Our Little Geekling

Hi! I’m going to be participating in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) again this year, posting every day in the month of November. I think, as with last year’s challenge, I’ll start with BlogHer’s writing prompts, since I’ve kind of been off my blogging game lately.

So! *clap clap*

What is your favorite quotation and why?

“Your right to swing your arm ends at my nose.” – Voltaire

This is my favorite quote for several reasons, and here are a few:

-Philosophically I think it says that I am able to do whatever I choose until it negatively affects others.

-As a mom I think it says that my parenting is mine and not yours. I may choose to ignore a tantrum or laugh at my child when she whines, or let her say “booty”, or teach her that Kix are “balls”, and that’s my prerogative. It isn’t negatively affecting your life, and it doesn’t hurt you. Frankly, it doesn’t hurt her, either. And I would never do something I believed hurt her. I don’t agree with some of my friends’ or family members’ parenting styles, but while I may complain or vent about things to friends or Jim, I don’t school others on how they parent.

-As a woman I think it says that my body is mine. No government or other person should be able to tell me what to do with my body. Not even Jim gets to decide what I do. (Of course things like procreation, or abstinence or things that affect him he gets a say in; that’s not what I’m talking about.) This goes further than my private parts, though, and extends to my right to get tattoos because I like them, or decide not to dye my hair anymore. Also how healthy I eat or how much I run or what I do in my free time generally doesn’t have anything to do with others. I’m not going to start smoking pot or snorting coke because that affects my family in many ways. I’m not going to stop eating (fairly) healthy and trying to lose weight because I want to be healthy and set a good example for my daughter, though the choices she makes as she grows are her own (I will always help her when she asks or if I see she is unable to help herself). I love to run, and even though I’m slow I’m not going to stop doing it. Jim doesn’t understand why I like it, but I still do it.

-As a human being who coexists with billions of other people on this planet, I choose to be as kind, helpful, and open as possible. I do have differing opinions than others, especially my family and many local friends as far as politics and religion go. But I don’t automatically bring those up. I do if asked and I do if provoked (example of provocation: my dad making a comment about the “trash” in our yard, referencing our Obama sign), but I don’t try to change the minds of others. As a Christian I have my beliefs, but I don’t and won’t ever force them upon someone. Nor will I judge others for their beliefs (we have a judicial system for judging, and I believe my God will judge where applicable). I believe in universal freedoms and the right to be yourself. (I understand this is often different from one person to the next.)

So your right to swing your arm ends at my nose… and vice versa. Good sentiment, Voltaire.

And, as with last year’s posts, I’ll post a picture of Eriana each day this month. It’s a good way to track her growth and development. And she’s cute.

I left a barefoot baby to go rinse out a diaper and came back to knee-high socks with shorts (and still putting on shoes, but on the right feet!). Poor girl got her mama’s lack of fashion. (And yes, she can put on her own socks, though often it’s touch and go – she gets frustrated and takes them off and on a lot to get them right, rather than just turning them on her feet.)