{"id":1388,"date":"2021-05-30T11:59:53","date_gmt":"2021-05-30T11:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2021-05-31T17:50:36","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T17:50:36","slug":"dont-no-do-talk-to-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/?p=1388","title":{"rendered":"Don’t, No DO Talk to Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of my drive to write is to help others uncover the lies that bind and choke them from living to the fullest.\u00a0 One of these lies is\u00a0Don’t Talk to Strangers.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of my sweet violin students aptly said one day during lessons that _________ (a very powerful company in the entertainment industry) tells girls not to talk to strangers unless they are handsome princes.\u00a0 \u00a0She was summarizing a powerful meme she saw.<\/p>\n

We proceeded to discuss how girls are primed in modern culture to be attracted to narcissistic men through their good looks and deceitful charm portrayed in many a movie and TV show.\u00a0 \u00a0Since I was raised on these foolish romantic fantasies, it has taken me some time to understand why many a good guy called these movies “Chick flicks” and vehemently scoffs at them.<\/p>\n

Likewise children are taught to not talk to strangers.\u00a0 The year 2020 certain reinforced this with their mask mandates and social distancing.\u00a0 Rather, I am going to discuss why people should<\/em> talk to some (not all) strangers based on my encounters in the last 10 days.\u00a0 I have many more,\u00a0 but for this particular blog I am going to highlight two encounters that have similar inspiration.<\/p>\n

First, we stopped at a rest stop on I-95 after 11 hours\u00a0 of driving.\u00a0 My immediate response to seeing\u00a0 an old man standing at the entrance of the women’s room was one of concern.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 he immediately spoke and explained\u00a0 that he was standing there so that he could help his wife in wheelchair when she needed it.\u00a0 So,\u00a0 I offered to help as well.\u00a0 \u00a0At first I thought I would assist her, but then I realized I needed to help him safely help her instead by standing watch outside of the women’s room to any new comer.<\/p>\n

When all were finished they thanked us and we enjoyed becoming acquainted.\u00a0 \u00a0Hudson is 90 years old.\u00a0 Esther is 91.\u00a0 She recently succumbed to using a wheel chair, but they were still out on a trip on May 16, 2021!\u00a0 We were so inspired that they were out and about.\u00a0 And delighted to find out they maybe our new prospective neighbors in South Florida.\u00a0 \u00a0They literally live and have lived for 30+ years three blocks away from the house we were hoping to win a contract on.\u00a0 Esther and Hudson confirmed that the location was great and would fulfill all the conveniences I was hoping for.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we lost the contract, but we gained some amazing friends of whom we are in contact with.<\/p>\n

The second encounter happened this past week at Walmart.\u00a0 A woman apologized for being in my way as I browsed the cereal selection.\u00a0 I assured her no apology was needed, but used this a gateway to further conversation.\u00a0 \u00a0Wow here is another woman defying the odds of age.\u00a0 \u00a0Kathi is 71 years old, looking great, happily smiled for this photo and approved that I use it and is still working a real job! \"Kathi\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She did retire, but decided to go back to work and secured this professional IT job at 67 years of age!\u00a0 Wahoo!\u00a0 Go Kathi!!! She had no worries of age discrimination nor sex discrimination.\u00a0 \u00a0And what kind of job is she doing?\u00a0 Would it be the kind we are told is dominated by young white males???\u00a0 Ahem, her current boss also doesn’t want her to retire! She, her supervisor, values that she knows her stuff and provides value that won’t be easy to replace.<\/p>\n

How many of us are told that we are getting old and can’t, can’t, can’t, should, should, should or shouldn’t shouldn’t shouldn’t?\u00a0 Then we’re also told to run to the health care professionals for every little ailment and cry like a baby?\u00a0 This is entitlement thinking that I am so glad to finally recognize in myself so that I can repent of it and choose so much better like Harry,\u00a0 Elaine, and Kathi.\u00a0 How about you?<\/p>\n

*While I am advocating talking to strangers, I am not encouraging FOOLISH discourse with them. Some strangers are worthy to engage with and others are not.\u00a0 \u00a0I hope to write in another blog or book what this discernment looks like and how to teach it to our children.\u00a0 I too have been approached while traveling by creeps that\u00a0 clearly had wicked motives behind their attempts to converse.\u00a0 I immediately sought support by others in the nearest business of the parking lot where one man in particular approached me.\u00a0 Please use good judgement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of my drive to write is to help others uncover the lies that bind and choke them from living to the fullest.\u00a0 One of these lies is\u00a0Don’t Talk to Strangers. One of my sweet violin students aptly said one day during lessons that _________ (a very powerful company in the entertainment industry) tells girls … Continue reading Don’t, No DO Talk to Strangers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1408,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions\/1408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}