June 25, 2014 ~

Twelve years ago it was clothes … now days it’s my whole HOUSE ….

Liberation!

At least that’s what my mind calls it. I’ve been going tough my closet and getting rid of ANYTHING that doesn’t fit/has a stain/looks frumpy. You do that all the time, don’t you? Or don’t you?

I’ m the first to admit that sometimes it’s hard to donate that great-looking, swingy dress that looks smashing with those gold sandals. How many parties and barbeques did we attend together?  What doesn’t compute is that it’s not as flowy as it was 15 years ago.

15 Years?? What kind of fashion maven am I?

Fashion for women is a very touchy thing. I still have my mother’s mink stoles in the front closet that she wore 50 years ago. I can’t think of a party or dinner that they would fit in, though. I still am a fan of shoulder pads in women’s sweaters, but the look I get when I wear any that are left in my closet is worth ripping them out. I am not a fashion dinosaur — I’m more like a make-the-most-of-your-bad-purchase kinda gal. Some things I thought would look great once I got them home looked just as “iffy” as they did the day I plunked them off the shelf. But I stubbornly hang it in my closet hoping they will look better.

They never do.

Now, men — in an odd, pretzel-logic sort of way, this goes for you, too. I mean, how many wrenches does one man need? How many fishing lures?  Bottle openers?

And clothes? Shoes? Bling? I am all for the odd piece, the one-in-a-million outfit. I am for keeping shoes that are comfortable and jewelry that is inherited. But between those two places is a bizillion pieces of collectables that would be better off being collected elsewhere. Think of all the little kids who would LOVE to start their fishing tackle box with one of the eight identical lures you are holding onto. The unemployed woman who would look smashing in the shirt and pants that haven’t fit you since 2001.

Perhaps there is a deeper psychological issue here, one that my little fried brain can’t digest right at the moment. I believe we are always “spring cleaning.” Our collections define us, mold us. If we don’t get out from under our old trappings we can never evolve … never follow our beautiful, wandering, growing nature.

There is so much out there for us to experience. So why not? Keep a bit of the old, opt out for the new. If you haven’t worn it in a year, toss it. If you haven’t fished with it in a year, stash it.

Quit cluttering up your todays with yesterdays.

It’s a fact of life. You can only use one wrench at a time. Having six of the same size doesn’t increase your chances of fixing whatever it is you are fixing.

The moral of the story is true.

Once you thin out your earthly possessions, you will be amazed at how the clutter in your head thins out, too. You wear what you really enjoy wearing — what really looks good. You catch  fish with the reliable lures your daddy gave you…you don’t need to keep the “maybe” ones that have cluttered up your tackle box for so long.

There is a double meaning somewhere in here as well. But I’ve no time to think about it. I see those dreadful, adorable sandals that pinch my feet sticking out from beneath the bed.

I’m sure there’s a bitchy boss out there who would love to wear them.

The world is changing.

No S&it.

Among the changes I’ve noticed lately is that fewer and fewer people are blogging – at least out of the ones I follow.

Less people are sharing on Facebook as well. It’s become a world of advertising and posts from people I don’t know nor care about. I’m sure other platforms are blossoming with writers and poets and adventurers. But my own circle is narrowing.

Maybe people are too busy to post. Maybe they think stopping and writing something for the masses is a waste of time. After all, the masses are busy doing a thousand and one other things.

I keep my Facebook account to keep in touch with those I don’t really see anymore – old co-workers, friends from associations I no longer belong to, my kids’ friends. Their posts are often lost in the massive mess of advertising that plagues every social media site.

You can’t watch a movie on You Tube without commercial breaks. You can’t watch an old TV series without paying Netflix or Prime Video. And even then you have to pay for the privilege. There is always so much junk to sift through before you get to the actual point.

I used to be so excited to write my blog – I thought I had a lot to say about getting older, about being BoHo or things I’m constantly learning about myself and the world.

These days it all seems so ho-hum. No one is interested. Not because they’re not interested in ME – it’s more that they have tons of things to have to deal with in their own life. Perhaps I suffer from some of this ho-hum too.

It’s funny – I used to enjoy reading and commenting on others who are flubbering through life, on their sad empty days and their wildly full days like me. I guess I’m not as interested as I used to be.

Maybe all the s&it going on in my own country, my own world, has burned me out and away from reading much online these days. Things are just out of control. The powers that be want to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. Those who run the Kennedy Center say they will tear the building down if isn’t allowed to follow its plans for the site, including adding the president’s name to the front of the building. Tariffs and economic sanctions and bombings and lots of other things I don’t understand plague the air around me. Art and creativity are being changed and silenced and affected in ways I’ve never seen before every day.

It’s a scary place out there these days.

I’m glad I still have you to listen.

Keep posting. I’m listening.

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It was then the clouds darkened around me and I realized how much I don’t know about the workings of the world — about climates and thunderstorms and how cells can turn into a lung or a foot or how to build an automobile or how flowers develop from plants. I don’t know how chemical reactions work in turning flour and water and yeast into bread, why carrots are orange, or how to make fire without a lighter.

As you can see, it doesn’t take much for me to get overwhelmed these days.

I don’t know if it’s an age thing or an ADHD thing or a bored wondering on the drive home thing, but my lack of understanding is overwhelming, to say the least.

I know — NONE of us know everything, or even a fraction of everything. We’re busy staying in our lane driving our car or making sure we don’t burn ourselves when taking a pan out of the oven. It’s all I can do to brush my teeth twice a day so I don’t develop gingivitis, although I don’t know the details of how that develops, either.

All this information overload makes me realize just how precious the human mind/brain is. How it came up with these ideas in the first place. Those minds who figured out how to make 20 story buildings stand and brave the weather and hold thousands of people. The minds who took aluminum and titanium and shaped it into huge machines that can move fast enough to ride the air up into the sky, or how a computer went from being the size of a room to a chip that can sit on your fingertip.

After a while I have to stop all this mind wandering and go back to vacuuming the living room or go pull weeds out of my outdoor potted plants …. activities my mind can handle without much effort.

I enjoy wondering about things, and I am satisfied enough that I know so little. It gives me the inspiration to read, watch, and ask Google for answers I’ll never have. It also makes not knowing about life and death and the afterlife okay, too. No one knows everything.

It makes me laugh at those who think they know it all….

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