SUBSTANTIALICIOUS!

Our culture has vastly overvalued the lives of the rich and famous. Our children no longer hunger to be good citizens, but merely well-known ones. In our misguided quest for heroes, we've made fame the most coveted virtue. But when our heroes cease to do heroic things, and we still venerate them, where does that leave our culture? It is time to restore balance. Let's boycott celebrity and celebrate instead all the unnamed warriors trying to make a positive impact on our daily lives.

Lynn Nottage, playwright

from the Oprah Magazine

April 2008

I got the new Oprah mag in the mail today. It's a treat; I usually really enjoy it, but today, I was irritated twenty pages in. Why are the models for wrinkle creams twenty-two years old? What could that possibly mean to me? An Ikea ad for a new kitchen setup boasts of the same woodsy walnut cabinetry and deep tones that every 70's kitchen had, but in most cases, has long since went the way of the dodo! It's time to go back to that? Walnut and avocado green? Turn a few more pages and it's a new Kohler shower with "multiple shimmering tiles - digitally controlled - that give you water, sound, light, and steam." Is that what what I've been missing in my life? My shower ain't got multiple shimmering tiles! The insert-mini-mag shown above looked promising - "reimagine you" -"simply revolutionary". On closer inspection, it's just one big ad for a bunch of crap I need so I can "reimagine myself as a suburban legend". All I need is all new garden tools, new cool clothes in the hottest spring shades, new spring shades, a new grill, bedroom set (with life's hectic pace, don't I deserve a sanctuary?), kitchen appliances, videocamera, GIANT mower ("reimagine yourself as the alpha neighbor" it actually says! ), new patio set, margarita machine, 80 qt. stainless steel portable cooler with bottle opener with convenient cap tray ! (because it's SO flippin hard to deal with finding a trash can!), solar patio lights, etc., on and on, ad nauseam.

I don't mean to sound harsh here, but is this the meaning of life? Keep replacing our stuff (which we already have too much of) with newer stuff, half of which was already "in style" (whatever that REALLY means) then "out of style", but is now back "in style"??? According to whom? It bugs me because it doesn't seem real. And it isn't real. If we know what we like, then why can't we just get that stuff and keep it (!) actually stick with something? If we didn't jump to redo-refurbish-redecorate-re-wardrobe every time "they" say it's time for a "brand new" (as if!) look, maybe we really could reinvent ourselves. But for the better; in a meaningful, purposeful way. Maybe we would find the time on our hands to do something real. Like start a garden. Or write a letter to a government representative. Volunteer at a community center, food bank, soup kitchen, or the humane society... Learn to play the piano or the tuba - whatever! Doing and redoing and redoing just for the sake of it is not progress in my opinion. It's busy work; it's killing time; it's anesthetizing oneself to what is really happening in our world!! Which we can never change if we don't first NOTICE.

Anyway, the reason I chose the piece above is that I think all the celebrity lifestyle splashed everywhere has many of us buying into the bigger, fancier, more-is-more philosophy. But so many of the rich and famous are so unhappy; just read the rags at the checkout counter! It's a sad thing when many of society's heroes are hollow. Not real, not substantial. BratB called this morning and interrupted my thoughts to tell me that our new word is "SUBSTANTIALICIOUS" (so what if she found it on a Snickers bar wrapper ? :) Suddenly it all clicked! That's what I want to be!! I want to be the real deal; if I'm gonna reimagine myself I'm gonna do it right! I'm gonna be SUBSTANTIALICIOUS!

OK! I know I've been ranting and I'm probably on your last nerve anyway so let me just get it all out! I don't want to further irritate you, BUT, the kitchens so in style now with their dark cabinetry, recessed lighting and sleek stainless appliances will be going "out of style", and it won't be too long, either. I'm sorry, I'm just telling it like it is. Once a look gets affordable and mainstream, "they" have to come up with a "new" look to keep us coveting, craving, and spending! Probably an informal, spacious, bright white kitchen! Then, it'll be time to rip out the dark stone floors and re-do those cabinets again :) OR WILL IT??? You, and only you (and Donald Trump) can decide! Peace and Love, RED