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Yep, Got A New Title

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Well, it’s this way. I never have been able to get the tag line to work on this theme.  And I wanted my new tag line to say, “The right word makes all the difference.”  But since it won’t post on my site — unless I create a graphic with the title and the tag line myself and post it as a header — I decided that maybe I’ll just make that statement my new title.  Don’t know if I’ll stick with it, but I’m in the mood to experiment this week, so …… why not? Sorry if it confused anyone.  I rather like it.  Maybe some of my visitors will as well.

 

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My Cadillac For Your Camel

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

CAMEL'S IN DESERT
[Haven’t had much time to blog this week, so I’ve gone back and pulled a few things from my archives that spoke to me in some particular way. This article was one of those things.]

We all live by a value system of some kind. Each possession, each day, and each person in our lives has a different value, and sometimes that value changes. The title of this article is a joke, of course, poking fun at the truth that most value is relative. But what makes it relative? What, in the final analysis, determines an item’s value?

There are millions of affluent citizens of several nations who value their Cadillacs — or a number of other expensive automobiles with big gasoline engines — as one of the most important and life-enhancing items they could own. On a roster of possessions that represent the most positive assets in life, those glossy, high-powered autos head the list.

But let that Cadillac owner find himself stranded in the middle of a blazing desert: sand blowing into every nook and cranny, including his engine — no roads of any kind — no gas stations.  Suddenly, a slow-moving, bad-smelling, comically-proportioned camel is worth a whole lot more to that guy than the Caddy, and he’d gladly make a trade. Value.

By the same token, a woman who finds herself happily married to a kind, thoughtful man will value that man highly — more highly than any of the other people in her life. Her next-door neighbor may be married to Attila the Hun, and she finds herself valuing her time away from him with others much more than she does him.

The woman who’s wished all her life for a huge two-story home with five bathrooms, and who has the money to care for that house and hire help — as well as be free to stay home and enjoy it most days — will value that house highly. But the gal who struggles to make ends meet by working three jobs and going non-stop from sun-up to sun-down will value a one-bedroom apartment that is easy to clean and maintain with no extra fuss.

So what is it, really, that gives something its value? It seems that it is the owner of that ‘something.’  The person to whom the thing belongs and for whom it fulfills a purpose or meets a need is the one who imbues it with its value.

Well, I, for one am thrilled to realize that truth. Because I know for sure to whom I belong.  And I know for sure — because He told me Himself — what service I perform and what needs I meet for Him. Nor am I an isolated case. There are millions more just like me — yet unique at the same time — and bearing equal value in the eyes of our owner.

My owner is the God of the universe, the Creator of all things — including me. His Word tells me clearly (Revelation 4:11) that all things — including me — were created by Him for His pleasure. And, in fact that is my number-one job: to give my Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ pleasure. Surely, I am assigned to do other things: to love others; to teach them what the Word says about Jesus and how He, as God, came to save us from our own sin and rebellion; and to show by my whole life the true nature of God. But those assignments do not substitute for God’s original purpose in creating me: His own enjoyment of a family just like Him.

But not only does He own the whole human race because He created us. When we rebelled against Him and turned away, breaking our relationship with him completely, with no hope to get it back, God came in the person of Jesus Christ and paid the supreme price to buy us back into His possession. He made us the first time (an easy and delightful experience for Him); He bought us the second time (a gut-wrenching, horrific, thoroughly bloody experience for Him).

But you know what’s really interesting to me?  The Word of God tells us in Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus faced all of that sacrifice for us — laying aside the privileges of Divinity and re-defining Himself in human flesh, living a life never once stained by sin, and taking our sin and the horrible shame, beating, crucifixion, and separation from God that we deserved — because He saw something beyond that sacrifice that would give Him so much joy that it far surpassed the evil He would have to endure.

Now, tell me please, what joy could the Lord of the universe – Creator of all things — what possible joy could He have been missing that made such a horrific sacrifice necessary? The only thing He was missing was a relationship with man. Since man, by his own volition, had irrevocably broken that relationship, nothing could restore it at that point. The only hope was if God could find a way to “re-create” the human race — to make them righteous enough again to fellowship with Him.

The triune Creator had everything else He could possibly want, but not one of those things could give Him the joy that His relationship with us could give. Dear friend, it was for man — for you and me — that He longed. It was for you and me that He made the decision to suffer such agony and death.

So how valuable are we? Is there anything in the universe that could be bartered for you and me? Is there anything that can be offered to Jesus Christ in exchange for His relationship with us that would tempt Him to give us up? Not on your life, my friend!  He already made that choice, once and for all, when He laid down everything else for us.

Remember, He didn’t just decide to come down to earth for a moment in time and go through the motions. He came down to go through the reality of taking on our sin, taking on our separation and banishment from the Father God, taking on our death. His only hope was in the eternal Word of the living God, who had spoken that He would raise Jesus up with new life once the legal price for sin had been paid in full. Had that Word failed, Jesus would never have seen Heaven again, and we would be lost and undone — without God and without hope — forever.

But He did see Heaven again. He came up out of that grave with eternal life to offer anyone who would accept the sacrifice He had made. (John 3:16-18, 1 John 5:11-12). So when we accept His sacrifice and accept Him, that new life comes into us and we are “born again.” (John 3:3-5). We become “a new creation: a new species,” created in the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself. (2 Cor. 5:17).

Yes, it’s easy to identify Jesus Christ as our owner — twice over. He created us; then he paid for us. A critical reader will stop here and note the fact that I am repeating this point for the third time in this article. And he would be correct. I am repeating this astounding truth so many times because this world has a way of draining it right out of us. It’s so easy to give mental assent to what we’re discussing here but miss the power of it as a reality in our lives. So once more I will remind all of us:  He laid everything on the line — Heaven, His eternal throne, His own life — for us. And therein lies our value.

It doesn’t matter how we feel about it. It doesn’t matter what we think. And it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about the situation. Our worth is set for eternity, and no one — absolutely no one — is going to get Jesus to trade us for anything else at all.

 

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Rebel Without a Cause? I Don’t Think So

| Sandra Pavloff Conner
Photo Courtesy of Clker.com
Photo Courtesy of Clker.com

I generally post articles on this site that, hopefully, will be of interest to visitors and readers from all over the world, since I’ve been blessed with friendship by so many folks from other nations. That being said, I’ll let you know up front that this post is primarily addressed to the other citizens of the United States who visit here. However, what I’m saying about the removal of basic rights and freedoms in our nation is something that can be applied to every free nation on this planet. So, hopefully, even those of you who are not my countrymen, will find something here to make you think and/or encourage you to stand up for the rights of everyone in your own nation.

I came across a website last week (Dukes of Hillsboro) that is dedicated to and focused on clarifying and defending the Confederate battle flag and its display in both private and public venues. The group behind the site is also devoted to protecting the honor of those brave men who fought and died on the side of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War in the 1800’s. That protection includes seeing to it that their bodies are not dug up from their current graves and that their statues are not torn down or removed from public view.

These people are trying to explain that the Confederate battle flag does not currently represent racism or a division of people groups in this country. In fact, there are people of all races involved in this movement. But the flag, to them, represents their own heritage and history –and it honors their forefathers, who fought for what they believed America should represent. The Confederacy’s desire to protect the states’ rights against what they saw as a too-powerful and unfair centralized government was very similar to the desire of the original thirteen colonies as they fought to protect themselves from a too-powerful and unfair ruler across the Atlantic.

Some of the states’ rights the Confederacy fought for were moral and just, and some, to be sure, were quite immoral — specifically the right to own slaves.  (I think it’s worth adding here, however,  that the vast majority of Confederate soldiers who fought that war had never owned slaves in their lives.)  But the point is that they fought that war as Americans — who believed in a nation that was different from the nation the North (the Union) wanted and fought for.  Recognizing that fact, after the war, the United States government acknowledged every Confederate soldier as an American veteran — and has continued to honor those solders as such. The people whose forefathers were among those veterans have a right to fly the battle flag their ancestors fought under, and the constitution of the United States — specifically the Bill of Rights — guarantees them that right as part of their free speech.

Personally, when I see the stand the people at “Dukes of Hillsboro” are taking, I thank God we still have a few people in this nation with some backbone. We’ve almost come to the place where every citizen in this nation has the right to fly whatever flag he wants to fly — except one. Why, even Nazi supporters can fly and carry the Nazi flag all over the place, yet we have some government officials and several hundred other idiots now trying to tell us the people whose heritage includes having fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side do not have the right to fly the flag their forefathers carried bravely into battle.

Moreover, virtually every business that ever sold any items that even hint at being connected with Confederate history or that flag are banning all of those items and their use. There is no excuse for such attitudes or actions, and it’s clear to me — and anyone else with half a brain — that this whole “anti-confederate” movement is nothing but fools leading fools. (It’s the same kind of idiocy that has been displayed in the attempt to re-write Mark Twain’s book Huckleberry Finn to remove all references to racism, and the almost total ban in this country on the showing of Walt Disney’s  movie Song of the South.) We are not helping ourselves by trying to pretend these things are not part of our history. And as part of our history, they are part of us. Some of them, at times, may represent our baser selves, but they also remind us of how much we’ve changed and grown into something better.

As I mentioned in the introduction to this piece, the men who fought in the army of The Confederate States of America are — by law — identified as American veterans. But the point obviously needs to be made over and over in this country in order to beat it into the hard heads of these trouble-makers. The Confederate soldiers were fighting for what they believed America should be — but it was the vision of an America that differed from the vision the Union held. Nevertheless, their ardor and their efforts were genuine, and they committed themselves to pay whatever price it took to try to build that kind of nation instead of the one they believed had betrayed them.

As a result, to this present day, our United States government acknowledges them and honors them as veterans. And now we have some mentally twisted baboons who want to dig up the bodies of these American veterans and move them — and remove every statue of them off any public property. I can’t help but ask: would these baboons be just as willing for their own veteran forefathers’ bodies to be dug up and treated so inhumanely?

The whole attitude is insane. The flag — and the statues of Confederate leaders — have nothing — nothing — to do with racism today. They have to do with our history as a nation and, to a great extent, with heritage. But let’s be honest here: Even if they did have to do with racist ideas — we do still have freedom of speech guaranteed to us by the constitution of this nation. I don’t agree with racially prejudiced speakers, but I will defend to the death their right to say what they believe because I want the right to say what I believe.

Tell me: How much more racist can you get than the Nazi’s who tortured, mutilated, butchered, and murdered tens of thousands of people in an effort to destroy a whole race? Now that, my friend, is pure racism. Yet we allow citizens to fly and carry the Nazi flag whenever they want to — because we call it “freedom of speech.”

And why all this frenzy over the Confederate flag just because some lunatic who shot and killed people in South Carolina was seen in a picture that included a Confederate flag and a gun. What if he had been seen in a Batman uniform with a gun. Would we then have this almost maniacal movement to ban everything connected with Batman?  I don’t think so. And what if he had been pictured with a Nazi flag and a gun?  Would we make laws banning all Nazi flags from being flown and carried in the U.S.  Again, I don’t think so. Something else is at work here.

One news report described the behavior of the chancellor of the University of Missouri, who went berserk when he saw an old picture of some fraternity students holding three flags — the U. S. flag, the Confederate flag, and their own football mascot flag. First he insisted that none of the students in the picture were students from that university. He has now — according to the news story — publicly proclaimed that he will hunt down and investigate every student who was in the picture — which was taken at least three years ago at some fraternity activity.  Heaven help those students. I hope they have all graduated and moved far enough away he can’t find them, because it sounds a little like the Salem witch hunts to me.   Insanity.

But I find myself asking a rather unusual question in the midst of all this hullabaloo. Why would our government officials want to allow Nazi flags to be flapped around, but not Confederate flags? Could it be — now I’m not saying that it is — but you have to admit that it’s a valid question to ask — could it be that the Nazi flags don’t pose the threat to the super liberal centralized government that has taken over the Unites States in the last decade?  Could it be that the Nazi flag — being much more akin to the socialistic, central-government- controlled system that the liberals want — doesn’t frighten the “big-brother” regime that has managed to usurp power to an unconstitutional degree?

And could it be that the Confederate flag — on the other hand — represents the strong belief in states’ rights that were originally so carefully guarded and protected by the careful wording of our constitution — and also represents the willingness of a people to stand up and fight with everything in them to protect those rights and all their other freedoms?

And could it be that such a symbol does pose a threat to that socialistic regime, because it reminds people that it is possible to unite thousands of citizens to fight for their rights by taking on the centralized government that has become their enemy? And could that threat be part of what’s behind this insane move to try to wipe out everything that reminds people that there once was a group of citizens committed enough to take that stand?

I’ve already stated that some of the states’ rights the Confederate states fought for were moral and just, but some were very immoral — specifically the right to own slaves.  But the states’ rights that are being stolen away today — by the socialistic regime that has currently taken control in Washington D.C. — are not in any way connected with immoral actions.

Today, the rights we want to protect have totally moral and just foundations:  We want to safeguard the right of every state to protect its borders, the right of every state to refuse the legalization of abortions, the right of every state to refuse the legalization of gay marriage, the right of every state to refuse to allow the presence of multiplied mosques that represent and propagate a religion that butchers all people who stand against it, and the right of every state to protect the individual rights of her hard-working, innocent businessmen to decide with whom they want to do business.

Quite frankly, right now, when I look at the Confederate flag, I find within my soul a tiny flicker of hope that, just maybe, there will be some of us brave enough to take a stand again — and to do whatever it takes to reclaim the rights of our individual states.  In the eyes of some, that makes me a rebel. And maybe I am. But I’ll gladly wear that label if it identifies me as a U.S. citizen who is grateful enough for the blood-bought freedom this nation has always stood for — grateful enough to be willing to fight every enemy — foreign or domestic — that would destroy that freedom.

It’s time we got real, folks. It’s time we grew up and stopped standing around sucking our thumbs while our nation crumbles around us. It’s time for us to once again stand up for what is right and just in this land. We must stand up for the rights of these people who simply want equal “freedom of speech” rights concerning a flag that means something to them.

Perhaps you don’t agree with people flying the Confederate flag. Well, the wonderful thing about living in this country is that you have total freedom — you have the guaranteed right — to disagree with them and even say so publicly.  And you can do that.  But while you’re disagreeing with them, take a stand to defend their right to fly that flag you don’t agree with. If you do not stand up for their rights now — look out — because some specific rights that you care about will be taken away next!

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Dukes of Hillsboro Website

My Thanks to Jerry, WP Happiness Engineer

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

THANK YOU RED
I want to give a public “Thank You” to a WordPress Happiness Engineer named Jerry. I heard from him the other day concerning the problem I had reported and complained about after suddenly losing the ability to change or control header text color on any of my blogs. Most of you know the details of that problem from my posts about it, so I won’t repeat those.

However, I do want to mention that Jerry apologized for the situation and agreed with me about the situation being undesirable. But he also went to the trouble to work on my site (and the test site connected to it) to add a custom design segment that would begin allowing me to change the header text color free for a period of time. Unfortunately, I had already changed to a different theme before I heard from him.  And I had changed my test site theme before the problem arose because I had been trying to encourage a travel adviser to start using WP and had designed a sample blog for her to consider on my test site.

And, also unfortunately, he had not understood the big picture — which was the fact that I have four separate blogs (not counting the test blog), all of which suffered the same problem. And the even bigger picture, of course, is the fact that hundreds — perhaps thousands — of other bloggers now have to deal with the same problem — although many won’t realize that until they try to change their header color.

However, Jerry did tell me that WordPress is looking into the matter, and I got the impression that they may try to fix things in a way that will help us all.

Regardless, I do want to publicly thank Jerry for going to so much trouble for my “In Love With Words” blog.  I felt a little bad that I had already changed themes, trying to find one that gave me at least a little control. But, of course, I had talked with several WP support people by then who indicated there was no solution, so I felt that move was the only one I could make at the time.  But, even though I’m not using that theme any longer, I do truly appreciate Jerry’s personal efforts on my behalf.

So thank you, Mr. Jerry, for your kindness and for going the extra mile for me.

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WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Close Up — 3 for 1

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Close Up

I decided to go with variety this week. I took these shots at totally different times, and they have absolutely nothing in common — except that they were taken at pretty close range.

Glasses on a Ceramic Holder
Glasses on a Ceramic Holder

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Stared Down By a Brave Bird

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Friend's Grand Piano Signed & Illustrated by Liberace
Friend’s Grand Piano Signed & Illustrated by Liberace

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The Fragrance of Home

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Exif JPEG
This morning I  poured myself a cup of tea — well, actually, it was a mug rather than a cup — and that’s what made the difference. This mug was very deep, and when I picked it up to take a drink, the aroma of the freshly brewed tea wafted up and into my nostrils, but then swept over me completely with memories almost as fresh as the tea itself.

Back when I was a child, then a teenager, than a very young adult, my family always worked together in the kitchen. Cooking, eating, and even cleaning up were activities that bonded us together, and gave us lovely opportunities to share events in our lives as well as our hopes and dreams — and our fears. My sister and I were able to talk with our parents about any topic under the sun, and there was never a problem we didn’t find help for in their love and wisdom. We were truly blessed.

But during those years, there were some events that seemed to lodge themselves into my soul more than others, and each one of them represents something special about my relationship with my family. One of those unique events was the preparing of the tea for our evening meals. During warm weather especially — and sometimes at other times of the year — we always had iced tea as our main drink at our evening meal. Mom would boil the water on the stove and then brew the tea (according to the Americanized custom, using tea bags) to just the right consistency so that when we poured it into the pitcher, we then added an equal amount of fresh water, and the strength and the color of the tea were perfect for pouring over ice.

However, before we poured in the extra water, we scooped in the sugar. Now, I have to tell you that I’m old enough that this project was carried on back in the day before everyone and his brother had gone crazy trying to stay away from ordinary staples like butter, eggs, and good old granulated sugar. So we always scooped in a hefty amount of that good old granulated sugar and stirred happily. By adding it before the extra water, the sugar melted very quickly and united thoroughly with the tea so that there was no residue left in the bottom of the pitcher.

During this whole exercise, the most prominent characteristic of the process was the rich aroma of that tea — as we stirred in the sugar, then added more water, and stirred some more. There was something so sweet and satisfying about that fragrance, and it has stayed with me all these many decades since. And every once in a while — just every once in a while — when I’m having just a cup of tea — the various elements of the moment — the temperature of the tea, the movement of the air, the strength of the brew, the position of the cup — whatever it is that makes the difference at the time — but just once in while, I get that aroma rising up and meeting me once again, and I am instantly taken back home.

My family lived in four different towns during my growing up years, and in about six different houses, but home was still always the same place: it was wherever my mom, dad, sister, and I were together. The name of the town or the street made no difference. It was the fact that we were together, sharing all the wonderful aspects of our lives — brewing the tea and enjoying its rich aroma — knowing that even when there were some problems facing us, we had each other and the safety of our love for one another.

So every time I smell that special sweet aroma of my tea (even though I do have it without sugar today), I am swept back to those days. I find myself in the kitchen with my mom, standing beside the cabinet, stirring the tea, and enjoying the happy aroma of a home filled with love.

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Share Your World, 2015 — Week # 28

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

GLOBE WITH HALO

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Question # 1:  What is your favorite comfort snack?

I have 5 favorites.

Chocolate
Cheese
Peanut Butter
Chocolate & Peanut Butter
Cheese & Peanut Butter  (If you’ve never spread peanut butter onto a slice of cheese, you can’t imagine the treat you’re missing.)

Question # 2:  If you had to spend one weekend alone in a single store but could remove nothing, which store would you pick? (except food or beverage)?  

A book store for sure.

Question # 3:  What was the largest city you have been to?  What is the one thing you remember most?

If we’re  measuring size by population, I guess the largest city I’ve been to is Philadelphia.  I had a wonderful time there, but there are two things that vie for the most memorable — neither of which had anything to do with my main reason for being there.

One of those things is the outlandish number of one-way streets in the middle of the downtown business district.  One day my husband and I were headed out to the airport to pick up a delivery for a friend, and caught in some heavy traffic congestion, we needed to turn one direction or another. There was a policeman directing traffic from the middle of the street, so we pulled up, rolled down our window and asked him whether the next street over was a one-way street, or if we would be able to take it to get on our connecting street. He thought a moment, and then said, “I don’t know if that street is one-way or not.”  Now, in my opinion, when a city has so many one-way streets that even her policemen directing traffic don’t know where they are, they have way, way, way too many of them.

The second thing I remember is from another time in the car, as hubby and I were coming from an outlying town back into downtown Philly. We were on a 6-lane highway, and as we came around a very long curve, we noticed a man standing just off the road on a lay-by — but actually quite close to our far right lane of traffic. He was standing, facing the traffic, and just swinging his arms out and in, out and in, as if he were doing calisthenics.  He looked to be wearing tan shorts, but no shirt. Imagine my chagrin — and my huge eyes — when we got closer and discovered that he was NOT wearing tan shorts after all, but was stark naked.  But he never missed a beat in his exercise routine. The last I saw of him, as we took our turn rounding the bend, he was still going strong. There was, however, a police car coming from the opposite direction — hopefully to assist him — uh — if you know what I mean.

Question # 4:  Finish this sentence:  It has recently come to my attention that ….

It has recently come to my attention that I don’t know everything.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a very considerate cousin who came to my home and cut down a huge growth of thick vines that had climbed into my siding and spread itself across the a large area of the back of my house and around my electrical wire service connection. I could never have cut all that down myself.

This week I’m looking forward to spending some time with my step-mother before she returns to Colorado for another year of Bible school and ministry preparation.

To take part in the fun of sharing your world, visit Cee’s blog.

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WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Half & Half

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

WordPress Photo Challenge

Well, I feel compelled to offer another one of Terry Valley’s terrific photos for today’s “Half and Half” challenge. I could never match a shot like this, so I’m glad he lets me share his work.

GOLDEN TREE REFLECTION
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Life Gets Tedious Don’t It? – Or – Whatever Became of Sandra’s Problems With the Customizer?

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

COMPUTER WITH TONGUE OUTWell, I thought I’d give you a little update concerning my going round and round with WordPress over the lack of control I now have with the look of my blog. After communicating with several different technicians — most of whom told me something that conflicted with what others told me — I have come to this conclusion. I can still change the background color of my blog — but only if I go through the round-about way of doing so. But we can’t have any changes that make sense or that are simple and easy, now can we?

Unfortunately, the one thing all the techs agree on is that I can never change the color of my header text again. Now, being a ‘picture person,’ I like to change my header picture frequently, and I generally change my header text color and my background to compliment each picture (as all of you know). That being the case, I changed my text on here to white the last time (almost two weeks ago.)  Now I’ve learned that I can never change it again unless I buy an upgrade.  Of course, some of the free themes still say that changing that header color is still a free option. But — according to the techs — that is not true.

Here’s what’s happened. Without giving us any advance notice that I can find anywhere, WP decided to drop the option of changing the header color for free. Now they insist on making us buy an upgrade for that option, and now – with no warning – I’m stuck with this dilemma: On this site (“In Love With Words”) I can never again change my background to white, or no one will be able to see the title of my blog. On my “Happy Patriot” site, I will have to always use a picture and background that blends with bright red, because the title is currently bright red and there’s no way to change it back to black.  And I have the same problem on my other two sites. Honestly, if I weren’t so aggravated, I’d roll in the floor laughing at such ridiculousness.

I have two blogs on Blogger, but I had decided a couple years ago to focus only on my WordPress sites — and there are 4 of them. After all this mess — along with several other changes that have taken place recently that have made my blogging experience unhappy — I seriously thought about giving up on WP and just moving all my stuff to the Blogger sites.

The only thing that stopped me was thinking about all of you — the sweet people I’ve come to know and love over these four years. I know that a handful of you would follow me to Blogger and continue to stay in touch. But most of you wouldn’t bother. And I understand why. All of us are so busy these days that the only way we can actually stay connected on a regular basis is if it’s quick and easy to do so. With the majority of my followers being WordPress bloggers, it’s easy for all of us to stay close. If I move, that connection with most of you will be lost.

So —- I have taken a deep — deep — deep — deep breath, and decided to stick it out for now. I’ll do some experimenting and see what I can find that will let me come as close as possible to making my sites look like I want them to look.  Besides, it’s true for blogs the same as it is true for human beings: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and when you love someone, she looks good to you, no matter what her hair, clothes, or make-up looks like. And I know that so many of you love me — even as I do you — so you won’t really care even if I have a lavender picture posted onto a bright orange background. Ewwwww!!!

Mostly, though, I just feel sort of sorry for the WordPress “happiness engineers.” They have a rather thankless, almost impossible job trying to explain why all these changes should make us happy.

 

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Okay, Now I’m Really Mad! — or else I’m really stupid …

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

ANGRY WOMANI’ve had just about all I can take of WordPress messing up what used to be a wonderful blogging experience. I’m trying to get blogging students started on this blogging network, and I’ve just been encouraging a fellow teacher to begin a brand new blog on here as well, and what do I find when I get on here tonight???

Not only do I have to wade through all of these stupid changes that have been made in the past year — most of which makes the whole process more complicated and more time consuming (as most of you readers have testified on here as well) — but now I can’t even change the color of my header text so that it will go with my header photo.  Where did that control go?????  It’s just a little button and a color chart. What’s the harm in keeping it?

Until today, every time I changed my header photo, the page also gave me the option to choose a new color for the header text.  Now there is no way at all to change the color. (Now, this is where the “stupid” part comes into the picture. If there is a new way to change the text color, I’m not smart enough to find it.) This particular theme — and in fact every single theme I’ve ever used on WP — has allowed me to change the header text color. Now, all of a sudden, I’m stuck with keeping the text the color it is right now, no matter what. Moreover, I have the same problem on all four of my blogs.

Frankly, I’m about ready to give up on all four. These ridiculous changes cost me excessive time and energy every time I’m on here anymore, and it’s impossible to teach other people how to use this system when it keeps changing. So I certainly can’t encourage anyone else to use WordPress at this rate.

Help!!! Does anybody out there have any information that just might help? Can the rest of you still change your header text color or not?

I followed the link to the “Ask Happiness Engineers” page, but all I can ever find on that page is a place to put a question into the forum page to try to get some help, but I don’t hold out much hope. The last time I tried to get help that way, the only person who answered was another blogger who was as fed up as I am. When I first started on WordPress, the tech people were truly helpful. They would even send us an e-mail and actually communicate with us and fix problems. Now I can’t seem to find them.

The “Help” pages say that the “Color” section of the customize panel will let us change the header text, but it will not. Nor will the “Title” section, or the “Header” section. So if anyone has anything in mind that might lead me to a solution, please don’t hesitate to pass it on. And thanks!

I can get over being mad, but I’d really, really, really hate to find out I’m stupid!

 

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