Tag: collections

Thoughts for Thursday

+ Yesterday, I read a fascinating article about Erling Haaland, the famous Norwegian footballer (soccer player) who quickly became an American darling when he was competing for Norway, in this past summer’s World Cup. Erling Haaland, at 6’5″ is often compared to a viking, or the character “Thor”, with his long blond hair and distinctive look. If you still don’t know whom I am talking about, think about the guy seen leaving America, entering an airplane, with a stuffed raccoon with a liquor bottle, which he had proudly purchased in Texas. A man after my own heart, Haaland is known for his vast collections of many different things. When asked about this, he said, “Everything I collect kind of has a memory in it. It sounds stupid, but it just gives me a kind of joy.”

It’s not stupid, Erling. Joy is never stupid. And this is what he said about the joy that he found in America and Americans:

” . . .We don’t understand how big, actually the U.S. is in terms of size, the people, and everything. . . I went to a place I didn’t know much about, but the way people were and how kind they were, and how happy they were . . . How they look at life was just fantastic.”

This thrilled me, particularly in a time when there seems to be so much cyncism about America and the direction which we are going in. Our institutions have deserved and earned a much-warranted critical eye, but our real strength in America, lies in our many, many diverse people, and in our vast, beautiful land. I recently read that skepticism is healthy and wise and discerning, but it remains open-minded. Cynicism already has its derisive, pessimistic mind made up. Sometimes seeing how others look at us, reminds us of who we really are inside. Our visitors saw we Americans, as kind, happy, and optimistic. If you need reminded about who YOU really are, ask your loved ones how they see you. Don’t be a cynic about what they say is amazing and unique about you. In fact, don’t even be skeptical about it. Use it as a template to be your best self, always. America showed its best self to our World Cup visitors this summer, and we all got to savor and revel in, what we saw reflected back to us.

And the final gem which I got from this Erling Haaland interview was what his favorite football manager told him to do in order to become, and to remain a great footballer:

“Do it with passion. When you’re working, stay fully focused. But when you’re done working, think about something else. Don’t think about football. Think about whatever, just not football, so you don’t get tired of it.”

This is such a good reminder that you can suffer burnout, even from the things that you love to do. As always, the best advice gets whittled down to Stay In the Present Moment.

+ And a new one for our thought museum, here at Adulting – Second Half:

“When you protect your purpose, your purpose protects you.” – Jay Shetty

I’m still thinking about this one. I would love to get your takes on this quote, in my Comments.

Have a fabulous weekend, my friends. If you’ve missed my blogging, it’s because I have been busy with organizing and cleaning out – a project that got put on the backburner with the many big celebrations our family had this year. This feels good to me. As one, like Erling Haaland, who loves to collect things, this project is a relatively daunting one, but the joy of it, is experiencing the memories once again, attached to various objects. (Don’t worry, I don’t keep everything. I don’t feel attached to dirty paper bags or broken beach chairs.)

Most important, remember the assignment: Without a cynical (or even a skeptical) eye, ask your loved ones what is best about you, and believe it, and live up to it.

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

Lessons from Dolls

I mentioned on the blog that I have been buying some of my old toys and dolls from my childhood, from eBay. It’s been a fascinating experience, that has lead to a few research rabbit holes for me (my specialty – pointless rabbit holes). Anyway, I’ve gleaned a few unexpected lessons from this exercise. First lesson, if you think that we, as the world, have one universal beauty standard, it is interesting to note that the Barbie doll (started in 1959) has had literally 100s of different “face molds” since her inception. Avid collectors have names for each of these “molds”. If you look at some of the old molds, (and the big haired Barbies of the 1980s), you fully understand that our societal ideas of beauty change constantly. So, I say, wear your own “mold” and wear it proudly. It’s your mold and it’s one-of-a-kind and it’s beautiful. Second lesson, no matter how much you try to preserve something, it ages. I have purchased some old dolls which people clearly thought, one day, were going to be worth millions of dollars. (Spoiler alert – they mostly aren’t. In fact, I’m sad to report that I have purchased some decades old dolls, still in their pristine boxes with their original price tags intact, for less than the price that was on their bright orange, Kay-Bee price tag, even the ones that had been marked down on clearance) The crazy thing is, you pull out a decades-old toy or a doll from its original packaging, that has clearly been stored and preserved carefully for decades, out of the sunlight, never removed from its box, and yet, the doll is still old. The doll is still fragile. Her limbs are loose, her hair is crunchy, her face glow has faded, and some of her accessories crumble instantly away, in a poof of dust (note to self – pleather, which has been cleverly remarketed in modern times as “vegan leather” does NOT age well at all).

So in the end, I realize that no matter how hard you try to fight it, you’re aging. We’re all aging. So do we really want to live out our lives, carefully, hidden in a box?? If we do this with the idea that we’ll “age better”, I think that’s a farce. Overall lessons from my current obsessive rabbit hole: Own your unique mold proudly (it has a name), love it, and remember it’s beautiful enough that people would try to hold on to it for ages. Also, life is boring and wasted, sitting in a box. No matter how hard you try to preserve yourself, you’re still aging, whether you like it or not, box or no box. And the final important lesson: Don’t get too attached to your assessories (especially if they’re made of pleather) – they turn to dust, just like we do.

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

Vintage Friday

Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! On Fridays, I discuss the tactile stuff that is fun to eat or to drink or to smell, or to hear, or to read, or to wear, or to touch, or to play with! Lately I have been feeling really sentimental for the toys I played with when I was a little girl. I’ve even purchased a few things on eBay. I tell myself, “Won’t it be fun for my future grandchildren to play with the toys I used to play with?”, but I think it’s more than that – I think my inner child is reaching out. There is something comforting about remembering being a child, and being in the moment, not a care in the world, just using our imagination. Below are some of my favorite toys from childhood. What were your favorites?

Barbies, Dawn Dolls, Liddle Kiddles, Rosebud dolls, Sea Wees, Inchworm Riding Toy, paper dolls, Holly Hobbie dolls, Sunshine Family Dolls, Honeybunch Hill Kid dolls, Bionic Man and Woman dolls, Wonder Woman dolls, I Dream of Jeannie Playset, Wizard of Oz Dolls, Big Wheels, Baby Chrissy doll, Mrs. Beasley doll, Chinese jump rope.

As I started growing out of toys, my sister (who is five years younger than me) really got into Strawberry Shortcake dolls (she particularly loved Blueberry Muffin) and Cabbage Patch dolls and never one to sit quietly, she LOVED her Sit-N-Spin.

Anyway, take a trip down memory lane today, and look up some of your own favorite toys on the internet. This will make you feel that happy/sad syrupy feeling of nostalgia. It will bring all sorts of feelings up to the surface, but in a good way. It will make you feel like a kid again.

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

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

823. What vegetable do you hate? (Don’t say “all of them” – just because I advised letting yourself be a kid again, doesn’t mean you get out of eating your vegetables!)

I Miss You

Hello my dear friends and readers! I miss you. I am in one of the most beautiful, peaceful places which I have ever been on this Earth. Particularly on this trip, I have come to realize that there is a lot of “stuff” in my life that I do not need, nor do I miss, but writing my blog and communing with my readers, definitely goes on to the column of things which I miss a lot about my daily routine at home. You, my treasured friends and readers, and my writing of Adulting – Second Half on a daily basis, are right up there, (along with our three precious fur babies), on the list of Things That I Most Miss About Home. I also forgot to bring perfume on this trip and I LOVE perfume. And I am currently writing this after a full day of hiking and touring and swimming and riding for hours in a stuffy van, and so honestly, right now, my perfume is number one on the list of Things That I Most Miss About Home. (Kidding!) You (and our puppies) are definitely what I miss the most, while I am away with my family on our vacation. But right now, perfume is a close, close second.

Despite reflecting on the fact, that there are so little material things that I really do need, to make me happy, and also, realizing that it is my life’s adventures, and the memories that come with these adventures which are truly my most cherished possessions, I still can’t help myself. I buy schlock. Above is one of the pieces of schlock that I just had to have as a souvenir from my current trip, because to me it represents our family – me and the five people whom I love more than life itself. I bought this trinket because it represents yet another amazing family adventure to me, and it will serve as a reminder of our shared laughs and our shared wonders and shared joys and even our shared sorrows. Mostly, it reminds me of our shared deep, unrelenting care and love. In short, this goofy souvenir makes my heart smile, and it will for years to come.

We have probably 1000s of pictures from this trip, we have shared family stories that come from this trip which will undoubtedly last in our family lore for years to come, but this silly little kitschy dust collector, will represent all of that for me, in just one glance. I must remember this the next time I rummage through an antique store, or an estate sale. A lot of the things that we have in our lives mean so much more than the inexpensive materials that make them, or their relatively insignificance in the way of daily practical usage. Symbols and signs represent the meaning which we find in life, in simple and yet in profound ways. Religious and spiritual places are full of symbols and signs. Is it possible that my silly, googly-eyed souvenir is sacred? It is to me.

Some day, perhaps when I am long gone, someone will pick up this funny little figurine and pitch it into the garbage or they will sell it for a dollar in a garage sale, and they won’t realize it’s true significance. They won’t realize all of the love and wonder and happiness and peacefulness that it holds. They won’t hear the heart beating in it. And that’s okay. It will transform into a new form of the energy that it forever holds. The souvenir’s form never really mattered anyway. The love and the memories that it represents will never, ever go away. And that’s what makes this little rock family, one of the most beautiful things that I have ever owned.

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