Monday-Funday

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RIP – Sidney Poitier, Bob Saget

Usually, when celebrities/public figures pass on, my husband and I feel that little pang of sadness for the loss of another person who has affected one of the eras of our own lives. It’s like a little piece of our own history is again chipped off of the wall, to reveal what is coming next in the fresh future. Since, thankfully, most of these people live to a ripe old age, our kids usually have to ask us, “Who died? Who was that?” But when the news that Bob Saget died came across the wire, my daughter was noticeably glum. As a huge fan of “Full House”, she observably felt that same feeling that my husband and I seem to feel more and more often these days as we get older, and the inevitable losses of life accumulate. One of my daughter’s chips fell off of her own mostly freshly painted wall last night, and I know that she sits with that sad, strange feeling that is relatively new to her. If nothing else, life is poignant.

Speaking of life, I read something interesting yesterday. The idea was that everything that we love in our lives right now, has in some way been gifted to us, by a prior version of ourselves. Our loving relationships, our warm homes, our health and our feelings of security, have all come about, in part, by actions which we have taken earlier in our lives. (Important: Don’t start to use your human nature right now, to start pinpointing all of the areas that you need to improve, and start feeling blameful and angry at your former self. This is supposed to be a positive exercise in gratitude.) Think about everything that you love about your current life, and thank yourself for gifting yourself these wonderful people, places, things, feelings and experiences. Now, in this light, think about what you could do in this next year, for which your future self would deeply thank you for, say, five years down the line. We often talk about what kind of world we would like to leave for our children and grandchildren. But remember, you are still very much alive and vital. What kind of world do you want to create for your own future self? What would you like to be thanking yourself for, in the next five years? I am incredibly grateful to myself for creating this blog, over three years ago, at a time period, when my deepest self knew that the era of raising my children was soon to be coming to a close. I created Adulting – Second Half as a way to open new doors to myself, and I have never, ever regretted that decision. What decisions and actions do we need to make for this new year, that our future selves will thank us for, forevermore? (I fully understand that this is a lot to ponder on a Monday. You may save this assignment for tomorrow, if you like. 😉 Most importantly, have a great week!)

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Siri Laughs

This was posted on Twitter’s Think Smarter a few days ago. This is so true, it’s scary. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to shrink up and hide in a little hole. I get the irony. I write a public blog every day where I spill my guts, yet I abhor the idea of being cyber-ly followed and tracked.

Privacy is such an independent, personal concept. When we were little, my cousin made up a song that we used to tease her about, yet I can still sing it. “PRIIIIIIVACY! If you want some . . . . close the door!! PRIIIIIVACY!”

I am perfectly comfortable with being very open about my feelings and perceptions on a public format, but I like my day-to-day happenings to be mostly private, and my own. I think most people are probably the opposite of that. Yet, there are the people who are willing to “let it all hang out”, like reality TV stars and the Kardasians. On the other hand, you have the entirely mysterious people who seem to leave no public footprint at all.

No matter what our privacy preferences are, one thing can be sure, if we have a cell phone, or a computer, or we spend any time in public places, someone/something is seeing us, recording us, tracking our preferences and keeping the data. It’s funny that I am comfortable with the idea of God and the angels doing this. Yet artificial intelligence makes me shiver in fear and disgust sometimes.