You won’t be 21 - or any other age - forever. Take good care of yourself at every age. Also, no matter how old you get, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get pretty darn old, you’ll always have every age you’ve ever been inside you, like rings inside a tree. Keep your mind active and your mind’s eye clear and you can be any age you want just by conjuring it up again. I think people get genuinely OLD only when they forget what it was like to be young.

I’ll try to post one more time here; I think the website might have a posting glitch somewhere. “Confront” isn’t the word I would have chosen, but it’s the closest. She should point to the boxers and laugh, and say “Did you really go all day today without peeing?” The next day, after he leaves for work, she should change the locks and call a lawyer, because if this man cheated on her once, he’ll do it again. Nobody deserves to have to put up with such people. Cheaters don’t cheat because they are lonely, misunderstood, having a midlife crisis, etc. Cheaters cheat because they are cheaters. Cheaters cheat at business, at solitaire, at Monopoly, about their weight, their health, and their marital status: anything to get what they want when they want it. Cheaters cheat because it is their nature to cheat. And, sadly, it is usually very easy for a cheater to find a woman (or man) who doesn’t care if the liason destroys a family, as long as she/he gets what SHE/HE wants. There are always women/men who will passionately and determinedly pursue their own interests and these people truly care nothing about betraying other people as long as they get what they want. Then, the betrayed wife often has to see this kind of woman become her children’s stepmother! A woman who will stab another woman in the back will not be a good stepmother to her victim’s children. A woman who knowingly has an affair with a married man is scum, as is the man. I say this far too much, but I’ll say it again anyway: Women talk all the time about changing the world, but I don’t think it will ever happen until we change the way we treat each other.

I trusted a stranger I found on the internet, who then hijacked my computer and got me into big trouble at work over it. (It was NOT romantic or sexual in nature; I ain’t that stupid.) Even more dangerous: I still trust people.

I don’t drink, nor do I believe in ghosts, but of the two choices, “ghosts” seemed much less harmful.

I posted here a few hours ago, and now my comment is gone. Are we being censored?

People who cheat on their spouses aren’t misunderstood, lonely, needy, seeking attention, troubled, having a midlife crisis, or any of the usual excuses. People who cheat are cheaters, and would probably grasp at straws to rationalize their behavior and make someone else feel responsible for it. People who cheat at one thing will cheat at anything else. A person who is incapable of being trustworthy isn’t “worthy” of anything else, either. “Confront” isn’t the verb I would have chosen, but it’s the closest of the choices. And if the answer is “Yes,” then she should tell him to leave. While he’s gone she should change the locks and call a really good lawyer. He might beg and cry and apologize, but such things from a cheater mean nothing. Cheaters have no credibility whatsoever; they chose, of their own free will - and cheating is ALWAYS a free choice - to trade their credibility for a blow job from a woman (or man) who is also untrustworthy in every way and fully capable of deliberately betraying another woman. And the wife should go for the Wasserman immediately. Cheaters are nasty in every possible way, including collecting and harboring diseases and passing them along to the innocent.

I have to grow up? Who KNEW? Seriously, except for the bit about not having to ask permission to do things, being an adult isn’t what I thought it would be when I was a kid. Some of it’s better, some of it’s no different than being a kid, and some of it stinks. But what it is, is mine!

Food, gas, and medicine, especially. Four of my students had to drop out of college because they couldn’t afford to live here and now they can’t afford to drive here.

I think that many people today have never learned how to entertain themselves from within; every stimulus must come from outside themselves. When these people ARE alone with their thoughts, they have none. Or the thoughts they do have frighten them. Or, worse in today’s society, their thoughts bore them. People with imaginations and inner creativity are seldom genuinely bored, and when they are, they invent something!

I am a believer: a spiritual woman. But to be absolutely truthful? I don’t know what happens to us when we die. I like to think that that part of us that is truly and uniquely “us” will live on after the feeble shell has exhausted itself, but until it happens, I don’t believe anybody can possibly know for sure. And after the fact, nobody’s telling!

I love this site, too. It just seems to cater to people who are a lot richer than I am. As a family, we have had exactly four vacations: one to Disney World, which took me nine years to pay off (Discover Card - NEVER use it!) and three to Ocracoke Island, NC, the most beautiful and inexpensive place on the planet. (I just finished paying off the third trip there two months ago, and the trip was in 2003.) It was worth it, but I was working full time then and now I only have four part-time jobs. I’m happy for all of you who can afford to travel, though. I used to dream of going to Greece. I know there are great deals, Mary, but even a “deal” requires money. My circumstances are such that money is something I do not have enough of, let along a surplus of some kind that I could ever use for traveling. I apologize if I sounded bitter or condemning in any way; that was certainly not my intention. I think it’s wonderful that some of you are able to travel and buy things. I’m mostly envious, I suppose. We are in our fifties and beginning again, due to circumstances beyond our control, and our income is miniscule. Bills and obligations come before pleasure, and there is nothing left for pleasure. However, all of you who are able to do these wonderful things, go for it! I hope you all appreciate how lucky you are.

As a child, I had a bicycle, roller skates, and a library card. I used all three equally passionately and was seldom bored. I knew how to entertain myself, and I think that is what modern kids are largely missing. Without a computer, or an iPod, or a cell phone, or an Mp3 player, etc, today’s kids don’t have a clue what to do with their time! And they’ve got a lot of time, because not many kids these days have chores to do. Back in the day, a kid could lean against the windowsill and just live in her head for hours. Now, adults perceive a motionless child as a lazy child, and tell him/her to “get up and DO something!” People have lost the realization that imaginations are best stirred from within, and that people who require outside stimulation for all things are pathetic at best. We played outside from dawn until dark. Modern parents are too afraid of perverts (I don’t blame them, but they go too far) and accidents to allow their fragile children to play outside unsupervised. They might fall down! They might break an arm! Dear me! I pity modern kids. Even with their computers and cell phones and iPods, they seem to be lacking in joy and genuine fun. (I love my computer and my cell phone and my iPod, don’t get me wrong. But I have a life outside of those things, too. Many modern kids are lost without their electronics.) Add to all of this the helicopter parents and the pushy parents and the stage mothers and the parents who are reliving their own youth vicariously and the parents who should never have been allowed by society to come anywhere NEAR a child, and it’s no wonder our kids are spoiled, selfish, immature, helpless, needy, entitled, and elitist. You know, just like kids have been from time immemorial: at least, the kids with bad parents. And there have always been, to our shame, bad parents. There always will be, unless we crack down on the bums and remove their kids permanently and let loving people raise them. (You really don’t want to get me started on the many, many children I’ve seen who “tell” about the abuse, are removed, and are then put right back into the hellish home because the parent cried and promised to do better. Do you really think that child will ever “tell” again? Not even if he survives, he won’t.) Dear me, I do apologize for the many tangents here.

There are at least two distinct meanings for “take for granted,” and they are the opposites of each other. I take my family for granted, because I can. We’ve been through some tough times (understatement of the century, there) and we have somehow remained a united front. I take the benefits of living in the USA for granted, even though I know that, at any time, the electricity, water, gas, etc, could come to an end. I take my personal safety for granted, even though I know that at any given time, someone could choose to shatter that. Sometimes, the expression “take for granted” is a positive thing, referring to love, loyalty, dependability, etc. Other times, “take for granted” is a selfish, “using” kind of attitude.

Thank you, Roberta. I hope I don’t come across as some kind of pathetic bag lady. I honestly love this site; I just can’t relate to the articles that are obviously meant for rich people. And by “rich people” I include anyone who makes more than $16,000 a year.

Suzanne, I love to add people to my blogroll and Google Reader! (Well, not just anybody, but good writers with something to say!) You can find me at http://weeklyscheiss.blogspot.com and I’m on my way to your site right… . now. Does anybody else have a blog or website to share with us?