I’m on the inside now

The Scoop on Secret Societies

Knowledge, power, belonging

Now that I have been inducted into The Secret Society, I am anxious to learn all the Society secrets such as the oath, the rituals, a secret language, the secret handshakes, symbols, knowledge, and rituals. Do we meet at midnight under a Full Wolf Moon in the woods wearing outlandish costumes? Please don’t tell me we’re meeting at Starbucks, not that I couldn’t do with a Mocha Frappuccino Grande right now.

I do hope this secret society is a benign one and not like the KKK and WKKK of the 1920s (the…

Some are easy, some are not.

Are you bored? Are you stuck in a rut? Is every day the same ol’ same ol’?

If you are you unhappy with your life right now, there are ways to make it better. Try any one of these suggestions and see if it makes your life better.

Quarantining, the move to online work or school, the isolation required to stay safe, boredom, and depression may be negatively impacting your life. You may feel like there’s nothing you can do about it, but I am going to suggest some ways to improve your life.

Chill out!

You may not have been one of the popular kids in high school or college. Popularity and being cool at that age was generally based on physical appearance, wealth, fashion, sports, the right friends, skills such as acting or singing or playing an instrument, or your family connections.

The standards for being popular once you pass the age of 70 are quite different. Slightly cool seniors can answer in the affirmative at least 10 of the following definitions of being cool. Somewhat cooler seniors can check off at least 15 of the following markers of being cool. …

My Advice: Take It or Leave It

I’m not giving you advice because I think I know it all and want to tell you what to do. I am no authority, but I want to share with you three movies that I think will have an impact on you personally and on your worldview.

I must warn you that these movies are not the type of films you are most likely to watch or to perhaps have even heard of.

Each of these films, in part or in whole, are available free on You Tube, so I encourage you to…

Another Day Down the Drain

To-day is thine to spend, but not to-morrow; Counting on morrows breedeth bankrupt sorrow: O squander not this breath that Heaven hath lent thee; Make not too sure another breath to borrow. Omar Khayyam

Another day wasted. Nothing accomplished toward your goals. Another day gone forever. We think we will do it when we have more time or when we are in the right situation or when we are inspired, but Omar Khayyam warns us not to count on tomorrow.

The fleeting passage of time is a major theme in the Rubaiyat.

Khayyam tells us:

Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The…

On Being Human

Our bodies, ourselves

The body is a private thing. It belongs to us. We identify with our body and sense ourselves within it. Our body is us. We cannot separate who we are from our bodies. It is for this reason that humans are so concerned about their bodies. We want our bodies to appear attractive to others or, at least, to appear the way we want them to appear. We want control over our bodies.

We often fear the loss of our bodies in several ways: control over our own bodies, our physical privacy, our health and safety, even our very lives.

We want to be able to control how much of our bodies to reveal to others. Americans views the sight of the naked body…

Historical Evidence

Do not open until 2120

How can we document this year and quite possibly The End of the World as We Know It?

In light of this momentous year, I propose that historians create a time capsule, sealed, and interred somewhere safe with a marker that says Do Not Open Until 2120. The trauma of 2020 needs time be distilled to be fully appreciated by humans in the future.

The events of this year will go down in history books, but history is the stories told most often by those in power and the occasional everyman who leaves behind some written documentation.

This year, with its many horrors, should be fully documented for posterity, supposing there is any…

Women’s magazines influence women today much as they did in the 1950s and 1960s.

Women’s magazines today still offer advice on family, love, and relationships as much as they did in the past. Women’s roles in marital relationships is a long-standing favorite topic. The feature “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” survived for over fifty years in the Ladies Home Journal. Columns like this one prescribed the norms for women’s expectations for married life.

Editorial Assumptions

In the post-war era, editors of women’s magazines presumed their readers either were married or wished to be married. …