Harper’s Bazaar Art Issue

As regards this month’s Art theme in HB it’s right that each of us tries to change things for the better linked to an issue we have firsthand experience with.

Using art in any form to express the truth and speak out is the way to hopefully open hearts and minds and end stigma.

The best way to change a person’s mind is simply by being yourself. Only a heartless person would judge or hate you or me sight unseen or in plain sight before they got to know us apart from a stereotype.

A friend told me: “Narrow-mindedness is a disease of the heart.”

Stigma exists in different forms of multiple isms. This holiday season Peace on Earth shouldn’t be promoted only once a year on a Christmas card.

My hope is that my year-round blogging as an Art form can be inspiration to readers for expressing yourself in full bloom.

Harper’s Bazaar Voices Issue

The current edition of Harper’s Bazaar is the Voices issue. The best article is “Like a Virgo” where a columnist interviewed poet Cleo Wade.

Wade has two things to say which warrant buying and reading the magazine:

“If you can’t laugh, you’ll never survive. It’s a survival tool. If you can’t find and know and feel that joy belongs to you, no matter what’s going on, it’s impossible to get through life.”

Per Cleo:

“There are obviously a lot of problems in the world, but if you can’t find joy somewhere, you have a bigger problem than public policy, and it’s closer to home.”

Right said better than I could have.

The media gatekeepers are deciding who gets a platform and what views those people can express. Shut out of traditional liberal media I’ve taken to my blogs to uplift and inspire readers that change is possible. Plus post recipes to boot!

Everyone should use our voice to express ourselves. In this regard I was a fan of John Leguizamo the actor and comedian for speaking out over the years.

And for those of us who simply choose not to protest in the streets. For those of us who want to have an ordinary life not making waves.

There are other ways to use your voice apart from getting political.

Like choosing to wear that famous pink pant suit I alluded to in a blog entry a year ago.

Like sharing your views at a dinner party with friends who will accept that you’re outspoken.

Like choosing what kinds of products to buy and how often and what you’re willing to pay.

Having a voice means that we get to decide when to speak out and when to remain silent.

We get to encourage others that sometimes the quietest voice can speak volumes. And the loudest brashest voice shouldn’t talk over others who have something to say.

Surviving Capitalism

I’m done with capitalism.

When I see empty shelves in a retail store like Rite Aid I think the end times are coming soon.

Since March 2021 I’ve carted off at least 20 donation bags of clothing and houseware items to thrift shops.

I simply no longer buy clothes. Except for a couple of items to fill in what’s missing. All I expect to order is a white cotton long sleeve tee shirt.

That’s it. End of story. My days of impulse shopping are rightly over.

In fact I have no need to fill in gaps anymore either. The only pieces I’ll replace are tee shirts because they get shabby after only one or two seasons.

The other feat I’ve achieved is that today I own only 4 lipsticks: a blue red a true red a violet and a deep pink.

Decades ago I bought 22 tubes of lipstick. That was cray-cray.

The authors of Happy Money attest that the fewer items you own the more you’ll like them and be happy with them.

Who has the wherewithal or even just the mindset to spend hours and hours attending to organizing collections of stuff?

Contain the essentials instead of having to rearrange unused items to get to the one useful item you’re looking for. Our shelves drawers and cabinets should not be graveyards for things we don’t use.

I’ll end here with this:

We cannot fall into having a scarcity mentality.

Those of us who are well-off should be checking in on friends and neighbors to see if they need help with groceries or other basic needs.

Mug Shot

I’ve changed my stance in one minor way: I think shopping is OK when you’re bringing home an object that can give you delight and sustain your happiness living in your home.

The mug shown above I bought in a museum gift shop. It holds 12 ounces of water. Cheers me to use the cup. A convenient way of drinking water throughout the day.

How to get happy doesn’t have to require going into credit card debt to fund a beach cruise vacation.

Making art out of the everyday is a simple method to bring ourselves cheer.

Trying one new thing each season could spark joy too. It could be taking a Paint-n-Sip class to see if there’s an Inner Artist clamoring to get out.

Maybe you’re no Picasso and won’t ever be. At least you attempted to have a fun night out and got the chance to see if you like painting.

In the end being good at what you do doesn’t matter. Liking it counts.

In the words of a quote magnet:

Find something you like and do it forever.

That’s the route to self-esteem at any size if you ask me.

Weightlifting

Ruminating over the number on the scale isn’t the way to feel happy and get confidence. So why do women near universally hop on and off the scale on repeat. Allowing the number to dictate our self-worth–or lack of it.

In one year from when I was 22 until I turned 23 I gained 20 pounds. Not happy I was to be 30 pounds overweight. It took me 6 years to lose the weight. In my 40s I gained 10 pounds back.

The fact is my lifestyle isn’t for everyone in terms of how I exercise and what I eat. I don’t think other people have the temperament or wherewithal to follow my lead.

Nor am I a fan of telling others: “Do what I did, and you’ll achieve the same result.”

Where you can hop on and off is my health and fitness blog. Even there I changed the tagline from “Salut! – To Health!” to Mangia Bene Vivere Bene. Italian for Eat Well to Live Well.

The distinction being that a person might not be in prime or ideal health. Yet they can be well and whole in their own way even living with an illness.

In that blog I’ve taken to giving out recipes I’ve found in books and magazines and online. Eat Well to Live Well is my motto. As you can weigh 200 pounds and eating well [at any weight] improves your mood.

I’m shifting away from writing things that sound like being physically fit is the ideal.

The HAES nutrition movement advocates that women can be Healthy At Every Size. Too we should be Happy At Every Size. This takes liking ourselves and standing up against the forces in society conspiring to shame us.

In coming blog entries I’ll talk about how to get happy. Also,. about the beauty and benefit of aging with grace. Not resisting and fighting the wrinkles and LAUGH lines. We were laughing right. No shame in that either.

One Heart One Hand

I bought the ceramic dish above at a reduced cost since the Fourth of July had come and gone. I went back to get a ceramic flag serving tray in the shape of the USA map.

I told a friend: “With all its faults I still think America is a great place to live.”

Sometimes it’s better to leave your home country and come here. That’s because if you stayed where you were and tried to change things nothing would get better.

You owe it to yourself to get out and come to the U.S. and get a green card.

In Central America people were called the Disappeared. One day they ‘d be taken out of their home and go missing and you wouldn’t see them again.

People are often forced to flee their home country because of a condition like that.

In America you can “speak the truth to power.” It might not be effective. You might get doxxed.

Yet we have the ability to use our voices to make a difference and challenge the status quo.

That’s on us to do even if we don’t get the outcome we want.

You have something to say? You shouldn’t be afraid to say it.

I protest in a different way by wearing message tee shirts that proclaim:

Coexist

Fight Like a Girl

Pax Sur la Terre (Peace on Earth).

Dreams, fortune cookies, quote magnets, and song titles empower me too.

I say: Let Freedom Ring.

We’re all in this country together.

The quote E pluribus unum stands for “From many one.”

Together we’re better. Always remember that. We are not each other’s enemies.

United we are stronger than the force of the haters sowing division.

We are beautiful Americans all of us.

Sustaining Ability

I’ve ravaged the internet reading numerous articles about the Three Word Method. The writers each list their three words. It has helped me get clear on my three words.

Like I wrote in the last blog entry I wouldn’t want to buy a $3,000 Louis Vuitton Speedy. It’s not sustainable for the average person to plunk cash or a credit card down on a designer bag.

While cheap clothes are often sewn in sweatshops there’s no guarantee that higher-priced items are made under favorable working conditions either.

After donating 20 bags to thrift stores in the last 5 years I’ve changed my mind about how to shop. Even if I came into a truckload of money I wouldn’t want to spend $200 on a shirt.

In fact I want to start a movement focused on Sustaining Ability. This kind of Sustain-ability has nothing to do with being eco-conscious.

We might clean up the earth down the road. Yet who would want to live on God’s newly green earth if everyone still swilled hatorade and was drunk on fury.

I think of sustainability on a personal not planet level now. By revamping our approach to living our lives and interacting with others we can ameliorate our wellbeing.

This in turn will impact how we treat the earth. Case in point: I no longer need to spring clean after donating everything to charity.

Once we are free of the things “stuffed” everywhere in our homes (often a graveyard for unused objects) we often clear the mental clutter as a result of the physical freedom.

When I got rid of the mounds I also lost pounds (I have no scientific proof that there’s a connection).

Today I’m more interested in what we can do to thrive as human beings on our earth as the planet is now. I would like to be part of a movement to create opportunities for people to recover.

Some of us are in recovery from consumerism!

Others have a mental health or physical or different issue. Whatever a person is in recovery from I think promoting recovery should be the goal first of all before anything else.

I know it was not sustainable for me to buy whatever caught my eye in the store and only remained unworn in my drawers years later.

We have true freedom when we’re not attached to the stuff that weighs us down. I venture to say that there’s a spring in our step and more joy in our hearts when our time is not wasted with the upkeep of material goods.

Lastly I’ll say that there’s only so much we can do to green the earth. We shouldn’t feel ashamed of ourselves for having bought what we bought all these years.

Liking ourselves counts more than whether we have items in our closet that we don’t like. Letting go of the clutter might just improve our mood.

This is the real impact of letting go of what no longer serves us:

We sustain our ability to feel good in a society where Instagram feeds and product marketers and others make us feel bed.

Magnetic Appeal

I turn 59 soon. In the coming weeks I’ll have more to write about what I’ve realized on the cusp of the last year of my fifties. I call my sixties the “This is It!” Decade. I want to go out of my fifties with a bang.

One thing I realized that I’ll share today is that post-50 it’s high time to do not just dream of doing what we want. To make our goals come true we must act true to ourselves. Living as a pale imitation of someone else is the surefire way to waste our precious time on earth and make ourselves ill.

Uncorking our full-bodied selves is the only way to succeed.

I wanted to talk about self-presentation. Angelina Jolie first used this term in an interview in a fashion magazine about her new atelier shop in lower Manhattan.

Self-presentation lies in how we dress in clothes. More than this self-presentation is the act of showing up as yourself wherever you go. This is the only way to live.

Otherwise, ill health is the guaranteed outcome of repressing your real self to get people to like you. They might prefer the you who conforms to how they want you to be. Not the bold assertive champion you long to be.

Yet acting false to yourself will cut you off from experiencing the pure joy that comes from being your real self. Let the rivers of emotion flow that you feel in living your life.

It can seem facile to tell readers to do what the quote magnet above tells us to. I submit that as hard as this is to do (in the face of the shame wars and the bigotry going on) it’s imperative to let your beauty shine through.

The fact that nobody else sees your beauty or mine or thinks that we’re worthy is often shame-inducing when we want others to love and accept us for who we are.

In the face of the judgment, I will always make the case for showing up as yourself whether people like that you do this or not. You are not here to mollycoddle people who are uncomfortable that you take up space. What if you dare not only to exist you demand full equity and inclusion in society.

A person like me is content to be a Visionary trendsetter who doesn’t follow along in the mainstream and in doing what’s popular and following and repeating hearsay.

You might want to be given a shot at having the kind of job and life that is ordinary.

I haven’t met a white picket fence that I wanted to live inside.

Coming up a review of part of the Tabitha Brown book that gets at a common way that a lot of us cower in the face of the cowards who are afraid of the Other of those of us who appear different.

What makes you and I different gives us an advantage.

Seeing the Eclipse

The one thing I did today was spontaneous. At first I didn’t want to view the eclipse. Then I took the chance using the free solar eclipse glasses the New York City public libraries gave out to customers.

This is how the eclipse appeared through the glasses. Another solar eclipse will come around in 21 years. I’ll be 79 then.

It was quite a spectacle in the sky to view the solar eclipse. A moment of transcendent awe on an ordinary Monday afternoon that turned into a Wow!

Bringing the Flavor

At the library I placed on hold the book I Did a New Thing: 30 Days to Living Free by Tabitha Brown the woman featured on the BHG cover above. I’m the first person waiting for the book so I’ll get it first.

Brown talked in the interview with BHG editor Stephen Orr about going on a freedom walk to uncover and express her true self. First by keeping her North Carolina accent intact and not trying to change it.

Brown is an Emmy-award winning actor whose book I’m excited to read. In the interview she talked about finally not caring what other people think of her. She identifies as an “entertainer” her umbrella term for her prolific multiple roles as an actor, influencer, positive lifestyle coach, and businessperson.

If I had to describe myself I would say that I’m a “chief joy officer” who wants to make people feel good. Like Brown with her infectious good humor I’ve chosen the hard path of going on my own freedom walk.

Brown’s journey began when she was in ill health. Her fame took off when her video about eating a TTLA vegan sandwich went viral. Tempeh tomato lettuce and avocado. She is a vegan yet unlike some other vegans won’t judge people who eat chicken and fish.

Like I’ve written before your greatest pain can be the catalyst for figuring out your life’s purpose.

Brown sells with McCormick her own flavorful spice packets. She has vegan and home goods on sale at Target.

BHG is a better magazine now. Though I don’t own a house or have a husband and kids I check out the magazine to read. Precisely for its articles featuring individuals like Tabitha Brown.

By the way I have a New York accent. Tomorrow sounds like tomahrruh and pillow sounds like pilluh. It’s sistuh too not sister as if I’m rapping a song : )