I'm hind-sighted

My children are becoming teenagers.  My teenager has become an adult.  I have become a middle aged woman.  I have some time on my hands.  I have this blog.  I really should have something profound to say at a time like this.  I'm a little out of the habit.  Everything I used to have to say has been eeking out of me one little box at a time on Facebook. It’s amazing how quickly something I never heard of has become a continual daily habit.  Most of the changes that have come with keeping in touch with so many friends old and new have been positive. But I have seen this before.  Therein lays the nugget of truth I want to mine out.

 I just had a birthday. Upon reflection I have discovered that often I did not realize the difference between wisdom and trend; popular opinion and a refreshing wind of change.  It may be too late to save myself from feathered bangs, self help books and low fat foods, but maybe I can save my kids. 

 Once upon a time we only bought water bottles full of distilled water for our iron.  Now they are an integral part of my life I have to give up to save the planet.  Oh, and the importance of drinking that much water to dilute toxins in the body is disputed while it is proven that the plastic baking in the sun releases toxins that are deadly. 

Remember way back before the stock market and the economy became real and sinister, when we were all trying really hard to look sensible and self respecting by buying cool clothes and things?  I tried really hard to fall in line or fake it on that one, though I never quite got the hang of it.  Now I have to give it up. It is just bad taste. I love how everything good is bad and vice-versa.  I can’t wait till weight is en vogue (and in Vogue).

 I have taught my kids to distrust the newest latest greatest, while ignoring that advice myself.  This way, if they do what I say and not what I do and it turns out poorly, I can say, “well, I did not mean for you to take it to that extreme, look how I do things!”  If they follow my example and ignore my advice and it goes badly I can say, “Well, I TRIED to warn you!”

This is my new strategy in life. I have given up strategy in favor of justification.  Hindsight is 20/20 for a reason.  I have always said, “I can live my life any way I choose to remember it”.  Feathered bangs - framed my face.  Water bottle landfill, toxic plastic usage was important to bring about the necessary changes in our tap water and now that the competition has forced them to make improvements, it is not worth the risk to drink from water bottles. Tap water is 75% safer than it was in the 90’s.  (I just pulled that statistic out of my uh…toxic land fill. It is ok to use creative license with statistics). 

Self help books were good to read because they gave me something to do instead of living and  they protected me from the dangerous alternative – living life and making mistakes without having someone imperfect to blame until I was ready to accept the fact that we are all imperfect and mistakes are inevitable. 

As for trying and failing at spending enough money or losing enough weight to be all that I was told I should be…well…I always suspected it! I told you so!  “I always suspected it” and “I told you so” are the dynamic duo of this new hind sighted wisdom.  “I never truly believed it” rounds out the set nicely.  Don’t worry if it makes no sense, we are talking about wisdom, not logic here.

No matter what change or challenge we are facing individually or as a nation, we can rest assured that hindsight personal and national will prove our greatest ego ally.  In the meantime, I will be on Facebook perfecting my ability to daily spin my life in the way I want my significant others to perceive it.  If it turns out this is a mistake at least I have my justification ready  - but all my friends were doing it!