It’s already November.
Already.
I started this year with great expectations. Lofty goals. So much has happened (or, actually, hasn’t) that I’ve kind of lost my way over these 10 months.
It doesn’t matter though.
The best thing about life is that every day is a new one, so life is full of second (and third, and fourth….) chances.
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I’ve gotten used to receiving those random text messages on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s from people I don’t really care about or speak to (cough-cough, ex-boyfriends), but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to receiving similar texts on Mother’s Day.
Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s perfectly fine to honor mothers and fathers. They are, after all, the people with whom we have our first and most significant relationships in life. I always remember my own Mom and Daddy with cards and gifts.
What’s weird to me is the way that this digital age has trivialized these special days. On Mother’s Day, I saw holiday greetings from BCBG Max Azria, Vera Bradley and Nordstrom all over the Internet. As these are some of my favorite brands, I was not at all offended, but I wondered why they felt a need to observe the day by offering well wishes to strangers on a day meant to honor our nearest and dearest.
This trivialization of special days on the calendar is also pretty visible in social media among “friends.” My Twitter timeline was full of Happy Mother’s Day tweets to and fro from people with whom I’ve only communicated in cyberspace. Over on Facebook, the view was much the same — only this time the greetings were coming from people I haven’t seen in over 20 years.
To me, Mother’s Day (and Father’s Day) are contextual holidays (I think I kinda made that up, so I’ll explain…). That means that those days mean nothing beyond the context of the relationship that they were intended to recognize. I am a mother, and the only person whom I really want to hear tell me Happy Mother’s Day is my own daughter. The well wishes of others don’t matter at all on that day.
So, thanks – in advance – for the Mother’s Day well wishes, but unless you owe your very existence to me, save that greeting for the person for whom it was intended.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user: patterson williams
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I’ve got to admit it.
I didn’t care about the Royal Wedding at all. Like a lot of people, I commiserated with friends about being sick of hearing about it. “They’ve been talking about it for months now,” I said. “I’ll just be glad when it’s over!”
Today, I changed my mind…and my stance.
See, the world needed this wedding, or, at least, I did.
I needed a moment to forget about the economy and gas prices and the state of public education and the wars and the deadly weather in the South. I needed a moment to be reminded that there are good things happening out there in the world.
Unemployed men with receding hairlines everywhere needed to see that sometimes guys like them can end up with the pretty girl (of course, it helps when you’re loaded and heir to a storied throne!).
Single women needed to see that, sometimes, it pays to give a man the time he needs to make the marriage decision.
And little girls everywhere needed to see that there are fairytale endings.
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If you’re a WordPress user, you know this is the title to the default (example) post.
This is a real post though. I promise.
Because this is my first blog post, I decided to stick with that title as I thought it was fitting.
As a professional writer, I have always had a great deal of anxiety about writing. Though I was told at a very early age that I was a good writer (hmmm, wait, do my Mom and Daddy count?), I still get a bit nervous about it. Not the process, or even the product, so much as people’s reaction to it. So much so, that, for years, I’ve been wanting to blog, but I just couldn’t (and didn’t) get started. Like the great marketing thinker Seth Godin’s Fear of Shipping (more on Godin’s thoughts about shipping here).
Then, one morning, I heard the quote above (from Samuel Beckett). It reminded me – again – that I needed to try, that I had to ship because not trying, not shipping…that’s failure.
And so, I begin.
What about you? How did you get over your fear of shipping? When did the light come on for you?
And, one more thing — hello, world!
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