The Challenge. #1

Tomorrow is Monday!   Oh whoopie,  so here's the challenge.   For one day, smile at everyone you see, pass by, talk to, or in any way come in contact with, even if you're just passing them on the street.     SMILE!  Is the person checking you out at the grocery practially growling at you when he takes your money?  Smile.   Maybe he was up all night with a sick baby.   Did the person you just pass on the sidewalk almost knock you down?  Smile.   Maybe she just got word a loved one is in the hospital and she's rushing to get there.    Did a co-worker you really don't care for snap at you for what seemed like no reason?  Smile.  Maybe she hasn't heard  from her child in several weeks who's away fighting a war for us.  You see what I'm getting at.  SMILE!

I'm not in any way condoning these behaviours, and chances are these people and lots of others are just plain in a bad mood, but you never know, and  maybe a sympathetic or cheerful smile will improve their mood in some way.  Let me assure you, it will definitely improve yours.  

Maybe throw in a nice word here and there, or you might ask if there's something you can do to help,  or whatever you think would be appropriate at the time, I say, Oh Yes, Go For It!!

This may sound pretty easy, but it can be extremely challenging at times.  I do ask that you not smile as if you just got out of the looney bin, on your first day pass without supervision.   I know you all are wise enough to use your good judgement, however, let me just say that if you smile at someone and they ask in a voice straight out of Dirty Harry,"What are you smilin' at?" or worse, they say,"Go ahead, make my day!"  My suggestion is to, well......... RUN!       

It doesn't get any better than that!

PS

Happy Holidays

I'm being politically correct here, which to me is kinda' silly.  No, it's actually extremely silly to me.  I wrote Merry Christmas as the title, then thought, uh oh I'd better write Happy Holidays so I don't affend anyone.  Honestly, has it come down to this in just about everything we say and do these days?  Apparently we as a whole don't have much of a sense of humor anymore, or at the very least we're way too sensitive!  If someone said to me,"Happy Honuka", I wouldn't be affended at all.  I personally celebrate Christmas, but I know they aren't being snide, they are simply wishing me Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays) in there own way.  What is wrong with that?  

Why is everything taken so seriously these days that we must all be politically correct, or suffer the consequences?  My parents taught me to be tactful, and I think that should be plenty good enough for all of us.  Some people are going to be unpleasant, and some downright mean, however most of us don't hurt peoples' feelings on purpose.  Most of us feel terrible if we inadvertently hurt someones feelings, and try our best to make it up to them.  Hey, c'mon, is all this hurt really necessary?  Your feelings are hurt because I said something that is now considered politically incorrect, and I feel terrible because I certainly didn't mean to hurt your feelings at all!  I know when to say some things and when not to, what things are hurtful, and what aren't, but when it comes down to censoring nearly everything I say because it's been put up as something that it's not (as in politically incorrect), I just can't do it.  I do mean can't, not won't.  (Well, won't too, I suppose).

I was about to ask who started this PC stuff, but I went to Wiki instead, and just in case anyone else is wondering I put it below for reference.  Now my question is this:  before all this PC stuff we were doing pretty well.  Sure, some things were hurtful, but I'd like to think we were smart enough to know what they were, and unless we wanted to hurt someone, we didn't say them.  So here comes this snowball effect beginning with a little red book, to the left, then to the right, in the United States, and no doubt beyond.  It's like someone comes along and says we are just too ignorant to know what is offensive and what isn't.  I'm truly insulted by that, and you should be too.   Uh, excuse me, when did we stop thinking for ourselves about daily conversations?

Yes, I'm ranting I guess, and I don't do it often, believe me.  What brought this on was I was with family celebrating Christ-mas and one of my brothers on the other side of the room (so I don't know what started it) said something about the fact that (somewhere), sorry, I don't remember where he said, people are not "allowed" to say (because it's politically incorrect) now get this... are you ready?  HO HO HO!  Why you ask?  Well because it's considered degrading to women of course.  Whether this is a joke or true, it certainly should give a person pause, don't you think?

It doesn't get any better than that!

PS

Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term applied to language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen as seeking to minimize offense to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups. Conversely, the term "politically incorrect" is used to refer to language or ideas that may cause offense or that are unconstrained by orthodoxy.

Ruth Perry traces the term back to Mao's Little Red Book. According to Perry, the term was later adopted by the radical left in the 1960s, initially seriously and later ironically, as a self-criticism of dogmatic attitudes. In the 1990s, because of the term's association with radical politics and communist censorship, it was used by the political right in the United States to try to discredit the Old and New Left.^[1]

The term itself and its usage are controversial. The term "political correctness" is used almost exclusively in a pejorative sense,^[2][1] while "politically incorrect" is commonly used as an implicitly positive self-description, as in the series of "Politically Incorrect Guides", produced byconservative publisher Regnery^[3] and the talk show Politically Incorrect.

Some commentators have argued that the term "political correctness" is a straw man used by conservatives in the 1990s in order to challenge leftist social change, especially with respect to issues of race, religion and gender.^{[2][4][5][6][7]}

My Number

For quite a long time now, I've had a number.  222

This is my number because when I look at the clock it's often there, or the coffee machine, microwave, license plates, on tv, the newspaper, maybe someone says something with 222 in it.  

A random address I may look at in passing, how much an item costs in the store or restaurant, on a sign or billboard.  The list goes on and on.  Yep 222 is constantly haunting me.  

What does it mean?  A couple of years ago I decided it wasn't a lucky number.  This year 222 has been in my face usually several times a day.  Does it seem more prevailant because I'm subconciously looking for it?  Well, I just don't know, but I think I've figured out what it means to me.

  

This may sound a bit morbid, but I don't mean for it to.  I think it's a heads up that I'm going to die on February, 22 (02/22).  Who knows what year.  A couple of friends of mine, when I told them that's what I thought, said perhaps it meant dying in the year 2022.  I've always hoped to have some sort of warning when I'd be leaving this earth so as to have the time to get my affairs in order.  Sad but true.  I'm so unorganized that, no matter what I do, I stay that way.  I'd also like the heads up so that I would do some of things I've put off doing.  Yes, add procrastinator to unorganized.  

Think about how idiotic that sounds, will ya'?  I have the time now to get organized and do things I've put off.   Honestly, does that sound right to you?  Instead of enjoying the last days of my life here on Mother Earth in peace and harmony, with loved ones, making sure they know how much I love them (another something I should be doing every day anyway) apparently I'd rather wait until I'm just about to die and worry myself to death (pun definitely intended) trying to get things done. 

I suppose if I would keep this in mind, and do a little everyday towards being organized and not putting things off, then when my number is up, I'll  have smooth sailing in my last days and into the beautiful afterlife.  Not to mention I won't have to worry about what my loved ones will find in this mess once I'm gone!

It doesn't get any better than that!

PS

Don't burn bridges

What is it that seems to bring out past men in my life in the winter time?  I don't know if I said that right or not, but anyway.....

In the past week and a half I've gotten e-mails from a very sweet man I went out with a few times about 3 1/2 or 4 years ago, I've had calls from a man who lived with me for about 7 years, and that was........ready for this?  That was 20 years ago.  My ex husband, whom I was divorced from in 2000 suddenly decided to actually be nice to me!  So, you get the idea.

It's very strange indeed, and this happens pretty much every year.  I have to admit it's a boost to my deflated ego, however these are past relationships that didn't work out.  Perhaps it's just that we weren't meant to be together, but friends always.  Maybe the cold weather and the prospect of being cooped up inside brings out the urge to want to snuggle through the winter.  You know, like bears.  Hmmm, well let me say this right here, right now, I have in the past fallen for that urge only to find come spring they hit the ground running!!!

So, though it's really nice to hear from these guys, I've learned that some things are better left alone, like snuggling with the past.  It is a lesson in not burning bridges though, because it's nice to know that I'm still thought of, and thought of affectionately by so many people, years later.

It doesn't get any better than that!

PS