Leader, Smleader.....

I am totally laughing at the title of this because it's kind of dumb.  But you get the point.

Apparently when Jamie made me tea last night, it was of the caffeinated variety and that kept me tossing and turning late into the night, which means I think about random crap.  Important stuff and trivial nonsense.  You know how that goes.

So I was thinking about how people always reference our government people as "leaders."  This is a pet peeve of mine.  The idea that we're all sheep and our government is the shepherd, even though in reality, they  should be the sheep.  They are paid.  By us.  To do a job.  Leading isn't one of them.  Know what I mean?  I mean seriously, they are no more qualified to be "leaders" than your next door neighbor (unless he or she is awesomesauce, but do you even KNOW your neighbor??)

When I think of the word LEADER, I think of someone who has or is doing something amazing to better our world and is reaching out to others to teach them to do it to.  My government?  Yeah, they are sorely lacking in all of that.

So I was thinking last night about my life and who I feel has made an impact on the business of daily living and I came up with a list of who I am personally marching to.

Of course, my faith plays a big part in all that I am and do, and anyone who reads this already knows that.  So we'll give a shout out to Jesus and his Word, and all the people who have written stuff about it that have impacted me.  The why I am going where I am going is rooted in all that.

And then there's Joel Salatin whose philosophy should be taught to everyone, in my humble opinion.  His model of farming and whatnot is something we've read and studied and are striving for right here on our homestead.  Totally leader material!!

The Yarn Harlot  I probably don't even need to go into this because you see the word "yarn" over there and assume.....she's about yarn or something.  Your partly right.  But she's also an amazing, talented and hilarious writer.  We'd be BFFs if we ever met.  I'm sure of it ;)

Ina May Gaskin  You can just feel the peace and love drifting off Ina May.  This pioneering midwife calls the US on their b/s when it comes to birthing and our outcomes.  Reading anything she's written or listening to her speak should piss off every single women in this country.  If you don't understand WHY midwifery and homebirth is so looked down upon in America, you just have to wake up and smell the dollar signs.  I am not saying every woman should eat granola and wear flowers while she births in her bathtub, but every woman should have the CHOICE to do so.  All the statistics that say it's unsafe are completely concocted to support a medical establishment that makes a huge amount of money on medicalizing birth.  If you think otherwise, do a little research into other developed nations and the birth model that is used in almost every country but ours and ask yourself why is homebirth only dangerous in America???  Does that seem stupid to anyone else?  Does to me!

John Taylor Gatto  This dude called out the school system for it's b/s too (I think I see a recurring theme.  I am kind of anti b/s) as he was getting an AWARD.  This completely sums up how I feel about our country's educational system.  If you're a teacher, I bow down to you.  I think you are amazing and how I feel about the SYSTEM in no way reflects how much I value your service.  That you can accomplish anything with the amount of red tape strapped around your body, mind and soul as you do this amazing job impresses me more than I can say!  Homeschoolers are not anti-teacher.  We're anti b/s and the "system."

Sidetracked Sisters  These are the original "Fly Ladies."  The books are hilarious and even though written so long ago, are still a refreshing look into the lives of us stay at home slackers.

And I don't really have any contenders for parenting advice, because....I think all people who try to cash in on parenting advice are doing a huge disservice to people.  I think it's all crap.  It's like animal care manuals...but for humans. And this annoys me.  People are all so different and children are just little humans. They are all different.  I feel like parenting advice shouldn't come in the form of pages written by someone you do not know, that does NOT know your child.  Parenting wisdom is like a baton and should be handed to one another, face to face.  I stick to topics when it comes to my "parenting leaders."  If I need some ideas about getting them to clean their room, I read about cleaning, not parenting. If I am looking for help getting a baby to sleep, I read about sleeping, not parenting.  I ask people I know that are a few steps ahead of the game what they've done.  I wish I would known this when I became a mom.  I fell for the "expert" stuff hook, line and sinker, but guess what? I'm the expert when it comes to my children ;)

I suppose we all takes turns in this lifetime being leaders and followers but I will say with some certainty that I don't look to our civil SERVANTS to lead us anywhere.

The power of words is an amazing thing and what we say and hear becomes truth on some level.  To that end, I think I'll start a new trend.  No more of this "Our government leaders" bullcrap.  From now on it will be "Our government servants..."  You know, just to keep it real ;)