Seeing the world for what it is — Children’s Stories

the silly green alligator

Many of us grew up on the classic Grimms Fairy Tells and such… complete with ‘realistic’ violence.

However, when it came to raising our own children… the books that were available were sanitized versions ni which all of the characters lived ‘politely ever after.’

Recently, I had the opportunity to read our local paper written by Jill Kelley of Cox News Service. She somewhat lamented how ‘fairy tales have changed.” I couldn’t help but wonder whether her revelation occurred  before or after her son ‘gasped’ as he watched a PBS show in which someone called someone else ‘stupid.”

Now, I am not ready to drag children through the grimey and violent world that life can be… but we must recognize that understanding that some bad things in the world exist is not at all a bad thing. Most of the problems in the world — seem to me — to be caused by peoples inability to see what is unfolding before their eyes… not because some people see things that don’t exist. Reality is sometimes stares us in the face… and children should be exposed to life incrementally.

I was fairly disgusted with what I read in the bookstores… so much of it was soooo nice… so I embraced the challenge by writing a series of ‘action adventures’ of a favorite animal friend of my daughter Kristin… ‘the silly green alligator.’ I won’t bore you with the details… let’s just say that the alligator did what alligators like to do… eat things… and Kristi ( as I called her then) would be the heroine and ‘rescue’ her cute animal buddies… often violently.

Some people say that this is why she went to West Point, became a combat engineer and likes to play with explosives…. but I say that it is pure coincidence.

I did ensure that my young ladies experienced all the masculine joys of cooking, sewing, cleaning house… as well as the typically feminine activities, such as, martial arts, violent video games, computers, climbing on roofs to watch the stars, football fandom and ‘action’ movies.

 My daughters see the world for what it is… not a perfect place, but a place where they can make their own heaven or a hell…. one brick at a time. It starts by seeing the world honestly…..

 Roger Freberg

When Men & Women Diet

when a man diets... what he is willing to give up

 We all know what happens when women in a family diets… that means EVERYONE diets… or at least it means that YOU have to learn how to cook… and always hide your ‘satisfied’ look of rapture after eating a wonderfully ‘unhealthy’ meal.

Men, when a woman diets it means that you must sacrifice as well… and here are a few tips to show that you are supportive of their dietary quest… As you can see above… the choices of what foods to cut out are easier that you think.

1) If you must give up grains — as in bread — substitute with other things made from grain… such as beer.

2) Anything green can be discarded… if you haven’t already done so. Get your vegetables by consuming four legged vegetarians.

3) Become a secretive eater… you can do this best by joining organizations that meet in secret around meal times.

4) Praise the dieters as to their mental strength, courage, fortitude… it’ll keep them distracted from the fact that YOU are really NOT on a diet.

the dieters!Just a few ideas… to help you through THEIR diet.

 

WOW! I thnik those are real monsters bergers! YUM YUM! Oh…. you say they are really Turkey Burgers?

 

HMMMMM…

 

 

 

Roger Freberg

 

Halloween… a time for kindness

jack-o-lanterns

 

Maybe, it’s because I once worked for two different candy companies (chocolate)… or maybe it’s because I had my own ‘grim reaper’, ‘Spock’ and ‘fox’ canvassing the neighborhood each year, but I have always enjoyed Halloween. It is one of my favorite times of the year.

It is a time in which we can show kindness to children, stranger’s children and just plain strange children.

Year after year, our neighborhood grows grayer and with that less and less children come to call… or at least that is true of many of the homes in our neighborhood. This year, we had a steady stream of young people… some had ‘heard of our house’, or wanted us to remember they came last ‘year or years ago’. You know you are getting old, when your one time trick or treaters’ kids come calling.

See's Candy... simply the bestMany people miss the joy in the eyes and the excitement of children as they place their eyes on a big piece of chocolate…. and it’s free!

I buy popularity.

My secret? I buy See’s Chocolates in bulk… so it really isn’t that expensive… and as long as my ‘competition’ continues to hand out individual ‘tic tacs’… I can still be a hero. The cost of being a hero on this holiday is easy… as compared to Christmas.

Over the years, I have discovered what the REAL favorite bars are… you can see it when you observe what the kids take … when they are free…. and what they leave behind. Nutrageous is still king of the modestly priced bars.

If you are living in an affluent community… you might try Ethel M. Chocolates…. Forest Mars, Sr. really got this one right. Legend says that Forest Senior didn’t want to go down in history as the inventory of SNICKERS and M&M’s… but as a purveyour of quality confection… and in the company named after one of his two mothers ( both named Ethel).. he achieved perfection! Ethel M Chocolates

Next year… instead of watching kids look at their treats and say ,’yuck, raisins!”… go to the next level with something Chocolate that says, ‘thanks for stopping by!’

 

Roger Freberg

 

You’re a Football Widower? …hmmm…

alleged
I found this site of a female football fan… yep, they do exist! I was lucky enough to marry one.

The funniest part of the posting was a curious ‘complaint’ from the husband (pictured above) of being a “football widower! Briefly, the guy goes to his doctor to see what  can be done about this ‘malady’… and finally the doctor asks,”does she have a sister?” Read it for yourself…

Anyway, I’ve blogged on this before.. “Sports… it’s a guy thing” . I pointed out how Eharmony.com seems to have tapped into the need for men to find women who love football… and not the ones who love to drag you to the mall and make their men watch the Oscars.

I had thought of posting blogs of ‘football widows’… but after reading a bunch of these bitter latte sucking mall rats… I thought I’d just pass. However… let’s look at a couple of blogs of real women who love football…

Girly Girl
BostonBrat
She can throw Chairs
Carolina Panthers Fan

Football keeps us together

 

 

And allow me to recognize a few of my family members who love football!

As you can see, we have a few ‘superfans’ her… they were at the game hours before it started!

So whether they are liberal or conservative… if they love football, they can’t be all bad.

 

Roger Freberg

Can women and men EVER be just ‘friends’?

the orignal debate.... can men and women be friends?Ranking up there as one of the top topics on the internet… behind sex, dating and marriage is the simple question:

“Can Men and Women just be friends?”

“when Harry met Sally” the underlying theme is exactly that… “Can two friends sleep together and still love each other in the morning?”.

The movie provides their own sort of answer… but people tend to respond to this question based on what they bring into the situation.

Here’s a few ‘answers’ to the question I found on the internet… but search the net for yourself… some of the solutions are very amusing:

1) I told him/her that I just ‘wanted to be friends’ because I definitely don’t want  to go farther with this person.

2) I told him/her that I wanted to be ‘friends’… because then I would have more access to them … and could bump the relationship up in the future.

3) I told him/her I wanted to be friends because that’s like saying,”let’s do lunch’, then I would never call.

I think the following is the best lines of the ‘When Harry met Sally”:

Harry Burns: You realize of course that we could never be friends.
Sally Albright: Why not?
Harry Burns: What I’m saying is – and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form – is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally Albright: That’s not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry Burns: No you don’t.
Sally Albright: Yes I do.
Harry Burns: No you don’t.
Sally Albright: Yes I do.
Harry Burns: You only think you do.
Sally Albright: You say I’m having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry Burns: No, what I’m saying is they all WANT to have sex with you.
Sally Albright: They do not.
Harry Burns: Do too.
Sally Albright: They do not.
Harry Burns: Do too.
Sally Albright: How do you know?
Harry Burns: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally Albright: So, you’re saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?
Harry Burns: No. You pretty much want to nail ’em too.
Sally Albright: What if THEY don’t want to have sex with YOU?
Harry Burns: Doesn’t matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.
Sally Albright: Well, I guess we’re not going to be friends then.
Harry Burns: I guess not.
Sally Albright: That’s too bad. You were the only person I knew in New York.

Well, this all is a bit over the top, but for those of you who BELIEVE that men and women COULD BE friends… think of it this way, scientists have shown that men think about sex every 51 seconds… so some of the spare time could be used to think about making friends…

However, all is not lost, there are some environments where men and women work together and it appears that a good working relationship or ‘friendship’ evolves… such as in the army. However, it is important to remember that the penalties for crossing the friendship line in the military are severe… you can get kicked out for adultery alone.

So it really depends on what efforts are in place to support workplace discipline. To make this point clear my wife (and friend) Laura in her psychology class will say that almost any behavior can be modified or changed with the right reward and punishment scheme. Imagine — she says — that it is determined that illegal parking warrants capital punishment… students will respond saying,’well …. it’s only 25 miles…. and it’s a good day for a walk!’

‘Platonic friendships’ can also work bnetween men and women… but it requires more effort than most realize…. and usually the right environment.

Here’s what other folks are saying on this very popular issue:

MedicineNet.com
Psychology Today
from a Christian Perspective
Confused
from Cosmo

There’s literally a ton of stuff on the net… Google showed over 36 million entries… I don’t have quite enough time to view them all… but from my observation, it could be summarized that a woman would be fortunate to have the following real male friends in her life… 1) her husband 2) her father 3) her brothers and possibly 4) other related men. Outside of this small universe, I haven’t seen it happen.

So, for now, let’s just be friends.

 

Roger Freberg