FTP 25 - Importance of attitude

     Despite the past couple weeks of general brooding, I finally had a couple revelations about why my mood has been so down. While I'm working on what to do about them, however, it's definitely time to get back to a system that I've been using for a while now in order to get my attitude out of the dumpster. While I'm not condoning ignoring emotions or putting a false front on things (sometimes a good wallow in self-pity is healthy, as long as it doesn't last too long!), I do my best to look for positive things to say, even if I don't feel happy at the time.

No really... I mean it...

     Even if you don't feel it right then, you will start a habit of looking for the good things in life, and you'd be amazed how many positives there are out there once you start looking. So, here's to tomorrow being a better day- enjoy the hope now, even if it never comes to pass. Cheers!

Unexpected backstory

    As I've mentioned before, I have a habit of befriending generations before me, primarily (I believe) because I was raised to be polite. I take time to listen to people, and let them know that I really do appreciate hearing their stories, because you never know what you're going to learn. To be sure, sometimes you learn that you don't really want to continue that acquaintance, but there are some pretty powerful stories hidden in very unlikely places.

     Recently, as I was going downstairs to switch my laundry over, I ran into a gentleman with whom I'd exchanged pleasantries a number of times; typically I'd be on my way to work or school and he'd be leaning on the railing by his door. He seemed a nice enough person, always smiling or finding something positive to say, and I'd figured he was retired and in a similar financial situation to me- I can't imagine that anyone would live in this complex who could afford better. Today, however, I saw him sitting on the bench in the center of the building, and he mentioned he hadn't seen me in a while, so I wandered over to chat with him.

FTP 24 - Beginner's gap

     This has not been the best of weeks for me, so I'm cheating and offering up someone else's words of wisdom for consideration today. This one has helped me a lot over the last few years:

Drawings will return, at some point, I promise. I'm just fighting my way through some other stuff at the moment. Cheers!

Upbeat

     I part-time work at a small tax office in Colorado, and while we do get our share of grumpy, annoyed clients, there are also a number of them that accept that what we do is a necessary evil, and decide not to take it out on us (which is very, very appreciated!). Every now and then, though, someone will come in with such a unique attitude that they really merit comment.

     Recently, a woman came in to pick up her personal and business taxes. Our office is laid out a bit awkwardly: customers have to come all the way to the front desk in order to see if I or my co-worker (who is really the front-line of the company, not me!) are at our desks and able to help them. Today, we heard the bell on the door ring, but before either my co-worker (whom we'll call Mary for the sake of this story) or I could look around the partition, the customer had already come over and was smiling at us. She told Mary why she was there, and they started chatting as Mary got her paperwork together. When they got to the point where we recommend the client checks their routing number for direct deposit of a refund, she mentioned she was going through a divorce, and asked if she should do that, or wait for a paper check.

FTP 23 - Results vs effort

     This is something I have to make myself remember a lot. Really, it does get better. Keep going...

Progress, perhaps

     Throughout the ages, it seems, people have always railed against the laziness and linguistic corruption of their younger generations, and deplored the horrible misspellings, grammatical errors, and sloppy depths that language had newly fallen to. George Orwell lamented in a 1946 article that the English language in his time had become slovenly and vague. In 1848, a renowned German linguist bemoaned the corruption of English, the "most ground-down" of all Germanic languages, and which was liable to sink into mono-syllabicy within the near future. Going back further, prescriptive linguists, politicians, educators, and philosophers have been off and on lamenting the degradation of English ever since it was officially declared a separate language from Middle English, sometime in the 15th century. If you're really curious, there's a good list here, and several other can be found by searching "decline of English throughout history," but there are far too many to name. Needless to say, it's not a new phenomenon.

     There are, of course, two schools of thought on this. On the one hand, yes, English language needs grammar and spelling rules... mostly to allow "educated" people to feel proud of their education and "proper" usage of the language. On the other hand, descriptive linguists argue- persuasively- that language is a living, evolving thing. All languages, they note, change over time, as new words are needed through technological advances, and old words fall out of common usage. English, with its penchant for borrowing from any other convenient language, tends to change faster than most, but it's certainly not alone.

FTP 22 - Age, comparatively

     Man, look at that kid over there. He looks so young, maybe just left home, maybe just joined the workforce. And he's complaining about being old?? No way. If only he knew what you've been through, what you have to deal with every day at your age. Makes you feel kinda... decrepit. Maybe you should just accept that you're old, start acting your age...

     Huh, look at that old guy, sitting over there. Bet he just heard you say you feel old. That look on his face though... that looks just like how you felt when you were looking at that kid. Like he's not really looking at you, he's looking at himself when he was your age, thinking about everything he's gone through since then. Betcha to him, you look like some young punk who doesn't appreciate what you've got...

     Well, do you?

     For every person younger than you who's saying they feel old, there's someone older than you who sees you as young and full of life. Go prove 'em right. 

A Hostess childhood

     When I was younger, we weren't really terribly well off. We didn't eat out a lot (which I appreciate, because we got delicious home-made meals instead), but every now and then, we'd stop off at the Wonder Bread Thrift Store, and mom would let us get one piece of junk food each. Without fail, I always went for the Hostess Cherry Pie, a mass of pure sugar-coated pastry full of preserved-cherry fruit squish. It was horribly unhealthy, chock full of calories, and absolutely delicious.

     As the economy grew in the 80s and 90s, the price of these sugar bombs never went up, a fact that- I'm sure- contributed to the company's declaring bankruptcy earlier in the year. Hostess is trying to stay in business during the proceedings, but I've noticed the junk food pastry section in the grocery store is dwindling week by week. For a decade and a half, I have virtuously walked past the alluring Hostess Pies, sitting in their primary-colored wax paper wrappings, and denied myself the temptation of scarfing one down, for old-times' sake. In that last few months, however, that hasn't been an issue, because they're simply not there, and it makes me sad.