This is my contribution to One Liner Wednesday hosted by Linda G Hill. I saw this cool video shared by Quiet Revolution and wanted to share it. I am one who at times feels driven to DO SOMETHING, be more successful, (whatever that is), be a mover and a shaker, etc. etc. But it really is not my temperament. So for all of us who need to stop feeling a lack, or guilty about what we are not doing, I dedicate this video. We are OK just as we are, doing whatever feels right. xo
“Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.”
Times of desolation. This describes so much of what is going on in the Middle East right now. The extremists may think their cause justifies what they do but it does not and never will. There can never be a justification for all their atrocities. Kayla Mueller was working with aid organizations to help Syrian refugees in Turkey when she was captured by ISIS.
President Assad has dropped bombs and poison gas on his own people. Now there is talk to let him remain in power in order to “stabilize” Syria. Russia is sending in troops and weapons to try to prop him up as well.
It seems the forces of evil are very strong. I hope the forces of good can prevail in the end.
“ADHD is like a browser with 600 tabs open, each to a different website.”–adult with ADD
“No matter how clever the alien becomes at attempting to pass as an earthling, some telling awkwardness in his manner, some fatal expression of his true nature will, in unguarded moments, betray him for what he is: “different.”–Gabor Mate M.D. in Scattered
To say someone with ADD has a deficit of attention is a misnomer. People with ADD have a deficit of attention for something that does not interest them. They have an abundance of attention for many things. I think that has been called curiosity.
In his article, Secrets of the ADHD Brain, William Dodson M.D. states “ADHD is not a damaged or defective nervous system. It is a nervous system that works well using its own set of rules. Despite ADHD’s association with learning disabilities, most people with an ADHD nervous system have significantly higher-than-average IQs. They also use that IQ in different ways than neurotypical people. By the time most people with the condition reach high school, they are able to tackle problems that stump everyone else, and can jump to solutions that no one else saw.”
I don’t like calling ADD a “condition” either because that makes me think of illness. I prefer calling it a difference. I do think kids can have trouble functioning in school with ADHD if they are not helped to develop coping skills to adjust their temperaments and differences to the neurotypical, linear thinking environment. Teachers can make accommodations and modifications in the classroom and work load to help kids with ADHD engage and manage with their school work requirements.
” Far from being damaged goods, people with an ADHD nervous system are bright and clever. The main problem is that they were given a neurotypical owner’s manual at birth. It works for everyone else, not for them.” (Dodson)
“You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
What mood is that?
Last-minute panic.” –Bill Watterson
This is how I often sometimes feel when requested to respond to a writing prompt. Is it my rebellious nature? The prompt today is to write about the words very/vary.
I admit the word “very” is useful. It allows me to indicate or describe something that is not average or a matter of greater degree in various categories.
Very happy, very sad, very angry,
Very easy, very difficult, very hard, very frustrating,
Very big, very small, very much, very little,
Very hot, very cold, very sunny, very rainy, very stormy, very…
Or for extra emphasis, to show an extreme, I can use it twice like in the lyrics to the song by Nat King Cole, “Love”, when he sings ” V is very, very extraordinary.”
If something is “very” it does sound more dramatic and intense. It does help describe a greater depth and breadth of feeling about something. Very is an ordinary word for something extraordinary.
A woman I know wears a thin gold chain around her waist, under her clothes, with a charm bearing the inscription Priceless. It drives men crazy, she tells me. Small wonder. They love to be reminded of what they already know, since we live in a world that constantly denies it. She wears the chain, she says, in such a way that the charm falls perfectly across a certain female charka, as it were, which reminds her constantly of her inestimable value.–Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson is an American author and spiritual teacher. She has published 10 books including 4 New York Times best sellers. “A Woman’s Worth” is one of her books. I have not read any of her books so I can not personally endorse any of them. This quote appealed to me because I like quotes that empower women.
In addition to writing books she founded Project Angel Food in Los Angeles which is a meals on wheels service for people suffering with AIDs. She works in organizations to eliminate poverty, promote peace, and support women who wish to pursue political candidacy.
“I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” ― Rita Mae Brown
Rita Mae Brown is the author of Rubyfruit Jungle and several Mrs. Murphy mystery books co-authored with her cat Sneaky Pie. She wrote another series called Sister Jane about fox hunting and has other published novels and screenplays. I have not had the good fortune of reading any of her books. Since I really love mysteries I think I want to remedy this. The Mrs. Murphy series are in the category of “cozy mysteries.” These are crime fiction where the detective is usually an amateur and an older woman who is not taken seriously by the authorities. They are not super violent. An example would be Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.
I like this quote because it says to me that we give up a lot when we go along with other people at the expense of our true selves.
Here’s an interview with the author from Bantam Dell Publishing via You Tube:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
–George Santayana
I have been discouraged at times when I read that some women today think it is a negative thing to be a feminist. I have thought about writing more about it. Just recently my husband’s aunt sent me some historical photos that inspired me to write this post.
It is important for young women today to be aware of the history of women’s rights in the United States. We didn’t have the right to vote until 1920. Women struggled for many years to win that right. When our country was founded women did not have the right to own property.
When the Women’s Liberation Movement started women were blocked from all kinds of jobs considered only suitable for men. There were very few women doctors or lawyers. Women were not even allowed to run in the Boston Marathon. Here is some biographical info, from her website, on Kathrine Switzer the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon who the officials at that time tried to drag off the race course. “ Kathrine Switzer will always be best known as the woman who, in 1967, challenged the all-male tradition of the Boston Marathon and became the first woman to officially enter and run the event. Her entry created an uproar and worldwide notoriety when a race official tried to forcibly remove her from the competition. The photo of this confrontation flashed around the world.” Can you imagine that, it makes me nauseated, an official tried to drag her off the race course. It was during and after the 70s that we had the first women astronauts, more women in medical and law school, and women in leadership positions in business and politics. None of this would have happened without this struggle.
During this time of the Women’s Lib Movement, some women refused to wear bras and would burn bras during demonstrations. This was because bras were thought of as uncomfortable male inventions to make women’s breasts attractive to men. That is how the feminists were labeled “bra burners.” Women started to learn about their own bodies, some learned to do their own pelvic exams, and to request plastic speculums which were not as hard and cold as metal ones. Women asked to keep their feet down on the exam table instead of propped high up in uncomfortable metal stirrups. Women wanted to give birth on comfortable beds, or in water instead of in a surgical style delivery room with their feet in those metal stirrups.
I read about women’s history in my American History class in college and remember what an eye opener it was and how I admired so much the suffragettes and other women pioneers for freedom. One was Elizabeth Blackwell who was the first American woman MD. When she applied to medical school the dean and faculty put her application up to a vote by the other 150 male students. They thought it was joke and voted to accept her.
I read the book Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and Sexual Politics by Germaine Greer. Betty Friedan talked about how women in the 50s who, although college educated, were encouraged to stay at home in the suburbs and were finding something missing from their lives, (like intellectual stimulation). Women started to question these prescribed roles they were assigned to.
I am grateful that as a young woman I was exposed to these ideas and had women leaders to look up to like Gloria Steinem. Many people may not know that Gloria Steinem once had a job as a Playboy Bunny. She did an undercover assignment, as a reporter, at a Playboy Club in New York. There was later a movie made about this episode in her life. She is quoted in an article in the New York Times that at that time, when she did this reporting, she was not yet aware of her feminism. Playboy was a popular magazine for young men and the Playboy Club was very popular. The “bunnies” ,(waitresses), wore these low cut costumes, high cut at the bottom, with bunny ears, a puffy white tail and high heels. These were some of the role models women had then. Films usually portrayed women in very confined roles as well. A popular film in the 60s was Goldfinger which introduced the “The Bond Girls.” It is now known that the writer, Ian Fleming , of the James Bond series was a misogynist. But when the first movies came out the James Bond character was very popular. James Bond is portrayed as less sexist in recent years. I remember seeing the movie Goldfinger as a teenager. The leading female role was a character named Pussy Galore. I remember thinking that I did not want to identify with her or be like her. I think many young guys did want to be like James Bond. I always liked strong, independent women characters. I recommend that if you are not knowledgeable about your history that you read up on it. When Women’s History courses were first introduced many feminists wanted them to be called “herstory.”
Bessie Coleman, First African American Woman Pilot
Shannon Lucid Astronaut 1978
Sally Ride Astronaut
Betty Friedan 1960
Susan B. Anthony 1855
Gloria Steinem 2011
Katherine Switzer Boston Marathon
Annette Kellerman Swimsuit she designed was considered indecent
Bella Abzug Congresswoman from New York 1970s
Amelia Earhart
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Blackwell MD Stamp
Jacqueline Cochran Pioneer of Aviation
Patsy Mink Congresswoman from Hawaii
US Representative Barbara Jordan Texas 1973
Lucy Stone
Gloria Steinem on being a Playboy Bunny via You Tube by hudsonunionsociety:
“Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart.” –Erma Bombeck
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) was an author, newspaper columnist, humorist, and funny lady. I came across this quote recently and thought about Erma and how I enjoyed reading her books about being a stay at home mother. This was when I was a young adult and not a mother yet myself. She was not a Martha Stewart where everything had to be perfect. I remember her writing about making Halloween costumes for her kids saying that some mothers make elaborate home made costumes. Erma said her kids’ costumes consisted of a sheet with holes cut out for the eyes. I felt she was saying it was ok to not be perfect. She was an advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment for Women.
This is her famous quote via Goodreads:
“If I had my life to live over”
Someone asked me the other day if I had my life to live over would I change anything.
My answer was no, but then I thought about it and changed my mind.
If I had my life to live over again I would have waxed less and listened more.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy and complaining about the shadow over my feet, I’d have cherished every minute of it and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was to be my only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.
I would have eaten popcorn in the “good” living room and worried less about the dirt when you lit the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would have burnt the pink candle that was sculptured like a rose before it melted while being stored.
I would have sat cross-legged on the lawn with my children and never worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television … and more while watching real life.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband which I took for granted.
I would have eaten less cottage cheese and more ice cream.
I would have gone to bed when I was sick, instead of pretending the Earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren’t there for a day.
I would never have bought ANYTHING just because it was practical/wouldn’t show soil/ guaranteed to last a lifetime.
When my child kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, “Later. Now, go get washed up for dinner.”
There would have been more I love yous … more I’m sorrys … more I’m listenings … but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute of it … look at it and really see it … try it on … live it … exhaust it … and never give that minute back until there was nothing left of it.”
― Erma Bombeck, Eat Less Cottage Cheese and More Ice Cream: Thoughts on Life from Erma Bombeck
So listen to Erma and “eat less cottage cheese and more ice cream!”
Notes Tied On The Sagebrush 