Moving Away
I don’t feel like promoting this post much. I wrote it in newsletter format. You are welcome to read it, but it is more a personal note to myself. I’ve reached a time of put up or shut up in my life, and this is my line in the sand.
As always, you are welcome to make remarks in the comment section.
Economies fall. Other ones rise from the rubble. We are navigating a new era, one where we walk in financial ashes yet fly in online worlds. The rich are truly becoming richer, the poor, poorer. The middle classes exist in the in between, striving not for wealth as they do in prosperous times but instead fighting desperately the slip into poverty.
Being in the middle means we straddle lines. What do we do with money when we get it; what do we do when we don’t have enough? Do we display the times of feast? Do we hide the times of famine? Evolutionary rules (or if you are so inclined, celestial dictates of fates) are skewed in the suburbs and even in the great democratic illusion of the Internet. What do our instincts tell us about power and social standing?
We post. We post. We post. We share our good fortune. But is that all we share?
When I peered into the gift bag today my children and husband brought me for Mother’s Day, I saw another bag inside. Later, my husband told me that our 5-year-old had inquired why they were wrapping my gift like this, putting a small bag into a larger one. My husband had told the children that the surprise, mostly, is seeing this particular bag, and it almost (almost!) doesn’t matter what’s in it. Just seeing the bag, he told them, was where most of the excitement would be.
Indeed, when I saw the iconic blue and white of the Tiffany’s trademark, I was quite surprised! We aren’t the type of family that has fine jewelry. Until today, I’d owned nothing from the luxury jewelry brand. Merely entering the store just to browse was well outside the narrows of my experience. I mean not to brag of my humble origins, as seems to be required of all the bootstrapping CEO’s and wildly successful writers of this world. I do, in fact, have humble origins… mostly. Some of my heritage is not as humble. But culturally, I was raised in the lower classes and knew nothing of the upper crust. I mean to say that this was a special moment.
I pulled out the Tiffany’s bag. Waves of guilt, curiosity, wealth, power, wonder came over me as I pulled out the [continue reading…]
As far as Internet memes go, this one is pretty fun. In English, today’s date, May the 4, sounds a lot “May the Force” … so, aptly, today has been deemed “Star Wars” day.
Laugh at Memes, You Must
This past Sunday I had a bit of fun on Twitter by taking some famous Star Wars movie quotes and following them with the natural reaction that would come from a teenager. Here they are, I may add more during the day today. Please add your own! Join in. Use the hashtag #teenstarwars to vent your very own frustration with teendom while showing your LURVE for Star Wars.
Darth: You are part of the rebel alliance and a traitor!
Leia: Yeah, OK, Dad, WHATEVER!
Darth: Luke, I am your father!
(Luke mumbles under breath).
Darth: What did you say?!
Luke: NOTHING! OH MY GOD!
Yoda: I have something here for you.
Luke: Cool! What is it?
Yoda: Your father’s light saber.
Luke: Oh. … That.
Darth: We’ll have to destroy them ship to ship. Get the crews to their fighters.
Teen Minion: I REALLY don’t understand your Navy metaphors.
Darth: This will be a day long remembered.
Teen Minion: Dad, I’ve taken out the garbage before.
Leia: If money is all that you love, then that’s what you’ll receive.
Teen: SWEET! ALLOWANCE RAISE!
Leia: Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?
Teen: Mom! I just got my hair cut last week! GOD!
Yoda: You are reckless.
Teen: I’M 17 YEARS OLD AND I WILL DIE OF OLD AGE BEFORE YOU LET ME DRIVE, I SWEAR!
Darth:“Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory.”
Teen Minion: Jeez, Dad, just call his cell. Duh.
And here’s a transformed quote from my friend Bryce Moore of @abiteofsanity: Darth: I find your lack of chores disturbing.
Tweet me @PurpleCar with your versions. Use the #teenstarwars and #StarWarsDay hashtags if you can. With You, The Force May Be.
I went to BCNIPHILLY11 this weekend. Here are my raves and rants about the event. It’s in newsletter shape in pdf. It’s totally safe to download, I promise. No malware, just ranty goodness (turned to badness)… Enjoy. If you went to BCNI and want to chime in, the comment section is all yours!
http://www.purplecar.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/PURPLECARbcnireview.pdf