It’s hard to be casual and cute right now. I don’t feel casual and my sense of humor has taken a serious nose-dive. The world I thought I knew has come unraveled and I’m not optimistic that I will live to see it back to whatever I thought was normal. I’m not even sure it can go back there. Typically when nations undergo this kind of moral and civil earthquake through which we are going, the nation may turn back, but not to the space from which they came. Something else, maybe.
Out of this mess perhaps something better will emerge. I’m not feeling optimistic right now.
The good news? The heat broke and it’s raining. The flowers are dancing in their beds and boxes. The birds are chirping with delight. Even the trees look happy.
I’m grateful to the rain, but so upset by pretty much every other thing I can think of. Sorry about that. I’m trying to find a calm place in my head where I can rest in peace for a while.
QUESTIONS
What’s your favorite way to spend a day off? If you’re retired, what’s something you now include in your schedule that you dreamed about while employed?
We are retired so every day is a day off. Actually, retirement itself was a dream. Even though we don’t have enough money and considering the state of the world economy seems to be shrinking daily, I can’t begin to say how much I love not working, not commuting, not working to a deadline. Yes, we still have dates to meet, bills (oh so many) to pay and all that stuff. But whatever we do, it’s not every day. It isn’t mandatory. I can cancel an appointment, even an important one. We don’t have to go to a party that’s too far or full of people we don’t know.
Retirement was a dream. Now it’s reality. Given life as it is, I’m not sure how I ever found the time to work.
Now that COVID isn’t so strictly monitored and folks can go out and about again, are you into after-work happy hours?
I was never into after work happy hours, not when I was working and never since. I’m pretty much a homebody.
What physical traits do you share with your relatives?
Gray hair at an early age. We have a family gene for early graying. My mother was gray before she was 30 and I was halfway there at the same age. I have my father’s eyes, but I look so much like my mother it’s sometimes rather startling.
I’m not sure what my nose would look like had it not been broken twice many years ago. It’s amazing how much force a toddler’s foot in a shoe can have when it whacks you on the bridge of your nose. Twice.
How long does it take you to decide if you like someone or not?
I have an initial reaction and then I back off. I need to see if I will like them better or less if I spend time with them. Some people I liked I eventually learned to dislike. Intensely dislike. Anyone who has ever been divorced or had an abusive parent or partner knows what I mean. Not everyone flies their full colors on first meeting.
Feel free to share some wisdom you live by.
Everyone has the right to live as they choose — including me. Live by your own choices, but don’t impose those choices on me. I don’t take orders well.
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Categories: #gallery, #Photography, #SYW, Anecdote, questions, Share My World
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Thanks Marilyn for Sharing Your World. I don’t know many who are in our ‘age demographic” that don’t feel the exact same as you do. It makes everything else that may be wrong feel worse too. I guess one puts one of their feet in front of the other one and just plods along, right? We don’t even have a choice about when we stop dancing. 😦 I hope your week gets brighter, but I’d love to see a good hard rain up in here. Rain cheers me up, and it sounds like it does that to your critters, birdies and yard! Your gratitude comment was spot on. It would be great if everyone (particularly those who are supposed to be leaders) would take a hefty dose of the “Mind Your Own Business and Do NOT Judge Others” remedy, but some hopes there. The leaders are perhaps one of the most depressing bits right now. So much corruption and stupidity; it boggles a thinking person’s mind.
I enjoyed reading all your answers, but those baby ortho shoes? Priceless. You actually lived out the old adage “Those who don’t learn from past mistakes are doomed to repeat them” (or something along those lines). Owwie though. It is startling to see one’s mother in the mirror the first time. It depressed me for three weeks when I did. Now? I have a lot more sympathy for her. Familial traits can have a startling effect down the generations.
Like you, I listen (hard) to my gut when I meet someone and immediately get suspicious or get a bad vibe off them. No friend for you (I say in my head). My gut and Ziggy always know if someone’s a lot more sketchy than they are letting on. Ziggy is 100% in his accuracy because you might fool people but you can’t fool dogs.
Have a better week Marilyn, and do take care.
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I remember back in Israel we had a Keeshond — a big, fluffy grey dog who was a barge dog in Holland, but looks like something that should pull a sleigh. Anyway, he loved everyone, but once in a while, he would growl at someone and I remember thinking: “Listen to the dog!” Frodo knew good from bad.
I used to think these awful “lawmakers” were stupid, but I have concluded that they are deeply, wholeheartedly corrupt. They “play stupid.” They didn’t get where they are by being dumb. Now their followers? THEY are stupid.
I think our entire generation feel deeply betrayed. We worked hard to get the rights we had. To have them erased is shocking and depressing. A true double whammy and I’m still reeling from it. I’m also doing my best to pull out of it, but I thought this one thing we might get to keep. Now, I wonder if we’ll get to keep anything that was passed into law since the civil war.
My problem with Owen’s feet was that they were a lot longer than they looked. He was a long skinny baby who grew up to be a tall thin young man — then added an extra 50 pounds which he is now trying to lose. It’s hard to judge where those feet will land — and bending my face down to talk to him was an unfortunate choice. Owen thinks it’s funny and I suppose it is. But boyoboy, when his feel landed right on the bridge of my nose, I think I saw real stars.
Let’s all try to have a better week. this last one was pretty bad on so many levels.
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I’m 100% in the same emotional space as you. It does seem as if the world is unraveling. Last Friday’s Supreme Court decision totally blew my socks off. It has always been my contention that men should not even be part of the discussion when it comes to women’s health and their right to make decisions about their own bodies. Next they’ve eroded the separation between Church and State. Next comes the attack on gay marriage. My husband and I were married on July 22, 2020. I fear that will be quashed in the not-too-distant future. Then there’s the international scene. Besides the horrific war imposed on the Ukraine by Russian aggression, there are myriad conflicts on every continent. I think of Kant’s treatise on the Triumph of Peace. It will never happen.
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I know I have to move on, but the world feels upside down and inside out. My son is gay, so there’s that to worry about too and I have a granddaughter in her 20s — a dangerous age for young women. She is exactly the age I was when Roe V. Wade happened. Ironic, isn’t it? I spent my life happy that at least that one thing we had accomplished — along with civil rights.
Everything has been whittled away and now eliminated. I feel like all my efforts, all my friends’ efforts, have been erased.
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I know exactly what you mean. I am in a same-sex marriage and I feel totally threatened. Since when did the Supreme Court feel entitled to poke its nose into the private lives of our citizens? The whole thing makes me sick. Three of the six justices who are attacking our rights were appointed by the worst president in this country’s history. On top of that, they lied to the Judiciary Committee during their confirmation hearings. They went in there with an agenda. They should be prosecuted for perjury!
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Good plan on the “liking someone”. It’s often said of university that you spend Freshers’ Week making “best friends” and the rest of the year trying to get rid of them. Best to drop back and see how it goes before committing.
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I was always too quick to get friendly and then it took sometimes years to undo those friendships who weren’t friends after all. I’m far more cautious now. I suppose that IS one of the things that happen with age. You get bitten often enough, you stop sticking your hand out quickly.
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I like your words of wisdom.
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I probably should add the caveat that just because I think people should be free to live however they choose, it doesn’t mean I want them as friends. I’m very “live and let live,” but I’ve gotten very cautious about friendships.
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Haven’t we all learned this lesson!
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great advice Marilyn!
OMG a toddlers shoe hit you on the nose and broke it, twice? Wow!
xxx
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My son was born with club feet, so he had baby sized orthopedic shoes. It was my own fault. We were playing. I should have ducked. He was maybe 18 months old?
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