In case you fell asleep under the rhododendron and woke up thinking all the original ideas had been taken, please pay a visit to Fresh Start Gum at this amazing post.
Yes, there really is a bright side of the street. Be subversively attentive.
Episode 6: Gloria Decides to Keep It Simple
It starts when what used to fit - socks, shoes, underpants - no longer does. You become a wicked stepsister whose enormous feet cannot be greased, stuffed or otherwise installed in those low-cut red flats that could have come from Audrey Hepburn's closet. Then the rosy flowered socks, too cute with the cropped olive linen pants, right? now fit like a child's anklets and leave your aging, bared limbs looking like cold oatmeal. Whatever has befallen the underpants, still new enough that their label can be read with the human eye, they now, even when put on the right way, feel as though they are on backward or your ass has become something so much greater (in a manner of speaking) than it was the last time you wore them.
The poor fit extends to every object that your critical gaze catches, try though they may to become invisible or pull on a quick disguise. The voice in Gloria's head screams, "Tea SHOPPE? SHOPPE? Was I mad?" as she begins to dismantle her sign and discard every business card, menu, coaster, postcard and catering brochure with the offensively-spelled word. Refinement, Gloria reminded herself, is an outgrowth of simplicity. Too many flourishes mark one as, if not an amateur, at least one who has not given sufficient thought to the problem.
"I may have to go home and cut my hair off with the red-handled knife," she muttered. "Everything has become too much." She stopped herself just short of pitching all of it - furniture, dishes, baked goods - into the sea. "Even in simplicity," she noted, "one must maintain a sense of proportion. Damn you, Noel Coward. It all used to work just fine." For an abbreviated moment, Gloria forgot that Mr. Coward was part-owner of the map to the bright side of the street.
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4 comments:
Thank God she didn't throw the baked goods into the sea - though that maybe why so many things don't fit anymore, LOL!
Erin
Erin - Yes, we'd have been there in our waders with nets, and happy to gather up the chintzware tea crockery, too. Until The Reading Man and Noel Coward, I think Gloria found her life, shape and all, unchanging but eventually butter does catch up to us. Worth it, I say. xo
"everything has become too much..."
I felt as though Gloria was speaking for me and then there it was: the realization that The Reading Man, Noel Coward and the pastries are SO worth the trudge on hard days.
Lisa - Our destination, re: the trudge, makes all (ALL) the difference, on hard days and the ones slightly less hard. I think keeping the scent of the ocean and butter-laden treats within sniffing distance, remembering and, if possible, hearing words written in and from magic, and reaching for the touchstone in our pocket make the journey less wearying, no matter how we sag until we snap back into our true selves. xo
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