Things on My Mind (TOMM) Recently (or TOMMR??)

There are a few things that I need to make decisions on that I've been unable to for a number of reasons. The things aren't entirely earth shattering but they are things about which I need to decide. So ironically, in procrastinating the decision making, I can't even make a decision about the best acronym for this post.  TOMM or TOMMR to incorporate "Recently?"  At least I'm consistent, anyway. Not making decisions about the title for a blog post while writing said post in lieu of making decisions about other things. 

Anyway, the first thing on my mind is student loans. And the forgiveness/ taxpayer on the hook for the student loans instead of the borrower. And then the Supreme Court's recent decision saying that the foregiveness/ taxpayer on the hook for the payment instead of the borrower is unconstitutional. I won't share my entire thoughts on these student loans events related political events though I have lots of thoughts. Rather, using this headline, I'll instead share a few thoughts about student loans and loans in general.

It seems  to me that the repayment of student loans should have an impact on consumer spending. Repaying any financial obligation means that the consumer has less money to spend on consumer goods. Whether the financial obligation is fairly small, say to pay monthly installments on a vehicle or large like a mortgage for a property, the result of paying it means there's less money to spend or save. So, yes, it would be surprising and indeed unsettling, if the repayment of financial obligations didn't result in less spending.

Donnie and I paid the equivalent of a second one mortgage in student loan payments for close to twenty years. Our combined student loan monthly payment was higher than the mortgage of our first house!  Assuredly, we spent less money every month that we made that huge payment versus when we finally had the loan paid off.

I'm sure this will make me sound old and curmudgeon-y, but back in my day, the zeitgeist concerning student loans was not that the loans were for other people to pay.  The expectation was that if you took the loans out, you would repay them. I mean, bankruptcy laws exist to assist people in individual cases of financial hardship but as a cohort in general, student loan borrowers expected to pay off their loans themselves. (Though I'm not even sure if student loans are or used to be discharable in bankruptcy.) I think it's a sad state for the body politic in America that large numbers of borrowers demanded that taxpayers pay their loans instead of them. That a politician was willing to do that is, in my opinion poor governance, but it's not surprising. 

Speaking of politics, I've been thinking of the old adage of it not being polite to discuss religion or politics with others. I find it interesting that in the blog sphere that I'm in, religion and faith are very much talked (well, written) about. I think it's great to discuss faith and Christianity with others in blog posts and comments. Writers and readers can encourage, build up and be strengthened by the words of others. What a blessing!

But when it comes to politics, I've noticed that most people don't discuss current cultural/ political issues in their blog posts (including me though I very occasionally do). I have read posts where the writer strongly dislikes a particular politician and writes something like, "I can't stand politician X." But, no analysis on any issue has been given, just a knee jerk, "I cant stand politician X."  I get not wanting to discuss politics on the one hand, I really do. There are a seemingly endless amount of topics about which to write so why bother writing something that readers may be offended about or disagree with you strongly? That is primarily why I avoid writing much about politics. (The other is a nascent fear of Orwell's 1984 coming to fruition and me standing in Room 101 room in the Ministry of Love and someone asking me why I wrote such and such about a topic on the blog and there I am hoping to not get tortured due to political opinions I'd written about in the past. Kidding. Sort of.) 

But, so many "odd" cultural events are unfolding around us- I feel like what's going on culturally/ politically is somewhat like the proverbial elephant in the room.  I'm happy to share pictures of my favorite sweaters and my pizza crust recipe and likewise I enjoy reading posts about such things from others. But sometimes it feels oddly incongruent to share a lot of our lives via a blog and not talk much about politics and/ or current events since politics affects a great deal of our lives? 

Speaking of the blog, last month something really unusual happened. My blog stats as far as viewings each day skyrocketed. We're talking many hundreds of views each day when normally, well, six hundred views don't  happen. It was like that almost the entirety of the month. Almost as soon as July hit, the stats came back to "normal." It was kind of cool in an egocentric way to see those stats. But it seemed strange, too, and I was completely fine to see the numbers go back to normal a couple of weeks ago. 

I can't think of a good segue but... rhubarb is the next topic. I planted rhubarb in the garden last summer. All the information that I read about it said to not plan on cutting any rhubarb stalks the first year and consider not cutting any the second year as well. That is to encourage more growth. So last summer and this summer, the plant has just existed. Nothing has come of it. Except the leaves have grown huge and are quite pretty on the plant! I couldn't help but take a picture or two.

This year, I read up again on the plant and this time read that eating the leaves is dangerous. I mean, I hadn't thought to eat the leaves but it's a little unusual for leaves of a plant with some edible parts to be poisonous. Then I read another article and it mentioned to not forget to add rhubarb leaves to dishes. Uh, the poisonous leaves? Another article said that though the leaves are poisonous, the leaves can added to a compost bin. Uh, NO! I think I'm going to have nothing to do with the leaves despite conflicting information. Better safe than sorry and hopefully next year, I'll have some beautiful rhubarb stalks (not leaves!) to eat.  

Pretty n' poisonous- a quite pretty, apparently poisonous verdant rhubarb leaf

Hand pic for comparison...

Aww, the runt of my tomato plants finally has a baby tomato growing on it. I planted eleven tomato plants but only had ten tomato cages. So one plant is without a cage. It has definitely failed to thrive; while one tomato plant already has twelve tomatoes growing on it, this one didn't have any for the longest time. I was happy to see one growing.

Goodness, I never tire of seeing little baby tomatoes! This one is smaller than my fingernail. Love watching my "babies" grow, lol. This is fifty when all your kids drive, work, and spend time away from home with activities, friends, etc. A mama's gotta have something to care for, right? (Though "care" is a low threshold when it means nothing more than making sure the plants are watered and weeded...)