Sunday, January 26, 2014

New Year's Resolutions - broken

Legend has it that 25% of New Year's resolutions are broken within the first week of January. Well, I say, January is all but gone, and with January so are up so many hopeful resolutions. But do not despair, they'll be back again someday (along with Frosty the snow man).
And that's why I do not make myself go through the trouble of making New Year's resolutions. Making daily resolutions every night is too much work already, and I realize the next night, when I rest my head on my pillow, that I kept almost none of them. Some were broken in the same day, others two days later . ...
Eat less ,
Exercise more ,
Do not procrastinate ,
Practice guitar
Take better care of my skin ,
Take better care of my home and my husband (this homemaker business is something for professionals)
Read for 30 minutes each day ...
... and the list is growing .
So if daily resolutions already give me so much work, what the heck I'm going to complicate myself with new year resolutions for?
Life is too short to start over every year. That only gives you an average of 80-and-few new chances . I start over every day. This gives me 365 new chances per year. Every day is a new struggle - as the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous .
"Hi, my name is Virginia, I'm a compulsive eater, and I haven't eaten junk for 4 hours and 32 minutes."
"Hi, my name is Virginia, I'm careless about my skin, and I have used moisturizer regularly for two days."
... Day to day, how many of these phrases can I repeat without getting back to square one? Come on - today I have already ruined my healthy eating resolution. I was doing everything right until 2 pm , when I opened a packet of chips. Tomorrow I'll start again. Now I will study Japanese.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

When we're little

Yesterday I saw a video of a little girl who sees her father's twin for the first time. The world is a funny place when we are little. Things that make perfect sense for older people or that everyone else understands as common place are completely different or uncommon to you.

Yesterday, as I looked through some James Bond movies - the Pierce Brosnan ones - I remembered how surprised I was to find out one day that Indiana Jones father (that nice old man) was once a 007 - the sexiest secret agent in the world.
"Seriously? Indy's dad?"

What about me wondering why people that went to the stadiums took their radios with them? Don't they know that the TV narrator will be there? No it never occurred to me that the TV narrator sat in his little TV network cabin and spoke on the microphone that went directly to our TVs, not to the stadiums broadcast system, which in most Brazilian stadiums is actually non-existent. Even if we did have a stadium broadcast system, who would narrate it? Globo TV? Bandeirantes? SBT? Or one of the radio stations? After all, each TV channel and each station had their own narrator. I guess, I hadn't realized that yet.

But one of my favorite kid thing is me trying to figure out what those lines were inside my eyes when I came home from the swimming pool. The Condominium Pool was on the ground floor and I had to go on the elevator to get to my condo on the 18th floor. So I went inside the elevator and looked at myself in the mirror all the way up - And wondered what those lines were inside my eyes... Not sure how long it took me to figure out they were the reflection of my wet eye lashes clumped together because of the water.With all the light inside the elevator, it was very easy for them to reflect right off my eye balls.

That's why little kids are so fun.


Sunday, January 12, 2014

IF I DIDN'T HAVE MY PARENTS

WHAT I'VE LEARNED WITH THE LAST SEVEN O'CLOCK SOAP OPERA (Sangue Bom) - Love is love . No matter who we love. Some people are attracted to men , others by women, others to both. That does not matter, what matters is love.
IF I DIDN'T HAVE MY PARENTS to explain me that what they are talking about is not love - it's sex - and that attraction between people of the same sex is a sin, that sex with someone who is not our spouse ( out of wedlock ) is a sin , I would grow up THINKING THAT THIS IS NORMAL. In about 20 years our entire society would have this mentality , and no one would have thought that  it might be different .
What PARENTS TOLERATE, CHILDREN ACCEPT, GRANDCHILDREN EMBRACE.

WHAT I LEARNED WITH CURRENT 8 O'CLOCK SOAP OPERA (Amor a Vida) - Both men and women can go around picking up everyone. A woman who picks up everyone is not a bitch , she is as free as any man. I also learned that anyone can get AIDS, and that virginity in adult life is a problem to be solved .
IF I DIDN'T HAVE MY PARENTS to explain me that equal rights does not mean to go down to the level of the other, that right is right and wrong is wrong, and that when a certain group of people is wrong, the other group should not want to be equal in error; that AIDS is indeed restricted to certain groups - those who are sexually active, and usually have more than one partner - that being sexually active is not as common as breathing, eating candy and bike riding; that virginity is precious and that should not be given away till after the wedding - to your spouse - and not at the "right time", I would grow up THINKING THAT THIS IS NORMAL. In about 20 years our entire society would have this mentality , and no one would have thought that  it might be different .
What PARENTS TOLERATE, CHILDREN ACCEPT, GRANDCHILDREN EMBRACE.

Can you change what's on TV? If the population goes crazy and manifests its opinion; if the population writes, calls, complains and threatens to boycott ( and indeed boycott) - yes, the TV changes the show. The TV needs to please its audience, and will indeed adapt their programming to the will of the people .
But even if we can't prevent things from showing on TV, you have to take a stand about it, especially if u watch TV together with people whose minds are in formation. If u have children, younger siblings, nephews, grandchildren - do not let the shit that comes out of the screen go in their ears without processing, without a dialogue. Ideas need to be discussed, especially in training minds, so that right and wrong are not confused. Younger people always look at older people in search of a model , a map, a north. As much as we scold and say we don't care, younger people seek indeed the older people for models. Many of the things I do today are a mere imitation of what I grew up watching my mother, my grandmother and my aunt do or say. The way I take care of children is an imitation as well. Imitating elders is almost inherent in human beings .
What PARENTS TOLERATE, CHILDREN ACCEPT, GRANDCHILDREN EMBRACE.

Sunday, January 05, 2014

New Year's resolution????

Some people are going around making a list of their new years resolution. I keep asking myself "Why bother?"

Example of typical new year's resolutions are -
to lose weight -
to got o the gym -

Well, I guess I could do that, but then I think about it and ... why bother? They can't be new year's resolutions to me. I make those resolutions every night, after realizing I failed miserably at last night's resolutions.