Dayna Vance's Open Salon Blog

Do you see what I see?

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:08:31 -0400

I noticed a trend with you, Art.

I'm often entertained by your comments. In a strictly visual way, many of your most recent ones look familiar...you be the judge.

and others...sure look a lot like:

Is it just me?

All in fun, Art. Keep up the good work.

No gay kids in Pleasantville

Mon, 9 May 2011 07:05:49 -0400

Up until now everything around here has been, well, pleasant. Recently certain things have become unpleasant. Now, it seems to me that the first thing we have to do is to separate out the things that are pleasant from the things that are unpleasant.--Big Bob

Here’s to Hollywood, the industry that usually gets things dead wrong in the interest of big money, but every now and then gets things exactly right. I am convinced that Pleasantville’s “Big Bob” must surely have been modeled on Tennessee state Senator Stacey Campfield. This unwavering defender of wholesome goodness has introduced a bill attempting to rid the state’s K-8 schools of all traces of that unpleasantness called homosexuality.

According to a piece by Jane Roberts in the Commercial Appeal, the bill aims to make it illegal for any elementary or middle school employee to teach about or even discuss homosexuality, including even in private counseling. A teacher or counselor or school nurse could be in violation of the law for even discussing the matter when asked to do so by a child. Consider for a moment, the ramifications of such a law.

The bill, of course, can not regulate what students say or do, so if a kid is being bullied for being homosexual, or maybe feeling suicidal because of it, he or she will not be able to discuss this with any adult at school.

Makes me wonder what color of reality they’ll try to stamp out next.

My Battered Mississippi Home

Sat, 7 May 2011 08:05:40 -0400

Mississippi is being pounded pretty hard by Mother Nature lately.

One morning I wake to see on Google News a video of a tornado very near where my oldest daughter lives.

A couple of days later, Smithville, the home of a good friend from high school, was practically wiped off the map.

And the latest news of floods near Memphis...and most of my family live near there now. They are not as likely to get much flooding, but with the way things are going, Florida is looking better every day. Until June, that is.

I Just Don't Trust You People

Thu, 5 May 2011 19:05:03 -0400

“How can you have morals if you don’t have anything to base them on?”

If a stranger had asked me this question, it wouldn’t have surprised me so, and I doubt I would have given it much thought later. But it was my own sister asking me this question. We were brought up in the same home by the same two parents. I think she was asking in a more rhetorical sense and not asking me directly.

I replied to her that I just don’t trust people with religious morals. I’m much more apt to trust someone’s intentions if they are doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do, or because they feel compassion for another. If a written set of rules (with threat of eternal damnation for violating them) is the driving force behind your good deed, I don’t see your actions as anything but self-serving, no matter the outcome. I don’t see this as “serving the Lord” but as serving to keep your own ass out of the flames.

My sister is sweet and reasonable, and she didn’t throw a bible at me or tell me I was probably going to Hell for that. She chewed on it some, and then we went on to talk about kids and men and other important matters.

10 things I'd tell my 16-year-old self, 6 words or less

Tue, 4 May 2010 07:05:29 -0400

"I've been wrong, but I've been changing...I've been wondering what to do..."

Whenever I listen too closely to the words of a song, I find my mind running away from me. This morning's musings were complicated. Only if it wouldn't result in me not having my kids...what would I tell the 16-year-old me, given the chance?

10. Lose the toxic "friends"--now.

9. Pay attention to your little sister.

8. Don't leave Anne behind.

7. Forgive your parents, they really try.

6. Please floss. Get a new retainer.

5. Wear sunblock.

4. Get your thyroid antibodies tested by 1989.

3. That man did not ruin you.

2. Lose weight now, wear a bikini.

1. DO NOT START SMOKING.

If only, if only...