Happy Friday!!! Happy Best Day of the Week!! Happy Memorial Day Weekend!! I hope that it’s a fabulous “unofficial” start to an amazing summer for all!! Before I get to my usual “Favorite Things Friday” favorite for the week, I want to get a little unusually serious, for a Friday on the blog, first. I need to get something that’s been wrangling around in my brain, down in writing. If you aren’t in the mood for some serious thought, please just scroll down to my favorite for today, as I typically like to keep Fridays on the blog, footloose and fancy-free.
Now the serious part: When I was reading some articles about Tina Turner earlier this week, I came across some film clips from the movie about her life,What’s Love Got to Do with It, starring Angela Bassett as Tina Turner. I then ended up on a clip of Angela Bassett in another movie from the 90s that I remember liking called, Waiting to Exhale. I vaguely remember enjoying both movies, decades ago. Watching these clips reminded me of what an amazing actress Angela Bassett is, in just about any role that she plays. The Waiting to Exhale clip was of Angela Bassett’s character, Bernadine, going ballistic when she finds out that her husband is leaving her for one of his employees. In the movie, Bernadine had given up everything of her own self, in order to support her husband and to help him to create his company, and she is feeling justifiably full of rage. As she is filling his high-end car, full of his high-end clothes from his enormous closet, before she lights it all on fire, (This scene underscores the proverb: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”), she is crying and ranting and raving. At one point Bernadine is angrily mocking something that her husband implied in the past, “I need you to be the f-ing background, to my foreground.” Ouch.
Background people are needed in every entity. Background people are typically what makes ‘the whole thing’ go round. Think about every music concert. There are a helluva a lot of background people – roadies, lighting, promoters, assistants, bands, managers, background singers, etc. that make the actual concert happen. The lead singer/star is in the foreground, but she/he couldn’t be in the spotlight, without all of the background players and staff. There is a time and a place for us all to be background players and support staff. The hive only has one queen. Still, sometimes we individuals tend to play it a little small, and we keep ourselves in the background, perhaps playing martyrs, when there are times that we need to let go of our fears and uncertainties, in order to venture into the foreground a little bit, of our own interests and lives. I think that in transition times in life, such as the newly empty nest, this is a good thing to ponder: “Where in my life do I need to step up into the foreground of my own choosing?” We women, especially, tend to take pride in being the supportive background players to our families, and to our spouses, and to our kids, and even to our bosses, and that’s great, and we don’t have to give all of that up, by also inching into areas of our own foregrounds. And as we discover and explore our own “foregrounds”, we can use this experience to learn how to ask for, and to lean on a little background help of our own.
Okay, that’s way too much seriousness for a Friday. What was I thinking?! As usual, I was thinking too much. My favorite for today, is my new favorite brand of mascara. (This happens a lot for me with mascara. I am fickle. I love one brand until I just don’t like it anymore.) I found this mascara at Sally Beauty Supply and it is my new “holy grail mascara” until it isn’t. This makes my slowly dwindling, shrinking, getting sparser with age, eyelashes pop, like they haven’t in a long time: Lime Crime Astronomical Volumizing Vegan Mascara (I am not clear why it is important to say that this product is “vegan” since I don’t know anyone who eats mascara, but c’est la vie. I’m open and learning.)
Have an amazing Friday and an outstanding weekend, friends!! See you tomorrow!!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.