Essay on My Parents

I finally got a peek at what my older son is writing for his college essays. Imagine my surprise when the college of choice asked, "What is the best piece of advice you have ever received and why?" and found that he quoted his parents!!! So interesting to see what sinks in.

His take was that we told him to face his fears. He wrote about hiking and climbing in the mountains and how frightened of heights he actually is. This was shocking to me. The boy that rappels and climbs up sheer faces of rocks, jumps off cliffs on skis etc. is actually afraid! Nice to know we had that impact and that he enjoyed so much of what he has. He almost summited Ranier last summer but the weather--major winds--deterred their ascend. He would have missed his chance in the clouds but actually took our advice!!!!

So what would your quote be?

Who Am I?

Recently, my friend M wanted to see my blog. I am not sure how I feel about this. Is it better to have more readers who know you? Or does that cause you to censor yourself?

I am thinking that maybe I would be softer in my approach or decide not to write about certain subjects if I know that I will be judged by people who know me. There is something about anonymity that is appealing.

But then again, none of us are truly anonymous. In fact, everywhere you have been on the web, any purchases you make, heck your location via cell phone or pda are probably all known. It would be pretty easy to track us down and take inventory of what we purchase and like.

We were away on vacation in Santa Barbara with a rowdy bunch of families. I say rowdy because most of the Moms were 24/7 working moms, the kind who are told they don't have a "career" (HA!), the kind who kill themselves for their kids. They had counselors for all the kids, all ages at this place we stayed. I am telling you, it was like sailors on shore leave. Anyhow, one of the moms was telling us a hilarious story about the "rabbit" or the "wild monkey" toy for adults that her niece had discovered, by accident, in her closet. She recommended it. Imagine someone tracking that purchase.

My friend's son bought porn on the On Demand feature on his TV not realizing, (very young), that his parents would know the title of his purchase.


All of these things, now are public. Anonymity might be a good thing.

Where/when would you most want to be anonymous?

Pan Am, Makes the Going Great

Who remembers that jingle from a long ago airline? Travel by air for the masses was relatively new. I loved that simple tune accompanied by a simple slogan that suggested goin' could be great.

I remember the first time I flew on a plane. I think I was around 9 and my parents took me with them on an industry convention. I think it was to Dallas, then a young city in terms of its development. It was around 1969 and I was not completely oblivious to the "summer of love" and all the change going on around us. I knew that I no longer had to wear the white gloves that we used to wear to the City when we visited Daddy's office. I saw the kids with longer hair and even at nine, we knew about the War, protests and drugs. I think that there was so much change about to happen and so much hate. People protesting war would soon be setting off bombs in banks in NYC, and kidnapping wealthy kids like Patti Hearst. NYC was in decline and I remember being in a cab with my Dad who felt it necessary to tell the cabbie to detour around Times Square because. a young girl shouldn't see the hookers, trannies and creepy men in the big adult sex porn cesspool that was so pungent at that time in our city.

But travel was still new and exciting to me and many others in the middle class. (This was far before kids doing summers in places as far flung as Bolivia or painting houses in Costa Rica to gain "life experience" they might write about on a college application). We even got Pan Am bags which we proudly saved and used with the emblem on the side. Men wore jackets and we wore dresses to fly on a plain. The stewardesses were beautiful, thin and wore cute tight uniforms. It was one of the few careers a woman could have, besides teacher, nurse or secretary.

I guess I am nostalgic today. I am watching a TV show on AMC which is SO AMAZING that it really has me thinking (yes you read that right) called Madmen about the Ad men on Madison avenue circa 1960. I highly recommend you get the first season via netflix. The writers of this show have subtly woven in the past and how it references to the future. Nostalgia is an important theme in the show and how ads can make you feel, how they take you to another place or person in order to sell. It brings up such interesting ideas about how our pasts are forever imprinted on our psyche. How do our experiences and memories, true or embellished, make us who we are?

So I am rushing this blog because at this very moment - am seated on a plane about to take off --from, of all places, Dallas. As I was thinking about what I wanted to write, my hair stood on end, I am in Dallas, where I first flew to and where I now fly from, to meet my youngest sister and her family in California. We now hop scotch across the country in a way we never did.

So much has changed that it is hard to recognize who and where we are...until you look for the subtle clues which point to the core of what remains the same. How am I different from that nine year old girl, filled with wonder? And how am I the same? It would be hard to recapture the innocence of those early days in the Sixties. I guess realizing I am in Dallas writing this means it would be impossible to recapture my own innocence too.