Random

Apparently Starbucks is giving away free

tall iced coffee's and latte's from 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm today all over the city. It sounds great to me, but I will need at least a grande to beat the heat here. The heat index of 115 is absolutely ridiculous, and cramming in a subway car with 110 other sweaty New Yorkers isn't fun (of course I drove today - doing my part for global warming).

In her comments on my last post

Kate states:

"Just as men are "socialized in our culture to objectify women", women are also taught to objectify their OWN gender as well....If I as a woman don't want my husband to objectify women (including myself), then I must also not support the objectification of women (including the way I view myself). Along the same lines, my view of men cannot be rooted in the same lies. If I don't want my husband checking out other women, I shouldn't be okay with checking out other men, even if it doesn't cause the same reaction for women."

I agree whole heartedly with her comments. Objectifying a person only serves to gratify yourself and serves to dehumanize others. Yet attraction at it's basic level doesn't ever go away. For either gender If a person walks into a restaurant that hits your attraction sensors, then you will notice them. Or if someone is intelligent, funny, talented, or whatever you could be attracted to them as well (attraction isn't always physical). I think what is attractive definitely changes as we age (hopefully it does, what was attractive to a person at 15 shouldn't be what's attractive to them at 30). As a Christian and a husband I am not controlled or motivated by my attraction to other people. But I must be self aware enough understand what is attractive to me and how my own handling of that attraction could lead me down a road that ends up objectifying a person, or betraying the relationship I have with God or my wife.

If you take a un-socialized or young dog into a grocery store or mall, they can become very agitated and even aggressive. This is due to the bombardment of all the sound, smells, and activity in places like that. A trained dog has been taught to ignore all the superfluous stimuli and concentrate on the directions of it's owner. The dog still hears and smells just as acutely as it did before it was trained. However, now it knows which messages to ignore and which to engage and which to ignore.

Some people have a lot of time

and are more creative than I will ever be. Enjoy!