Random Thoughts

I have a foggy memory about a lot of things, but one incident I remember clearly: I was in high school.   A friend and I had been talking to an adult, then it was just the two of us chatting.   And my friend said something like, “You TALK differently when you are around adults, it is like you are a different person around different people,” and the tone of her voice made it clear that she meant it as an insult. I thought about it then (after feeling hurt), and I have pondered it since.   Am I a “different person” around different people??   Am I one Susan to some, and a different Susan to others? I have grown a lot since my high school days.   I like to think that over the last decade I have grown tremendously in my self-confidence and desire/ability to live an authentic, THIS IS ME , “open book” life. And yet… Incidents pop up every once in awhile that drive home the point that I do act differently around different people.   And when I notice...

I am privileged. Oh man, am I privileged. Not only do I have healthy food to eat, I have a grocery store I can walk to to buy it. I have a car and gas in the tank. I have a roof over my head.   A cozy bed (with a warm electric blanket!).   I have shoes (many pairs to choose from) and clothes to wear. I GET that I am privileged.   But days like today, oh man.   I am reminded how truly sheltered and naïve I am. I am an “armchair warrior”.   I talk the talk.   I hang the signs on my front gate.   But when push comes to shove… My sister Sherry and I joined an event called “Swarm the Senate” today.   It is a group of people (it seems mostly women) who have been showing up at the Hart Senate Office building in Washington DC at noon for the last 12 days.   They are peacefully demonstrating, demanding that trump be removed from office.   I had been wanting to go but hadn’t made time to do it.   Wit...

Gifts mean a lot to me.   I love to GIVE them.   I know lots of people say that, but I really take joy in finding a gift that fits a person, wrapping it, and giving it to them.   And I enjoy getting gifts, of course!   But I also really, really like HAVING gifts.   Like, WRAPPED UP, STILL WAITING FOR ME gifts.   It’s weird, I know, and it drives some people crazy.   We have a pile of unopened gifts in our house, some of which are probably a decade old!!   I have learned that I can only allow myself to “save” unwrapped gifts from my sweetheart.   Gifts from family and friends must be opened (relatively) quickly when they arrive, so as not to hurt people’s feelings.   But gifts between David and I can be left to “simmer”, I can wonder what might be in them, and I can pretend like there will never be an end to the gift giving.   That our love and exchange is endless.   A few times in my lift I have been given gifts ...