Please.

Please.

Please.


No more "found footage" films.

Do parents who insist on trying to control their adult children's lives and bend them to their wills really not realize that those children are, at least to some extent, relieved, even glad, when their parents die?

When I'm reading a book and the author has chosen to put in phrases or sentences in a foreign language and not proceeded in some way to provide a translation it makes me want to just pitch the book across the room and never read anything by said author again.

When I read in the news about the salaries some executives are given I find it hard to believe that anyone is worth that much.


I'm told that in order to get the best people one has to pay them that much.


So wouldn't it be better to hire the second best person and pay them less.  Or the third best or even the tenth best?


They'd probably do just as good a job.

At one time in my life I owned an awful lot of stuff.


Part of that amount was made up of things, the majority of which I had inherited,  that were reasonably valuable-

silver(plate) flatware and utensils, teapots etc
crystal stemware
old 33,45 and 78 records
several violins
old comic books
furniture
memorabilia

-all the sorts of things that people will tell you are "valuable" or "worth something".


Then I came to a point in my life when I simply could no longer live having all this stuff around me (let alone having to pack it up and move it even one more time) and became a minimalist.


I put a lot of time and effort into selling what I could (this was in the days before eBay) and eventually sent everything that was left to a consignment shop.   I got some money as things sold but even at the time I was aware it was a small fraction of what it all was "worth".  (Something can be very valuable but that doesn't mean a lot if you can't find someone who is willing to buy it.)


Now, in my joyously minimalist life, I do my best to NOT have valuable things.  I have some nice things and things that I like but overall nothing that I would be that concerned about losing.   I love having furniture my friends and I can relax with - if something gets scratched or spilled on it's not a big deal and I think of it as adding character.  If a dish drops and breaks and I just sweep up the pieces and may or may not replace the item.  It's not that my home is shabby or junky but it is a place to be lived in.

I'm so glad about all the information that is now available about introversion and support for introverts.  (Thank you Susan Cain, who seems to have set it all off.)


I do wish it had happened much sooner in my life.


I have lived most of my life being told, and believing, that my discomfort with social situations and people was a personal flaw, something that I needed to "get over", something that I just needed to keep doing so that I would "get used to it."


Well I lived like that for more than sixty years and I didn't get over it and I didn't get used to it.


I have always hated parties and I have always hated dealing with new people more than one or two at a time.   I can remember so many hours being someplace where I was not comfortable just waiting desperately for the time when I could leave.


It is only lately that I have discovered that when I am someplace I don't want to be if I simply say something like, "Thank you for inviting me, I have to get going now, goodbye", and leave,  no one bats an eye or cares.   Possibly because in that sort of situation I'm usually just siting there like a lump not saying a word and it's a relief to have me gone.


And I am still struggling to be able to say, "Thank you for the invitation but that's a setting in which I know I won't be comfortable so I am going to decline."


It isn't that I don't like people at all.   If I'm in a comfortable situation I do enjoy spending time with my friends.


But I have to admit that I am the most content when I'm at home on my own.
( Except of course for noise from the neighbours. )

Sometimes when I'm eating something that I know is unhealthy or really fattening I seem to eat it really really quickly.  


As though I somehow think that by doing that it doesn't count and my body isn't going to notice the intake.


Whereas what I should be doing,  having decided to eat it in the first place,  is eat very slowly and savour each sinful mouthful.