Today is Halloween, so my First Thing today is about Halloween.
When I was a kid, one of my worst memories was of Halloween. I so wish I could continue this post with a story about a long lost sibling my family never talks about who broke out of a mental institution in 1977... my last name is Myers after all, but my story isn't so elaborate.
Chicken Pox.
It was Chicken Pox. In second grade I got Chicken Pox during Halloween and I had to sit on our living room couch in my Halloween costume as all of my neighborhood friends came to the door trick-or-treating and I couldn't go. My Dad, sister and our neighbors went trick-or-treating without me.
That started my distaste for Halloween. Getting picked on all the time as a kid kind of sealed the deal for me. I hate trickery. Practical jokes are not something that you will not find me doing very often because I felt, as a kid, that they were done to me all the time. I hate feeling foolish, and I hate not being in on the joke. And being the person that I am I hate seeing other people in that same situation. Those things coupled with my super evangelical Christian teenage years made me pretty much an anti-Halloweener.
Until I met Ian. Ian loves Halloween - it's his favorite holiday of the year. This weekend we had our 7th Annual Halloween Party with a ton of friends, food, treats and drinks - LOTS of drinks.
After all that time I spent hating Halloween I've come to embrace it. Although I like the cute Halloween things far more than a horror movie, or a ghastly ghoul. I think because in some ways being with Ian has helped me relax, enjoy a night off, embrace the fun of pretend and silliness. As an improviser, these are things I have learned to do on stage, but not so much in life... Ian brings that out in me.
It's one of the ways he makes me a better person. :-)
Monday, October 31, 2016
Thursday, October 27, 2016
First Things: Hopefulness is addictive
Last night we watched the latest episode of American Horror Story. It was gruesome. The show is known for this, so it was not surprising, yet the twists that led to its most gruesome moments were surprises, unexpected. Earlier this week, on Sunday, The Walking Dead stunned its viewers with similar gruesome moments - perhaps even less so than American Horror Story - but we weren't surprised.
My reaction to both stories, both narratives, is quite stunningly different. I almost couldn't watch TWD. The images burned into my memory, haunting me through the night and for days after. I'm already over the scenes from AHS last night. It's quite amazing to me thinking of how similar things in different contexts can affect us so asymmetrically.
There are many reasons for the differences in how we react, but I think there is an element of expectation and hope that factors into how we perceive our observations. TWD was devastating because we knew from last season's cliffhanger what to expect. We knew what was coming, in some ways through the whole episode - all of it - we knew it. We felt it, we expected it. But we also expected to have some hope. Hope in our own belief of the characters pushing us through the difficult narrative. We cling to the notion that there is a right and it will pull through. But TWD's episode did much to bludgeon that hope, especially when for 6 or 7 seasons we've come to associate that hope with an unfortunate character. The episode was physically gruesome, but it also did nothing to build on better expectations, to foster hope.
AHS did an interesting thing this season in that they set up the expectation of Hope prior to this episode. We know things "turn out" for someone... who is the reveal we're waiting for. I purposefully put "turn out" in quotes as who knows what this actually will mean - but it's that glimmer, it's that expectation of something better out of this dark situation. And we're not as invested in these rather superficial characters.
I like scratch off tickets. I often wonder why I continue to buy them when, although I have won many times, I lose more often than not. But there is this warm feeling of hope that bubbles up as I start to scratch off the card. Maybe today will be my $30,000 day! I'm even satisfied if I just win my money back. I keep buying because that initial feeling of hopefulness is addictive. It feels good to be optimistic.
So perhaps that is the practical from all of this.
This isn't a horror picture. At least not for most of us. Invest in the things that give you hope. Build into relationships that you will cherish when they are gone. It feels good to be optimistic, yearn for and seek out that goodness and celebrate your moments of goodness and grace. And be the embodiment of that for each other. Do not bludgeon your hope, let it define who you are.
My reaction to both stories, both narratives, is quite stunningly different. I almost couldn't watch TWD. The images burned into my memory, haunting me through the night and for days after. I'm already over the scenes from AHS last night. It's quite amazing to me thinking of how similar things in different contexts can affect us so asymmetrically.
There are many reasons for the differences in how we react, but I think there is an element of expectation and hope that factors into how we perceive our observations. TWD was devastating because we knew from last season's cliffhanger what to expect. We knew what was coming, in some ways through the whole episode - all of it - we knew it. We felt it, we expected it. But we also expected to have some hope. Hope in our own belief of the characters pushing us through the difficult narrative. We cling to the notion that there is a right and it will pull through. But TWD's episode did much to bludgeon that hope, especially when for 6 or 7 seasons we've come to associate that hope with an unfortunate character. The episode was physically gruesome, but it also did nothing to build on better expectations, to foster hope.
AHS did an interesting thing this season in that they set up the expectation of Hope prior to this episode. We know things "turn out" for someone... who is the reveal we're waiting for. I purposefully put "turn out" in quotes as who knows what this actually will mean - but it's that glimmer, it's that expectation of something better out of this dark situation. And we're not as invested in these rather superficial characters.
I like scratch off tickets. I often wonder why I continue to buy them when, although I have won many times, I lose more often than not. But there is this warm feeling of hope that bubbles up as I start to scratch off the card. Maybe today will be my $30,000 day! I'm even satisfied if I just win my money back. I keep buying because that initial feeling of hopefulness is addictive. It feels good to be optimistic.
So perhaps that is the practical from all of this.
This isn't a horror picture. At least not for most of us. Invest in the things that give you hope. Build into relationships that you will cherish when they are gone. It feels good to be optimistic, yearn for and seek out that goodness and celebrate your moments of goodness and grace. And be the embodiment of that for each other. Do not bludgeon your hope, let it define who you are.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
First Things: Tell Me What You Want
I'm trying a new thing today.
We'll see how long it lasts, it goes, if I am consistent.
A First Things Note.
I've come to believe that walking into the office and immediately stepping into task-mode isn't the most productive thing we can do for ourselves or our efforts. As much praise as "grunt work" deserves our efforts demand inspiration, or at least direction. That's especially true if the person you want to be, the person you see within yourself, is more than just the accomplishment of tasks.
I do believe that about myself. About who I am. About who I want to be.
You have to be inspired to inspire.
This is especially true for yourself. If you are not inspired by something, by someone, by an idea - how can you inspire others?
So what is my inspiration today?
Tim Horton's Lady.
After running a few morning errands I stopped at Tim's. The large SUV in front of me completed her order and didn't pull forward enough for me to correctly talk to the speakerbox. Yet the cheerful, effervescent voice booming from it didn't seem to mind. "I can still hear you, so tell me want you want" - "what you want" slanted with a hint of Spice Girls.
With a friendly, upbeat tone & happiness she made me feel less gray than the rain-foreboding morning clouds had set my mood. When the woman behind me inadvertently made a brittish-sounding goof --- "Oh Dear," this Timmy Agent lept into her own rendition of Mary Poppins trilling her R's and cheerio-ing the daylights out of the next guest. And she was positively pleased with the interaction. And so was I.
Tim Horton's Lady - your fun-time attitude and desire to make someone smile inspired me today.
We'll see how long it lasts, it goes, if I am consistent.
A First Things Note.
I've come to believe that walking into the office and immediately stepping into task-mode isn't the most productive thing we can do for ourselves or our efforts. As much praise as "grunt work" deserves our efforts demand inspiration, or at least direction. That's especially true if the person you want to be, the person you see within yourself, is more than just the accomplishment of tasks.
I do believe that about myself. About who I am. About who I want to be.
You have to be inspired to inspire.
This is especially true for yourself. If you are not inspired by something, by someone, by an idea - how can you inspire others?
So what is my inspiration today?
Tim Horton's Lady.
After running a few morning errands I stopped at Tim's. The large SUV in front of me completed her order and didn't pull forward enough for me to correctly talk to the speakerbox. Yet the cheerful, effervescent voice booming from it didn't seem to mind. "I can still hear you, so tell me want you want" - "what you want" slanted with a hint of Spice Girls.
With a friendly, upbeat tone & happiness she made me feel less gray than the rain-foreboding morning clouds had set my mood. When the woman behind me inadvertently made a brittish-sounding goof --- "Oh Dear," this Timmy Agent lept into her own rendition of Mary Poppins trilling her R's and cheerio-ing the daylights out of the next guest. And she was positively pleased with the interaction. And so was I.
Tim Horton's Lady - your fun-time attitude and desire to make someone smile inspired me today.