“Every moment of every day we can be our best, most loving
and vibrant selves. Together, let’s step up to show up better than yesterday.” Jimmy
Rosenberg, the founder of Evolution Fresh, signed his name to that bit of inspirational
philosophy on the side of an orange juice bottle that I got at Starbucks this
morning. (The company is a subsidiary of Starbucks.) In the almost two decades I’ve been hooked
on Starbucks this was the first time I’ve bought an orange there so I don’t
know if the same bit of philosophy appears on all its bottles or it changes
from time to time like similar words do that appear on the disposal cups you
get at this so-called "yuppie, left-wing liberal" coffee shop chain. But I’ve sung my Ode to Starbucks before so I’ll skip to
the reason I was up early enough to require a shot of orange juice along the
way. I wanted to go the hazardous waste collection site and it’s only open from
7:30 to 9:30 one day a week. I had a twenty-five year old fire extinguisher in
the garage that still showed it was fully charged but I wouldn’t trust it after
all those years and a gallon of windshield washer that was nearly that old. I
don’t even know how to open the hood of my car, much less where to fill the
washer bottle. As they say in the better parts of town, “I have people for
that” now.
There was a day, though, in my distant past when I could check
my own oil and transmission fluid and top them off, if needed. My dad didn’t
think his kids should be driving if they couldn’t do those things plus change a
tire and I had to prove I could do it all before he’d let me take the family
car. Fast forward to when I met my husband and he did all those things. But Don did put me in charge of tire safety with a ceremonial gift of a tire tread depth gauge. It was a joke gift because I
was tire obsessed with the tires on Don’s menagerie of nine pickup trucks and four
pieces of heavy equipment, and I made good use of that tread depth checker. He
no longer had to listen to me ask, “Are those tires safe?” Instead I got to
say, “Those tires need to be replaced” and off we’d go to Costco. I still have
that tread checker but I don’t drive enough to put any wear on my tires so it’s
in my toolbox now instead of in my glove box. Ya, I know Marie Kondo, the Tiding Up lady, would say I need to honor
that tread checker’s history then throw it in the garbage. Hey, lady, I honor it by
keeping it! Maybe she can live with just one sweater---white at that---in her wardrobe
but I’m a spiller and I’m digressing….
New topic: My Red Hat Society Chapter officially dissolved with our Christmas
party. We’ve been together since 2002 and I was one of the founding members.
The National organization raised their yearly dues significantly. So we’re
changing our name to the Mad Hatters and everything else will stay the same except
we will wear whatever darn color hats we want---as long as we wear one to our
teas and outings. Other than the licensing rights to use the Red Hat name and
logo the National hasn’t been of any benefit in recent years like it was when
we were younger and could travel to conventions. Last March I blogged that I
was seriously consider dropping out of the Red Hats altogether but I shifted my
attitude and stuck it out. Now I go to the fun stuff and skip the things I
didn’t like doing like visiting nursing homes and going on endless church
tours. Mostly I stopped feeling guilty about skipping what I skip and more
importantly I stopped resenting the dictatorial nature of the person making most
of the decisions. My philosophy? If you don’t like something either work to change it, move on
or find a way to accept it. I choice door number three.
I saw a good 'dramedy' movie this past weekend, The Upside with Bryan Cranston, Kevin
Hart and Nichole Kidman. IMDb sums up the storyline this way: “Philip is a
disabled [quadriplegic] white billionaire, who feels that life is not worth
living. To help him in his day to day routine, he hires Del, an African
American parolee, trying to reconnect with his estranged wife. What begins as a
professional relationship develops into a friendship as Del shows his grouchy
charge that life is worth living.” The reviewers have not been kind with their
ratings—three out of four that I read gave it two stars and the forth gave it
three. Two harped on the fact that it didn’t measure up to the French version (The Intouchables). Big deal! How many
Americans watch foreign films with subtitles? And one reviewer didn’t like that
comedian Kevin Hart took on a roll that included a good deal of serious acting
along with the comedic parts in the film. I couldn’t figure out if it was comedians
in general, black guys or just Kevin who shouldn’t be stretching their type-casted
wings. All I care about is the film is based on a true story and it took movie
goers through a full range of emotions from belly laughs to empathy to sadness and back to happiness. I left the theater feeling uplifted and I felt I got my money’s worth. So a pox on
the two star ratings! The Upside has
a lot of upsides…. ©
