Remember Your Spirit

As College Begins, A Conversation About Time-honored Clichés & Proverbial Wisdom

/ Ally Bean / 90 Comments

Fawn sleeping in our Pachysandra. Posted here just because.

• • •

Here’s a fun conversation I had with a friend.

Friend’s youngest child, a girl, is going to college this fall.  Friend and husband didn’t go to college and their other children either didn’t go to college or lived at home while pursuing a degree.

Friend, who knows I went away to college and lived in the dorms [oh yes I did], was asking what advice would I give to her daughter.

Based on my experiences.

During the Dark Ages.

The question stumped me. I mean, it was soooo long ago, and while I admit that going away to college and living in the dorms helped define who I am today, my immediate answer was the somewhat less than articulate: I DUNNO.

Friend, of course, was taking none of that nonsense so together we got talking about time-honored clichés & proverbial wisdom.  You know, the things we say to each other, meant to be inspiration or balm for the soul, as we listen to each other’s woes and joys.

Eventually we realized that our advice could be put into five categories.  We might be phrasing things differently, but we were saying the same basic five ideas over and over again.  They are as follows.

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BE WARY: take care • don’t be a pawn in someone else’s game • make no assumptions • ask yourself, where is the lie?

BE YOURSELF: follow your dreams • reach for the stars • well-behaved women rarely make history • define yourself

DO YOUR BEST: never give up • if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again • the same fire that consumes the straw, refines the gold • positive begets positive

PEOPLE SUCK: stupid is an iceberg • no matter what, someone will take it too seriously • never make as your priority someone who considers you optional • “no” is a complete sentence

OH WELL, WHATEVER: don’t let the seeds stop you from enjoying the watermelon • tomorrow is another day • build a bridge, get over it • plans change, often

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QUESTION OF THE DAY

What did we forget? What else should be here?

Do tell, in the comments below. 

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Oh The Irony. White Paint, Please. And A Few Good Thoughts, If You Don’t Mind.

/ Ally Bean / 109 Comments

• • •

One of my all-time favorite quotes that makes me smile no matter what.

• • •

This past week has been a doozy.  Not in especially good ways, either.

I’d planned on, well– planning, then doing, during the week. Using my free time to go shopping at the mall for some spring clothes. To go for a walk outside. To be less here in the blogosphere, even.

But the Universe laughed at me.

Scoffed in fact.

“Ally Bean you shall stay at home, connecting with bloggers* by leaving comments** hither and yon***, whilst you await your next house calamity,” said the Universe.

“And your house calamity will manifest as your husband leaveth the house to drive 4 hours north in a snowstorm to check-on his 80-something ailing parents, one of whom is in the hospital.”

The Universe can be difficult at times, you know?

“And further, Ms. Bean,” the Universe said, “you shall be forced to look at said house calamity whilst your husband dealeth with his parents’ woes, because there will be nothing you can do to repair a roof, and subsequent ceiling damage, until the snow endeth and spring cometh for real.”

Oh yes, the Universe can be a trickster.

So this is where I find myself today.  Looking at water damage on the ceiling in the… [wait for it]… newly remodeled master bathroom.

Because, I guess, the Universe thinks that I need to stay home worrying, then waiting for various people to start traipsing around this house as they fix things.

Again.

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Photo of ceiling damage [shown at a jaunty angle] that will need to be repaired inside the house after we have the roof repaired outside the house. Obviously.

• • •

* To be clear I enjoy connecting with bloggers and have used this week to organize my feeds.  All 70+ of them.

** I’ve also been systematic about leaving comments on all the blogs that I follow, because while “lurking” and “liking” are nice, as a blogger I believe that comments are wonderful.

*** If by chance I’ve left a comment on your blog, and you’re one of those bloggers who doesn’t like comments, then mea culpa.  Also if my comment made little sense to you, please forgive me;  my heart’s been in the right place this week but my mind’s been scattered.

Ditching The Resolutions: In Praise Of Those Who Tried & Failed

/ Ally Bean / 73 Comments

Did you know that there’s an official holiday dedicated to those people who make New Year’s Resolutions then fail to stick with them?

[More about it here.]

I was unaware of this holiday but stumbled upon it while doing some research about Julian versus Gregorian calendars.

[More about that topic here.]

It would seem to me, a person who doesn’t make resolutions, that this holiday has a message for all of us– if only to remind us that sometimes good ideas don’t work out the way we think they will.

[More about not resolving here.]

That is to say, where is the harm in taking time to think about what you’d like to change in your life and then giving it a go– if only for a few weeks?

[Statistical analysis of resolutions here.]

Sometimes it’s enough to acknowledge that you need a new perspective on things without going all bonkers about changing everything about yourself on the first try.

[Discussion of issues revolving around successful keeping of resolutions here.]

Of course, for the people who make, then keep their New Year’s Resolutions, today is just another day.

[Inspirational poem here.]

But for the rest of us, even if we never resolve, today is, in my estimation, a guilt-free fun day to take stock of our personal foibles + unfulfilled goals– of which I have many.  😉

Voting Day 2017 And Last Year’s Election Day Sadness Lingers

/ Ally Bean / 66 Comments

An old downtown building in the process of being improved: out with what no longer serves, in with what will make it safe.

•  Later this morning I’ll make my way to our current voting precinct in its current polling place. 

It’s in an old Greek Church now.  The decor in this church is gold and overstated, think My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but the church members who welcome you to their church/polling place are as sweet as can be.

They stand in sharp contrast to the election board people who, it seems, would prefer to not be doing what they’re doing, as shown by the snarls on their faces.

Same grouches, every year.

•  When we first moved here over 20 years ago we voted at the VFW Hall. 

Situated back a long creepy lane, to get to this polling place you followed the signs for the “Sunday Turkey Shoot” that lead to a grass parking lot.  Then you stood outside in the weather until the election board people allowed 2 voters at a time inside the building.

We’d moved here to this big city suburb from an upscale small town and were shocked that the polling place, reeking of cigarette smoke, still used paper ballots– and consistently ran short on pencils.

We learned to take a Benadryl before we went to vote and to take a pencil with us.

•  Our next polling place was at a fancy golf course. 

It was easy to get to this place that had a real parking lot, lighted even.  At first it seemed ideal, however this is the polling place where Zen-Den, Esq., got mad and made a point.

He was not pleased about how the partisan people who lurk around the outside entrance into the polling place were positioning themselves;  they were too close to the building, thus breaking the law.

Inside the building he told the election board people this was wrong–and they shrugged. So Z-D called the sheriff’s office and filed a complaint. The pushy lurker people got in trouble, and the election board people have never forgotten about it.

Or Zen-Den. Or his wife. Who they consider to be has much of a troublemaker as he was.

Guilt by association, you know?

•  All of which brings me to today’s foray into the American voting process.

I’ve paid no attention to any of the people who are running for office this election cycle.  In what will a first for me, an Independent voter, I’ll be voting a straight Democratic ticket.

If the GOP won’t do the right thing and depose our so-called president, a sexual predator, business fraud, Russian-backed, draft-dodging old man, then I’ll start the ball rolling by getting rid of the GOP.

Are you with me here, kids?  If last year’s presidential election confirmed one thing for me, it’s that you can do everything right and still fail;  BUT it’s important that you do that right thing anyhow.

Words to live by.