Thoughts on Justice

What is justice? 

"Morally right and fair behaviors or treatment."

Justice? 

It is a lie, plain and simple. "Justice" does not exist in the real world; it is only present in our minds, never carried out through actions. 

Where is the justice for the people who were literally blown to nothingness when the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki? 

Where is the justice for the woman raped by her father, her brother, her lover, her friend? 

Where is the justice for the parents who have to bury their newborn child?

Where is the justice for the antelope killed by the lion? 

Where is justice? 

"TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED." 

- The Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

Today I heard a sermon in which the pastor talked about a story in the Bible where a man asked God why bad things happened. The pastor basically said good Christians should not question their god and instead trust Him and his "Plan." 

Why should we tolerate the bad things that people do? It is not any divine power's responsibility to help us or protect us from negative experiences, whether you are a Christian or a Pagan. It is not the Goddess's job to forever hold us up, away from harm. A child does not learn by being forever protected. Do we really want to make this world just? Do we really want mercy and peace? Then we need to step up and make these things ourselves! 

Justice. It does not exist elsewhere in the world, but we humans can make it, and help it flourish. 

The world is unjust and unfair because we make it so. We can make the change. 

Why I Do Not Like PETA

(REBLOG FOR UPDATES)

Seems like everyone is talking about PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) lately. As a Pagan, I dislike them a lot. As a feminist, I really dislike them. Why? For several reason, actually.

They straight up kill the animals that they "rescue" for one. In 2011, PETA euthanized a record percentage of animals (95.9%), surpassed only by their numbers in 2009 (97.3%) and 2006 (97.4%). They rescued 2,026 animals, adopted out only 24 of them and euthanized 1,911. They are NOT animal lovers, for animal lovers would not kill as many as PETA has. Of course, this has been a trend for a long, long time. If you want a document of the most recent data (2010), here it is (pdf). Just this makes me gag.

Here is a cute puppy to make you feel better.

Next, we have the degradation of women. From suggesting Ben and Jerry's switch from cow milk to human milk, to fat shaming, to the objectification and torture of women, over and over and over and over again.

WTF?

How about PETA's racists protests and anti-Semitic ads? Or how about their use of the murder of Tillman to promote their views? How about PETA making light of a cannibalistic attack where the murderer stabbed and decapitated his 22 year old victim on a bus? Again, another murder comparison? They also bought a grave site near Col. Sanders and put up a grave marker that mnemonically read "KFC Tortures Birds". From what I can gather, it has since been taken down. Here are some of PETA’s worst ad idea, including “Feeding Kids Meat is Child Abuse” and a picture of a half cut up woman hanging from meat hooks.

These women were left in the plastic wrap for one hour in 80 degree weather. PETA would never do this to cows.

Last but certainly not least, their funds:

"PETA’s 2010 donations totaled $33 million ($35 million if you add on merchandise sales and other revenue). So where did your money go last year? According to PETA’s 2010 annual report:

• “A vegans make better lovers” campaign where PETA campaigners publicly made out on a bed on the streets of Nashville, TN.
• Disruption of the Westminster dog show (Because animal lovers deserve to be targeted?)
• A campaign comparing pregnant women to fattened sows to protest farmed meat
• Dressing as a giant vanilla condom promote animal birth control in Beirut (Because Beirut has few other controversies to deal with currently)
• PETA also says it has given over $843 thousand in grants to researchers looking at animal alternatives. Sounds good right? But one should do the math here. The amount is 2 percent of the money PETA spent last year. In comparison, they spent 17 percent of their money (your money) on fundraising to raise more money. In addition, research is expensive (sad but true)… An $800,000 split among several researchers as PETA has done…will not go far at all."

I do not support PETA. I do not recommend my friends and family support them either. Maybe they have done good work, but their bad overshadows their good by at least three times. Please do not endorse PETA nor donate to them. Here is another cute puppy to make you feel better.

Dawwwwwww <3

Update 9/1/2012 --- When Shelby County, KY threatened to become a kill shelter after being a No Kill Shelter for four years, PETA "graciously" sent a gift basket, "with a note thanking them [Shelby County Shelter] for their decision to start killing again after four years. “Thank you for doing the right thing” wrote PETA in its gift offering from Allison’s Gourmet which included vegan cookies,* baked without eggs or dairy, because—you know—harming animals is wrong."

UPDATE 12/3/13 --- DAMN IT PETA, WHY WON'T YOU DIE??? UGH, the awful organization has again decided to turn their malicious gaze back on fat women. Do you know about Plan B not working for women over a certain weight? Well PETA has decided that they will help by initiating the "Plan V";

"If extra pounds are thwarting a woman's ability to use Plan B, PETA's 'Plan V' could be the prescription they need," says PETA Executive Vice President (and mother) Tracy Reiman. "Going vegan is a great way to lose weight and get healthy—and it could help women regain control over their reproductive lives."

/RAGE QUIT/

Destiny

I found this: Pagan Blog Prompts. Oh, I am totally going to participate! Today's prompt is destiny; "what comes around goes around" and "everything happens for a reason".

This is a hard prompt, especially posed right after all the tornadoes that stormed through Central America, the attack of a solider in London and murder in Birmingham, riots in Sweden, and much, much more. They seem like shallow and cruel answers to the question of "why did this happen?"

While I do think things happen for a reason, I am not naive enough to say that what comes around goes around and I am not cruel enough to say that things that happen are always good or that bad things happen as punishment for bad behavior. That would be exactly like sin, which I don't believe in, either as a Pagan or a liberal. Does the woman who was rape had it coming, because what goes around comes around? Does the parents of the children lost in the tornadoes care that things happen for a reason, and what reason could that possibly be anyway?

Sincerely, Loki.

Now I believe in the gods. All of them in fact; I am a hard polytheist (and also an omnist). However, I don't believe They are all good or all evil. They are complex and cannot be fully described by us. I do feel like we humans project our own feeling onto our specific deity (see Westboro and their hateful god). But the thing is, They are NOT like us at all. They do not think like us, They do not love like us, They do not live like us. We are toys to Them, objects of fascination that They spend Their attention on. Deities have and pick favorites, and Deities have and pick enemies and even frienemies. The kinfolk of Loki have a saying, "May Loki laugh with you more than He laughs at you."

What reasons can we possibly gather from Deities that may or may not look like us but don't share much else? Sometimes the reason is obvious, other times obscure, and sometimes there is no reason at all. It reminds me of a story from Farscape where Aeryn Sun tells of her species' god:

"Sebaceans once had a god called Djancaz-Bru. Six worlds prayed to her. They built her temples, conquered planets. And yet one day she still... rose up and destroyed all six worlds. And when the last warrior was dying, he... he said, 'We gave you everything, why did you destroy us?' And she looked down upon him and she whispered, 'Because I can.'" 

 So to get back around to destiny: I think that we have a purpose in life. I think that there is a loose plan for us, but it can change based on decisions we make. Sometimes our purpose in life is to die. It is an absolutely cruel but unavoidable truth. Sometimes your entire existence is only there as a lesson to others. Sometimes you carve out a purpose for yourself. Lots of times you follow the path that was laid out for you by society.

I think that life is fluid, like water. I think maybe there is some plan, and maybe there isn't. Perhaps this is just by-the-cuff and these beings are just winging it. Perhaps there is some overall order to this madness.

Maybe we are just a huge experiment. Maybe we are the control group, or maybe the experimental group. Who knows?

What is important is that we focus on ourselves, our community, and our society. What we do know is that nothing will be fixed without us and no change will happen unless we initiate it. The only endgame is the one we let happen.

And the only question I have is, why can't we just all get along already?

Peace or Death

Ah, Lupercalia

This past week (Feb 13-15th) was Lupercalia, as I am sure you pagans know. For those who don't, it's a general "Spring Cleaning" ritual that the Romans used to do. In (late) honor of this holy day, how about a cleansing ritual? No need to sacrifice two goats and a dog, either! /BoNuS/

This picture comes from a cleaning service. O_o

First, cleaning! Yay, fun. Clean your entire house/apartment/living quarters and make sure that you continually focus on cleaning. Think about all the germs you are killing and any potential diseases being avoided. Think about how nice it will feel to be in a fully cleaned house. Make sure you get the walls; inside the closets, cabinets, and pantry; all the corners; even under your bed. If you have children you can encourage them to participate and help them (because kids like helping but are really bad at doing it themselves. Plus, it is a good activity to teach cleaning habits...).

Clean your altar too! Make sure to wipe off all the dust and pick up any tools you have and put them to your heart or head. Thank them for their service and charge them with love. If you have a permanent shelf, table, or place, clean the surface in a clockwise (deosil) motion. If your permanent place happens to be wood, you can take olive oil and lemon juice to clean it.

When the house is clean, it's time for the (more) fun part: cleansing and warding!

What you need:
One or two Sage bundles
Water
Salt
Candle
Lighter or matches

Decide now if you are going to first banish any negativity and then charge the house, or if you will just charge alone and make any appropriate changes in the amount of items. Place all the items in the northern part of your house (or wherever you live), where you will start. For the water, you should put some salt into it and stir it deosil three time, but make sure that you have a separate dish for salt as well. Bless the items for their corresponding Elements. Say something like:

Guardians of the North, Spirits of Earth, ye who are the ground beneath my feet and the bones of my body, I ask thee to bless this salt with protection and prosperity for the benefit of this house and those who reside within it. Blessed Be! (Trace deosil either on the dish or in the salt as you say this, charging it)

Guardians of the East, Spirits of Air, ye who are the winds of secrets and the breathe in my lungs, I ask thee to bless this sage with protection and good will for the benefit of this house and those who reside within it. Blessed Be! (place hand over sage or have sage in hand and charge it with the intentions)

Guardians of the South, Spirits of Fire, ye who are the catalysis for change and the spark of life in my soul, I ask thee to bless this candle with protection and righteous passion for the benefit of this house and those who reside within it. Blessed Be! (Charge the candle and then light it.)

Guardians of the West, Spirits of Water, ye who are the persistent flow of of time and the blood in my veins, I ask thee to bless this water with protection and healing for the benefit of this house and those who reside within it. (Dip finger in water and stir deosil, charging it)

Pick up the salt and, depending on whether you decided to banish first or not, go around the house sprinkling the salt around. If you are banishing, say something like "I banish all the negativity from this house. No negativity may enter here." If not, say something like "I bless this house with the power of Earth (for the salt, you will change accordingly) and with the blessings of the Lady and Lord for the protection and prosperity (changing for the others as well) of those who live here."  Imagine you are drawing a protective circle around the house that will reach above and below the house as well, like a bubble. Do this for each of the other Elements, except that the difference is that with the sage, candle, and sage you will draw a pentacle on every window and door, including any that are in the house (for example, the bathroom doors and windows into another room). Make SURE to get into any cabinets, drawers, doors, closets, attic, basement, and anywhere else things can hide.

At this point, if you want to bless the house with a patron Deity or with the Lady and Lord, go ahead and do so.

 Enjoy your physically and spiritually clean house! Blessings.

Happy (Late) New Year!!!

It is that time of the season again, my fellow Witches. The start of a new Pagan year. But wait, what year? :O

I was thinking about this a few days ago. The calender we use in the US and most other English speaking countries is the Gregorian Calender, based off the death of Jesus of Nazareth. This year, 2012, it has been two thousand and twelve years since the supposed death of Jesus.

Well, as Pagans, we don't believe or worship Jesus (Christo-Wiccans can take their "buts" and  leave), so why do we still adhere to the Christian calendar? "Because it is easier and everyone here uses it," you might say. Well, Muslims, Baha'is, and Hindus all use different measurements of time, just to name a few. They can work in both their own religious measurements and the Christian measurement just fine (supposing they are in a place that uses the Gregorian calender).

So, here is what I suggest for a Pagan calender:

• Eight months instead of twelve, having each of the solstices and equinoxes mark the beginning of four months and the other four being the halfway mark for each. This would mean that all the Sabbats would represent the start and end of each month, but that the calendar is connected with the movement of the Earth and not the celebrations we do to honor that.What I mean by the "start and end" of each month is that each holiday is actually two or more days of celebration. For instance, Samhain is Oct 31st and Nov 1st.
•  It would still have the same 7 days a week, but each month would have roughly 6 weeks in it. Some compensation will be needed, like an extra week here or there, but 6 weeks a  month. 
• We can keep the same day names, since they are based off our gods anyway, but month names need to be suggested. Perhaps...

•  Proserpius - (Yule) Named for Persephone, the life-death-rebirth Goddess.
• Januarius - (Imbloc) Named for Janus, God of Beginnings and Transitions.
• Februarius - (Eostre) Named for Februus, God of Purification.
  
• Aprilis - (Beltaine) Named for Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Sex.
• Martius - (Midsummer) Named for Mars, the God of War.
  
• Maius - (Lammas) Named for Maia, an Earth Goddess.
• Junius - (Mabon) Named for Juno, Goddess of many things, including vitality and wealth
• Ploutarius - (Samhain)  Named for Pluto, God of the Underworld and death.

 So, day 1 would be Proserpius 1st (which, to translate that into the Gregorian calendar, would be Nov 1st), and would go all the way until day 41, which would be the start of Yule. Januarius 1st would be the second day of Yule, and would also be 41 days until Imbloc.

Apparently, this is a t-shirt!

• Proserpius - 50 days 
• Januarius - 43 days
• Februarius - 47 days
• Aprilis - 41 days
• Martius - 51 days
• Maius - 41 days
• Junius - 51 days
• Ploutarius - 39 days

Of course, these will have to be flexible since the exact days of the equinoxes, solstices, and the midpoints of each vary every year. The above days are calculated only for the 2013 year in Gregorian calender years.

Which brings me to a problem. What year should I start the calendar on? The supposed beginning of Rome or the end? Perhaps the year that Britain repealed the Witchcraft Acts, which gave birth to our modern movement? I personally like the latter, making our birth the start. In that case, today would be Proserpius 8, 63 (63 because it is supposedly a new year).

This is such a crazy idea. Seriously. I hope, however, that the community might just pick it up. That would be awesome. :D

Edit: I have decided that we should do the abbreviated date as day/month/year like Europe. I also wish the US would adopt the metric system, but whatever. 

Response: A Pagan Finds Religion

Today, Timothy Dalrymple posted an article "A Pagan Finds Religion" and addresses his recent meeting and subsequent flight with Star Foster. Dalrymple discusses Paganism in the context of comparing it to Christianity, and also talks about Foster's "spiritual but not religious" experiences. 

While some of his article makes good points and is pretty well written (particularly the first five paragraphs), it started to rub against me starting in the first sentence of the sixth paragraph. Dalrymple is right; Pagans tend not to like being told that our spirituality is a negative reaction towards the Christian community/Church with which the majority of us grew up in. Personally, I did not turn towards my Pagan path because of some "failures" of the Catholic Church (which I had been Christened in and had gone through Communion and Sunday school and the whole nine yards). I turned to/was guided to Paganism because it fit my soul and filled a hole in my heart that Christianity never could. Yes, I had issues with the Church. Yes, I don't agree with the things that the Church does. Yes, there are failures and excesses in the Church. No, I didn't leave them solely because of their pitfalls (although it did make it way easier). 

The kick in the teeth for me was this:

"I find the historical scholarship of the Pagan communities sorely wanting, and the philosophy and theology behind it all is not yet mature. Although it’s always harder to hear an outsider say it, I think most thoughtful pagans agree (and many say openly) that there is, quite naturally, a lot of growing left to do."

..... Uh? So tell me, how is it a religion that is based off the historical scholarships, philosophies and theologies of an even older religion, older than your religion, is not yet mature or is sorely lacking? And a related question, why is it that a great majority of what the Old Religion taught is preserved within Christianity if it had been lacking beforehand? As to the growing, for a great many traditions, the whole point of their religion is growth. Nature grows, why shouldn't our beliefs? Nothing remains the same, so embrace the change and revel in its delight. 

Paganism is both new and old. Many are of the opinion (me included) that Neo-Paganism is a continuation of the Old Ways, before Christianity forced its "death," but it is also new in that it picks up customs of other religions (excluding the Reconstructionists who strive for the original, unblended religion of their particular path) like meditation or Karma. Decisions of whether or not to pick one deity or honor (I don't like the word "worship"; it conjures a negative image and isn't something that I want in regards to my Gods) a deity is a personal one and has nothing to do with Paganism's "newness." Did you know, in ancient times, many people would pick which God or Goddess was their patron, or would inherit via family ties? Many people would dedicate themselves to a deity, but that didn't stop them from honoring other Gods in their pantheon. So no, it isn't "new."

Vestal Virgins, anyone? (source)

Also,

"Personally, of course, I don’t want Pagans to find religion, because I want pagans to recognize that the great God above all gods become incarnate and communicated his love and reconciliation to the world through Jesus Christ, the God-man."

It is condescending, bullshit attitudes like this that contribute to the rebuke against Christianity in the Pagan community. That's all I have to say about that. /end

Spirituality isn't something that solidifies into a religion. Spirituality deals directly with the spirit or soul (typically a personal thing), not needing doctrine or institutions to help it. Dictionary says spiritual means "of, relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things." It is contained completely inside, an internal development.

Religion, on the other hand, requires doctrine and institutions for it to function as a cohesive whole. Hindu, for instance, has in common the beliefs of "Avatar Vada, Ekeshwaravada (One Supreme Divine Reality), Veda Praman (Authority of the Vedas), Atman, Karma, Yoga, Ahimsa, Four Puruṣārthas, Varnashrama dharma and Punarjanma (Reincarnation)" (source) but differ internally by which face of the Supreme Divine they worship (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Kalika, etc.) and how and when and why. Dictionary says religion is "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs."

Therefore, someone can be spiritual but not religious, religious but not spiritual, spiritual AND religious, or none of the above. One has nothing to do with the other and are separate. Personally, I feel like I should be both spiritual and religious, as both have good qualities.

The larger framework is something I have been thinking about for a while. I cede that it is hard to express something so personal that you can't find the words to even describe it, mostly because your language doesn't have the words you need. It is hard to describe exactly what it is that your particular deity wants when S/He shows you what S/He want in complex emotions, compound pictures, and hidden symbols only you can even begin to comprehend. This is what we call a Mystery. Describing how the color dark blue tastes or how the growth of an entire forest sounds or how the falling footsteps of a tiger feels or how a particular musical note smells is easier to relay than a Mystery. 

However, that doesn't mean that you won't be understood anyway. Tell a Pagan that the color dark blue tastes like 9pm in the countryside skyclad at Lughnasadh, and we will believe you and relate to it. Being different isn't wrong, not trying is. If being separate and distinct makes you feel isolated, try expressing yourself to others. Someone will get it, and it will probably be more people than you think. Again, this goes back to the whole idea of a Community of Solitaries is also a Community of One. There is a cohesiveness in our community, and it revolves around being distinct and different. 

As a last point, I leave with this picture that grasped me a while back ago. I still love it. 

EDIT: Other responses! 

Joseph Bloch over at Witches and Pagans wrote a response, "Grieve Indeed the Growth of Neo-Paganism" and says what I wanted to in much more colorful words and a little more bluntly. (Originally posted on GOPagan)

EDIT #2 - Star Foster has now joined the conversation. Her response is worth reading, as she expresses the other side of the fence.

Learning From the Muslims

This past weekend, I met with a very good friend of mine who is also Muslim. We spent a few days hanging out and I can't help but notice some of the things she does.

Muslims are very clean. They wash their hands, face and feet before all prayers and take a shower before morning prayer. Most people know this. But did you know that Muslims also take a water bottle into the bathroom to wash after their business is done? The focus on cleanliness was surprising.

Now, I don't know many pagans who don't wash up before ritual; it is almost required. Who wants to come to their Gods dirty in spirit and body?

Although there is ALWAYS an exception.

"Cleanliness is Godliness." For people who originated out of a desert, they sure do focus on water a lot. I digress. Anyway, spending a weekend with a Muslim friend has given rise to a thought: should we clean ourselves every time we want to speak to our Gods? I'm not talking about rituals, but the small gestures we do throughout the day. Every time we come to our altars, mental or physical, should we ritually wash ourselves? Before meditations, before we see the Moon, before Sunrise? Yes, we are people of the Earth, who love and revel the outside world. But is there a line?

Another thing that many people often hear about is how many times a day a Muslim prays. If you don't know the exact number, it is 5 times. It is said in the Qur'an that Allah commanded humans to pray 50 times a day but was talked down to 5 because humans cannot do that and still function. Granted, our ancestors had priests and priestesses who dedicated their entire lives to worshiping and working for a particular God or Goddess and there were the people who would constantly come into the Temples. However, in our modern world, we generally don't make the time to pray that much and the Pagan community is just now starting to get places of worship up and running. How then should prayer fit into our daily lives? Should we increase our connection with the Spiritual world and decrease the hold our modern lives have gripped us in?

How many of you reading this post also have Facebook or Twitter up? I know I do, along with my school work and my own research. We Industrialized people have our heads stuck in the computers for hours on end, and don't bother to stop for a day and just go outside. According to the Census Bureau, almost 77% of households (Table 1C) have some sort of computer. How many of you with computers also go outside and commune at least once daily? (I am guilty of not going outside to commune enough. I DO go outside, but not for very long. Must. Change. This!)

So then, I learned that these people make time for their prayers. They make time to be clean. They carve out their days to praise their God wholly and completely. Should we do so too?

More on this later, maybe.

Obesity! Crisis! Hits Pagan Community

One week ago, a young, well known, well liked member of the pagan community suddenly passed away. David Grega suffered cardiac arrest at the age of 27. Upon hearing this very tragic news, I thought to myself, "Surely the pagan community won't comment on his 'overweight' appearance, because they are better than that, right? Surely we won't be getting a flood of obesity crisis posts from big name pagans because they know better, right???"

This week, some big name pagans have posted about the Obesity! Crisis! (hereon called OC), and my fears were realized. (Un)Fortunately, what you hear/read is mostly the sympathetic, "help the fatties" sentiment. Questions were raised about conventions, events, activities, and speeches about health in our community, and while I think it would be a great idea to have people like Linda Bacon, Ph.D or Ragen Chastain speak at these places, I highly doubt these are the people that they were thinking about asking.

One common thread in every post can be summed up by Peter Dybing:

"One of the most valued principles within the Wicca community is that all bodies are sacred and beautiful."

I whole-heartedly agree! If he, and the others, had stopped at that, I probably wouldn't be writing this post. Dybing goes on to say, "This is so engrained in our culture that that we have developed a collective amnesia concerning the health affects of obesity." I really don't think that is true. I think that a good portion realize, consciously or subconsciously, that the mainstream belief on obesity is false, or at least that diets suck, and have ditched the body hate.

Dybing also gave a few OC data points. Let's look at them.

1) "Obesity is the #2 cause of preventable death in the United States" - It could be considered "preventable", if those who dieted/lost weight had a better chance then the current 5% success rate. No one knows how to make a naturally fat person thin, or vice versa for that matter. Diets do not work, and study after buried study is proving that. For instance, this 2007 UCLA study (pdf) looked at 31 earlier studies and determined that:

"[D]ieters were not able to maintain their weight losses in the long term, and there was not consistent evidence that the diets resulted in significant improvements in their health. In the few cases in which health benefits were shown, it could not be demonstrated that they resulted from dieting, rather than exercise, medication use, or other lifestyle changes. It appears that dieters who manage to sustain a weight loss are the rare exception, rather than the rule. Dieters who gain back more weight than they lost may very well be the norm, rather than an unlucky minority." (Emphasis mine.)

Also, this study, who were the original scientists who published the first paper on deaths by obesity, had this to say:

 "According to the [second] study, obesity and extreme obesity cause about 112,000 deaths per year, but being overweight was found to prevent about 86,000 deaths annually. Based on those figures, the net U.S. death toll from excess weight is 26,000 per year. By contrast, researchers found that being underweight results in 34,000 deaths per year." (Emphasis added.)

So, in with those actual numbers, Obesity would fall to #8, below firearms deaths and above STIs.

2) "60 million Americans, 20 years and older are obese" - Also, 40% of Americans have brown eyes, equaling to about 124 million.

3) "9 million children and teens ages 6-19 are overweight" - 16 million children live in poverty in the United States alone. If I had more time, I would draw the correlation between poverty, food deserts, and how that affects children. Also, this.


4) "Being obese increases the risk of health conditions and diseases including: Breast cancer, Coronary heart disease, Type II diabetes, Sleep apnea, Gallbladder disease, Osteoarthritis, Colon cancer, Hypertension and Stroke" - Actually, no. Obesity has: 

"been shown shown to protect against a variety of problems, including “infections, cancer, lung disease, heart disease, osteoporosis, anemia, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes.” Fat people also have lower rates of emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hip fracture, tuberculosis, anemia, peptic ulcer and chronic bronchitis." 

 And being overweight and obese can actually boost your survival rate after a stroke. (If you need something a bit less science-y, check out this link.) Like Margot Adler said, "The truth is that fit overweight people usually don’t have many medical problems."

Now, specifically moving to the Firefly Chronicles post, let's talk about a few things. If you remove the mention of obesity from Iris Firemoon's post in the beginning, you have an article about the Natural Food diet (diet here meaning what you eat as opposed to diets like Weight Watchers). It's about eating healthier and being in good shape to improve your life and it touches on some of the problems people face in the U.S, like insurance coverage and questionable restaurant foods. In ways, she echos threads from Health At Every Size.

But then it starts getting dicey at the end, and I get a particular rub with "Making healthier choices is not an easy start.  It hurts at first.  It doesn't taste good at first.  It doesn't bring us pleasure at first." and "How does the community, with the resources available, address obesity?" Obesity isn't the problem, people who think that obese people aren't doing X, Y, or Z and are fat because of it are the problem. People who think they can judge a person's health by the way that they look are the problem. People who think they can simply judge people are the problem. Fat shaming is the only discrimination where the victims actually believe they deserve it. They don't, no more than anyone else deserves it. No one deserves hatred of any kind. [EDIT: Isis Firemoon has since changed her article. For context, and to preserve the article, I'm leaving these two paragraphs up.]

How then should the Pagan community deal with it? Like they always do, with science as their partner and human rights Second in Command. With a posse of facts and the normal banter.

Here then, are my facts for a better alternative, the HAES alternative.

First and foremost:

 "Poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle do cause health problems, in people of all sizes. This is why it’s so fucking crucial to separate the concept of “obesity” from “eating crap and not exercising.” The two are simply not synonymous — not even close — and it’s not only incredibly offensive but dangerous for thin people to keep pretending that they are. There are thin people who eat crap and don’t exercise — and are thus putting their health at risk — and there are fat people who treat their bodies very well but remain fat. Really truly."

Second,

"Health at Every Size is based on the simple premise that the best way to improve health is to honor your body. It supports people in adopting good health habits for the sake of health and well-being (rather than weight control). Health at Every Size encourages:
• Accepting and respecting the natural diversity of body sizes and shapes.
• Eating in a flexible manner that values pleasure and honors internal cues of hunger, satiety and appetite.
• Finding the joy in moving one’s body and becoming more physically vital."

Third, HAES is more effective to long term health than dieting:

"Cognitive restraint decreased in the health at every size group and increased in the diet group, indicating that both groups implemented their programs. Attrition (6 months) was high in the diet group (41%), compared with 8% in the health at every size group. Fifty percent of both groups returned for 2-year evaluation. Health at every size group members maintained weight, improved in all outcome variables, and sustained improvements. Diet group participants lost weight and showed initial improvement in many variables at 1 year; weight was regained and little improvement was sustained."

This, and this and this and this and this and this. This with tears and shaking anger. This with happiness. This with gusto and fervor. This for the bookworm in me, and this with sadness.

The question then becomes, why didn't we have this lifestyle in the first place? The next question is why don't we adopt it now that we know about it?

By accident, I stumbled across an article about stereotypes (regarding immigration and work, but whateve') and it errily fits this situation somehow.

 "As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once pointed out, the problem with stereotypes isn’t that they’re untrue; it’s that they are incomplete. If you go to Mexico, you can find a guy in a sombrero playing mariachi music. He does exist. But he can’t represent all of Mexico."

Yeah, you will have the stereotypical fat person who is sooooo fat that they cannot move by themselves or even get out of bed. But no matter how you cut it, that person can't represent all of the fat people. Hey, isn't that just like the saying about how no one pagan can represent the whole? Hmmm.