Learning

The Tale Of The Lonely Beet

/ Ally Bean / 22 Comments

DSCN3608Once upon a time the Lady of the House went to the grocery where she purchased some beets.  She was going to roast them and serve them as a side dish with some ham for dinner.

:: The Lady of the House had good intentions.

However, when the Lady of the House came home from the grocery, she put the beets in a stainless steel bowl which she put in the frig.  Then, she forgot about their existence.

Because the beets were well-mannered, they did not call attention to themselves in the frig.  No, they just sat in the bowl and slowly allowed mold to cover them.  Perhaps they were cold and considered the mold to be like a sweater.  Perhaps they were content and enjoyed connecting with the mold.

:: We will never know for sure.

All we know is that the next time the Lady of the House looked at the beets she saw six moldy, dried out vegetables that were way past their prime.  Upon seeing what had happened, the Lady of the House said a few words that will not be repeated on these pages.

But the Lady of the House had another idea for the beets.  You see, the Lady of the House’s mother had a saying which she said to the Lady of the House when the Lady of the House was a girl.

:: And this saying was: waste not, want not.

Remembering what her mother had told her to do, the Lady of the House decided to toss the beets into the wooded ravine behind her house.  The Lady of the House thought that some of the deer or raccoons that live back there might like to feast on said beets.

:: However, she was wrong about this assumption.

A few days later when the Lady of the House chanced to look outside upon her backyard realm, she noticed that all the beets were still there.  And that one beet in particular, that had the misfortune of landing on top of a concrete wall instead of on the ground, was positioned in such a way as to create a perfect photo-op.

So, the Lady of the House, who also happened to be a blogger extraordinaire, grabbed her camera.  Then she went outside and took one of the best artsy-farsty photos she has ever taken.  Not wanting to let this photo go to waste, the Lady of the House figured she could put this photo on her blog, tell her readers how this beet came to be so alone, and call it a blog post.

:: And that is exactly what she did.  The end.

Sure, You Can Do That

/ Ally Bean / 19 Comments

“In vino veritas est.” ~ Pliny the Elder

“God bless the honest, for they shall make my days more entertaining.” ~ Ally Bean

~ • ~

As I have mentioned here before I am a good listener.  I am also the “go to” person in my social group for how to start a blog.  And, as you have probably already figured out, I get tickled by the darnedest things.  To wit, the following real life vignette.

An acquaintance, who I see about once every 3 years or so, asked me about how to start a blog.  We were at a fancy reception and there was much wine being served.

I told her my standard response* to her question.  She seemed intrigued and started asking a bunch more questions about blogging.  In the flow of the conversation I told her that I thought that she’d be good at blogging because she is smart and articulate.  [Which all bloggers are, right?]

Of course, I wanted to know what she thought that she might be blogging about, so I asked her.  Knowing a little bit about her I figured that she’d say something like: my kids, my love of interior design, tips on antiquing, tips on cooking, my conservative political opinions.  Subjects that I know she cares about.

But what I did not expect her to say is the most unanticipated, yet delightful, reason for blogging that anyone has told me to date.  She told me that she didn’t care what subject she wrote about.  That didn’t matter to her at all.  No, what she wanted to do in her blog was to: Tell people what to do.  Her way.  So that they wouldn’t bug her with their stupidness any more.

Now this is an approach to blogging and a point of view, which you have to admit, is both authentic and could be fun to read about, subjects be damned.  Plus, I suspect, that in our heart of hearts there isn’t one blogger [or person] out there who hasn’t thought the same thing, but just never had the amount of wine necessary the gumption to say it.  So clearly.  And so loudly.

~ • ~

*  When you start a blog you need to consider three basic questions.

  1. Do you have something to say?  Can you say it in a way that other people will understand? Hmm?
  2. Where will you put your blog?  That is, when you decide on your platform will you pay money for it or will it be free?
  3. Will you commit to showing up to your blog on a regular basis?  If not, you’ll tick off your friends and readers. And you don’t want that, do you?

The Poinsettia On The Kitchen Table

/ Ally Bean / 22 Comments

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::  Some of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while know that this poinsettia came into our home the weekend after Thanksgiving Day 2011.  It has lived, bloomed, grown while sitting on our kitchen table ever since.

This is unprecedented for me.  Never once has a poinsettia, entrusted to my care, lived more than a couple of months after it came into our house.

Yet this wonderful plant has shown me that with the right amount of indifference and the right amount of sunlight, a poinsettia can thrive, at least for a year or so, in our home.

Truly this is a case of… who knew?

::  I was staring at this plant the other morning as I sat at the kitchen table and drank a mug of coffee.  Bay windows surround the table on one side so I had the choice of looking outside into the grayness or looking inside at this colorful, drooping poinsettia.

I went with the colorful alternative.  I mean… who wouldn’t?

::  According to a fast bit of research on the topic, a poinsettia can live for years inside someone’s home.  I like knowing this, but doubt that this will be the case with our poinsettia on the kitchen table.  It is beginning to look frazzled and worn out.

I’m not going to do anything in particular to encourage it to keep on growing, but at the same time I’m not going to withhold water and sunlight from it.  I’m just going to let it go through its process of aging gracefully.

This plant’s sense of purpose has charmed me.  All plants are like this, of course;  but seeing the process unfold in slow motion in front of me each day for well over a year, reminds me that we need to define ourselves as we see fit.

Do your own thing, says our poinsettia on the kitchen table.  And all that I think is… why not?

An Inconvenient Blogging Truth

/ Ally Bean / 16 Comments

When I started keeping a personal blog I realized that I’d have to find the time to write.  Mornings work best for me.

And I also knew that I’d have to have the ability to express myself in this medium.   Stories, photos [not of people] and links work best for me.

But what did not occur to me was that I’d also have to have something to write about all the time.  That is, something would have to happen in my life that I’d want to tell you about.  Something interesting, or insightful, or entertaining.

And it is at this point in the process that I find myself today.  At a point where there is nothing to talk about.

It’s not as if I’m not doing things.  I am.  It’s just that I cannot fathom why anyone would care to read about the ho-humness of my daily life.  A ho-humness, I hasten to add, that makes me happy.

So, having explained myself thusly, I’ll end this post by leaving you, my gentle readers, with a guarantee that when something of note happens in my life, I’ll share it here.

And I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes that succinctly explains my attitude toward blogging– and life, too, for that matter.

“Give me your heart, Make it real, Or else forget about it.”

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