Form of Fiction

I’m sorry to be delayed again, with the post. All week, my husband and I have been binge watching Season 3 of The Sinner. (GREAT show!) Anyway, we both fell asleep last night, towards the end of the final episode and we had to re-watch it, this morning. We tend to turn into pumpkins after midnight, my husband and I.

During the show, my husband noted that it was nice to see “normal” settings depicted. The peoples’ homes in the show, aren’t artfully staged or in-congruent to what befits the character. (How many movies do you watch, do you find yourself questioning, how does a maid afford to live in a Brownstone with designer furnishings?!? This line of questioning, gets one distracted from the meaning of the movie and the depth of the characters.)

Anyway, that got me to thinking about how this whole quarantine thing, has brought us all down to a level of “realness” that is really refreshing. While having a closer peek into peoples’ private lives, with Zoom meetings and broadcasts from peoples’ homes, we see that even our exalted celebrities have sloppy shelves and clothes hanging on doors and gray roots and straggly ends on their hair. Even our experts have naughty dogs and get exasperated with their kids sometimes. It’s real “reality TV” and it has made me feel closer to humanity, in a sense. It’s one of those hidden gems that has been uncovered below the blanket of this coronavirus nightmare.

Quotes About Reality Tv. QuotesGram

Sunny Friday

Meme from BettinasCollection on Instagram

Happy Friday!!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! I tried to kill two birds with one stone, by sharing a meme that tickled me and showing you the beautiful sunflowers which we picked at a local sunflower farm yesterday, at the same time. If you ever want to feel your soul cleansed, take a “bath” in a field of sunflowers. The sun loves these huge, gorgeous flowers, and so do the bees, and so do I. My dear friend told me about this farm that typically attracts large, eager crowds to their sunflower fields in May. This year, due to corona, the farm owners are being very stringent, requiring advanced and limited ticket purchases, strongly encouraging masks, and strictly enforcing 6 feet social distances between family groups. It was a unique experience, yet the magic was not lost. Sunflowers are my number one favorite, today. New readers, Fridays are dedicated to the frivolous and fun in life. On Fridays, at Adulting-Second Half, I typically list three favorite items, books, songs, stores, that have made my life just a little more full of life, and I ask you to share your favorites in the Comments section. Please check out previous Friday posts for more favorites.

Sunflowers are my number one favorite today. A picture says a thousand words. Sunflowers scream of huge, happy hopefulness. They aren’t necessarily sophisticated flowers, but there is probably not a more cheerful flower on the face of the planet. Nature has been my sanctuary more than ever, throughout this pandemic. The healing properties of the soft grass beneath your feet, the harmonic songs of birds, the new, bright blooms on a recently dormant plant, the meditative sound of slow, trickling water, the sun glowing through the trees, are all of the many buoyant assurances and signs that life goes on, and that life goes on optimistically and confidently and assuredly and abundantly. Nature’s constant promises are a much needed element for our robust health. Nature heals holistically. Nature quiets our minds, soothes our souls, and reminds our bodies that we all have connected roots to the whole system of Life. Let nature’s good medicine fill you up, this weekend, friends. It is strong, good medicine.

No Mo-Stache – I bought this little tin of wax strips on a whim a few months ago in Target. I guess that I have good intuition. Typically, I go to a salon for my waxing needs, but we all know the rest of that story. I’m a wimp about doing my own facial hair waxing, but this little kit is surprisingly effective, yet not incredibly painful. It also has a little packet of aloe cream, included. No Mo-Stache has been one of those unexpected, surprising gifts, through this whole virus mess.

Dakota Extra Strength Elderberry Gummies – I’ve mentioned before that I take about 800 supplements a day. Lately, my supplement intake has been geared towards tricking me into believing that my immune system is bullet-proof. (the placebo effect is stronger than you think, look it up!) These gummies are delicious. They are like gummy bears that are good for you. They have elderberry, Vitamin C, bee propolis, zinc and echinacea. I got mine on Amazon. As always, please check with your doctor first before taking any supplement. I am not a medical expert.

Funny & Happy Weekend Quotes With Images, Pictures (With images ...

The Masked Man

Image via screengrab

I don’t enjoy wearing the masks. They are uncomfortable, hot and they make me feel unfriendly. My son who lives in New Jersey, said that he saw a woman in the grocery store wearing a mask with slits cut out under her nose and her mouth. It kind of defeats the purpose, right? Still, I empathized with her. Once again, I’m in total awe of all of our essential workers, who wear the masks hours and hours, on end. The following post went viral in my local Nextdoor neighborhood social media. The person who posted it, said that she did not write it, nor did she know who to attribute it to, but I’m glad that she posted it anyway. It hits home.

“I wear a mask in public, NOT for me, but for YOU. I want you to know that I am educated enough to know that I could be asymptomatic and still give you the virus. No, I don’t “live in fear” of the virus, I just want to be a part of the solution, not the problem. I don’t feel like the “government is controlling me,” I feel like I’m being a contributing adult to society, and I want to teach others the same. The world doesn’t revolve around me. It’s not all about me and my comfort. If we all could live with other people’s consideration in mind, this whole world would be a much better place. Wearing a mask doesn’t make me weak, scared, stupid or even “controlled,” it makes me considerate. When you think about how you look, or how uncomfortable it is or what others think of you, just imagine someone close to you, a father, a mother, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle choking on a ventilator. Then ask yourself if you could have worn a mask to prevent their suffering would you have?”

I love the idea of being “considerate”. I love the idea of being “part of the solution.” We are like one worldwide team trying to conquer this horrible virus. It’s good to be reminded that we are all on the same team.

Are You Certain?

27 Best Uncertainty quotes images | Quotes, Me quotes ...

Our state of Florida is starting to open up a tad, and we are getting back to my least favorite part of parenting. We are putting limits on things, that other parents are okay with, and our kids are frustrated. We get to be “the bad guys” once again. We’ve agreed to have weekly family meetings to discuss what our current house stance is on summer jobs, outside interactions, masks, beach trips, shopping trips, restaurants, etc. It would help me more, if I felt more concretely solid about what is the right thing to do, too. We have been very fortunate to not know anyone personally who has been infected with the coronavirus. Our zip code has less than five cases of it. Like all places in the world, there are a fair amount of restless people here, wanting things to get back to “normal.” I don’t like the idea of living in fear, but I must balance that with being responsible to myself, to my family, and to my community. With the onslaught of so much information, it’s hard to know what and who to believe. There still seems to be a lot of mystery surrounding this virus. How are you all coping with this uncertainty? Feeling uncertain is admittedly my least favorite state of being. I trudge strongly forward when I feel resolute. Uncertainty kind of paralyzes me. I’m going to try to take this perspective seen below, on uncertainty. It screams “hopeful.”

Margaret Drabble - When nothing is sure, everything is possible ...

Brutally Indescribable

I was reading an article that said that the Dutch people have about 700 new words in their lexicon, all related to the coronavirus. Here is just a few of them:

Huidhonger / skin hunger: a longing for human contact while in isolationAnderhalvemetereconomie / six-feet-economy: an economy constructed to avoid spreading coronavirusHoestschaamte / cough-shame: the anxiety one may experience about possibly triggering a panic among the people nearby when making a coughing sound for whatever reasonCoronahufter / coronajerk: shopper at a supermarket or store who violates the six-foot social distance prescription or other safe-keeping protocol.Druppelcontact / spray-contact: exchange of little droplets when sneezing or coughing, esp. as source of infectionOnthamsteren / dehoarding: processing long-stored shelf-stable food into a meal.Straatschaamte / street-shame: the embarrassment someone experiences when being out for urgently necessary errands during lockdownToogviroloog / blather-virologist: dilettante who spreads false or unsubstantiated information about the virus, its transmission, or its treatment (CNN)

This isn’t a new thing. I read this in an article about how wars have brought new words and new meanings to words, into our regular, every day vernacular.

Through wars, some words have changed or garnered new meanings while others were newly coined for specific places and things. During the Civil War, “skedaddle” became “skeet” or “scoot.”

In World War I, the word “lousy,” which was intended to describe lice infestations, came to mean weary. In the same token, “trench coat” — a jacket worn in the trenches during battle — to this day remains an iconic outerwear style. “Jeep” came from the letters “G.P.” emblazoned on the side of each general purpose vehicle used during World War II.”- (Business Insider)

Why do we create new words, particularly in hard times such as wars and pandemics?

The same article says this:

War words are often invented to describe things that are brutally indescribable, bring humor to things that are not funny, and create designations for things that are otherwise unidentifiable.” (Business Insider)

I think that is why I love writing. It is the act of trying to describe, to put meaning to, to bring a familiar understanding, and to even bring humor out of an all-encompassing experience. Writing tries to bring order and sense and logic and description and familiarity and emotional inclusion, to any striking event in our lives. The other creative arts do the same thing. A photographer tries to capture the emotion, the beauty, the total awesomeness of one single moment. The same can be said for the works of an artist, a musician, a film maker or a dancer. The creative arts try to translate life, so that the precious moments are not forgotten. There is an argument that the minute you pin a description or a meaning or a perspective on to an experience or on to an object, you have lost the essence of just experiencing it. You have limited your experience. You have diminished the object. That may be the case, but there is still great satisfaction in trying to cage in any happening, with emotional description (which is what I think, creativity really is). The creative product is the leftover heavy pebbles, as the constant movement, of the stream of change, moves forward rapidly into the distant unknown. As travelers, we can pick up the pebbles and have a remembrance of where we have been, what we have felt. We get a small glimpse, of a standstill of one moment, of any one experience. We get to pick up a pebble, put it in our pocket, and thus, we get to keep a tiny sliver of any one particular major (or minor) experience, on our person, forever.

Sunday Soul

Hi readers. I’m terribly sorry to be late posting today. Sundays are a big readership day for me and I appreciate that fact. I think people like poetry more than they pretend to like it. I’m late because I got myself involved in a “little” painting job this weekend. I decided to paint some window panes. The job seemed simple and painless, enough. Ha! I decided to complete the finishing touches this morning before the hot Florida sun baked even more dark bronze-y paint into my skin. I look like a leopard.

New readers, Sundays are devoted to poetry here at Adulting – Second Half. Poetry is the unedited, free-flowing sounds of our souls. I already got my creative juices out by painting this morning, so I am going to reprint a poem today, that you may have seen already. The poem has gone viral and many believed that it was written by an author during the 1919 Pandemic. Alas, this is not true. It was actually written in March of 2020 by a chaplain from Wisconsin named Kitty O’Meara. It is untitled and it is beautiful. Please add your poems (your writings or someone else’s writings) to the Comments section. Here is the lovely words of a very much alive, Kitty O’Meara:

By Kitty O’Meara
And the people stayed home.
And read books, and listened, and rested,
and exercised, and made art, and played games,
and learned new ways of being, and were still.
And listened more deeply.
Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.
Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed.
And, in the absence of people living in ignorant,
dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways,
the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again,
they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images,
and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully,
as they had been healed.

Amma

I read on Twitter that the great Indian actor, Irrfan Khan passed away this morning after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 53. He primarily acted in Indian movies and was a Bollywood superstar, but we Americans would recognize his handsome face in movies such as Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi and Jurassic World. He left behind his wife and two sons, and millions of adoring fans. Apparently, in his final minutes of life he mentioned to his wife that “Amma” had come to help him to transistion. Apparently his last words were, “Amma has come to take me.” Khan was referring to his own mother.

I remember hearing the name “Amma” before, so I did some research. Here is some of the meanings that I found for the word “Amma”.

Amma means “born on Saturday” (African), “mother” (Basque), “water” (Native American) and “maid” (Arabic). (charlies-names.com)

Amma” means “Mother” in many south Indian languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and also in other languages and their dialects spoken in central and northern parts of India. It means the same in some other non-Indian languages also, such as Sinhalese. (Quora)

An Amma is someone who would literally do anything for her children and grandchildren. She is someone who cannot ever be replaced,no matter what. She is someone that never gives up and fights until she wins, and she always wins. She is the strongest person that you will ever meet and if you are sick and afraid, being with her makes all your fears disappear. She is someone that God took extra time on and made to be the most amazing person on this earth. But most of all she is someone that no matter what will love you unconditionally forever. She is a superhero, our superhero. (Urban Dictionary)

Amma is also the living “hugging guru”. This cheerful, warm, guru goes around the world giving hugs to people sometimes 17 hours straight, without so much as taking a bathroom break. She has given more than 33 million hugs to date, all around the world.

Friends, if ever there was a time we needed our Amma, it is now. Find your Amma. Whether your Amma is your own mother, or your grandmother, or your auntie, or your sister, cousin, or a special teacher or a friend, or a mix of every strong, compassionate female essence, who has every touched your life, find her presence. Perhaps your Amma is Mother Earth. Perhaps she is a spirit guide that lives inside of you. Perhaps Amma is an ancient tree, who stands tall through many storms. Perhaps she is a gallant female pet who protects you fiercely and loyally. Perhaps your Amma is You. Perhaps Amma is a mix of all of these wonderful women who have comforted you and inspired you and who have loved you fiercely and unconditionally. Find your Amma in your heart, and feel her holding you tight. Feel Amma guiding you through this very difficult time in the world. Feel your Amma’s reassurance, and her soft comforting, and her soothing lulls, and her utter kindness. Allow your Amma to keep your wrapped up in a hug for the entire day and let her guide you tenderly. Feel the relief of just resting safely in your Amma’s arms and in her heart. And know that everything will be okay.

Things That Caught My Attention

“I have come to think of almost everyone with whom I come into contact as a patient in the emergency room. I see a lot of gaping wounds and dazed expressions.” ~@ANNELAMOTT

This first quote struck me as quite true and interesting. Yesterday, seemed like a particularly rough day for a lot of people in my circle. The emergency room of Life had a full waiting room, yesterday, it seemed. I hate that I feel so confused with anyone I encounter on a walk or in the grocery store. It’s a feeling filled with compassion and wanting to hug them and show them smiley eyes behind my mask and at yet the same time, I try to avert eye contact and I hold my breath and kind of shrink into myself, any time I pass someone. Then I see the people walking around confidently without masks, and I am filled with a mix of righteous anger, a twinge of embarrassment (I’m not used to the mask thing yet) and maybe even a smidge of jealousy of their indignant confidence. Confliction of feelings is a diagnosis that I would give to myself and probably to most people whom I know.

Image

The above picture is what someone did to convert their attic into an in-home tent. I want one. My daughter is convinced that we have “attic people” living upstairs, despite the fact that we live in Florida and our attic is so hot and inhospitable that we sweat gallons, just bringing our Christmas decorations down every year. And that’s in the wintertime. If we do have attic people, I hope that they have decorated it like the picture above. I think that it would add to our overall home’s value, for sure. It would be like having a vacation home, in your home.

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Today would have been Harper Lee’s 94th birthday. What a visionary, amazing writer! When you stand out from the “stand outs”, that really says something.

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Someone commented on this tweet by saying that the aliens would get food poisoning. I texted this meme to some friends and one of my friends said that there is great truth in this, as she has eaten ice cream every single night of quarantine. I mentioned that I eat ice cream every single night, too, and that’s pretty desperate of me because I have lactose intolerance. So, if the aliens eat me, I think I will be like a cheese puff to them, filled with a lot of air.

Speaking of being an old airbag, I better quit while I’m ahead. See you tomorrow, friends! Hope that you are not in the proverbial emergency room waiting area, but at the very least, resting comfortably at home.

The Fish Bowl

I’ve been trying to decide what I miss more. Do I miss not being able to do specific things or is it more that I miss the feeling of freedom to do whatever I feel like doing? Out of my immediate family, I honestly think that my daily life has changed the least. In my family, it is more like everyone has become an integral part of my daily life and routine, that’s all. It is like I am living in a fish bowl that now has a heck of a lot more fish swimming around in it, than usual.

Welcome to the Fish Bowl Enter with Caution | Make a Meme

That’s all I have for a Monday. Mondays are tough in a normal world. In quarantine world, they are extra sluggish. See you tomorrow. Stay well.