It's about Making Everything Around Me Beautiful Thing

Dear America,

"I'm going to make 

everything 

around me beautiful -- 

that will be my life."  

Elsie de Wolfe

just ordered her book off of Amazon Smile for 2.60, plus shipping; the Daughters of the American Revolution gets .5% of it...but what even is that at POINT five percent?  Not much.

Elsie died in 1950; thinking the only real value remaining from The House in Good Taste (published in 1913), will be revealed in its pages, given the era of the day. and doncha know that this girl is so excited to read it...

Elsie is also quoted as saying, "Good taste can be developed in anyone, just as surely as good manners are possible to anyone.  And good taste is as necessary as good manners."  Figures she would say something like that, considering she is often attributed as the "First Lady" of  AMERICAN interior design.  She valued the development, the time, the creative spirit, the importance, of a house in good taste -- and she truly wanted to teach others to feel and do and make a house beautiful just the same.

And, like many things of value institutionalized in America -- according to Elsie, this certain penchant for designing a house in good taste was an equal opportunity endeavor; but, of course, it is!   Surely, a house of good taste is as achievable as good manners -- and we all know how this country is simply overflowing with the abundance of good manners.

Let us not get stuck on the prevalence of please and thank you's about town; but let us return to the Elsie's lovely purpose in life -- making everything around her beautiful.   Indeed, she says, "that will be my life."

Breathing it in further, I wonder how Elsie would feel if I seized upon her golden rule as my own?  We can share it, can't we, Elsie?

If you really think about it -- besides nearly feeling this sweet sentiment elegantly flowing from her lips while standing in the foyer of some grand American palace that she called home -- what a concept it is, eh?  To go about one's day with the intention of simply leaving beautiful footprints as to where we've been... oh what a beautiful world we would have.

From the beautiful things we would speak of, and say, to one another; to the beautiful expressions of service we would freely give to one another; to the beautiful rooms, and schools, and offices, of every building about town, that would be beautifully transformed by our lofty objective to make every person, place, or thing we come in contact with all the more beautiful, inside and out.

The thing is, given the vicious news cycle of the last year, the snarky grumblings to the vitriolic outbursts on social media, of things in the macrocosm basically growing less and less beautiful every living breathing day in America -- coming to this realization in the microcosm, of the beautification of things, seems a worthy ambition, and dare I say, even very doable and attainable.  As in, this will be my life from this moment forward.

It's worth a shot, right?

My world according to me, G  -- my girl, my boys, my family/my circle, my community, my country -- is worth every bit of this intention, so help me God.

And just in case this girl is not back before the end of 2018 (who really knows at this point...honestly, I would give it a POINT  five percent of a chance, but we will have to wait and see, won't we)....my Christmas wish from one and to all is to let this be the call to call your own into the new year, too...

Make everything around you beautiful.

Whether on the settee, the chaise, the sectional that fits a family of six, or that age-old recliner that smells of forty years of football -- let this sit with you, permanently leaving an impression in the cushions and begging the question:   is what you are about to say or do going to make this America a more beautiful place, or no?

[And here's looking at you, House of Representatives...the White House...and not to feel left out, that illegal room addition, also known as the Senate...Speaking of which, this piece of news is entertaining...we have to talk more about this in the new year, even though this girl has made the point umpteen times before:  the Senate was originally designed to be the voice of the STATE!!!! It was not meant to be representative of the voice of the people!!!   Fareed is an fareeking idiot!!!  Oops...and in an instant, there goes my beautiful blahhhhhhhg....Anywho.... thankfully, Fareed is making the founders' point!  In no uncertain terms, America must return to the olden days when each state legislature elected their own state Senators, in order to argue the needs and best interests of each state!  The founders didn't create a congress to have a House of Representatives next door to the House of Senators.  Um.  that would be just plum stupid, or maybe the shade is more eggplant...Elsie?]

Okay, so I should not have called Fareed a fareeking idiot; I'll keep working on cleaning up my beautiful mouth.

Until then, it's pretty much not so simple after all; but, as a foundation to live by, there is nothing too ornate, phony, contrived about it.  In my book, it is simply an ideal that belongs here, like black and white parquet floors, and ferns, lots and lots of ferns, all happily living next door with the exceptional standards of America, the Beautiful, in every possible way.  It is worthy, based solely on the merits; and the value....priceless.

May all of you beautiful people find yourselves surrounded by the beautiful people you love this beautiful Christmas, and may our Beautiful and Glorious God bless us every one.

Make it a Good Day, G

Epi-blogue

For more on eras and errors cut of the same cloth, probably a gabardine...

see the 17th Amendment of 1912

what a mistake, what a mistake;

such poor taste, such poor taste, for the secure growth of 

these United States of America...

each and every one of them, and there are FIFTY!

It's with Emphasis on the Lilies of the Valley Thing

Dear America,

"Years ago I had a Buddhist teacher in Thailand who would remind all his students that there was always something to be thankful for.  He'd say, "Let's rise and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little.  And if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick.  And if we did get sick, at least we didn't die.  So let us all be thankful."  Leo Buscaglia, professor and writer,...unearthed in my little book of quotes, "Nothing is worth more than this day," by Kathryn & Ross Petras

indeed

when feeling down, the best place to start is at counting our blessings.

It immediately catapults our thoughts upon the good things, and takes our mind off the not so good; and in that space, there is no longer any room for anything to come between feeling centered, whole, grateful, and blessed.  The ever so thin fault line of a fracture no longer exists; there is either the good thought, or the not so good, reigning victorious -- never the two exist at the exact same time. 

like, after unexpectedly spending two thousand dollars on car repairs over the last three weeks, I could do my fair share of wallowing in the dominance of a thick muck oozing through every deep dark nook and cranny of my mind.  It wanted to settle in like a hot mess, and this girl had to take it by the ears and say, "No....nothing is worth more than this day."  that would be a no.

of course, after the recent funeral of a decent man, a true American, naturally, the heaviness of life and death swirls through our consciousness at break neck speed -- leading us possibly to more questions, unearthing even more frustrations, and destabilizing what was, only moments before, considered settled science at the intersection of our lives and purpose, to the point of no return. 

But there we go again -- suddenly, asking ourselves, what's it all about, with a tremor strong enough to cause us to stop dead in our tracks.

And yet,

I awoke this morning!

I made myself a splendid cup of coffee!

I sat in my corner to the world, sipping, drinking new life and breath in... and resting my thoughts on something greater than little old me. and it was good. 

There are simply a zillion things to be thankful for.

Even that car, that needed repair -- the life force back behind getting little old me from A to Be to C to G all the live long day.  I HAVE A CAR TO REPAIR!  isn't that, alone, worth a hundred grand?  indeed it is.  indeed it is.

I am a mama, a caregiver, and in charge of a group totaling over a hundred ladies....and somehow, God gives me everything I need from one moment to the next; and as long as I keep hand in hand with THAT, all's well that ends well, even if it just ends.  

The world is falling apart; America is coming apart at the seams; we the people are a fractured, tortured lot...but bear in mind, it's all of our own undoing.   (oh, and that link there, is just good reading -- in a round about way, it amplifies our missteps of thought and deed.)  

A couple grand in car repairs has got nothing on the twenty-one trillion in debt, or the inability to recognize the fault(s) in our fifty glorious stars -- be it it's origins, it's undermining presence, or the bleak weak future it holds, if only in our own mind.   

The thing is, America is on the precipice of falling into the abyss as we speak; but as nature would have it, if we continue to look down, we will falter; our heads will start spinning, and the ability to fight back this woozy preoccupation of the self-sabotaging kind, will surely cause us to slip.  

Truth is, America gets to this place quite often, actually.

The country is split, nearly straight down the middle, ideologically; you would just never know it by how the media frames the story, day in and day out.  What a disservice to country this truly is. 

The way things have gone, it is just way to popular to hate conservatives, hate this presidency, hate the major change in direction of policy, hate the wall, and pretty much hate just about anything else related to any and all of the aforementioned.  There is not one good thing going on according to the hearts and minds of how the Left thinks about the rest of us. (oh, and by the way, that link there is another really good read...you should know by now that this girl will never steer you wrong...enjoy the rendezvous and come straight on back....)

Last time this country was so unhinged, so polar-opposite in how we the people see things, was, in my mind, during the Civil War.

 The Civil War consisted of nearly 10,500 battles, engagements, and other military actions including nearly 50 major battles and about 100 others that had major significance. The remainder were skirmishes, reconnaissances, naval engagements, sieges, bombardments, etc. The engagements were fought in 23 different states and resulted in a total of over 650,000 casualties

and who was on the right side of that battle? 

that would be Abraham Lincoln and his fellow republicans for Pete's sake!

Oh the number of lives lost fighting on behalf of the right thing to do.  You would think the lifespan of that force for good would last until the end of time, and carry on under its own power with a life of its own, equating to a certain loyalty to the republican party forever and a day.  

How times change and how things stay the same.  (See also --  Common denominator: the common man....sometimes, for better or worse, so easily swayed.)

But of course, this girl is in no mood to lose souls over our moral, cultural, political, spiritual, economical battles.  no mood at all.

So if it is true to say, the more we metaphorically or physically look down into the great crevasse, the greater our chance to stumble and fall into the dark, plunging into the cultural divide, never to rise again -- then the answer must be found looking in the opposite direction; to look up, to the heavens --   becoming more like-minded with the forces and ideas and the chain of thought that seeks only the good, for the common good. 

And we get there hand in hand with God.
[And just to be clear, no matter what you've been told, it actually characterizes how this great country began....Divine Providence was allowed to lead us, as a nation.]

It seems to be more and more factual --  as time goes by --  that cultures who have lost their way, away from being commonly grounded with a certain faith in something greater than themselves, ultimately failed.  And failed bigly.  As in, crashed and burned.

Our lives our becoming more and more computerized, motorized, robotic, and programmed to follow the popular thought -- and it comes from media, social network platforms, and even shopping down main street during the holiday season.

It would behoove us to pay attention to what we think about.  It would be advantageous to consider the things that make us better people, as a whole -- not better activists... divided by hate and elevating our differences over the things we have in common with one another.

It would work in our favor -- to count our blessings, even if life is giving us things unplanned and breaking the bank, if not our spirit, in the moment.  All these things are transient, and passing.

For, as Divined, the things that are truly important are not things at all.

Life is beautiful when we consider the lilies of the valley -- family, friends, the fire in our belly -- fueled by the Holy Spirit --  to keep going, a heart that is still open, a mind that still works, a morning that still comes with a strong cup of joe.

this is my December to remember, because it IS.  

I am not dead! if you are reading this, then you are not dead!  which means -- we are alive and have the power to create good things, from this moment to the next. hallelujah, praise the Lord, what a beautiful country we live...

NOTHING is worth more than THIS Day.

That is what we should be talking about.

and just like that, the end of the day is here.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's God Rest His Soul GHWB Thing

Dear America,

"Annoy the media: Re-elect Bush"

that was then -- 1992; and it was seen on bumper stickers.

funny how some things never change, right?

so -- from the "dog whistle" that got him elected  to   Sully, the service dog, laying by the casket of President George H. W. Bush -- the legacy of H.W. will be debated until its relevancy and media currency has also passed; but what irony, that the same liberal media who used their power to deride and ridicule the man -- with headlines like, "the wimp factor" -- are now fawning all over him like a cheap date for the funeral.

And just as George Herbert Walker, himself, just couldn't seem fit to vote for the Donald back in 2016... even going so far as to actually casting a vote for I'm with HER (which he didn't even have to do, btw, in order to make his point... but I digress) ...the "anyone but Trump" fanfare and methodology runs wide and long and high and deep in BS @ CBS, NBC, ABC....yadi yadi yada; for the media just loves a republican when they are a dead republican, just keepin' it real.  (see also, the McCain effect and climate change...another convenient paring, of late.)

L.M. Montgomery 

once wrote, 

"Isn't it nice to think 

that tomorrow is a new day 

with no mistakes in it yet." 
author, Anne of Green Gables 

.....and how.

I do believe I would have liked this Maud 'without the e.'

And to know what I mean,, you would have to read that link, above.

perspective on life ---  whether it's our own or someone else's; whether it's temporal or long lasting, anecdotal or scientific ---  is a fascinating science.  Is our perspective more accurate while in it, or in the look back?  Or is it both, with prejudice? 

Or, is the truth of any reality always sketchy, at best, weaving together what we perceive, what we cling to, what we want to be true, with the evidence of things seen and unseen?

the constant ebb and flow of reality, masquerading with what we think to be reality, can be kind, or so unkind, depending upon the winds of what I like to call, the perception factor...and all depending upon the winds of time and space and optics and politics of the now, and assessing just where the sweet spot lives to justify the means to an end, in hopes of gaining the most in overall public appeal.  The mainstream media lives here day in and day out.  If it doesn't fit a narrative, they don't say it, let alone reveal it.

For the people who do not pay attention -- or were even alive back in the day circa the Willie Horton ad of 1988 -- Donald Trump is the only racist, misogynist, white supremacist, or sexual assaulter ever put in office that matters.     And for that reality, it all makes this girl go kinda crazy.

So Bush lost re-election in 1992; to who?    Billy -- the serial sexual assaulter and one time  rapist,   racist, misogynist... adulterer, liar, player, and fraud -- Clinton.  

Somehow the country recovered from the first Bush, survived "BJ" Clinton,  and then even elected a second Bush; go figure. And how hilarious is it, that the Clinton Administration is factually framed by two Bush's...or is it just me? 

And continuing down history lane, the eight years under Obama were so bad, it heralded in an extreme response from the American people....Trump and MAGA mania...Of course, the 52% of the vote from the white women delegation is reprehensible -- according to the entire left...considering these women unable to think for themselves, and following lock step with their racist, misogynist of a husband.  Begging the question, is it logistically possible to slap the left hand of the other half of the country at once?

moving on dot org

The weird thing is -- all I can think of when I think of George Herbert Walker Bush is Dana Carvey.

As the politics of life and death and entertainment merge splendidly together for one blink of an eye...

What a tribute from SNL; beautiful. 

"Now and then it's good

 to pause in our 

pursuit of happiness 

and just be happy." 

Guillaume Apollinaire, poet

oooh speaking of things that make me giddy, happy....

and considering the close ties between George W and Michelle O....

i love how she gave some smack back to that "lean in" movement, and its creator, Sheryl Sandberg:

"Marriage still ain't equal, y'all," Obama said to a crowd gathered in Brooklyn on Saturday for a leg of her international book tour, several news outlets reported. "It ain't equal. I tell women that whole 'you can have it all' -- mmm, nope, not at the same time, that's a lie. It's not always enough to lean in because that s--- doesn't work all the time."

it's true. kinda.

I must say, though, marriage IS equal,  in the sense that your marriage decides what the equation should look like, personally, in the tending of your own family's needs; both husband and wife come to the table to decide equitably, equally, what is best for the family.  What does it mean when we say "equal" anyway?  Equally, and exactly, by portion, of the splitting of the chores, the child rearing, the income(s), according to the reality of your individual family? 

It is more a question of what is equitably best for the whole family.

Michelle is correct in saying that the Lean In sh&% is in some ways a bunch of baloney....because, honestly,  if you want to have it all at the same time -- you, being a woman, wanting a full time career and children and a house to take care of -- it takes a lot of money; but even then, you will never achieve the imaginations of "having it all."  (whatever that really is)

For when anyone (man or woman) chooses the career over family -- the quantity of time, and all -- the family is getting less  and less of you.  Mathematically it is impossible to have it all.

This is why, for the longest of times, women stayed home to raise the children; for the benefits of working had to outperform the absence from the children, from the household.  indeed.

Michelle is spot on.   (pretty sure we have never agreed on anything else)

oh my,
speaking of having it all --

I gotta go!
reality is setting in, and setting in quickly.

God rest his soul, P.G.H.W.B. and thank you for your service.

Make it a Good Day, G