I've blogged before about my concern that baby bottles should be glass wherever possible, rather than plastic. I've felt this way for years, even before studies raised concerns about certain chemicals in plastic containers. The LA Times had an article on this recently.
To be honest, I've been worried about the use of plastic for beverages for years. Think about it. Soda and fruit juices are acidic in nature. Plastic is soft. There is going to be some dissolving of plastic into your beverage. There is too much plastic in human ecosystem to be healthy. I grew up in the healthiest generation ever and they all drank from glasses. We also drank more milk (another of my continual health tips) but today I want to urge people to follow my example and use glass bottles and containers wherever possible. When I was a kid we enjoyed saving jam and jelly jars and using them as drinking cups. I still do that. Glass is hard and clean and it does not emit into your beverage. If you must buy plastic containers of beverage, transfer the contents to your own glass jars in your refrigerator. I save glass containers and use them for beverages once I have bought them and brought them home. My mother actually does the same thing, but for a different reason. With arthritis she has trouble handing large milk and orange juice containers. So after shopping at the store, she returns home and pours the large plastic container contents into medium to small sized glass jars with lids that she has collected and are the right size for her. I do it for health reasons. I know darn well that plastic gunk is dissolving (especially in hot warehouses) into our beverages. Don't even get me started about sippy cups for children, made of plastic, and containing acidic fruit juice. While I'm not trying to panic people, I have to share my deep concern that I have had about plastic containers for our beverages for decades now. People read stupid astrology charts to wonder why someone in their family gets cancer, but don't think about how in twenty years people have gone from clean and pure glass bottles to plastic everywhere. I buy Welch's 100% Grape Juice (my favorite juice) in a 24 ounce glass bottle. I pay more but I'd rather not have more plastic injected into my body than necessary. Beverages taste better from glass containers too. Sometimes I have a 10 ounce serving of the Grape Juice (in one of my Smucker's Simply Fruit glass jars I use for everyday drinking) straight and sometimes I mix the Grape Juice half and half with spring water. Yum! Children drink too much beverages sweetened with corn syrup, and that includes "fruit juice," which is not pure, but only usually 10 percent fruit. Buy pure fruit juice in glass containers if possible, and if not transfer it when you get home, and wean children off of too much fruit juice by doing a half and half with water as I do. I urge manufacturers to think about moving away from plastic, or at least offering one product in your line in glass.
Blackburn's line of jelly comes in a wonderful handled glass mug that is 18 ounce in size. I use that size for each serving of milk that I drink. I try to drink milk twice a day, and I'm an adult. One never outgrows the great benefit of milk. There is nothing like cold milk in a clean safe glass mug. Today I bought Shurfine Peach preserves, which I look forward to eating, both for the great product but also because it comes in a great glass, with a pressed quilt pattern design, 18 ounce size. In the 1950's we kids used to love saving the jam and jelly jars and using them as our cups. Manufacturers used to make them with different designs for that purpose. I think my mother still has one with a Roadrunner design on it ha ha. Anyway, I never knew a kid to be unable to handle a small glass (especially if it has a handle), of the right size at the age appropriate time, so safety is really not an issue. Using a glass became a "big girl" or "big boy" rite of passage. So my advice is to try to move away from the ocean of plastic that is enveloping our food and beverages and going along for the ride right into our bodies and systems, compromising our health.
I also always use a glass casserole dish in the microwave. I hate microwaving in the plastic containers for the same reason I mentioned above. Are you serious in believing that those plastic containers when put under the microwave, often containing acidic foods like tomato sauce, do not transfer some plastic molecules into you and your family's bodies? I recommend getting a made in the USA Corning or Hockware glass casserole dish and transferring your microwave food into it before cooking. For years I did all of my cooking in one of those covered glass casseroles.
Yeah, I buy pretty plastic beverage "glasses" (made in China) and know what I use them for? Decorative flowers or holding my paint brushes or colored pencils. Trust me, start to move away from plastic and use more glass. We knew what we were doing in the 1950's and early 1960's.
(By the way, I feel so strongly about this that I buy Coca Cola in the original bottles six pack and pay through the nose as a result. I allow myself one 8 ounce bottle a day. It's a healthy amount, tastes better in those glass bottles, and I'm not thinking about Coke dissolving micro amounts of aluminum cans or plastic bottles from the inside out while waiting to be drank. I wash the bottles and save them. They are great for ice tea and also pretty for modern art display ha ha).
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Annoyed with Israel, as Usual
http://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?id=156800&tDate=9/6/2007#156800
Today in Jewish History
Dove brings Olive Leaf (2105 BCE)
On the 301st day of the great Flood, Noah sent a dove for the 2nd time from the ark (see "Today in Jewish History" for Elul 17). This time, the dove stayed away all day; "the dove came in to him in the evening, and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off; and Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth" (Genesis 8:11).
***
According to the Jewish calendar, today is the day that the dove released by Noah from his ark after the earth was destroyed by flood returned with an olive leaf in her mouth. This was a sign that there was growing land to be found and the flood sent by God was abating.
Today Israeli jets made hostile entry over the northern part of Syria, a land who, without complaint, has been sheltering one and a half million Iraqi refugees fleeing from the mess in Iraq. I think the government in Israel has an odd idea of timing of their aggression, and that they had better start finding some time for Torah and Bible study. Think about it dummies. I know that Israel has become a secular country a long time ago except when it's convenient for them to hassle Christians and Palestinians, but I suggest they not be so cheeky with their timing with God, to send hostile jets on such a significant day in their very own calendar. Doubly annoying as they sent a representative to the Vatican today too. Who are they kidding? Get religious and get serious, if you please. God is watching.
Today in Jewish History
Dove brings Olive Leaf (2105 BCE)
On the 301st day of the great Flood, Noah sent a dove for the 2nd time from the ark (see "Today in Jewish History" for Elul 17). This time, the dove stayed away all day; "the dove came in to him in the evening, and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off; and Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth" (Genesis 8:11).
***
According to the Jewish calendar, today is the day that the dove released by Noah from his ark after the earth was destroyed by flood returned with an olive leaf in her mouth. This was a sign that there was growing land to be found and the flood sent by God was abating.
Today Israeli jets made hostile entry over the northern part of Syria, a land who, without complaint, has been sheltering one and a half million Iraqi refugees fleeing from the mess in Iraq. I think the government in Israel has an odd idea of timing of their aggression, and that they had better start finding some time for Torah and Bible study. Think about it dummies. I know that Israel has become a secular country a long time ago except when it's convenient for them to hassle Christians and Palestinians, but I suggest they not be so cheeky with their timing with God, to send hostile jets on such a significant day in their very own calendar. Doubly annoying as they sent a representative to the Vatican today too. Who are they kidding? Get religious and get serious, if you please. God is watching.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
When King David was Persecuted
While David was powerful as the King of Israel, he suffered for being the chosen of God too. He was oppressed, even as King, for his love of God and obedience to God's will. David had critics and enemies because of his relationship with God. Here are some of David's feelings of pain that he expressed in Psalm 69.
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away...
Because for thy sake I have borne reproach: shame hath covered my face.
I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mothers's children.
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me...
They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of drunkards...
Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries are all before thee.
Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away...
Because for thy sake I have borne reproach: shame hath covered my face.
I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mothers's children.
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me...
They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of drunkards...
Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries are all before thee.
Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake...
Let their habitation be desolate: and let none dwell in their tents...Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
Bible Reading: Chronicles
1 Chronicles 10:8-14, 11:1
And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa.
And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people.
And they put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.
And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it;
And inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.
Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
***
King Saul and his sons fell because he turned from God, who had given him all good, and not only disobeyed God, but sought power through idols and a witch's occult familiar.
And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa.
And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people.
And they put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.
And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it;
And inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.
Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
***
King Saul and his sons fell because he turned from God, who had given him all good, and not only disobeyed God, but sought power through idols and a witch's occult familiar.
Does God Feel Sadness?
I have been asked if God can be sad. The answer is that yes, God can be sad, but not in his complete form in heaven. In heaven there is no sorrow or sadness, because all who have eternal life there are present in their perfected forms where there is only love, no unmet needs, and no regrets. So God in his full form cannot be sad, because he is the entire containment of all that is good and eternal, and there is no lacking.
However, God can be sad in his relationship with specific people. When God interacts with each of his human children, God is perfectly capable of feeling sad about the state of that relationship, and does feel sad, frequently. This is because God is saddened whenever a person is estranged from him, is unhappy in the goodness of life, and/or is in a state of sin. We know this because Isaiah recognized that the Messiah will be "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53, 3). As Pope Benedict wrote, Jesus brought God to us, so that humans can learn more about God the Father and interact with him through Jesus. When Jesus sorrowed over the death of his friend, over the sinful state of the world, and at the rejection of his teaching and ultimately his very life, Jesus showed how God can and does feel sorrow in his interaction with individuals or groups of living humans. When people are cruel to each other, especially to children, God is both sad and furious. We learn this also by observing Jesus and his teachings. However, once one is outside of the earthly life, sadness no longer exists in God or humans, because in heavenly eternal life, there is no lack of any sort that would generate sadness. But to answer the question, yes, God can be sad about how a life is being lived by any of the human children.
However, God can be sad in his relationship with specific people. When God interacts with each of his human children, God is perfectly capable of feeling sad about the state of that relationship, and does feel sad, frequently. This is because God is saddened whenever a person is estranged from him, is unhappy in the goodness of life, and/or is in a state of sin. We know this because Isaiah recognized that the Messiah will be "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53, 3). As Pope Benedict wrote, Jesus brought God to us, so that humans can learn more about God the Father and interact with him through Jesus. When Jesus sorrowed over the death of his friend, over the sinful state of the world, and at the rejection of his teaching and ultimately his very life, Jesus showed how God can and does feel sorrow in his interaction with individuals or groups of living humans. When people are cruel to each other, especially to children, God is both sad and furious. We learn this also by observing Jesus and his teachings. However, once one is outside of the earthly life, sadness no longer exists in God or humans, because in heavenly eternal life, there is no lack of any sort that would generate sadness. But to answer the question, yes, God can be sad about how a life is being lived by any of the human children.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Bible Reading: Baruch
Baruch 3:9-14
Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life; give ear, that thou mayst learn wisdom. How happeneth it, O Israel, that thou art in thy enemies' land. Thou art grown old in a strange country, thou art defiled with the dead; thou art counted with them that go down into hell. Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom; for if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou hadst surely dwelt in peace for ever. Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding; that thou mayst know also where is length of days and life, where is the light of the eyes and peace.
***
"Israel" is directly aimed at today's culture of death, depravity, and "spiritual" hypocrites.
Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life; give ear, that thou mayst learn wisdom. How happeneth it, O Israel, that thou art in thy enemies' land. Thou art grown old in a strange country, thou art defiled with the dead; thou art counted with them that go down into hell. Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom; for if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou hadst surely dwelt in peace for ever. Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding; that thou mayst know also where is length of days and life, where is the light of the eyes and peace.
***
"Israel" is directly aimed at today's culture of death, depravity, and "spiritual" hypocrites.
Surgery anniversary coming up
On September 14, 1994 I had to have a hysterectomy. A few days earlier a friend had rushed me to the hospital ER. It turned out I had a semi detached fibroid that had twisted and cut off blood supply to my pelvic area. In the course of torturous tests, during which I had no pain medication for eleven hours, the fibroid untwisted itself enough that I could wait for a scheduled surgery instead of an emergency team.
My ex-husband was kind enough to visit me when I came out of the operating room. I had no family, as they were all remote. I had some good friends, and they called, though several made very odd remarks, which they thought I did not notice, but I had. These were the friends who believe in reincarnation and New Age babble, and they basically told me I had "asked for this" to happen to me. I would not say that to a spayed dog, so that says more about their character than mine (or my imagined character, in their eyes.)
Something was botched in this surgery and six months later I was under the knife again, and treated even worse, coming out severely infected and permanently scarred and deformed in my abdomen wall.
I'm not one to dwell on the tragic since many people have suffered even more than I. Some years would go by and I'd not even think of the anniversary of the surgeries as they passed by. I'm not a "whining on the anniversary of the Titanic" type of person, so I didn't even recall the dates of the surgery for many years. But oddly enough, it eats away at the minds of other people and they obsess about it. For example, I was shocked when last year, during a visit to EWTN, a priest who did not even know me criticized me to my face for having a hysterectomy, during a "healing mass." Do priests have nothing better to do than gossip? I had only attended the healing mass to help pray for those who were there, and was flabbergasted to see that someone had told this priest about me and find myself being scolded for surgery I could not avoid. That was one of the last Masses I attended; you can see why. He sinned when he did that. I made a decision a long time ago not to be a lightening rod or bait for other people sinning. I hold the Mass in my heart and when there is a Mass that is pure enough for me to attend again, then I will.
The Catholic Church is the true Church, but like every individual and institution today, there are very dark forces that feel free to move around within it. I actually hope that many of those who have recently "crossed the Tiber" will have clearer eyes to recognize some of the ideation inflation and corruption that has snuck into the Catholic Church's personnel. They have been drawn to the Catholic Church by seeing the truth of its Apostolic lineage and its liturgy. Many Tiber crossers have seen in their previous places of worship cults of personality and error by clergy and parishioners, and I hope that they will help in a modern cleansing.
I understand there are photographs of my scars. They really are not all that alluring, gory or interesting LOL. I'd like you to think about what if that was done to your daughter, however. I think that my Muslim friends in particular would know what I mean and sympathize about the deliberate lack of dignity performed on me. I let it roll off my back like water off of a duck, but I hold in my heart and notice whenever it is repeatedly mentioned and perversely enjoyed.
My ex-husband was kind enough to visit me when I came out of the operating room. I had no family, as they were all remote. I had some good friends, and they called, though several made very odd remarks, which they thought I did not notice, but I had. These were the friends who believe in reincarnation and New Age babble, and they basically told me I had "asked for this" to happen to me. I would not say that to a spayed dog, so that says more about their character than mine (or my imagined character, in their eyes.)
Something was botched in this surgery and six months later I was under the knife again, and treated even worse, coming out severely infected and permanently scarred and deformed in my abdomen wall.
I'm not one to dwell on the tragic since many people have suffered even more than I. Some years would go by and I'd not even think of the anniversary of the surgeries as they passed by. I'm not a "whining on the anniversary of the Titanic" type of person, so I didn't even recall the dates of the surgery for many years. But oddly enough, it eats away at the minds of other people and they obsess about it. For example, I was shocked when last year, during a visit to EWTN, a priest who did not even know me criticized me to my face for having a hysterectomy, during a "healing mass." Do priests have nothing better to do than gossip? I had only attended the healing mass to help pray for those who were there, and was flabbergasted to see that someone had told this priest about me and find myself being scolded for surgery I could not avoid. That was one of the last Masses I attended; you can see why. He sinned when he did that. I made a decision a long time ago not to be a lightening rod or bait for other people sinning. I hold the Mass in my heart and when there is a Mass that is pure enough for me to attend again, then I will.
The Catholic Church is the true Church, but like every individual and institution today, there are very dark forces that feel free to move around within it. I actually hope that many of those who have recently "crossed the Tiber" will have clearer eyes to recognize some of the ideation inflation and corruption that has snuck into the Catholic Church's personnel. They have been drawn to the Catholic Church by seeing the truth of its Apostolic lineage and its liturgy. Many Tiber crossers have seen in their previous places of worship cults of personality and error by clergy and parishioners, and I hope that they will help in a modern cleansing.
I understand there are photographs of my scars. They really are not all that alluring, gory or interesting LOL. I'd like you to think about what if that was done to your daughter, however. I think that my Muslim friends in particular would know what I mean and sympathize about the deliberate lack of dignity performed on me. I let it roll off my back like water off of a duck, but I hold in my heart and notice whenever it is repeatedly mentioned and perversely enjoyed.
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