Savvy Thinker » Opportunity

Not-so-invisible older women

Karin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:00:18 +0000

I was surprised to learn that in the last 10 years, the Oscar for Best Actress hasn't been awarded to any woman over 39. For the past 9 years, it was even lower, around age 35. If Judi Dench, Helen Mirren or Meryl Streep wins, she will be the most mature recipient since 1990 when Jessica Tandy, at age 80, won for Driving Miss Daisy.

A weird thing happens to male actors, especially movie stars, in my experience. Which is, they become grumpy old men. I think a young male actor feels great. All the girls want him. He's a star. As they get older, that sense of not being in control of their own destiny sort of grates on them, and they get grumpy. And they move into direction to try and feel they're in control of their own destiny...I don't feel psychologically challenged, because I'm in a collaboative situation on a set with a director...

One of the great advantages of getting older is that you can walk into a world which is more truthful and less to do with other people's fantasies. Helen Mirren

Well, who's it gonna be? Likely the decision is already made; we just don't know who it is yet.

I often think life is hardly fair. Tremendous performances can be turned in by several, but because of the thoughts-of-the-year it's a shoo in for one who might not in other years be the choice. But that's life! On to the next project! Talent wins out, Oscar or no Oscar.

When asked if they still had to audition for roles, Dame Judi said:

I think sometimes we might be without knowing it. If you're having a kind of friendly [there's that word again!] meal with somebody and you suddenly see those very beady, gimlet eyes looking at you, you might be auditioning then.

I like to see power going to older women. It makes me feel more secure.

No, seriously, I was just seeing if you were reading. I don't feel more secure, but it may move us away from the 60's kind of veneration of youth.

A well-known George Bernard Shaw quote is:

Youth is wasted on the young.

I hardly think so. But I'd like to see age like Dylan Thomas did:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Let's go on and out with a few sparks and some Oscars.

Karin

Originally posted 2007-02-24 07:23:49.

Online Stores

Who or what is (on) your support team?

Karin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:28:48 +0000

I've been thinking about Owen Wilson lately with sadness, as I imagine many of us have been.

I think at one time or another in our life most of us have secret sorrows, where our public persona is different than/from our private persona. And our thoughts may be far different than most people observing us from outside would expect.

It's so important to have a support team!

Sometimes it is not the folks we thought might help us who are the ones who actually do. That's an interesting observation too.

Is there someone you can confide in? someone who is in your corner? who will keep your confidences? someone (maybe a different someone) for whom you are their support team or on it? is there someone you can encourage to have a support team (and maybe you are that someone -- maybe you need to remind yourself that you are the one who is in need of a support team and that you should not delay?)

It's hard to let down the mask sometimes, to let someone in, or find an activity that supports you, whether it is church or temple, Weight Watchers, Curves, the Internet, the gym, an exercise buddy, a book club, art lessons, a knitting shop, or etc.

What is it that stands in the way of reaching out? depression? feeling (wrongly) unworthy or unloved? feeling, at least for the moment, that it is hopeless, that there is no help, or that no one would or does understand?

Do you know what gives you comfort if you feel down? a cup of tea? convo with a friend? window shopping? having more quiet time? pacing your tasks at home better? getting help? realizing you can't do it all and figuring out a better way to do it? doing something to lessen anxiety, stress or tension? getting out in nature? making sure you or your life doesn't get out of balance with too much running around and not enough thought?

If you are a caregiver, it's important to let others share some of the tasks. Do you have a someone? or several someones? are you able to let them do it their way, to give them the space to help, even if it is different than the way you might do it? (who cares, if it shares the burden?) do you feel people would judge you if you didn't do it all?

Do you have someone who counsels you in some manner -- and do you listen? (Not all counselors are equal -- some we would do well not to listen to.) A pastor? a therapist? a peer? a coach? a spiritual adviser? someone who's BTDT and is farther along the road than you are?

Do you have a book -- or several books -- that you turn to consistently for solace and support? (Would you share here?)

Do you notice if things don't seem right around you? are you open to intuitively knowing if someone is hurting? how do you know when to speak up or just to support silently? at what point would you feel it is imperative to 'interfere' or even do an intervention? are you deepening your level of friendships (and your compassion) so that someone might confide in you if they were in need?

Do you have a support team? do you need one? (we all do)...are you ready if you suddenly had a need you weren't expecting? is it already in place? could you strengthen it in some way?

Do you have a support team? have you ever had to call in your cards and use it?

Karin

Originally posted 2007-09-02 12:53:37.

Online Stores

Encouraging yourself

Karin — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:07:10 +0000

Even though we need people around us to encourage us, you need to find a place in your life where you can encourage yourself. Doug Gilcrease, team chaplain for Tampa Bay Buccaneers

If you want a miracle in your life, you have to participate. Be the place where a miracle may occur. Shift your thinking; believe in a bigger way. As Walt Whitman wrote, "From this hour, I ordain myself loosed of limits and imaginary lines." What limitations have you placed on yourself? What lines have you drawn that can now be erased? Mary Manin Morrissey

The point is that nobody, not even God, can help you if you don't help yourselves just a little. Open the window and the door so if good fortune shows up, it can get in. Carole

If you need encouragement, it is good to think of finding, i.e. making, a place in your life where you can find ways to encourage yourself. It's a truism to make the space. Clear out the clutter that is mostly old thinking.

What is it that you need in life? Can you find a way open to it? Insofar as possible, surround yourself with people and ideas that are encouraging.

If you need more quiet time, make an effort to find it. A friend of mine found herself driving around in the car as her only quiet space. She thought that was ridiculous, but it worked. Sometimes I find myself awake in the middle of the night, because I haven't had quiet moments in the day. Either way God sees I get it.

Find the abundant moments in your own day and live them.

I think it was Kay Kayser who made popular the phrase:

Accentuate the positive. Don't mess with Mr. In-Between.

Karin

Originally posted 2007-02-27 08:03:18.

Online Stores

Eat a frog before breakfast (motivational movie)

Karin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:07:26 +0000

This is a good reminder to tackle life in big bites, the hardest first. Sometimes I do; sometimes I don't. But I hate it when a task sits on my shoulder and demands that I not forget to do it! Like making the family appointments I have put off this week. Of course, I can't make them today as it is Saturday.

It takes less than 2 minutes to watch. Go for it!

Karin

Originally posted 2008-12-06 09:00:36.

Online Stores

Grace, Generosity, and Gratitude for Christmas

Keira — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:09:48 +0000

This is from a guest writer today, Keira of Love Romance Passion.

Grace, Generosity, and Gratitude for Christmas -- the 3 Gs

The meaning of Christmas is ever growing and yet still incredibly timeless and practical. This year for me three words stood out above the rest. They are grace, generosity, and gratitude.

Grace – Everyone should want to experience a growth in grace this Christmas.

What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds. - Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 4, lines 3-5.

This is the time to be the most gracious, express even more goodwill, and to forgive unconditionally. Give up anger, animosity, and annoyance. Let grace run your day and you will be happier for it.

Generosity
This is the season of giving, and there should be a readiness to give and be generous on your part. What’s the use of giving, if there’s a bitterness or smallness about it? The Grinch started Christmas with a meanness of heart, described as a heart "two sizes too small," but ended with a largeness of heart (it expands three sizes). If you’re feeling pinched this holiday, work daily on expanding your heart with an overflowing of generosity. And remember, generosity comes in many forms and can be expressed in many ways. Don’t let preconceived notions of generosity stunt you.

Gratitude
As I was examining this word, I ran across another version of the word… overgratitude. Can you really communicate or convey gratitude over and above what is needed? I think not, because if there were a cap on gratitude, then there would be a cap on how much you appreciate something or someone, which implies there’s a time you wouldn’t be grateful for it or to the person. Ingratitude is easier to express, because you simply have to do nothing, but if you do nothing, you’re limiting yourself spiritually and emotionally. The best gift this year you could give anyone is the gift of gratitude. What are you grateful for, or to whom are you grateful? Share thankfulness, appreciation, and warmth of love. Be overabundant with it, and you will feel it in return. There is no shortage of loving gratitude.

How will you articulate grace, generosity, and gratitude this Christmas?

Keira

Online Stores

The animal school

Karin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:44:25 +0000

This short inspirational movie
from raising small souls is a good reminder for all parents, but it also is a help in recognizing our own unique talents.

I loved it! Enjoy!

Karin

Originally posted 2008-03-11 17:12:27.

Online Stores

Creative thinking part 1

Karin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:19:50 +0000

What fascinates me so much about this man is the way he not only invented something, but he created the APPLICATION for his invention. It was one thing to invent electricity- Ben Franklin managed it 100 years earlier. But it was a totally other thing to figure out how to get people to WANT electricity. And to make it possible. Like cable tv, the internet, how many applications that are not immediately apparent? Cable tv wasn't viable without actually laying the cables. And I can remember saying to my dh, back in 1987, "But what would I use the internet FOR?" -Carole

It's the birthday [February 11] of Thomas Alva Edison, born in Milan, Ohio (1847). He did not do well in school, in part because he'd spent his early childhood sick in bed, and he suffered from bad hearing. So he was home-schooled by his mother. He started working odd jobs when he was 13, bouncing around various jobs at machine shops, jewelry shops, and telegraph offices, and he soaked up as much as he could about the operation of different kinds of technology. His first important invention was an improvement on the stock ticker. Western Union paid him $40,000 for the device.

That helped Edison set up one of the first independent industrial research laboratories in the world. He eventually amassed 1,093 patents, the most patents ever issued to a single person in American history. His most important inventions were the phonograph, the light bulb, and the movie camera. But perhaps his greatest achievement was managing to make these things a part of everyday life. When he invented the light bulb, it might have been just a novelty. Edison had to invent the electricity industry in order to make the light bulb useful. He built the first power plant in the world, designed his own steam-powered generators, built a 14-mile network of underground wiring, and installed meters to measure the flow of the electricity. He's now regarded as the father of the modern electronic world. Today's History Lesson

Originally posted 2007-02-12 07:47:11.

Online Stores

The Archimedes Codex unpeeled

Karin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:18:03 +0000

This is fascinating stuff! It's amazing to me that the book survived, much less is readable (after 9 years!)

This is about an ancient book called The Archimedes Codex, bought for $2.2 million in October, 1998, at an auction in New York City by an anonymous collector who sent it to the Walters Art Museum, here to be restored, conserved, and probed for its content. It was thought to contain mathematical theses conceived by the genius of Syracuse (287-212 BC), whose name it bears, ideas not found anywhere else in the world.

The Walters faced a daunting task: what arrived was a clump of folios, crushed, torn, punctured by worm holes, in the inflexible grip of old carpenter's glue, charred at its edges, and covered with mold and water stains.

It's a miracle it still exists.

It took four years just to remove the glue, and open the book sufficiently to allow experts on ancient Greek texts to access much of its content and, with the help of ultra sophisticated imaging systems, to read it.

Modern technology is opening its information to us.

Imagine being the man who is in charge of this (for nine years).

The Archimedes texts were copied in the 10th century by an unknown scribe in Constantinople, then a major center of the Christian world eventually to become a center of the Islamic world. Three centuries later, another scribe washed, scraped, and otherwise tried to remove the text from the book's parchment. This person undid the book, rebound it in the opposite direction, then, on the imperfectly cleared pages, wrote his Christian prayers in Greek over the original text, which was also in Greek, and still discernible in a faint rust-colored thread running beneath. This procedure was common in medieval times: Parchment was scarce. Thus, the Archimedes Codex became a palimpsest, a twice-used book.

The findings gleaned from it have raised Archimedes's status as a thinker higher than anyone might have expected. Noel describes him as "the most important scientist who ever lived."

Karin

Originally posted 2008-04-17 11:13:35.

Online Stores

Living in the land of opportunity or the land of penguins

Karin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:19:23 +0000

This short movie from Simple Truths has richness in it.

I enjoyed the illustrations immensely. They captured the nuances of emotions and made me laugh.

This is really apropos for today's times.

Karin

Originally posted 2008-09-30 08:21:51.

Online Stores

How irritable are you on any given day?

Karin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:19:09 +0000

What's your irritation quotient? Do you find yourself with a constant underlying sense of irritation about the little things in life that should only be annoyances? Or does your irritation quotient go up only for select instances? Do you feel this is a function of not voicing some of the things that maybe should have been voiced along the way or do you see that you could have taken better care of yourself with more rest and more regular food? Maybe all of the above, since speaking up for ourselves can also constitute taking care of ourselves, unless it becomes a regular habit of speaking up over everything, which possibly we should break.

I can be irritable with the best of them, but it doesn't necessarily make me feel better. I try to pray my way out of it before it settles in, so it doesn't come out in ways I would prefer it not to. And sometimes I pray my way not to rehearse it in thought when it is something that isn't immediately fixable.

What do you do with irritation? There are opportunities every day to overcome it or to be overcome by it. No life is free of it completely. Do you suppose some people have higher thresholds of irritation?

I find it helpful not to let a little river of irritation run in me that can go up with the slightest spark. Of course, that is, if I catch it in time. It would be saying too much to say that I always do.

Karin

The subhead on the story said, "Little acts of revenge can feel so good." [the person refused to call the sizes of drinks at Starbucks by their Starbuck names]

This notion is potentially useful in plotting a novel or TV show, but in the real world it fails on two levels. First of all, disputing the terminology of a cup size or other marketing detail just makes life harder for the clerk, who has no power over company policy. Why expend time and energy hassling an innocent bystander who's just doing a job?

Second, and perhaps more important, if minor annoyances create enough agitation within you that seeking little acts of revenge becomes a priority, where do you draw the line? Can you even tell the difference between getting pushed around and just feeling bothered? And what if your "I'm fighting back" gambit causes someone else to want revenge on you?

To me, it wouldn't matter if a company wanted to call its cup sizes "glork," "koopa," and "zeralack." I could work with that. Some people might say this proves I'm just a big talking marshmallow. Not true. It's just that I've set a high threshold for annoyance, and I keep issues in perspective.

It wasn't too many decades ago that business owners in America could offer selective service to patrons based on skin color. Knowing this, making a fuss about cup sizes or a long line, or berating the clerk because you got incorrect change, is pretty lame.

If revenge is on your personal agenda for today, consider erasing it. Everyday life is full of bumps. Most of them are not the little hills you want to die on. They aren't even worth a small skirmish. Jeffrey Shaffer To read the whole article go here Don't take revenge, be happy .

Originally posted 2007-11-06 07:17:18.

Online Stores