Teeter-totter

Temperance.  The forefathers of our country wrote of it; Greeks philosophized about it; our biblical ancestors testified of it.  But in our highly competive culture of self-indulgence and immediate gratification, it is a virtue often overlooked and even forgotten.  So we have heard of it, but really, what is temperance? And why the heck do I bring it up?  (And what does it have to do with teeter-totters, for crying out loud?)

In Greek, temperance means "moderation or restraint in thought and action."  Modernly, it has been used to describe self-restriction from alcohol (Temperance Movement) and food in general (health).  Again, we know what it means, but why do we find Americans (and people today in general) overfed, overworked, overstimulated, and undersatisfied, undermotivated, underslept, and under-available to spend time doing things that matter most?

Truly, the old proverb applies: there must be a balance in all things.  Life is a balancing teeter-totter though, isn't it?  Rest would become boring without work and success would not matter nearly as much if we had never experienced failure.  If there was no bitter, we could never taste the sweet; without sorrow, there is no true happiness.

And while Life tries to shove 'balance,' (or opposition), in our face, we strive to achieve that perfect balance of all our endeavors.  I believe that's truly our task of humanity--to demonstrate temperance in everything we do; to moderate both the less-meaningful as well as the important roles, choices, and actions we pursue.  And so I say, achieve balance, practice temperance, and keep your teeter tottering & your totter teetering.  "Live the 'good' life."

"The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man."    Euripides

Purple People Pleaser

     Yes, that's what I am, a "one-eyed one-horned flying purple people pleaser".  Okay, okay, I really have two eyes, I can't fly, and I'm relatively hornless, but I'm actually wearing purple and I'm definitely a hopeless people-pleaser.  The problem is, I sincerely like helping people, but eventually, helping everyone all the time turns into servilely pleasing them, and then a downfall of your own slavish existence. 

     I'm like the character, Jane, in 27 Dresses -- I just can't say no.  And like Jane, too many people wanting too many things from you is exhausting and tends to cause emotional blowups.  That's where I am today -- Emotional  Explosion Day.  If one more person asks me to do one more thing for them, I will be a volcanic disaster -- just call me Vesuvius. . .Sigh, And yes, the answer is yes; I'll do your favor anyway. . .!!

"London Calling..."

One word: LONDON.  I don't know what it is, but the thought gives me warm fuzzies in my heart.  Now don't get me wrong--Paris, Rome, Dublin--they all sound lovely, but there is just something about England that makes me want to drop a few thousand bucks to take pictures with Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Stonehenge, the Hogwarts castle, the Temple of Apollo (please see Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice, best-proposal-in-the-rain-ever scene, if you haven't already...), and maybe even the queen, but we'll see.

. . .And as long as I'm in London (whenever I get there), I may as well "take pictures" of those other lovely European places, right?. . .

The breath-taking Colosseum in Rome, Italy

Romantic Venetian Gondolas; Venice, Italy

Le Louvre Magnifique!  Paris, France

The enchanting Faerie Glen in Scotland

Someday, these pictures will be taken with my camera, by me.  Someday. . .isn't that the worst word in the world?  Someday.  So indefinite.  So unreliable.  But someday, "someday" has to come true, doesn't it?  So I will plan and wait until somehow, my "someday" plans can be fulfilled.  So someday, London, Europe -- here I come.


For backpacking across Europe, see this site for estimated expenses, travel tips, and discount ideas.
To plan an escorted or independent tour around Europe, click here.

The Wonderful World of Books

I think books must be the creatures God didn't make, so we could make them ourselves. Creatures?, you ask dubiously. No, you're right. I don't like that classification either. They are more like souls. Yes, souls with superior memories, holding onto thousands of years of history and millions of people's thoughts that would have died with their owners had they not been preserved between the pages of books. Books are souls that can inspire and arouse a full range of human emotion--laughter, tears, anger, peace, a desire to change. They can open your soul and contain parts of it too.

"'Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read it several times?' Mo had said...'As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells. . .and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower. . .both strange and familiar.'"*

Books are not souls you say? Maybe not like yours and mine. Maybe books don't live, or breathe, or think. . .but they help us to live and cause us to think. No, not souls on their own, perhaps, but pieces of the readers who lent their souls to the pages.

*Inkspell, by Cornelia Funke