I saw an exchange on a TV show last night between two women and in my opinion one of the women came off as being a far better human being than the other. While I could see the point one of the women was making, her way of expressing it and a subsequent comment she made to the other woman made me start to dislike her when in the past I liked her and, almost thoughtlessly, agreed with all she said.
Who the women were and what the exchange was about is irrelevant to this Blog, what is of interest to me is that I felt oddly guilty for "taking the side" of the woman I did.
Now I do not know either of these women personally and have no way of knowing what type of people they are. What made me feel guilty was their looks or at least their appearances. To put it bluntly, one was stereotypically attractive, blonde, slim, pretty and (god forbid) kind of nice. The other, overweight, unconventional in looks and (let's be blunt) really mouthy and brash. And yes I felt guilty for disliking the less attractive one even though I felt her to be in the wrong.
How stupid is that!
Is this some previously unidentified reverse prejudice on my part? The good-looking blonde must be by default a dumb bimbo or my world goes slightly askew? The less attractive one must, also by default, have the market cornered on brains or the world is unfair?
I have always thought myself, and tried to be, a person who does not make judgements based on appearances, yet here I was second guessing my reaction based on just that. To make assumption based on appearances, in my opinion, shows a bit of a vacuous thinking, yet there I am.
It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your thinking is beyond reproach and discriminative thoughts are for the less evolved. I guess a little slap in the face is good for us all occasionally, it kick-starts the brain to look a little more objectively at the rest of the population.
Consider me chastised.
Saturday 15 November 2014
Tuesday 11 November 2014
Mad dogs and cyclists
I've been a very absent blogger for a while now, largely due to having two kids under three. Well that's possibly a little misleading. They are in fact fur-kids but they still do seem to cause me to spend less time on-line than I previously did.
So what has made me take to the keyboard again? Well a post that is largely to do with said hairy kids of course.
My daily dog walks have meant I met lots of new people and have made new friends, all of whom have dogs that, like me, they are just a little obsessed with. This means opinions on all things dog related are expressed freely.
One of my dogs is now two the other is 11 months and a complete boof! With limited time to give both the exercise they need some days, I have taken to cycling while he trots or walks beside me. This has been the catalyst for a conversation that has somewhat pissed me off and remind some people just seem to want to live in a little glass bubble.
When I decided on riding with one of my one dogs and walking the other (I can't always walk them together for reasons irrelevant to this rant) I worked out teaching the younger dog was more sensible as he is still learning whereas the older dog is already really good at heel. I started slow, was very cautious, and worked out how best to cope if things go slightly wrong. The result after just over a month is 99% of the time we are completely calm and have absolutely no issues.
The 1% is when we meet his two best dog friends. We can easily ride past all others, these two, no way. He just really wants to get to them and does lose the plot a little, but I am still in control and if need be I can release the leash and he just runs to them and romps. At this point it can get a bit messy as I have to push the bike off the bike path, put it on the stand and either lead him to his friends or retrieve him if necessary. It can look chaotic, but it's not and is very little different to what happens when we meet them while walking.
My pissed off moment came when walking my older dog. I ran into one of the best doggy friends and his human. I mentioned that a couple of days previously I was nearly knocked over, while walking my older dog, by another walkers dog who became over enthusiastic and wrapped it's lead around my legs. I should her the welt the lead made and laughed about the hazards of walking dogs.
Well that gave her the perfect opportunity to launch into the "everyone is always so worried when we see you riding with dog 2". She made it sound as if the entire dog walking community believes I am dicing with death and sooner or later we will come to grief!
Um yeah, sure thing.
What she really meant was that she and the other best doggy friends owner are a couple of old women (despite one being male) and just don't get that it's possible to assess a risk, work out how to do it safely and have lot of fun by doing this.
I'm not a thrill seeker. I do however want to enjoy life and as much as I enjoy walking, I also like to ride and there is not enough time in my day to fit everything in. If I can multi-task that's what I'll do
Sure I've broken a couple of nails, bled a bit and gained some bruises, but we are always safe and despite how it may look I am watching out for hazards constantly and always have enough control to stop and avoid real problems. One day I may have a fall, anything is possible, that's life. In the meantime we are having heaps of fun dog 2 is safer than me as he isn't on the bike and as a bonus I'm getting some cracking thigh muscles :-)
So what has made me take to the keyboard again? Well a post that is largely to do with said hairy kids of course.
My daily dog walks have meant I met lots of new people and have made new friends, all of whom have dogs that, like me, they are just a little obsessed with. This means opinions on all things dog related are expressed freely.
One of my dogs is now two the other is 11 months and a complete boof! With limited time to give both the exercise they need some days, I have taken to cycling while he trots or walks beside me. This has been the catalyst for a conversation that has somewhat pissed me off and remind some people just seem to want to live in a little glass bubble.
When I decided on riding with one of my one dogs and walking the other (I can't always walk them together for reasons irrelevant to this rant) I worked out teaching the younger dog was more sensible as he is still learning whereas the older dog is already really good at heel. I started slow, was very cautious, and worked out how best to cope if things go slightly wrong. The result after just over a month is 99% of the time we are completely calm and have absolutely no issues.
The 1% is when we meet his two best dog friends. We can easily ride past all others, these two, no way. He just really wants to get to them and does lose the plot a little, but I am still in control and if need be I can release the leash and he just runs to them and romps. At this point it can get a bit messy as I have to push the bike off the bike path, put it on the stand and either lead him to his friends or retrieve him if necessary. It can look chaotic, but it's not and is very little different to what happens when we meet them while walking.
My pissed off moment came when walking my older dog. I ran into one of the best doggy friends and his human. I mentioned that a couple of days previously I was nearly knocked over, while walking my older dog, by another walkers dog who became over enthusiastic and wrapped it's lead around my legs. I should her the welt the lead made and laughed about the hazards of walking dogs.
Well that gave her the perfect opportunity to launch into the "everyone is always so worried when we see you riding with dog 2". She made it sound as if the entire dog walking community believes I am dicing with death and sooner or later we will come to grief!
Um yeah, sure thing.
What she really meant was that she and the other best doggy friends owner are a couple of old women (despite one being male) and just don't get that it's possible to assess a risk, work out how to do it safely and have lot of fun by doing this.
I'm not a thrill seeker. I do however want to enjoy life and as much as I enjoy walking, I also like to ride and there is not enough time in my day to fit everything in. If I can multi-task that's what I'll do
Sure I've broken a couple of nails, bled a bit and gained some bruises, but we are always safe and despite how it may look I am watching out for hazards constantly and always have enough control to stop and avoid real problems. One day I may have a fall, anything is possible, that's life. In the meantime we are having heaps of fun dog 2 is safer than me as he isn't on the bike and as a bonus I'm getting some cracking thigh muscles :-)
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