I dream this life but different.

For a time, my Mom lived in Ireland where she met all the most interesting men in Dublin by sketching them in pubs and asking them if they'd like to add a comment. She is a fearless social samurai. This photo above is mine, taken when she was around 80, but all the words below are hers.

I took each of my sons to school when they were six years old and I haven’t seen them since. I mean from then on they weren’t my babies anymore. They began to separate from me. Now they are middle aged and often with grey beards but inside those handsome exteriors I still see my babies. Is this a tragedy or a drama? It doesn’t feel like a comedy.

My parents never asked me where I was going, what was I going to do and who was I going with. When I came home they said “Did you have a good time?” I said yes and went straight to my room to analyze the evening. It is not that they didn’t care or weren’t concerned . They just trusted my judgment. However, they conveyed their standards of behavior, and talked about the kind of people they admired over the dinner and breakfast tables. Those were the standards I set for myself and I never betrayed them. In my youth. Oh, never mind. I am talking about another age.

When I went off to college they said “Have a good time and don’t flunk out.” I did and I didn’t. College was too much fun. I didn’t want to blow it. Also I was very spoiled and immature and had no desire to face the real world too soon. By not getting into trouble I was able to obey their unspoken rule “Find a good husband.” Did.

College is the last chance of finding a large stable of potentially good mates. If it doesn’t happen then, you weren’t really interested and then you enter the cold cruel world of on line dating or hope you have collected some good Karma along the way.

In order to obey my parent’s order to have a good time I took only the courses that interested me. Which did not include all of my requirements. I realize in looking back that the courses I chose where the things I needed to know over the next 20 years. But some years later, when I had matured, I went back to take those requirements and have found them very useful since. I am trying to say that our instincts often are smarter than we are if we have the courage to listen. This works especially well when applied to situations and people.

Certain institutions are really great at saying “Do as I say!” What they mean is “Don’t do as I do.”

Whenever I find something that interests me I collect a small library about it. I have donated many small libraries to Goodwill. The passions of yesteryear.

Feng Shui is no longer the big craze it was a few years ago. But don’t dismiss it as a fad. The rules of good Feng Shui are the same rules I learned in interior design school. Don’t overlook the fact that it has been practiced in China for thousands of years. Because it works. Build your house on the lee side of a hill. Don’t start a business in a location where all the previous businesses have failed. It has been adapted by architects all over the world. I would never have a TV in my bedroom. It is bad feng shui and could interfere with sleep. I would never leave the pointed end of a knife or scissors pointing into the room. Bad feng shui and I might bump into them.

One of the easiest and funniest books you will ever read is “The Joys Of Yiddish” by Leo Rosten. It is a kind of dictionary filled with words, phrases and anecdotes we often hear but only get the meaning of through context. It explains why there are so many Jewish comics. All they have to do is translate their language and they have an act. Hebrew is a different language, mainly used by scholars. Yiddish is common and was derived from German and Hebrew. There is no language known as Jewish.

Meshugge: [M’shu-geh]. A crazy person

Mench: An honorable , decent person

Pisher: A bed wetter, a young person, a nobody.

Nudnick: A pest, a bore.

Shlep. To drag or pull.

Yontiff: a good day or a holiday.

Putz: A fool, an ass.

Nebbish: A loser.

...

Here's the part where I say "This is what I think. What do you think? Tell me calmly. No need to come to blows."

-Jean Clarice Walsh 2013