Mon 9 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under cynicism, quote of the day, soul
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Random quote of the day:
“The cynicism you have is not your real soul.”
—Yoko Ono
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Fri 6 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under pirates, proverb, quote of the day, wealth
No Comments
Random quote of the day:
“A rich man is either a scoundrel or the heir of a scoundrel.”
—Spanish proverb
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Thu 5 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under music, video
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Lea Salonga, who sang the part of the princess in Aladdin, was in a piano bar in NYC when the crowd started singing “A Whole New World.”
Thu 5 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under aging, change, quote of the day, time
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Random quote of the day:
“Time bears away all things, even our minds.”
—Virgil, Eclogues, Book IX, line 64
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Wed 4 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under flowers, language, quote of the day
No Comments
Random quote of the day:
“Flowers are words even a baby can understand.”
—attributed to Quentin Crisp
 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Tue 3 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under aging, memories, paragraphs, pictures, rosie the riveter
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What to do with aged photos when you’re cleaning out an old person’s home and none of the faces are familiar?
There’s a market for them in flea markets and online, of course. Probably other places as well, but that’s what I’m familiar with. I admit to being conflicted by the idea. There are buckets of photos my mother has held onto for years, ranging from the 1920s to near-present. A lot of them are from World War II when my mother worked as a riveter at Douglas Aircraft. Periodically we go through some of them so she can tell me who the people are and I can pencil it in on the back, but some of the faces are beyond even her at this point. And even if I know their names…they have no context for me. They’re just names.
Eventually, someone will have to deal with these—if not me, then whoever cleans out my place when I’m gone. It seems disrespectful to sell them, yet that’s probably less disrespectful than consigning them to the trash. Which happens. A coworker told me of that very thing occurring when her friend cleaned out her parents’ home. I explained about the market for old photos and she was amazed.
“If only my friend had known!”
If only.
If only other people’s memories could be held as sacred as our own. But that’s the nature of time and change. We hold what we have inside our hearts and when our hearts fade, so do the memories.  As the African proverb says, “Every time an old person dies, a library burns to the ground.â€
Tue 3 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under procrastination, quote of the day, writing
No Comments
Random quote of the day:
“As a writer, I need an enormous amount of time alone. Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. Having anybody watching that or attempting to share it with me would be grisly.”
—Paul Rudnick, quoted in The Writer’s Almanac, December 29, 2009
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Mon 2 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under music, video
No Comments
She laid it all out on the stage each and every time. Happy birthday, bella.
Mon 2 Dec 2013
Posted by PJ under giving, quote of the day
No Comments
Random quote of the day:
“Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain.”
—Helen Keller, We Bereaved
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Fri 22 Nov 2013
Posted by PJ under aging, control, illness, letting go, pain, paragraphs
No Comments
I’ve been coming to terms with my own physical limitations for the last week. I blew my knee out over the weekend and have had a hard time getting around. I had to borrow my mother’s spare walker, which was a huge blow to my ego, especially bringing it to work. I hate the melodrama of it—but it works better and causes me less pain than using a cane. The knee is progressively getting better. I’m hopeful that if I keep off my feet as much as possible this weekend I can do without the walker on Monday. Still, it feels like a ghostly voice whispering in my ear, “You are getting old.”
The truth is, I’ve been dealing with these physical limitations for awhile now. I’ve known for over a year that I need surgery in both knees. I’ve got no cartilage left at all. But I’ve been limping along because . . . who will take care of Mom when I’m laid up?
The recovery is actually a lot quicker than I thought it would be. My doctor says most people are walking up stairs after a couple of weeks. And I want to be able to walk again! This last week has shown me that the time for procrastination is done. Since there’s no one in the family to help me, I’m just going to have to scrape up the money to hire someone. Fortunately, Mom is still relatively high function. We’re talking about someone to run errands, cook meals, keep her on track with the meds and therapies, take her to doctor’s appointments. I’ve got an ambulance company that can take her to and from dialysis. I just have to let go of my protective need to take care of everything myself.
That, of course, is the hardest thing of all to do.
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