Binge Watching

Generally speaking I am not much of a binge watcher since I rather like structure in my life which means I like to watch a show week to week rather than a ton of episodes all at once. However in the past few years there have been very few shows that keep me entertained week to week. I think the only one that I watch regularly is Law & Order SVU and of course, Dancing with the Stars (though it has been on a long sabbatical this past year).

As a result I have been buying older shows on DVD (I cannot get Netflix in the countryside without losing my mind – that’s a tale for another time) as well as buying the Game of Throne series because I was not buying HBO for just one show so I would wait patiently for the latest season to come out and then watch the show, usually one episode per night. Now having the whole collection except for the final season (not yet out) I confess, I have done some binge watching! But even that was mild compared to what Mom and I have now been doing – we are again watching Prison Break and oh my goodness, our hearts are palpitating so much that Mom came in one night and said “my heart is still beating so fast from the show”! We haven’t watched the show since it first appeared some 10 years ago so we forget a lot of the intricate details of the story and even though we know they escape we get so tense at every little twist that it is awesomely exciting!

Yes once in a while a truly great innovative story will appear on television but they are so far apart that it is really a shame. In the past decade I can think of Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones as true standouts. John also has really enjoyed Poldark but since I missed out from the beginning I can’t get into it at all which is rather a pity because I do enjoy period pieces. He also watches Victoria but I loathe historical dramas that are not accurate and the snippets I have watched portray a very different Victoria from her true self (she was really not a very nice person at all). A show I am watching now (in its final, third season) is Jamestown which is pretty good entertainment.

I really miss the great miniseries of yore, Rich Man Poor Man, Roots, Captain & the Kings, Testimony of Two Men and Centennial. Now those were really great serials!

Freewheeling Thoughts

October was a stressful month of analyzing women’s place in the world brought on by the horrific Ford/Kavanagh hearing. I think it has been cathartic for me but wonder how useful it was for my readers to have me dwelling on such a complex and ultimately personal exploration?  However that may be I give my permission to have fun and frolic in November!

What springs first to mind as “freewheeling” is, as always, the joys of nature. I am so happy that we are experiencing some version of Indian Summer and not the horrific deadlock of winter that we seemed to get last year. My grass is still green and though the leaves have fallen off the trees it’s a pleasure to see them blowing around the ground and then being still as the wind dies down. My little Henriettas continue to make us laugh with their comical antics. Every day the game is on as one hen discovers some bug or leaf and the others decide to take it away from her. Then other one scurries away on important business and we can almost see with our naked eye the briefcase under her wing!

Christmas is rushing upon us and I have been having a lot of fun creating Christmas cards as I perfect my skills. Measuring and cutting exact is the key to a perfect card when you use straight lines so I am thinking my next set will be ovals and circles (anything for an easy life).

I have been in communication with my distant (and not so distant) cousins and I cannot tell you how rewarding it is to become acquainted with relatives who but for the joys of genealogy would be lost forever. For most people this may seem like a “given” but when you are an immigrant with only an immediate family the craving for aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents is at times almost overwhelming for a child. So yes, I reach out now with greedy heart and feel genuinely blessed that those dear cousins are like minded.

Truly, my cup runneth over.

 

 

Technology and Apple - a rant

I was going to write something nice and uplifting but instead I need to vent regarding iPad and Apple.  I have never cared for Apple.  When they first came on the market in a big way I already felt negative feelings from something – I am not sure what.  But in the decades since their corporate values have been less than stellar even by big business standards (if we can call them that). 

Three weeks ago I finally agreed to do the “upgrade” to the iPad which my dear sister gave to me when I was hospitalized last June.  Since that time my iPad loses battery power within an hour, sometimes in 30 minutes.  I am not using it any more than I had been before the so called upgrade.  I had heard about this battery scam over a year ago (maybe much longer ago, not quite sure) but I thought that had all been sorted out by some kind of “investigation”.

This is all so much garbage, such a ripoff to folks and as usual a money grab.  Apple is a stinking company who cares about nothing but personal profits for their key people.  They don’t even to decent dividends to their public shareholders.

Disgusted big time.  I would never, ever by an Apple product.

Enough said.

Poor Little Rich Guy

The past week I have been irritated by a radio advertisement that cries woe is me, the big, bad American cell company is coming up to swallow up the little guy’s profit.  The little guys being Telus and Rogers.  You know, the guys who currently have a monopoly on robbing Canadians with the cell phone fees.  The ones who currently have the highest fees IN THE WORLD.  Yep, those poor guys are going to get beat up by “the big bad American”.  Gee, I feel so sorry for them.

       So here’s one of the questions that I have.  When the advertisement talks about all the infrastructure that has been built over the last 25 years I want to ask them “but who actually paid for the infrastructure?  Was it Telus and Rogers or was it the taxpayers?”  Another thing I would like to ask, not so sure about the rest of the country, but I do know that originally Telus was owned by the Alberta Government under the name AGT and that was paid for by tax payers.  I never did understand how our sainted Ralph was able to sell that off without first having a referendum.  Before Telus took over the phone company my bill was less than $25 a month, now it costs around $45 (bare bones).  With the $25 I had long distance, call display, and voicemail included.

       As I simply have the $10 pay as you go from Rogers my cellphone bill is minimal but I know that most folks are paying close to $100 for the packaged service.  I also have heard that it is really hard to get out of their contract.  I’ve also heard about roaming charges and other queer fees that can bankrupt the user.  Having friends with experience of European cellphones, I know that they do not have the same difficulties.  Even expensive countries like Norway or Denmark do not have the same exorbitant fees that we have here in Canada.

       So I am very sorry Telus and Rogers, I do not feel sorry for you AT ALL.  I am a loyal Canadian, I buy a lot of Canadian products, pay all of my taxes, pay my bills on time and generally am not thrilled with foreign ownership, outsourcing, insourcing, and a whole lot of other foreign crap.  But honestly, your advertisement only makes me gag.

Valentine's Day for this Single Girl

I happen to be reading a very funny book called “How to be Single” by Liz Tuccillo (who also coauthored “He’s Just Not That Into You” and wrote for Sex and the City).  There are many laugh out loud moments in the book but there are also some very sad segments.  So on this day for lovers I ask the question, where is communication in your relationship?  If you are not satisfied with how things are in the relationship do you tell your partner or do you keep it to yourself?

       In the book one of the women is completely blindsided when her soon-to-be ex-husband tells her that he’s been unhappy in the marriage for 5 years.  Really, and he never once bothered to tell her things were going sour?  Okay, so she took him for granted, okay so there was no sex for 5 years.  Since when do you wait 5 years before you tell someone that this is not working for you?  I’m really sorry but what kind of jerk sulks around for that long and then runs off with a Brazilian samba dancer and only after the fact says, oh by the way, I’ve been unhappy for 5 years? 

       It seems to me that Valentine’s Day becomes more commercial every year or maybe I just seem to notice it more these days.  But the commercials, the TV shows, even the talk shows all seem to blow Valentine’s Day into this huge, momentous day.  That bothers me not just because I am single, but I wonder why this day is so valued when Remembrance Day gets shoved aside?  In one way we see people flag waving like mad to get our boys overseas and yet on the day when we ought to be honouring them we barely get a half day off (and how many companies shove this day into a corner so they can take an extra day at Christmas – seriously?)  That’s right, Remembrance Day isn’t “commercial”, after all death is not really saleable except as it relates to dying like a hero.

       Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have a special day for lovers, and I like roses, chocolates and diamonds as much as the next girl, but honestly, let’s try to keep things in proportion.  It’s not the end of the world if your honey misses the day! 

       My last advice – talk, talk, talk!

Miscellaneous Thoughts

I went to bed last night thinking up a very good blog for this morning but wouldn’t you know it?  Gone.  Many a great novel has been lost by sleep.

Vacation Mode

June is always an unpredictable month and yet it is a lovely time of year so I decided to go out on a limb and take a week of vacation.  The plan is to work hard around the place but I have to say that the energy level just isn’t what it used to be.  When I read Richard Simmons’ blog and see what he does every single day I have to question why I can’t be more like him.  In order to get energy one must pull a little energy out by sheer willpower and build upon.  I know this simply by forcing myself on the treadmill, once the exercise is completed I definitely feel energized and ready for more.  It’s that difficult first step.

       So much of what we do is based on our brains, on how we think and the effort we put into our endeavour.  Yesterday my sister asked me “Are you happy?  Do you feel content with your life?”  I answered in the affirmative (no surprise there) but then she asked me about my friends, if I thought they were happy and fulfilled.  I had to think and consider a little while she continued to tell me that she thought most people were not.  I thought it was a very interesting observation on her part as it was obvious she had been thinking about this for quite a long time.  I think happiness can be a transient state for most people.  Perhaps a better way of looking at people is not to think whether they are happy or unhappy but rather whether they are an optimist or a pessimist.  Overall I think most people are probably pessimists but whether they are born that way or life has made them so I cannot tell.

       To be continued

Being in the Moment

Too often I tend to think about the future and so I forget about the immediate.  I forget about being present and taking full advantage of what is happening now.  Case in point, when I come home from work I still gravitate towards my unwinding in front of the television instead of embracing my mother and telling her about my day.  So much has gone on during the day and with the drive, I need to unwind.  However, I should be living in the moment and unwinding at bedtime and during waking hours I should be enjoying my mother.

      This is just an illustration of what we all tend to do with our lives.  We forget to enjoy the living life and instead worry about what is coming next.  Slow down, smell the roses.  How many times do I say that to the drivers whizzing by me on a Saturday morning?  But during the weekday I am just as wrong as everyone else that I point fingers at.  How about you?  Are you paying attention to the moment?

      It’s the night before my post, and I am cutting this short so I can be in the moment.

       Think about the tempo in your life.

Random Thoughts

I got a great surprise from my accountant earlier this week; I am getting a refund.  And here I was, thinking I would have to pay.  Don’t you love those kind of surprises?

 April is the month where you start looking at Spring Cleaning projects and finally have the energy to tackle them.  I was bustling around yesterday both in the house and the yard but you wouldn’t know it by looking around the house and yard.  There’s still a lot of work ahead of me.  My little sister had us all out for dinner yesterday and I mumbled something about the pain in my shoulder at which point she turned around and asked “Are you telling me you have Shopping Shoulder Syndrome?”  Ah, yes?

       It’s true, I was carrying super heavy shopping bags around the streets of New York City and I have damaged my shoulder.  Let me just tell you something, if you are dying or having a baby you cannot get a taxi at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon in NYC because they are waiting at the subway for their shift change.  I am not kidding you.  I cannot count the amount of cabs that turned us down; two desperate Canadian women loaded down with bags.  Seriously, you are not hungry enough to take a fare?  Apparently in Calgary at least the cabs are not allowed to decline a fare and I say, thank God for that law!  It’s your job for heaven’s sake, why would you say no?

       So I am currently the walking wounded (I was going to write more specifically but I thought in case of accidents I wouldn’t incriminate myself), again, should I censor myself or should I note “this is tongue in cheek”?  Let’s live dangerously, and let it stand.

       Watching The View yesterday there was a clip of Alicia Silverstone regurgitating her food into her child’s mouth which she apparently posted on U-Tube and it has gone viral.  My question is, why would you do that?  Wouldn’t it be more sanitary to put it in a food processor and give your child nice clean food?  That is just too weird.  If you are going to play around, can’t it be private? 

       Okay, here I am blogging about random thoughts and planning to post it on the internet for all to see the inner workings of my Saturday morning brain.  Why am I doing it?  Because I can?  I don’t know why.  So I suppose I shouldn’t be critical of Alicia, except to say, don’t complain when it comes back to hit you on the head.

       However, I want it both ways.  If we have the freedom of speech (and videoing) then what we say should be allowed without the backlash of the law.  I’m not referring to hate type things (use your common sense) but I am talking about the backsliding into McCarthyism.  When we talk about our political leanings I do not believe that it should be held against a person in another venue.  I can see that happening again though because I see such a strong swing to the right that I am seriously alarmed for the world.  Does this comment make me a threat to the world in years to come?  Only to those who want to suppress free thought but for a rational person, no.

       And such are my thoughts as I drink my first cup of coffee and watch the sun spread slowly over my front lawn, melting the latest cloth of snow.

Gearing Up

I’ve had a three day weekend which I have spent working in my yard until this morning when I was confronted by an advanced hour, grey skies and a phone call from my sister!  I’ve also had a lot on my mind but have been unable to article the thoughts swirling around in my little grey cells.

       That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

       Actually, it is not easy to come up with a daily article and I thought it would be good to recharge my batteries.  Meanwhile I had some interesting experiences including watching my two cats vie for my attention.  It is not surprise to learn that cats are very jealous creatures but it is surprising to see how much like children they can be when they are basically saying “look at me Mommy, I can to this” as they do a triple somersault in the air and come down to whack the brother over the head.  Then the real fighting starts, jumping over sofas and exercise machines, skidding along the corner and stop just before the tumble down 12 stairs into the basement.  Then they each go into their own corner to lick their wounds and finally crawl under the bed to sleep it off.  Yesterday they each took turns napping at my feet while I read.

       Besides my nature watch indoors I had the experience of weeding outdoors.  Isn’t it amazing that all natural beautiful things go grey, brown and dormant while weeds seem to stay green through the winter?  If they aren’t green through the winter they are certainly green as soon as there is the least bit of sun and heat.  Yes I found weeds sprouting in the garden, under mounds of leaves.  I also discovered that grass that had been trimmed short last fall can grow up to a foot over the winter (really).  All around the trees and bushes the grass was really long and I know I had trimmed it all down last October.

       I also discovered that as much as you pick up dead branches throughout the winter there is always more falling down from somewhere.  It amazes me that there are any branches left on my trees, I have picked so many up off the ground!  I have enough kindling to last me a lifetime or two.  When I pick up the dead branches I am reminded of Laura Ingalls when they were in DeSmet and there was hardly a twig to be found anywhere.  When my niece and nephew were younger I told them to pretend they were Laura and Albert looking for firewood but they had no idea what I was talking about.  They were raised on The Simpsons not Little House on the Prairie. I think they were deprived.

       So besides my nature watch, what have I been cooking up for your entertainment?  To be continued . . .

February Blahs

Our wonderful climatologist has made a mistake; instead of the coldest winter in ages we have had one of the mildest ones in recent times.  Despite that I’ve managed to come down with one terrific head cold that has knocked me out for several days, flat.  As well, the extraordinary high winds managed to blow my computer to smithereens and it has had to be completely dismantled and re-loaded (or whatever it is the wonderful IT specialists have performed.  In any event, I have been out of commission for over a week now and I have felt as though my right arm were cut off.  How addictive writing can become!)

So while I have been out of commission I have had plenty to think about and yet nothing formulated itself into truly cohesive thoughts, probably because I have had so much going on both at work and at home.  True creativity requires peace and quiet so that the imagination, or the thoughts, can brew into something wonderful.  At least, that is my theory.

Last night, with all the congestion on me I lay awake and rather than toss and turn I tried to be still and get my mind still with me.  I came up with a half dozen stories that seemed very wonderful in the dark but in the light of day I simply became impatient with myself. 

Ah, the life of a bedridden writer. 

Pshaw!  Think of Elizabeth Barrett, confined to her sofa and yet writing wonderful poetry.  Think of our mysterious Emily Dickinson behind her curtain.

What I have is a million excuses for avoiding my thoughts, however tomorrow is another day.

Law & Order

Yesterday my sister told me a true story that occurred locally.  I wonder what you think of it.

A young lady owns a pub, comes home every evening with a large amount of cash because the night deposit is not open.  One particular night after she came home the woman who lives across the street from her banged on her door and yelled

“Please let me in, he’s beating me.  I need help.”

She lets the woman in.  She calls the police.  The police attend at her home.  The police tell the pub owner that she “must” keep the woman overnight.  The pub owner doesn’t want to, the woman is a stranger plus she smells of alcohol.  The police insist she has a responsibility to keep the woman safe.  The pub owner caves in.

The police leave.  After a while the pub owner goes to sleep (presumably the strange woman goes to sleep too).  In the morning, the pub owner’s truck is gone and so is her money.  The police deny any responsibility in the situation.

So, what do you think? 

I find the whole scenario incredible.  I don’t think the police can make a person take someone into their home.  If they do, then how can they deny responsibility when the Good Samaritan is robbed?  Why wouldn’t the police take the husband to jail and let the woman go back into the home?

My sister is positive this is a true story (without going into details, I believe her).  I am aghast.

Car Pool Talk

Usually our car pool talk is based around work such as diet, drivers, holidays and other general topics.  Yesterday though we ran the gamut of homework for elementary school students,  evolution, abortion,  and homosexuality.  It’s interesting to hear other people’s opinions and I wonder why I am usually so far out in left field from others’ ideas.

            We talked about the young boy who committed suicide in Ottawa earlier this week.  I expressed my surprise that high school students in Ottawa would be mean to kids who were gay since there is so much exposure to homosexuality these days.  I suppose I fail to see the weakness of students’ sense of security with their own identities therefore they must taunt others to feel great about themselves.  I say with tongue in cheek.  We went on to talk about kids in grade 6 who call their classmates he/she or she/he if they are enjoying things perceived to be pursuits outside their gender.  I was shocked.  I was shocked that 11 year olds are defining “sports” as boy pursuits and “art” as girl pursuits.  So if an 11 year old girl likes to run, jump or play baseball she is gay?  If a boy likes to draw he is gay?  I look back at my grade 6 class and all the girls liked to run around and throw balls in the summer time.  A lot of the boys were really great in art class.  No one thought anything about it. 

            I was even more shocked that the mother thought it was okay that the kids were saying he/she or she/he and assuming the subjected child wasn’t hurt by it.  Of course the child would be hurt so why isn’t she stopping her son from saying such a thing?  I didn’t ask that question but I was thinking it. Can’t she see that if she doesn’t explain that it’s wrong to say things like that it will escalate into high school taunting that leads to suicide?  I shake my head in wonder.

            From there we moved on to “coming out of the closet”.  The rest of the car thought gay people should come out into the open on the assumption that they would be happier.  My thought was if the (adult) gay person doesn’t want to “come out of the closet” it is their business.  More specifically what I meant by that is that maybe the person is out of the closet in the sense that they aren’t hiding it from their family and friends but they don’t necessarily have to advertise the fact at their place of work if they don’t want to.  I really don’t think it is my business to know if one of my colleagues is gay or not.  I don’t care to know that any more than I care to know if they are married or not.  I want to make it clear that I am not saying they should suppress it, I am simply saying it isn’t other people’s business to push anyone for “information” that will boil down to gossip.  I regard it on the same level as when people ask me why I am single.  Who cares?

            Then we went on to abortions because the car was getting heated over the above topic.  Surprsing opinions here also.  One should have an abortion if health is an issue, if one is raped.  Not for birth control.  If a 14 year old gets pregnant she should “take responsibility for her actions”!  Are you from the 16^th century?  I was surprised.  Let’s just sew a scarlet letter on her clothes while we are at it.  Better yet, let’s tattoo it on her forehead now that we are in the 21^st century.  I expressed my opinion that statistically I was confident that women with multiple abortions were in the extreme minority and therefore not used as a form of birth control.  Apparently because one knows of one woman’s friend’s friend who had two it means it is widespread.  Hmmm. 

            What about the cost of the 14 year old having the child, going on social welfare and perhaps the child also ending up in that pattern?  What about her lost opportunities because she made a mistake?  Please don’t get into the arena of “a fetus is a human being”, that isn’t the point of this discussion.  The point is how people think about punishing someone for mistakes.  Be high and mighty because you never got caught in that predicament and are 40 years old.  Be righteous because you are now a devoted mother and couldn’t dream how it would have been if your precious little Johnny had been destroyed in the womb.  This should not be an emotional debate, it should be logical and sympathetic to the person in the world already.

            Now I have very decided opinions and I don’t back down.  Hence, the swinging away from the topics because we were always so far apart in our opinions.  I don’t get mad at people for not agreeing with me.  I just wonder what rock they crawled out from under.

            And yes, I like to have the last word.

Poetry in Motion

Poetry is not my strong suit, a phenomenon that runs in my family.  When I watch movies where the dad has a favourite poem I am dubious.  If there’s one thing I am pretty sure about it is that not one father of my acquaintance was (or is) sitting around reading poetry. They are either out playing hockey or watching some sports on TV.  My own father’s habit when he came home from work was to read the sports section first and then go through the whole newspaper front to back.  He said he got in the habit of reading the sports section first so that he would have something in common with his colleagues during the coffee breaks.  When he first came to Canada it took him a while to get through the whole newspaper because he was still acquiring his English vocabulary.  Later it was just habit.

            He would tell how he would skip over poems when he read books and my mother confessed that she did the same.  Guess who followed suit?  Every once in a while I will try to read the poems but it is painful.  I prefer to say it straight out.

            Here in my middle years I realize that I might be missing out so I have tried to take an interest in poetry yet I have to say that Emily Dickinson is still my favourite poet.  I simply enjoy her cadence.  I remember some of the poems from high school, like Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay, and T.S. Elliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; not by heart of course, but the gist of the poem, because we thrashed through it for a day or two! 

So you may wonder why would I want to go to Windermere during my England tour when I wasn’t crazy about Wordsworth?  Two reasons, Beatrix Potter of course but also because Charlotte Bronte wrote to Wordsworth and thus he was part of her history.  Since then I have begun to read Wordsworth’s poetry to get a better appreciation for him.  I like the ideas within the poetry but I’m afraid I don’t find any sort of beat that resonates with me nor am I terribly enamoured of the rather leaden religious overtones of many of the pieces.  Perhaps because I am such a literal person I find allusions tiresome for the length of the piece.  Again, I have that strong streak of common sense that comes from my mother’s side of the family – trust me there isn’t any poetry in their practicality!

But let me not despair

There is poetry everywhere

In wind and flower and weather

Even in a little feather.    by Sanne

Something New

Oh dear, I started a piece on politics and then a second piece on poetry and still I felt dissatisfied with my morning discourse so here it is, 4:45 with nothing marvellous to write about!  Poetry and politics are not something to start the morning off!

            Well maybe poetry but as I am not an expert in that area let’s just say that I wasn’t feeling terribly great about what I was writing about!  I was doing an update on the computer as I was writing and then it had to restart, of course, so my momentum disappeared.  With the momentum dying I propelled myself into my room to do my morning ablations and now I think, what to write, what to write?

            Do you find that when you’ve had a sick day your week seems upside down?  That’s how I feel today.  I had a sick day yesterday and now I feel as though I missed out on the start of my week which scatters me.  I know I will get my bearings once I get to work but at the moment I rather dread it.  Yesterday after finally getting some sleep I got up dopey and dozy and so I went for a walk to get some fresh air.  It was gorgeous.  There was no wind, it was warm, the sun was shining and the scenery was still rich in greens and russet.  As I walked I kept thinking “I want to retire, I want to retire”.  It is the recurring thought these days.  But the fear of no pay cheque is greater than the desire for my freedom so I keep on going to work!

            Would it be different if I loved my work more?  Probably not.  Would it be different if I lived closer to work.  Maybe.  As it is I put in over 12 hours a day which essentially steals most of my waking day. In the evenings I have roughly 3 ½ hours for “me time”.  It just isn’t enough when that me time includes making my meals, cleaning the house, preparing for work by getting my next day’s clothes ready.  There isn’t much time to squeeze in the writing, exercise and reading.  Something’s gotta give.  Usually the exercise.

            You know, I actually like exercise.  What I don’t like is the fact that I sweat like a stuck pig and that is no way to start my morning.  It takes forever to get my thick hair dry again so morning workouts are no go during the work week.

            What a lament for retirement!  My hair, my hair.  I sound like my mother.

Seriously Cheesed Off

Made the mistake of saying yes to Internet Explorer 9 - I've lost all my favorites on the now non-existent Favorites Bar - yes I know there is a star but those on the bar are not in your favorites. I HATE, HATE, HATE these updates.

Hamstering

In Danish one calls hoarding “hamstring”. I must admit that I have a tendency towards this and it seems to be getting worse. I am looking around my office and I see 4 boxes of new Christmas cards. There was a sale and I couldn’t decide which ones I liked best. Never mind that I still have leftovers from years past. I know that isn’t a huge thing, after all they will get used. But on Saturday I unpacked my groceries which included new storage bins. I then sorted out all my dry goods, that is all the pasta, rice and dried peas and beans in my cupboards. It filled two containers.

Now I think I may have a problem. I have told my mother that I blame her for this because she gave me “Gone with the Wiind” when I was only 13 years old and it seriously impacted me. The fear of war, starvation and clothing issues still sits in me. Then there is the little story of my father talking about bomb shelters and what a person should have in the house that won’t go bad. Maybe I should have been Mormon, they apparently have food for two years stored away.

I don’t watch reality shows but my sisters and mother have told me about the one on hoarding and then they give me the look. Don’t get any ideas, you can still walk around my house in a normal way. I don’t have stacks of newspapers and rolls of string but I do get worried when I start looking in my tool drawers and see weird things that I have no idea what they are for and wonder why I am not throwing it away. I have fantasies of creating an attic in the garage and putting weird things up there.

The good news, before everyone starts thinking I am a completely deranged person, is that I did clean out the tool drawers and I have big plans for the long weekend to throw out pretty much everything in the basement (well, lots of stuff from the basement)! I have bags of old clothes that I have full intensions of taking to the used clothes store, as soon as I find one. I don’t even know one at the south end of Calgary. If there was one in High River I could go there but the Salvation Army burned down a few years ago and I don’t think it has been rebuilt.

Oh dear, I just looked down at the floor and there are stacks of books beside the book shelf. I need help!

This is the wallpaper from the room in San Francisco. I am in warrior mode!

Sharing Life Experiences

Have you ever gone down the aisles in the `Self Help` or non-fiction section of a book store? It is amazing how many people have advice to share. I have some favourites that I have really enjoyed in this past decade; they are “Simple Abundance” “The Four Agreements” and “The Art of Being”. Not every word of advice in these books is valid for my life at this moment but all of it is enjoyable and insightful. One of my favourite pieces of advice is “it’s their poison, not yours” when you experience negativity from someone. Push it away from you. Simple Abundance suggests keeping a gratitude journal to keep yourself mindful of what is great in your life. Being “mindful” as part of the art of being is a valuable daily lesson.

When I was in school The Lord’s Prayer was said every morning as part of our Opening Exercises. I often dwelled on “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” when I was young and again in these last few years. It may sound arrogant but one does expect to gain a little respect with age and yet it seems it is not so. Is it this generation of younger people who appear to be “care for nobodies” or is it just the folks I encounter? Whatever the case may be I find myself examining my behaviour and questioning my conduct. I dislike being negative. I dislike bad behaviour more. And yet I find myself reproachable and therefore requiring forgiveness.

It’s complicated.

So I have books on forgiveness lining my shelves and residing on my bedside table. There have been a lot of people writing about forgiveness so I am not the only person looking for answers. I think it’s terrific that there are people who have a desire to write about their experiences, their little bits of knowledge and are willing to put themselves out there to share it with their fellow humans. We all just want to be the best that we can be and sometimes it is nice not to have to reinvent the wheel!

Renaissance Man

I have been thinking about the renaissance and the meaning of a renaissance mind lately. The renaissance is my favourite historical period and in my late teens and early twenties I did a lot of studying of that period. Although I have not kept up my intensity of study I would still say that I am an expert on the Tudor period notwithstanding my lack of memory of dates. I was particularly interested in Jane Grey and her pursuit of learning; her mind was likely superior to her cousin Elizabeth’s. I began to study Latin on my own as a consequence of reading so many biographies of renaissance personalities.

The renaissance period is filled with interesting people from many countries but notable renaissance minds include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Copernicus and Francis Bacon. The term polymath means someone whose expertise spans a significant number of subjects. It is rare to meet people who have interests in more than one or two subjects and even rarer to find someone who excels in one or two areas as well as having multiple other areas of interest. The pursuit of knowledge is something I think is invaluable to a person who wishes to live a full and interesting life. The first step is certainly to have a love of reading. Being open to new experiences is also a way to pursue knowledge, as is the love of travelling.

I think it is fantastic that once we reach 65 we are eligible to enter university to pursue a degree – for free! I can hardly wait. I picked up a booklet on Einstein and I am seriously thinking about studying physics in my old age. E=mc2 (to find Energy, you multiply the Mass by the Square of the speed of Light). If I wrote this on my bedroom wall and looked at it every morning, would I remember it? Maybe after 10 years! Yes, it will be a challenge but I am up for it!

Back up plan – Latin?

At the equator

Temple Grandin and Autism

I happened to catch the Clare Danes movie the other night and thought she was wonderful as the title character Temple Grandin. I naturally had to discover more about her so looked her up on Wikepedia. How interesting to know that high functioning autism can lead the individual into a meaningful career. We had read “House Rules” at book club for February which dealt with Asperger’s “on the autism spectrum”, as they call it.

When we were discussing the book I didn’t get an opportunity to say something that was in the back of my mind. And that is this habit we have of labeling everything. Have you noticed that since they started to write about ADHD that every second kid in school seems to have it? If someone operates in slightly outside the norm they search to find a label for it. I like my friend Barbara’s way of commenting on someone different.

“He’s a very special person.”

That can encompass a whole range of problems or symptoms but doesn’t particularly label the person. I get the message that this person is not cooperating like he/she should. But Barbara is very polite and doesn’t need to say any more. I’m pretty sure a lot of the time she would like to say he is a jerk (or worse). However, sometimes it might be better to say the person with high functioning autism is “a very special person” and leave it at that.

I know this seems kind of odd for me to say. Naturally I am not talking about not identifying the situation to the people who need to know. But it’s like the CIA files, “it’s on a need to know basis”, not everyone needs to know. I am probably as guilty as everyone else in putting labels on people but I am conscious of labeling becoming overdone.

This topic needs more work as I seem not to be saying what is in my mind very clearly. I must be experiencing low functioning Elsie Heymer’s. For those not in the know it means that I haven’t quite formulated what the heck I am complaining about.

Now let that be a lesson to you!

Another Jessie W. Smith