In the news:
I logged onto Yahoo!, to check my mail as I do most days, and was distracted from my task by a news headline, which, if you know me, doesn’t happen very often. But this particular article caught my eye: “State to Mom: Stop baby-sitting neighbors’ kids”. I was interested. To summarize: a Michigan mother had been watching her neighbors’ children for about an hour before the school bus came to the suburban neighborhood to pick them up because the children’s parents had to work. The mother, Lisa, received a letter from the state of Michigan’s Department of Human Services warning her that “if she continued, she’d be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers”. Lisa called all the mothers and stopped watching the children before school. It was discovered that this incident occurred because of another neighbor’s complaint.
The article goes on to say that, even though they feel the law “gets in the way of common sense”, when the Department sent the letter they were following the law. It also says that when the governor learned of this ‘problem’ she immediately took action and called the Department to see what could be done, and that a state-representative is already looking to make legislation to help in situations like this one.
I suppose I just can’t comprehend this situation. I grew up in a neighborhood where, even if they were new to the area, you helped your neighbors in any way they needed help. It was that simple, and it still is.
I say props to Lisa for doing a good thing for her friends and neighbors. Better the kids wait for the bus in a welcoming home than on the street, even if it is a suburban area.
I hope this situation gets sorted out so that Lisa can continue to help her neighbors. 
(The article can be found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090929/ap_on_re_us/us_baby_sitter_backlash_mich Or go to Yahoo! and search for the article title above.)
Personally…
In Honor’s Making Connections class today, we discussed section two of “The Last Lecture.”(An AMAZING read, if you haven’t, read it) It was about enabling the dreams of others. The idea of whether or not you would want to know the date of your death came up (it sounds random but it really wasn’t, I promise). I chose no for a very simple reason: I like surprises. I don’t like having a plan or having a list (unless I’m headed to the store, then it’s okay to have a list so I don’t forget anything); I like to ‘go with the flow’ and be spontaneous. I want to go places and do things because I want to, not because I have a certain amount of time to do it.
Although I can see the other side of the coin, where you’d know how much time was left for activities and family/friends, I just can’t see myself living with each day, hour, minute planned out. Life’s more of an adventure when you wing it. That’s my personal view.
So the question is:
Whether you did or didn’t know when you were going to die, how would you live?
