Nora's Blog

I must admit, I’m pretty excited about this blogging thing. I’m not sure what excites me about it, but like exercise, I feel compelled to be consistent about it until I understand this whole process a bit more. So I got home tonight worrying a bit about what do I do now? What do other bloggers do? So I looked at other blogs and I came across this blog, I actually did not read the whole post, but it was about the wrapping of Christmas presents, and  just the first few lines sparked a memory of mine that I thought might cause you to either smile, or to scratch your head and wonder, which might create it’s own kind of smile. So hear goes…..When I was a young woman, married and 3 small young children, I could hardly contain my anxiety about what might be behind the wrapped presents sitting under the tree. I of course new what was in the presents that I had wrapped, but I had no idea what was in the presents that were wrapped by others for me and my children. So one Christmas I thought I just can not stand it, so while the girls were taking their afternoon nap, and before their Dad got home form work, I carefully took the present that I wondered the most about and very carefully undid the tape. I was so excited that I was actually able to take the tape off without damaging the paper, you see I knew that no one should find out what I was doing, that I continued my efforts. Lo and behold that first present I opened was the sewing machine I was hoping for. Well it went so well, that not only did I open the one present, that I decided I would open the kids presents as well, they took really long naps. By the time I was done, I knew what EVERYONE one of my kids and my husband, their Dad, was getting for Christmas! I was so excited that I could not contain myself. Well at least was I contained enough to re-wrap each present after I looked at it, and  I had enough restraint not to give any hints to my girls about what I knew, along with enough restraint not to tell my husband what I was getting, (the sewing machine).  I did however tell him about having opened all of the kids presents. Well let me just say he did NOT understand my need to do this, in fact, he hence forth made sure all people concerned with giving  future Christmas presents  not make them available until Christmas Eve. This of course prevented me from sneaking any more peeks! It took me years to get over that branding, which I admit,allowed me to gain some years of learning to appreciate the anticipation of what just might be under the tree?! Don’t you wonder?

So why not just start off with the things your mother and schools of etiquette taught you never to do. Namely, discuss politics in public, unless of course you know your audience very well. I surely do not know my audience, but is this not what blogging is all about? The ability to just write what your heart and brain tell you are important? Best of all you get to do it without impending judgement. I mean really, is anyone really going to read this? I hope so, but if they do not or if they take forever, I will have gained the gratification of expressing my thoughts without having tomatoes thrown in my face! So here goes…..I remember when Bill Clinton was running for President the first go around, I was in sales and I was so enamored with him. After all he is so charismatic, his manner of speech is so inviting, I thought he was simply a perfect candidate. So I bounce into my office and I’m pronouncing how “perfect” he is and all the people in my office are looking at me like I just threw up in the office. Some of them were bold enough to tell me how off the mark they thought I was. Imagine! At that moment, my angel, yes I believe I have one of those, not in an airy fairy kind of way, but my angel helped me realize that my opinion was not the only one worth considering. That realization has served me well, primarily because it allows me to consider other possibilities that I might not ordinarily consider. But it has also given me the opportunity to sit back and observe what goes on with people in general…..and that is quite disturbing in some cases. Do you know that relationships have ENDED because of someone’s political views? I know, I know, this is not news, this has been happening since the beginning of time, but really? Have we not evolved more as a society? Sad to say I do not think we have in some regards. We are so caught up in our daily life and bombarded with continual information from the media, that is presumed factual, that causes an overload. I believe that as individuals this process is so insidious that we are not even aware of it. Even now as you are reading this, and I hope you are, how often do you check in with yourself. How often do you really consider the information you have absorbed during the course of a day or a week? To see if it really matches your experience and your values? It is an interesting prospect. I challenge you reader, to do that. In the quiet of your room, no interruptions, no music, certainly no television, radio, or printed media, just you, and question… aaaah.