Becky’isms
You can’t put your head on someone else’s shoulders. This meant you cannot make other people think or act like you do.
The complaint department is on the 9th floor. This was specific to the building I grew up in which only had three floors.
People are people. I never really got this one but I think it was meant to help me accept anyone with two legs and opposable thumbs regardless of how distasteful I found them to be.
Bishop the Moil (my Yiddish transliteration) for “just wipe it off your face”, which meant suck it up and turn the other cheek all at once.
The door swings both ways. In other words: “if you don’t like it leave.” No one is holding you back.
My mother is definitely one great philosopher. I should have been taking notes. So many of the brilliant, funny sayings she threw like confetti over our daily lives have been lost over time. Funny, I have all her jewelry. She made sure to pass that along, but neither of us ever thought it would be her words I would have loved to have held onto. A string of plastic beads or even a diamond ring cannot hold the magic of her mind and the way she used phrases to steer us through life. “If you have nothing nice to say, shut up” was one of my favorites, a simple twist on an old line like lime in a martini.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
289 Days Until the Big Five-0
More thoughts on friends….
Am I being cynical or realistic? The other day I told my son there are only going to be a handful of people you will be able to count on, really count on, in your life. That adds up to 5 people. You will learn the following as you fly through life:
The Five People you can truly trust and rely on in this world are:
1. Yourself.
2. Your mother (in most cases, but unfortunately not all).
3. Your father (if you are lucky since most fathers are men and I tend to think it is rare
to find a nurturing man)
4 and 5 will most likely be a friend, not just any “friend” but that rare individual who you will share your soul with and who will want to protect your shared soul like the treasure it really is.
I feel awful telling my son this but I know it is true. That means outside of your immediate family you can expect to find another 2 people in this world who will be truly reliable trustworthy, and dependable. Everyone else is pretty much always going to put themselves first. It is just human nature. They don’t mean any harm by it so don’t take it personally when someone disappoints you, doesn’t call back or show up when they say they will, forgets to include you in plans or to think how one of their comments might make you feel. Just learn to trust and love your self. The old adage is true; “you are your own best friend.” There is a reason some of these sayings get passed down and around over time. They survive the test of time, the greatest test of all. This is also why I tell my children, a “real” friendship takes decades to grow. The rest of the friends are lovely plastic potted plants you can use to decorate your life, bur the rare one who roots run deep into the earth and get tangled up with yours at the core that is one you will need like water and oxygen.
Am I being cynical or realistic? The other day I told my son there are only going to be a handful of people you will be able to count on, really count on, in your life. That adds up to 5 people. You will learn the following as you fly through life:
The Five People you can truly trust and rely on in this world are:
1. Yourself.
2. Your mother (in most cases, but unfortunately not all).
3. Your father (if you are lucky since most fathers are men and I tend to think it is rare
to find a nurturing man)
4 and 5 will most likely be a friend, not just any “friend” but that rare individual who you will share your soul with and who will want to protect your shared soul like the treasure it really is.
I feel awful telling my son this but I know it is true. That means outside of your immediate family you can expect to find another 2 people in this world who will be truly reliable trustworthy, and dependable. Everyone else is pretty much always going to put themselves first. It is just human nature. They don’t mean any harm by it so don’t take it personally when someone disappoints you, doesn’t call back or show up when they say they will, forgets to include you in plans or to think how one of their comments might make you feel. Just learn to trust and love your self. The old adage is true; “you are your own best friend.” There is a reason some of these sayings get passed down and around over time. They survive the test of time, the greatest test of all. This is also why I tell my children, a “real” friendship takes decades to grow. The rest of the friends are lovely plastic potted plants you can use to decorate your life, bur the rare one who roots run deep into the earth and get tangled up with yours at the core that is one you will need like water and oxygen.
290 Days Until the Big Five-0
Why?
My bad…no way to start off the New Year by blowing off my blog postings for the first Five days of January. How much more time will I let slip between my fingertips before I accept the only way to be successful in any endeavor is to be disciplined, determined, patient and organized? I do believe it is the last of those four characteristics that is giving me a disproportionate amount of challenges. I know the winner of the “imaginary” races for success, accomplishment, material wealth, emotional health, physical fitness will all be won by the person who is most organized. I hate those people and I want to be one of them. Isn’t that how George Orwell ended his classic? Can I find someone to literally brainwash me into being organized? If one is organized then they become efficient and efficiency leads to success and success leads to happiness and happiness leads to more success. How do I get off the damn roller coaster I am riding and hop onto that Super Highway of Success? I really WANT to love Big Brother and live that “just do it” motto Nike introduced to the world so many decades ago.
Should I go to one of the thousands of self help books? Okay, if there are thousands of anything (e.g. diet books, organizational guides) then that must mean NONE of them really work. Oh I know, each person is different and that is what necessitates all these different approaches to successful dieting, and organizing but still something is a miss and I cannot quite put my finger on it. Perhaps that is because it is buried somewhere deep under a pile in my home. Are dieting and organizing the only two things people need help with? If you spend any time in a book store or on the internet, one would think so. Does this mean skinny and organized are the two main goals most in demand for the majority of individuals?
Okay, I counted 7 questions in this short little Post. I am very good at asking questions, perhaps I should make that my “book”, just a list of questions without answers for all those of us who would rather digress then “do it.”
My bad…no way to start off the New Year by blowing off my blog postings for the first Five days of January. How much more time will I let slip between my fingertips before I accept the only way to be successful in any endeavor is to be disciplined, determined, patient and organized? I do believe it is the last of those four characteristics that is giving me a disproportionate amount of challenges. I know the winner of the “imaginary” races for success, accomplishment, material wealth, emotional health, physical fitness will all be won by the person who is most organized. I hate those people and I want to be one of them. Isn’t that how George Orwell ended his classic? Can I find someone to literally brainwash me into being organized? If one is organized then they become efficient and efficiency leads to success and success leads to happiness and happiness leads to more success. How do I get off the damn roller coaster I am riding and hop onto that Super Highway of Success? I really WANT to love Big Brother and live that “just do it” motto Nike introduced to the world so many decades ago.
Should I go to one of the thousands of self help books? Okay, if there are thousands of anything (e.g. diet books, organizational guides) then that must mean NONE of them really work. Oh I know, each person is different and that is what necessitates all these different approaches to successful dieting, and organizing but still something is a miss and I cannot quite put my finger on it. Perhaps that is because it is buried somewhere deep under a pile in my home. Are dieting and organizing the only two things people need help with? If you spend any time in a book store or on the internet, one would think so. Does this mean skinny and organized are the two main goals most in demand for the majority of individuals?
Okay, I counted 7 questions in this short little Post. I am very good at asking questions, perhaps I should make that my “book”, just a list of questions without answers for all those of us who would rather digress then “do it.”
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