If I have only
one life, let me live it as ….
you fill in the blank.

A … blonde?

In 1961 a copywriter named Shirley Polykoff was working for the Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency on the Clairol hair-dye account when she came up with the line: “If I’ve only one life, let me live it as a blonde!” In a single slogan she had summed up what might be described as the secular side of the Me Decade. “If I’ve only one life, let me live it as a—!” (You have only to fill in the blank.)

So wrote Tom Wolfe in his New York Magazine Essay, The “Me” Decade and the Third Great Awakening, August 23, 1976.

The ‘Me Decade’ refers to the 1970’s.

I was 10 years old.

I can verify I was pretty self indulgent.

But I was born blonde.

How do I answer the question today?

too much food, candy
drink, gifts, fun, friends and family
but too little sleep

I celebrated the Christmas Holiday in the American tradition of excess.

The one thing I did not get too much of is sleep.

At the time, it was a small price to exchange sleep for the traditions of staying up to midnight to pack stockings while Christmas at St. Peter’s is on the TV and getting up way too early on Christmas Morning.

Then the cooking.

First that Turkey in the oven.

The only prep work I do is remove that bag of parts and the neck, rinse the whole thing best I can, put an onion inside and tie up the drumsticks.

The breakfast with bacon, eggs and freshly baked cinnamon rolls.

Then back to Christmas Dinner.

Mashed potatoes.

Gravy.

Sweet Potatoes.

Bread Stuffing or dressing or whatever you want to call it.

Congealed Salad, or as we called, Jello with fruit.

Broccoli.

Black eyed peas.

Deviled eggs.

The lack of sleep is being felt, especially in my knees, but the arrival of Grand Children perks me up.

Dinner and dessert eaten.

Gifts passed around.

The day starts to lag.

Lack of sleep now hitting everyone.

I think this won’t last, this can’t last much longer.

The time comes and the guests depart.

We get to that moment, side by side on the sofa, drinks in hand.

Tired out.

Tired out a lot more than we used to be.

Sleepy.

But, lack of sleep was a small price to exchange for the many excesses and blessings of the day.

vacation hot spots?
lounging endlessly with books
no need to travel

I remember when I was working the information desk at the Cascade Branch of the Kent District Library I was asked, “How do you know so much about the world?”

I answered that librarians had been everywhere, done everything and seen the world … just not in the first person.

When I was in college, I would roam the labyrinth of the Grad Library at the University of Michigan (reportedly some 5 million books on the shelf) and randomly take books of the shelves until my arms where full then I would sit in the reading room and disappear into the books.

What the library staff thought when they found my stacks of books left on the table, I never stuck around to find out.

This shelf surfing continues to this day, both online and in my local library.

Searching for the odd fact, photo, story or even recipe.

I was thinking about this because I keep reading stories about the best places for a vacation.

The 10 places you have to see before you die.

The 50 cities you have to visit.

It seemed to me that many of the descriptions included the phrase, “a great place to relax”.

A place to relax with a book.

I have to ask, “Why do I have to travel to relax?”

Travel headlines are about long lines, unreliable airplanes, reliably awful co-travelers and weather.

I am not a traveler.

I have no travel bucket list.

I have to say this is not a criticism of those of who do love to travel.

If you enjoy traveling, I am all for you.

I even admit, when I travel, I enjoy the opportuinty to see new things.

I sat on the front porch of the house were Elvis was born this year.

Top that!

For the most part, it is just not me.

I travel the world, just not in the first person.

Come aboard.

You will find me nearby.

Lounging endlessly through books, through the web.

No thought for time.

No need to travel.

easy to live in
the wreckage of the future
each day for itself

I was listening to Louise Penny’s Long Way Home in the Chief Inspector Gamache series and she used the phrase, ‘living in the wreckage of the future.”

The phrase has stuck in my brain.

Often, the wreckage of the future is NOT IMAGINED.

Life can be a train wreck waiting to happen.

And the trains are in motion and they are on tracks and the tracks cannot be changed.

We would be foolish to ignore what is coming.

Still.

I am reminded of stories of the days of railroading when a dispatcher would realize that a train wreck really was going to happen.

Two trains routed onto the same track and heading towards each other.

No way to communicate with either trains.

No way to stop it.

These trains were going to wreck.

The only thing a dispatcher could do was put together a rescue train with medical supplies and personel and send it on the way to where ever the accident did take place.

And deal with the wreckage of the future.

There was a chance that the engineers might see each oncoming train.

Maybe the point of meeting would be on a straightaway across a prairie and the engineers could stop.

The emergency train would be sent out and the dispatcher would hope for the best.

Lots of trains in my life right now.

Lot of those looking to be in a wreck.

I will be ready but hope for the best.

In the movie, The Magnificent Seven, Steve McQueen says to Yul Brenner, “did you hear about the man who fell of the 10 story building? All the way down, he kept saying, so far, so good.”

SO Far.

SO Good!

Amen!