".  I believe that when it says, "above all" it must really be important.  Here it is, wake up! Here is the most important thing I James am inspired to say to you.  "Do not swear" really???  What makes that important?

I don't believe it means, "Do not say the current offensive words in our vocabulary."  Though I don't believe vulgarity is gentle, kind or loving, swearing in this context is making an oath.  which is way different that having a foul tongue.

So God why is this important? Hmmm The thing that comes to mind for me are all the oaths or promises we make to ourselves like, "I will never let that happen to me again!" or, "I will show him!" In working with women who struggle to get free from past abuses,  I have seen that the vows that are made in response to pain can lead to debilitating lives. It's a trenching in and vying for control but it leads to becoming the very thing that we hate.  If we run from pain, we are manipulated by our fear.  Trenching in is a fear response.  It may feel like standing up but it is really climbing upon the backs of another in order to get out of the muck. 

Letting our yes be yes and our no, no in my mind is a form of being still and simply being.  No pretense, no agenda for anyone else, just breathing and living outside of fear.  That is much harder than it sounds sometimes. :)