Sometimes the signs people make say alot more about them than about what they’re trying to tell us is “wrong” with the world.
Uh.. I think you CAN fix Stupid.
It’s called Education, but if you had thought of that, you wouldn’t have made this sign, huh?
I guess “momma always said, stupid is as stupid does”….
Seen on Msnbc.com homepage on 03/23/2010
In my family, we’re lucky enough to have what we would call the “old age” gene. I can only hope that I get the privilege of continuing the tradition.
You see, my great, great grandma (above circa 1970), Flora Henshue made it to 80 + years old, and so did my great grandfather Stanley (Flora’s son) and his wife, my great-grandma, Hattie Henshue.
So, why this walk down memory lane? Well, because today, my Grandma (Stanley and Hattie’s Daughter) turns the big Eight-Zero (80).
I can’t be there to wish my Grandma a happy birthday in person, so I’m sending a bunch of Roses, and very much love her way.
Humor me, please, and let me tell you a little bit about this amazing woman. Starting in the 1960’s, (and with 3 sons still at home) my grandmother was an assistant librarian at Marshall Jr High school. (Prior Jobs, she’ll proudly tell you, were working “sexing” baby chickens and as a secretary.) She retired from the Jr High in order to take care of my grandfather (who suffered from Parkinson’s Disease) for many years, until he went into a nursing home.
My grandmother is affectionately nick-named the family “social” butterfly. At 80 years old, she is more active than many women half her age. She goes to swim-aerobics twice a week at the YMCA, plays cards with her friends every week (hosted at a different person’s house), and is an avid baker, ceramics painter, and quilter (she even participates in a quilter’s group). She still lives at home (which she continues to aptly clean herself), and still drives her own car (offering to take her friends to the doctor’s in Madison – an hour away from where she lives) among other things. She helps to organize events at her church (visiting shut-ins, helping as an usher, cooking for bake sales, feeding the local needy, etc), and at the nursing home across the street from where she lives. She has a big collie dog to keep her “active” and even still finds time to take bus trips to “get out of town” for anywhere from a day to two weeks. (This month, she’s packing her bags to travel the 1000 miles down to Georgia to visit my dad – and will be there for a week.) In addition, she has traveled and seen a bit of the world (Unfortunately, after my grandfather passed on) including Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland, as well as Canada and almost all of the 50 states in the USA.
Sometimes just hearing about all she does, and all the people she’s going here and there and everywhere with makes me exhausted – for her and myself. I always said if I could grow up and be half as active and have even a few friends like she does, I would be blessed many times over. I guess – I’m lucky to have such a “modern” woman as my 80 year old grandma to look up to. But then, if genes have anything to do with it, at 80, she could still be around for another 20 years – and not bat an eye. I certainly hope she is – because she is one of the many lights in my life.
A few great things I’ve learned from My Grandmother:
a) Do it while you can, and enjoy it. If you leave it until later, (whatever it is) someday, you may find you’re not able to do it anymore. (Knowing she lost my grandfather to Parkinson’s – in many ways – before they got to do all the things they planned to with their retirement – I think I really have taken this advice to heart.)
b) Sometimes the body has good days, sometimes the body has bad days. Listen to your Body and know when you should push yourself and when you should rest. My grandma goes constantly, but she also knows how to say “no”. I’m sure it’s taken her years to learn this – and it’s something that I still have trouble with, though I think I’m getting better.
c) Old age doesn’t mean you should sit in a rocker and stop living. When you stop moving, you stop using your mind, and stop TRYING to make a difference – then you grow old, you give up, and you die. So, don’t be like some of the older members of our family who decided at retirement that they’d had enough, pulled up their rocker and remote and just quit living. She’s proof that even small differences can make someone’s day. Oh – also, don’t be like those who worked themselves every day with no vacation – until the day they passed – because they didn’t take the time to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
d) Bad times come. It’s inevitable, and it’s Okay. But, it will all work out in the end. So, don’t give up – even when we make mistakes. Ride through them, learn, help others who will wind up in the same “rut” when you can, and rejoice that you have the bad times – because – if it weren’t for bad times, we wouldn’t recognize the good ones.
e) Finally, and most important – You’re NEVER too Old to Travel, to Learn, To Create, To Make New Friends, To Smile, To Laugh, or To Love.
So, Here’s to my Grandma, who turns 80 Years Young today –
Happy Birthday, Grandma – We Love You!
You know, life is a funny thing. Sometimes when you least expect it, you get wholloped upside the head, question your choices and if there’s something wrong with yourself – and then you get a gift. And suddenly you realize, yeah, I’m ok. I may do things differently than other people, but I’m really perfectly ok – because I know myself, what I want, and am not afraid to go get it, given the chance (chances which sometimes have to be made by me).
Let me explain. Before I moved to Germany, I was dating a really great guy. We had been friends for a very long time before he and I started going out, but by the time we got together, the move to Germany was already an impending thing. There was no changing my mind, and he knew as did I, that in the end, I needed to go to Europe – for my own sanity and piece of mind. I’d always dreamed of going there, living there, and enjoying that side of life’s experiences. I am who I am, and I can’t live with/deal with the “what if’s” – never have been good with that. I’ve always thought bigger than my “hometown” or my “state” or even my country – and was the odd one out when it came to the places I’ve lived, because so many people back home couldn’t “relate” to that. What I’m saying is that I needed to go as much as I wanted to go- even though it hurt to leave him behind. Anyhow, we tried a long distance thing for a while – and after about a year, we both agreed that it wasn’t going to work – but we have remained good friends. I want nothing but the best for him and wish him every single happiness he can find, because he is a truly amazing, handsome, wonderful man that any woman would be lucky to have – and I knew it then, and I know it now.
Now despite my dating other people since then, about 7 days ago, I got wholloped upside the head emotionally. You see, this guy had been dating a girl – a wonderful girl, who I really like, and who absolutely makes him happy – I know this. He has told me – and on the phone, you can just hear the smile on his face and the love in his heart. He loves her so much – and for that I am glad. He really deserves to be happy – and I want him to be – and I want him to be happy with someone that I actually LIKE. So the point? Well, I was cruising on facebook, and found photos of where she took him to a baseball game and proposed to him (he loves baseball) in a packed stadium in the most creative way possible. Of course, he said yes, and I couldn’t be more pleased that this wonderful man has finally found someone to spend his life with.
But somehow, in the back of my mind – for some reason, I wondered – why can’t that be me? Why couldn’t I be that woman for him? and What’s wrong with me? It’s nonsense, I know – and I know there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m 33, intelligent, not bad looking, financially independent, world travelled, stubborn (ok that’s not always a good thing), determined (maybe not this one either), honest, blunt (hum this can be bad too), and what I would consider a generally good catch. Honestly. I KNOW THIS. But it still didn’t matter – I was in sort of a funk as I tried to figure out, emotionally, why I was feeling this way – and angry at myself for even feeling this way – which I can’t understand and is stupid. I mean – I’m happy. I’ve lived my life more fully than I’d ever dreamed – and more fully than many people twice my age. I’ve made my choices, lived my dreams, and been lucky enough to have met some of the most amazing people the world over. I have been blessed, thanks be to God, with good health, good fortune, and a wanderlust that is matched in few others. And Yet, I still wondered “What’s wrong with me?” in the back of my mind for the last few days. Illogical, I know, but it is how it is.
Well, popping on facebook, over the weekend after work, I saw that one of my old friends from high school flew into Berlin on Sunday night. This is a friend I haven’t seen for 15 years – and occasionally have wondered what happened to her, how she was doing, and how her life has gone. Mind you, I haven’t stayed in touch with many people from high school – had no interest in it. High school was filled with people that couldn’t “think outside the box”, see the bigger picture, and seemed – even then – to me to be very clickish (oh that outfit is so out of style!). After I graduated, the few that I had stayed in touch with were great friends then – and I did go out of my way to stay in touch with. These include my best friend then (and now), and some of my closest “inner circle” of trusted comrades, although even some of them were out of touch until I found them again recently on Facebook (ah facebook! what a marvellous invention!).
So, I pinged her on facebook – and offered to take her to dinner, show her a bit of my world here in Berlin. It’s the least I could do, because I am who I am – and I rarely get the opportunity to see my old friends. A couple phone calls later, we went to dinner last night – and talked and talked for hours. You know what I mean – that old friends playing catch up, and realizing that even 15 years after graduation (yeah, we’ve known each other for almost 20 years), she is still the same person – and has grown into an even more wonderful woman than the girl I remember. I’m proud of her, and even more so – pleased to be able to say I knew her way back when (S – you had better upload the pyramid picture – seriously!).
This morning, I woke up, suddenly realizing that the path I’ve taken isn’t so bad, that I’m not the only one on the road despite my not always being able to see the others (she took a similar one), and it’s not all bad. Sure, sometimes it can be difficult, but that alternate path, looking back and looking ahead – has been a good one – that I really wouldn’t change. It has made me who I am, how I am, and I’m glad. Yeah, it’s a gift – when I needed it – having an old friend show up and sort of make me realize – hey, I guess I AM doing all right.