Ah, Ms. Larsen, as a "committed community member" you have often passed along the best of free advice…and now THIS!  Well done, my darling!

Thank you for bringing Jane Brody’s book to my attention at a time when it could serve such a vital purpose in my own life.  You are a gem.

If you put weights on my ankles and grabbed me by the neck and pulled me up about four or five inches, my body would be just about identical to my older daughter…who came to live with me in May.  She was in a bad way, and even the suitcase she was pulling off the plane behind her had little more than undies and a toothbrush inside.

So now I REALLY know why God made me buy all the fabulous clothes in my closet.  They all look sooo much better on HER! 

I would do the same for any one of my children or grandchildren.  I don’t have much, but they know what’s mine is theirs.  And I think most people know if they want me for anything, I’ll show up and do my best to deliver.

The Ayres tea room was a tradition in my family, too.  My grandmother took me and my siblings there, either before or after shopping, on whichever Saturday fell closest to our birthdays.  Wasn’t it exquisite!  With real table linens and little fingerbowls.  And the waittresses in their stylish uniforms, complete with starched apron and little pleated cap. 

Did you know, even though L.S. Ayers is gone, the Tea Room was too good to be forgotten.  They’ve created a detailed replica at the Indiana State History Museum?  You can actually sit down and order off the same menu!  I still haven’t taken myself there, but I hear they even have the little treasure chest by the cashier’s window, with all the little gifts wrapped in tissue paper.  I guess we weren’t the only ones who loved the place.

Darling Joan,

You know where I’m at, so I won’t explain.  But where do you get your Pears??  I’ve been searching for some glycerine soap for weeks now, and I can’t seem to find it anywhere.

So many horror stories.  I won’t add mine.  But once you become aware that kindness itself can be used to manipulate some sort of heirarchy within a partnership, walk away.  It’s a sad realization, but it’s everywhere.  Our culture is abusive…to the sick, the elderly, the unemployed, the "lowly-born".  We ignore the signs of self-destruction.  I worry that equality is the real myth, and that all our striving for dignity is little more than a ploy for supremacy.  And it goes on to some degree in every bedroom on the face of the earth…and spreads from there.

How can we be the change we want to see in the world, once we’re too afraid to love?

Josie,

As always, I’m late to the party.  But I’ve been enjoying your blogspot all afternoon.  I’ll be checking it out more often from now on.  Thank you so much for creating it.

Hear, hear!  I completely agree with you, B.  I’ve been "on strike" when it comes to health care for years now.  And if anybody tries to force me to pay for medical insurance, I’ll probably end up in jail.  But I’m not gonna play their game, or encourage anyone else to play it.  Someday, something is going to put an end to my life.  That’s all I know.  I hope it’s a big old semi and a drunk driver…that’ll get my kids more than I’ll be able to leave them.  But for now, I don’t need a doctor predicting or diagnosing any problem when any solution they might propose is beyond my pay grade.  What’s the point?  It’s corruption, pure and simple.

Don’t get me wrong, I value my health, and I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to maintain it as well as I have since I lost my insurance.  But the very idea that I can’t go to a doctor to get some anti-biotics once in a blue moon without me or my employer paying thousands of dollars each and every year — whether I’m feeling bad or not — is beyond contemptible.  I won’t play the game.