Dollars and sense.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this postI used to read Rachel Lucas' blog back when I first started blogging.
(What was that, 2002? Geez.)
I thought she was funny. There weren't as many blogs online then, and she was my first samplin' of wicked funny cool conservative.
"Ha!" I said to myself, confusing the point of conservative thinking with some kind of false battle between cool/celebrity/liberal vs. stuffy/conservative/Bible-thumpers. "I can be conservative and not be an uncool doormat!"
Then she had a long post about why she wasn't blogging. It was long. And not funny. Sort of whiny, like the blog posts I write on my "poor me" days -- you know, 95 percent of this blog.
Then she was back.
Then she was gone.
Somewhere in that cycle, of which I lost track, I:
- Didn't find her funny.
- I moved on from caring if I was cool.
- I decided my definition and what qualified as cool needed work, anyway.
- I didn't actually want to be aligned as either a conservative or liberal. I found plenty on both "sides" that both interested and repelled me.
- I finally -- FINALLY -- realized that being conservative didn't mean you were a follower of Christ and that swearing some kind of allegiance to a cause other than Christ was wrong.
- Realized constant swearing and insults didn't actual enliven the topic.
- Wondered why male and female bloggers kept running ads with busty women in tight Ronald Regan T-shirts, holding guns, wondering what message they were trying say.
- Couldn't depend on her blog not leaving a dead link on my blogroll.
"Rachel Lucas. She was funny," I thought, and clicked over. Nostalgia. I had fond memories of how she would write sentences. With. Frequent. Punctuation. For. Effect. I remembered her post about George Clooney, and how he was an "asshat."
It was funny. She was funny.
The first post I read upon opening her site? "Why I don't want kids? Let me count the dollars."
After reading the post, I again remembered why I stopped stopping by.
I'm certainly not going to launch into a paragraph of pity, asserting that surely Ms. Lucas is trying to make light of inner pain -- I highly doubt that to be the case and I assume it would be rather insulting to such a well-known and respected blogger to attach such words or emotion to her.
I also don't plan on launching into a long-winded post about selfishness, shortsightedness, the love of money and the root of evil, the "modern" woman, views on part of the purpose of life, views on the importance of life, the use of pets (dogs especially) as stand-ins for children, looking out for personal ease and pleasure, or takers vs. givers.
The post speaks for itself, as does the previous sentence.
Labels: blogging, links, lists, women
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 8/16/2007 02:31:00 PM
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2 Comments:
Yes, Julie, your penultimate sentence speaks for itself beautifully.
I've been on a similar political journey. I finally -- FINALLY -- realized that being conservative didn't mean you were a follower of Christ and that swearing some kind of allegiance to a cause other than Christ was wrong. Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!
And I am totally offended by the Ann Coulter/Rachel Lucas nasty voice of conservatism. I was once (in the early 90s) going to write a political novel, a futuristic vision in which the Democrats had completely become anti-Christian socialists and the Republicans had become anti-Christian libertarians. It was perfectly okay to be a "Christian" (which had become meaningless), but any sort of Bible-believing Christian was persecuted under the name of "Fundamentalist."
Seems I guessed right, eh?
By 
Keith Schooley, at
16/8/07 15:59
"I finally -- FINALLY -- realized that being conservative didn't mean you were a follower of Christ and that swearing some kind of allegiance to a cause other than Christ was wrong."
People who think the Lord gives them license to be crass, self absorbed, foul mouthed, intellectually pompous, and conservatively self righteous have discarded the New Testament as their guide and adopted their own entertaining whims as directive.
And while we enjoy a genre that allows the flesh to be paraded and applauded, the people of Central America (for instance) do not benefit from any of our American way of using our Christianity as a break from boredom.
Anyone who cannot avoid cursing on their blog surely uses more serious vulgarity in their personal lives. And if you are pro-life you can be judgmental, smug, and pompous and many Christians will laugh and applaud you - Coulter. God is not laughing.
This has struck a nerve because it is so easy.
By Henry (Rick) Frueh, at
16/8/07 16:41
