Fill In The Blank Friday

Unrelated snippets of thought, odd questions, short

rants, news items otherwise unworthy of print,

comments, criticisms and harsh, radical statements 


in one blog post)

This week's bleats:

1. Nowadays most Americans call them 'pants'.

This question is for Americans of a certain vintage:

When you were growing up, did you call them slacks


or trousers?

2. Kaitlin was 16 when she got her driver's license. Her

father's uncle gifted her with a vintage pink Cadillac.

The car? Awesome. The idea of giving it to a 16 year

old? Don't even get me started.

3. I am a client of the ProActiv skin care system. I

receive automatic shipments quarterly through the

mail. Can someone out there explain to me why part of

my last shipment was actually on backorder?

Seriously, think about how improbable that is.

4. When 'Sun-In' hair lightener first came out, I was

just 13...back in the days when kids didn't mess with

their hair color. I decided that, since it was summer

and everyone's hair gets lighter in the sun, I'd try the

product and no one would think anything of it. Well,

the color of my hair changed alright - to brassy.

Everyone noticed. I got in trouble.

5. In my town, there are 1395 people per square mile.

How many people per square mile live in your town?

Always looking forward, PJ

Tall, True or Twisted

(from a collection of note cards from the 1990's)

Always looking forward, PJ

May Forty

Remember back when your friends, your family members and your acquaintances turned 30 and nearly half of them acted as if it was the end of the world? (Oh, I'm sure you didn't act that way, yourself.  You've got things more together than that. *cough, cough*) 


Well, as bad as 30 was for some folks, many of the women I know really freaked out when their 40th birthday approached. 




Aging has never even given me pause for thought. Gray hair?  Wrinkles?  Bring 'em on; I've earned them.  




I decided, long ago, to help cherished loved ones truly celebrate their big birthdays.  My efforts, outside of my own family, have been directed at my women friends. I've tailored 40th birthday gifts for each individual, but I've always included something to help remind them to stay in touch with their inner child.  This post isn't about that though.




This post is just a poem I wrote for the birthday card of someone dear to me when she turned forty.

May Forty  is excerpted from, "Present In The Moment", a collection of poetry by Paula A Thoms, copyright 1999.

May  Forty  

May “forty” be like Mona Lisa’s smile,

a private realization all your own;

not an age, but attitude and style,

a time to live the truth that’s yours alone.

Your runway phase is done, or else it’s ending.

You now have footprints and the sky above.

May “forty” grant the gift of comprehending

who fills your life with limits, laughs, and love.

Christmas Day 2011

It's Christmas Day and I can't think of a better time to

stop and reflect on this piece, first told by Dr. James

Allen Francis at the First Baptist Church of Los

Angeles in a sermon, "Arise, Sir Knight. It was

delivered on July 11, 1926 to the National Baptist

Young Peoples' Union and has often been 


erroneously attributed to anonymous authorship.

ONE SOLITARY LIFE

He was born in an obscure village, the son of a peasant woman.

He grew up in another village, where he worked in a

carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three

years he became a wandering preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He

never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to

college.

He never visited a big city. He never travelled two

hundred miles from the place where he was born. He

did none of those things one usually associates with

greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public

opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He

was turned over to his enemies and went through a

mockery of a trial.

He was executed by the state. While he was dying, his

executioners gambled for his clothing, the only

property he had on earth. When he was dead he was

laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he 


is the central figure of the human race and the leader 


of mankind's progress.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that

ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the

kings that ever reigned, put together, have not

affected the life of man on this earth as much as that

One Solitary Life.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

*images from my personal Christmas card collection*