Month: April 2015

Happy Birthday Bhavana!

Bhavana is 47 years old today but she really looks 37. She also celebrated the ancient Hindu spring festival of Holi today. The Holi celebration we attended was part of a set of activities planned by the Sri Krishna Nidhi Foundation. Technically, Holi was April 11th, but in this part of the world, the first few weeks of April still felt like winter so the foundation is celebrating with the warmer weather. I can only assume that in India, spring started much sooner since Holi is an outdoor festival.

The word bhavana normally appears in conjunction with another word forming a compound phrase such as citta-bhavana (the development or cultivation of the heart/mind) or metta-bhavana (the development/cultivation of loving-kindness). In my wife's case, she's a metta-Bhavana. She showers our home with love and kindness that is as palpable as a snug hug. Holi is a festival about love and life and happiness so it seemed fitting that we celebrated her birthday on the same day.

Bhavana and Shaan had a blast. For Shaan, this was his first time celebrating Holi. It's something he has wanted to do for a while. I'm not sure if Bhavana has celebrated Holi before but she was happy. I think splashing vibrant colour one everyone is a great way to celebrate Bhavana's birthday. Happy birthday, honey.

Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout

This Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout a recommendation from the owner of the local liquor store. I'm not sure why he recommended it. He insisted this was a rare and highly rated stout and that he was only allowing customers to buy one or two at a time. I rate this "Drain It".

I may get some flack for that but I really don't believe in food ratings. Each of us had unique taste buds. My wife is nothing like me. There are some foods that we both enjoy but there are some that I could never get her to like. So why do we insisting on paying attention to beer ratings?

In some ways, it's quite snobbish. A few "select" people tried something and collectively agreed that food item "X" is a 97 but food item "Y" is not. I am expected to believe that this select group of people has "better" taste buds than mine. That what they like is what I should like. And if I can't experience the item the way they did, then something must be wrong with me. Well, with my taste buds anyway.

I reject that idea. If I don't like something I am going to say so. If you think that makes my palate unrefined, that "it's an acquired taste", then so be it. I don't think your taste buds are superior to mine. I think you think you are superior to me.

I will no longer accept beer recommendation unless I know what the person doing the recommendation likes to drink or eat. This will help reduce the chances of a poor recommendation.

I didn't pour the Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout down the drain. I forced my way through it.

Proud Of Someone Else

Image CC0 Matthew Wheeler
Image CC0 Matthew Wheeler

My sister-in-law recently sent out a group email with a link to article entitled 4 Things Every Kids Needs to Hear from their Father. I agree with the general gist of the article, I was annoyed by something the author, Mike Berry, wrote about pride. He thinks that kids needs to hear the words, “I’m proud of you!”.

While I agree that kids need to hair words of praise from their parent, I take issue with the authors use of the word proud to convey his sentiment.

Pride is:

  • a feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by other people
  • a feeling that you are more important or better than other people (this is the negative side)
  • a feeling of happiness that you get when you do something good, difficult, etc.

Notice is does not say the feeling you get when someone else does something good or difficult. I think the phrase the author was looking for is “I take joy in your accomplishments/actions”. He even said himself with “There’s nothing more powerful that an attaboy or an attagirl.” Can proud really be used to describe the feeling one gets from someone else accomplishment

Instead of “I’m proud of you”, how about, “What you have accomplished is amazing.” or "I take great joy in your accomplishment."

I think “I believe in you” and “I’m in your corner!” are the same thing. If you aren't in someone's corner, then you aren't showing your belief in what they are up to.

Yes, kids may need to hear these things from us but even more so, they need to feel our love in our daily actions.