Saturday, April 23, 2011

Holy Saturday- get ready for tomorrow

Holy Saturday is always an odd day in the calendar. Sort of like, everything happened that could happen last week, and now we wait. Of course in this scenario, we know the happy ending of resurrection. Life is similar to Holy Saturday. We live it to the hilt, everything happens, and fortunately, there is resurrection in the form of relief, new challenges, and new life.

An easy example is the transition from one job to a new one in another city. What happens in between! There is relief that one phase is over. There is a feeling of accomplishment that one job has been done well. We will miss the close contacts and immediate support of friends made over the years. We also remember the pain of growing into that job and the battle to maintain ourselves in our position despite the machinations of those who would undo our successes.

Then the new job comes. It means severing ties and moving to a new venue. The job description seems okay and doable. The new digs are yet to be determined. Relationships have to be built. There is time for buyers remorse. Ghosts and chasms pop into our minds as we wait for the next phase, that of resurrection.

Resurrection takes the same grit and attitude that worked in maintaining ourselves at the previous job. It is not easy. There are boulders to be moved to escape the comfort of the tomb and get on with the readjustment  necessary to stand up and accomplish  great things. It gets done by doing.

The example of job transition is used here, but apply this to any transition phase of life, and see the similarities as we go from work to retirement, healthy unassisted living to disability, spouse to care giving spouse, life to death. Attitude, respite, reset make life liveable.

So, the Holy Saturday phase of life becomes the time of mental adjustment, a brief period to move on from the old ways, take care of ourselves, and get ready for the resurrected life of tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Simply a magazine

It seems so simple. Pick up a Martha Stewart Living and start paging through it. feel the pages, caress them a bit, squeeze them to separate them, the aroma of ink, get a close up. Stop. That looks interesting. Maybe start at the back. Hard to find a table of contents or even page numbers. Neat ads. full page, lots of color. Spring flowers, "unhidden gems", chef's special, "tarts from the heart". The latest from Kitchen Aid, Coldwater Creek, Chase or Chanel. Just by turning the pages. Enjoying every moment.

And when she has exhausted that one, there's Time on "Why we're still fighting the Civil War" with a teary Abe Lincoln on the cover, an article in Style about the upcoming royal wedding, a hot ten questions to Robert Redford ; McDonald's, Pringle's, and Direct TV ads. Still the feel of the friendly page. No pressure, no buttons to go back or forward. A fanciful excursion into other worlds.

And then there's Bon Appetit- the Italian issue. This is another world. "Cook like a real Italian." "Text after marriage"- hmmm! what's that about?

 There was nothing to turn on. No reason to feel technologically challenged. No frustration. Just a normal brain pattern, learned in childhood. Then it was Collier's, Saturday Evening Post, Life and Look. It was          then and still is pure pleasure. 

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Budget- part 2

I heard the republicans presenting the idea to cut the budget immensely over the next several years, and they pull at my heart strings when the claim is made to hand over a debt free situation to our grandchildren. They deserve to be debt free.

What will life be like for these grandchildren? First of all, they will have had an inferior education in overcrowded class rooms and deteriorating schools. Now that's something to leave them with. They will be able to grapple with how to rebuild schools, and reduce class loads for teachers. They will have the opportunity to determine how to afford a college education for their children. They will feel the sting of jobs moving abroad because that is where the industries have decided is the better trained and less expensive labor force is. It is cheaper to do business because of the favorable tax situation in those countries. The grand kids will have the chance to solve these problems.

Now how about the roads, bridges, cities, and parks. The infrastructure for all of these  is presently on the way to depletion. How will our grandchildren travel? How will goods and produce be shipped? There will be longer and round about ways of doing this, causing higher prices for everything. Fortunately, they will not have to visit the national parks, because they also will be in a state of disrepair. The grand kids will have the opportunity to decide how to rebuild everything for their grandchildren. Why  deprive them of these opportunities? At least they will not be saddled with our debt, some of which might have given them some decent roads, cities, parks and bridges.

And  we can reduce medicare and medicaid. This really helps the grandchildren. It guarantees that there will be plenty of sickness to go around. It assures them that they will have less of a chance of getting the health care they need. Well, maybe not all grandchildren. Just the ones who happen to need this kind of support because they cannot afford any other health insurance. This situation will give that generation the opportunity to do what the grandparents were too fainthearted to do, solve the health care issue.

America will indeed be the land of opportunity for our grandchildren because we have left them the problems instead of the debt. Now that's quite a gift!

I am in favor of the proposal made by Obama's non-.budget committee becoming the working document for reform.