More from Mom

 

As usual, you are permitted to disagree but only if you are 85 or older :-)

Wear something red occasionally. (even the MOON sometimes wears red)

Don’t do the same job twice. Move it along. Life is short. The world is full of things to do.

Don’t think your husband always agrees with you. He doesn’t. Don’t think you know what he is thinking. You don’t. And vice versa. And maybe it’s better that way.

Make the best decision you can at the moment based on the info at hand. If things don’t work out let it go.

The more you get the more you want. Or haven’t you read “Fifty Shades of Gray”? It can apply to money, sex, drugs and extreme sports. Just saying. Be careful what you wish for.

You can learn a lot from movie star biographies. They live extreme lives, at least for awhile, and they either handle it or they don’t.

Never be intimidated by celebrities. Off camera they are usually quite ordinary.

If you find yourself  seated  beside a rocket scientist at dinner, again don’t be intimidated. Just ask questions. “Did you want to be Buck Rogers as a child?” “How far into space do you want to go in your own life time?” There are no dumb questions. He will find you charming.

If you sit next to a man at dinner just touch his arm lightly and casually while talking. If he touches you back he likes you. If he doesn’t, forget it.

If someone bullies you, pity them. They are probably hurting.

If your children are the top players on a team, don’t cheer. Just applaud quietly. Nothing is to be gained by making other parents hate you.

If you want to do business in China first learn why they revere jade. In fact, learn as much as you can about their culture. It’s different. This is true of any foreign country.

No disrespect intended whatsoever, but if men want to find 17 virgins in heaven, women want to find 17 experienced men. Who is the loser here? The virgins won’t stay virginal for an eternity.

The winner is the team that wants it the most. It’s an energy thing.

If you want to lie on the sofa all day, make yourself get up and do at least one chore. It will prevent you from feeling like a failure.

Pneumonia was once called ‘the old man’s friend’. But now they give you pneumonia shots so no telling what you will die of.

Etiquette is a good thing to have. Bet you didn’t know that.

Most women in my family have lived to be 98. None of them dieted nor ran marathons.

The Golden Rule is the basis of all religions. Or should be.

It doesn’t bother me that anyone disagrees with something I say here. What is interesting is that no two people will disagree about the same things.

A center of a painting or a grouping should be hung at eye level. Who’s eye level? Compromise.

Hang a sheer under curtain to keep out the glare during the day and for a bit of privacy. Hang a lined over drapery to keep out the draft at night and so people can’t look in your window. Do you think people aren’t looking in? If the light is on and the drapery is open they are. But if you post nude pictures of yourself on face book and are happy telling all, forget it. This doesn’t apply to you.

Draperies should hang to the floor or 6” above baseboard heating. Curtains can hang to the floor or the bottom of the sill. Use your eye and/or your common sense.

Being near a lake, a river or the ocean is very therapeutic. It’s because you once crawled out of there and life was simpler then. Before you crawled out I mean.

There were no fat kids when I was young. Maybe it was due to the depression or the war.

There are two ways to look sexy. Skin or silhouette.  Silhouette is more ladylike. Need I mention Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, or Grace Kelly?

Cell phones have changed the direction of crime stories. No one has to search for a phone before calling for backup.

Life was so much kinder, easier, slower and less stressful before the electronic age. It was  great, but I can’t give up my TV, my computer, my cell phone, my DVD player or my Bose. Alas.

The deadline for answering Christmas letters is April.

Actors are amazing. They have to act from the hair on their head to the shine on their shoes. They have to look the part front, back and sideways. It takes instinct, experience and training. And they make it look so easy.

An education is the best preparation for life. It teaches you that wars actually kill people and bankrupt nations , that tyrants eventually come to a bad ending, but never soon enough, and the Golden Ages are those rare periods of peace, high productivity and creativity.

If you can’t sleep grab a hot water bottle and a quilt and go in the other room and read a book or watch TV. Keep your bedroom just for sleeping and stuff.

Life is going by so fast it seems like everyday is Monday and I have to put out the garbage and every other day is the first of the month and I have to pay bills.

Guns. Well what can I say.

Something can be done about everything. If you are alive do something. If you are dead lie down.

Cowboys like quiet nights. Their days are so hard.

Used Kleenex should be thrown away even if you can still find a small clean space.

The stock market hates a benchmark. It will always flirt with any number ending in O. It will go over it and under it. If it goes over for the third time and stays there it is on it’s way to the next O. You can bank on this as surely as you can bank on the market or a bank.

There is nothing more delightful than holding a clean, fresh well fed baby. Too bad it cries, poops and get older

What is more fun than a Bollywood film? Everybody is gorgeous, they live in Maharajah palaces and are surrounded by music and bright colors. Especially if they star Shah Rukh Khan.

Always have a full length mirror in your house. It might tell you something you need to know.

Your car will attack you if you don’t keep  it clean. Do you think I am kidding?

Sports teach you to win and to lose. Great training for life.

If you want to be part of something show up at the door and offer to sweep the floor.

 

-Jean Clarice Walsh 2013