One of my favorite programs is CBS Sunday Morning. It's a 90 minute "magazine" that has 5-15 minute stories about interesting topics that are rarely controversial but always interesting. This past Sunday one of the lead stories was about everyone, regardless of where they live and their "station" in life, has a story. Two locations were chosen by an astronaut who had a globe with him. He turned the globe and pointed his finger to two different locations without looking and his choices were noted by his associate. A reporter was sent to the locations and upon his arrival in the two countries (sorry, don't remember those either) he picked up a phone booked, leafed through and put his finger down on a name. The two people they interviewed had fabulous stories...simple people like you and me with complex lives like we have (and many of us think that nobody else's life could "possibly" be as complicated as outs...).
This got me thinking: we are a sum total of our life experiences and I decided to blog about one or two that came to the front of my mind. The first was in 1964 and the Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember thinking that these guys were WILD! I was 7. I had only been exposed to musicals (Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, etc.) and classical music but I knew one thing: Their music was fabulous! And their hair was way cool. I remember my mother saying "That crap won't last" and thinking after she said it that I hoped she was wrong. She was. And I was happy she was!
The second thing was the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, 30 years later. I awoke to my waterbed sloshing like mad and thinking that my then husband was stuck in the bed, but then I heard my teenage daughter yell "earthquake!", it was my first and, happily, my last. We were 30 miles from the epicenter but it still caused a huge crack in one of our interior walls but more than that, it put a crack of fear in my heart. I had been living in the high dessert in California for 18 months and wasn't happy there, I missed New England and my family dreadfully. When we turned the news on and saw the devastation I decided that, as soon as I delivered the baby I was carrying, we were packing up and leaving this Godforsaken place. Sam Kennison, the late comedian, once said "God made desserts but he didn't intend for people to live in them" and he was right (in my opinion). I cried for days, undoubtedly due in part to being pregnant and having crazy hormones, but also the instability of the ground beneath my feet. I was in a store when a strong aftershock hit and rather than retain composure and calmly walk toward the exit, I bolted and reaffirmed my decision to leave the State.
The reactions of friends were strange when I told them we were leaving. The predominant thought was "You're going where there are blizzards and hurricanes! Do you know that??" They were amazed that I would choose to go there. I pointed out that with blizzards and hurricanes we get at least 72 hours' notice. Earthquakes might give five seconds' notice. I'll take a blizzard or hurricane any day.
Now, of course these two experiences are not all that have made me who I am, they are just the first two I came up with. (There are plenty more - like when I joined match.com and started dating...lots of stories there which I will share at some point in time...)
So, as people cut me off in traffic or are a million miles away in thought, I am thinking that maybe they have a life experience going on (or not!) and try to take everything with a grain of salt...or a bucket of salt...or some tequila and salt!
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