2016 APRIL'S "From My Perspective"

                                               2016 April FROM MY PERSPECTIVE

Postage stamps teach us.  They teach us about the arts, science, public personalities, botany, animals, and much more.  However, the one thing they teach us which is not printed on them is persistence and determination.  They stick to one thing until they get there.

“All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don’t discover why.  Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself.  It’s what you do for others.”  Danny Thomas

I know a person who was very skilled at performing in front of people.  In fact, she was so skilled she entered a competition which is usually life changing.  Awards are given and recognized to the best of performers.  When this person did not win any award for her performance, she was devastated because she knew she’d tried her best.  She cried to her mother.  Her mother, through her own disappointment for her daughter, said these profound words, “Doing your best is more important than being the best.”  I’ve often quoted these words to others and truly believe them.

Here are some rather accurate musical terms:  JAZZ: Five men on the same stage all playing different tunes.
BLUES:  Played exclusively by people who woke up this morning.  WORLD MUSIC: A dozen different types of percussion all going at once.  OPERA: People singing when they should be talking.  RAP: People talking when they should be singing.  CLASSICAL:  Discover the other 45 minutes they left out of the TV ad.
FOLK:  Endless songs about shipwrecks in the 19th century, daydreams, wayward people, and lost loves.  BIG BAND: 20 men who take turns to stand up plus a drummer.  HEAVY METAL: Codpiece and chaps.  HOUSE MUSIC: OK as long as it's not the house next door.  (Thank you, Melodie S.)

Have you ever wondered how you could burn calories without having to end up with muscles so sore you wondered what level of insanity you were on?  I’ve developed just the thing.    Each activity is expenditure.

Basking in the limelight; Beating around the bush; Betting your bottom dollar; Causing a ruckus; Climbing the ladder; Carrying a grudge; Changing your mind;  Developing a hankering for; Dodging the inevitable; Dropping names; Eating your heart out;  Egging it on;  Following the leader; Forgetting it; Getting around tuit; Having a kanipshun fit; Having another think; Having your day; Jumping to conclusions; Keeping your head above water;  Laying it on the line; Loading a question; Minding your own business; Paddling your own canoe; Patting yourself on your back; Putting on the Ritz; Raising the roof; Swallowing your pride; Wishing on a star; Watching your step; Waiting until hell freezes over.  Now see, you didn’t even break a sweat. (Oh, that’s one, too.) 405

We had cats and dogs.  The cats needed to be told some things which were irritating.  Here is my letter to them:

 I don't really need you keeping me warm when it is 95 degrees outside.  Let's just use your free heating system when it is really cold.  If you're cold, find a blanket.  "Wake-up calls" when I don't have to get up are not necessary.  I know you are here/there and I will talk to/with you later.  Whining is not appreciated; you're NOT Jewish and I am just a little.  So, knock it off!!!  There is, also, the matter of time---yours vs. mine.   Sweetie, two o’clock in the morning is not my idea of playtime, which corresponds with 1:00 in the afternoon when YOU don’t want to play with me.  Knock off playing with the door stop in my room at 2:00 a.m., or anyone else’s for that matter.  Making it go “BOINGGGGG” WILL NOT entice me into play.  You WILL receive a well-aimed shoe at your butt.  I am sleeping you fool.  That’s another thing, when you yawn to let me know you are sleepy go find a comfy spot and lay down.  Do NOT yawn in my face seeking approval to take a snooze; it’s annoying. I don’t do that to you.  Why is it you can leap up on my bed when I’m sick and I not even know you are there; BUT, God forbid if I’m asleep---you are a ton of bricks landing on my back.  Then you have the nerve to run away, you yellow-bellied coward.  Snooping is also an irritant, at least to Guy it is.  Tracking some odor you want to investigate coming from his under shorts was hilarious, but the poor man almost fell out of bed; leaving nothing funny about how you almost became flat when he rolled over.  You both moved quicker than I’d ever seen.  Just be very cautious should you ever try that adventure again.  A word to the wise, etc. Got it?  For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, and try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open.  Sweetie, you are SOOO guilty of this!!!  I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years-canine or feline attendance is not mandatory. Get that Tux (the greyhound) and Sweetie?!  Spinning the toilet paper at 50 mph is for the circus.  You are not a member of any circus troop, YET!!  So, knock that off, too.  I like my toilet paper pieces complete, not as puzzles.  This brings me to the farting issue…claim that which is yours, for crying out loud.  Walking away AFTER you let one SDB go around us humans is rude and cowardly.  We have a tendency to fight about ownership of those things as we try to figure out who did it.  We have seen the smirk on your muzzle. Besides, yours smells like something from the sea or beef; ours do not.  We have more methane. The proper order is: kiss me, and then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough! 405

Education will never become as expensive as ignorance or stupidity with stupidity being the most costly.

A pig and a cow were having a discussion of importance.  It seems the pig was unpopular and noticed how popular the cow was.  The puzzled pig said to the cow, “People speak warmly of your gentle nature and your soulful eyes.  They think you’re generous because each day you give them milk, and cream; but, what about me?  I give them everything I have.  I give bacon and ham.  I provide bristles for brushes, skin for footballs, and other parts of me are nourishing.  Yet, no one likes me.  Why is that?”  The cow thought for a moment and said, Yes, you give a lot.  Perhaps it’s because I give while I’m still living.” 

My Daddy was a successful man in business, with others, and life.  He was in management with a major corporation and received many accolades from his colleagues.  I asked him how those of whom he was their boss felt so positive about him especially when I knew he’d had to have a “chat” with some of them.  He wisely told me, “I learned a long time ago that a good manager will step on your toes, but not mess up your shine.  You can apply that to your teaching of your students, Babe.  No one wants to be reprimanded in a way that the results makes them feel worthless and humiliated.”  I took that to my classroom and used it with my students.  I’ve tried to use it with my children, too.  Mother was more succinct.  She’d tell me, “Make your words sweet, for later it is them you may have to eat.”

I have a friend who was most perplexed at the criticism she’d received from others for doing something they’d done, but she’d done it differently.  She called and cried to me.  I asked her to come over in about 2 hours.  I’d received a booklet of pictures to color using my choice of colors.  There were duplicates.  I took 2 of the same design and colored them using a different selection of colors on the second as I’d used on the first.  She arrived and we chatted.  Our conversation got around to her hurt and perplexity.  I brought out the pictures.  “Oh Trudy, those are very pretty,” she said.  I told her they were the same picture only different colors were used, but the results were each lovely.  “This is the same as what you’ve had to deal with.  Your way of doing what the others did may be different, but the results were equal.  There is proof that no two snowflakes are the same, but they are all beautiful.”  She smiled.

Some things I hate:  When I gain 10 pounds for a role and then realize I’m not an actress.; when I get home from Kroger and find the bag of carrots are actually carrot muffins; when the cream cheese magically turns into New York cheesecake in the car; when the snooze alarm stops at 5 rings and I’m not counting; when the phone rings and it’s someone who needs to talk and I have laryngitis; when my chewing gum looses its flavor after being on the bedpost overnight. 

Recently I saw a sign.  It said:  WELL, HELLO THERE.  YOU LOOK LIKE A BAD DECISION….COME ON OVER HERE.  I won’t tell you what I was thinking, but a smirk came across my face, then a chuckle.

I close this month’s blog/newsletter with this quote:  “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” -Victor Hugo, novelist and dramatist (26 Feb 1802-1885)

                                 Smiles and blessings to you……….TrudyJ