VIPs

Looking back, there have been many Very Important People (VIPS) who have touched my life when I needed a helping hand, guidance or maybe just a hint. Wayne Rodgers, my friend Sally's father, provided equine and life guidance when I was in those tender junior high hears especially. He was a great role model. Wayne, the General Manager of Walnut Grove Company in Atlantic, was an intelligent, quiet, mostly serious man who I looked up to. 

Me with Frosty - Wayne is in the background

When I was in 7th grade, my mom asked Wayne to help find me a horse. My parents (and grandparents) got me a horse for my birthday. He accepted that challenge, hunting down my first mare, Frosty. She was owned by a family in Yale, Iowa. Wayne and I drove together to pick her up. I was overjoyed to be getting a horse. I must have talked his ear off. One year later, the family wanted Frosty back, so I "traded up" for a 3-year-old registered quarter horse gelding they had by the name of Poco Hi Jack. Then my new young horse needed training - Wayne helped with that and he lined up all our horses (he/Sal had some too) medical and shoeing needs.

Wayne and I went on many a road trip together - sometimes with my friend Sally, other times it was just he and I. We talked about many things in life, but mostly stuck to horse talk. Years later, when Paul and I were dating, I was so pleased that he got to know Wayne and his lovely wife Anna Day when he helped Wayne build a shed at their home in Atlantic. Paul agrees with me. Wayne was a VIP - to many people.

I read today about another VIP. He meant a great deal to many young people at a school in Ohio. Dan Wirth was a custodian at the school. I read about him in a Washington Post Article. Mr. Wirth passed away recently after a short illness, and the students were saddened. He was a "security blanket" in their young lives.

Many of the students are from low-income families. They relied on Mr. Wirth as a "steady Eddie". He swept up messes and helped coordinate departures at the end of the school day. It sounds like he did his duties with a smile. I read that this man was a former steelworker and owner of an electronics store, who found himself working as a custodian. He might have considered that this job to be beneath his skill set. But he didn't. We need more Dan Wirths in our world. I'm sorry we lost him so soon. RIP.

I told Paul about this story, and we decided Creston has had a similar VIP gem in Darwin West, bus driver extraordinaire! Darwin drove bus routes and drove the bus for sports teams. He always had a bright smile for everyone - and a few smart comments.

I bet you have VIPs in your lives too. Take time to thank them - if you can. I get to see Wayne's daughter Sally soon. I'll tell her how much her father meant to me. 

Men and "the Pill" (Opinion Alert + female stuff)

I waited for the whole Rush Limbaugh controversy to blow over (somewhat) to weigh in. I believe he's a total ass (let me just get that out there) and missed the point when he went after Sandra Fluke personally on the topic of birth control. And he's been married several times! I can't believe he doesn't understand that you don't take more pills if you're having more sex. Duh!

Perhaps his current wife, and flock of ex-wives didn't utilize birth control - at least the Pill. What has not been stressed enough in articles and the many opinion pieces I have read is that many women use the Pill to help them manage their menstrual cycle and other female issues.

I realize most of my readers are women. And male readers of this Blog are husbands - so most of you get it. But there must be a lot of guys out there who don't. Or don't care to. Like this guy I read about this morning in Kathleen Parker's column in the Washington Post:

She was talking about people who emailed her after she wrote a column on Rush Limbaugh. She is usually a right leaning columnist. Whole column here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democrats-are-making-hay-with-gop-fumbling-with-women/2012/03/09/gIQAgDA61R_story.html

She says she got mail from a guy "who wrote in defense of Limbaugh informed me of my place in God’s hierarchy, slightly above goats, and gave me a tutorial about why women have been saddled with the monthly inconvenience and painful childbirth — for tempting men to do evil and failing to recognize their roles as “helpmeets” for men.
“Pagan women like yourself,” he patiently averred, “have no regard for the natural order of God’s plan and shamelessly promulgate the ‘we are goddesses’ bile that has infected the entire country and pretty much stopped it in its tracks from incurring God’s blessing.”  I’m leaving out the best parts. Parker said.

I contend that if men got periods - the Pill would be available easily and we wouldn't be having this conversation. It would be like Viagra! Too important to leave off of insurance plans, for sure.

Would men put up with not knowing exactly when their bodies were going to start bleeding, sometimes accompanied by painful cramps? Yeah, it might interfere with business meetings, working in the field (think about changing tampons while planting corn), not to mention their weekly bowling league.

Imagine now that men find out that there is a pill that can help manage the timing of periods, controlling symptoms that accompany the monthly inconvenience. (In fact nowadays pills can stop you from getting periods altogether.)

In my opinion, if men got periods, miraculously, the Pill wouldn't even be considered a birth control only tool. It would be a necessity, likely distributed over-the-county. Or in gumball machines. Okay I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek, but you get it. Men would never put up with what we do. It would be a very different story.

They hadn't really invented the pills that allowed months to go by without a period when I was using the Pill. If it would have been, I would have been all over it. You see, I was the lucky person that had the heavy seven-day periods. Sometimes I had to get up at night just to make sure I wasn't bleeding all over the bed. It was miserable. Another miserable thing was finding out your period came early - and you weren't prepared. Face it - periods put us in lots of nerve-wracking rotten situations. The Pill can help make periods much less to deal with - in a complex world.

At one time my neurologist had me take the Pill to see if it helped with my migraine headaches. I also had to try taking it later in life before my hysterectomy.

And if you're using the Pill in this context - is it considered birth control?

All points to ponder - but not brought up in any detail in any of the columns I read. I dislike seeing young people, including young families - it's not just young single law students wishing for birth control to be included in insurance plans - when old guys are getting Viagra cheap. Note - my sis says many insurance plans do not include drugs like Viagra.

If people are going to be allowed to opt out of paying for things they find distasteful, then I'm going  to start making a list now.