Blogging about One's Reality

An articulate young woman from Mexico, who authors the blog, Not All About Cats, has gifted me with the REALITY Award.  I am supposed to answer five questions and identify several blogs that I believe also deserve the award.  So here we go.

1) If you could change something what would you change?  I would change the images of beauty, success and relationships that are portrayed in the media.  Born in the 50′s, I grew up with a few television channels that broadcast in black and white with pictures that were often fuzzy from being transmitted through the air and received by an antenna on our roof.  Consequently, we did not watch much television and were not inundated with images of “successful” people who have incredible wealth, unattainable beauty, a large circle of friends, a different lover every week, or the latest in fashions.  I worry about how these images have shaped our thinking about ourselves and our lives.

Implicitly, I believe, they are telling us that success and happiness are about: having a job that pays big money; being drop dead beautiful; wearing the latest of fashions; owning the biggest homes and the fastest cars; having uncommitted sex with the hottest of men or women.  Young people in North America today have been bombarded with these images and messages since they were born, from televisions, magazines, music videos and the internet.  I listen to my kids, who are 18, 21 and 33, talk about how young people think today about success, beauty and relationships, and I feel sad in my soul.  

When I grew up, there was not the constant bombardment of media images reinforcing superficial values of success, beauty and relationships.  I remember movies such as “To Kill a Mockingbird“, “The African Queen”, and “It’s a Wonderful Life“; movies that celebrated ordinary people who try to do good in the world; people who care about their communities and justice; people who  stood up for what was right even though it made their lives difficult.

I would like young people to be presented with images and messages that demonstrate that: beauty is about so much more than how they look; courage takes many forms; success is about realizing one’s potential and being true to one’s self; joy comes from relationships with people they love; love is about so much more than physical beauty and financial wealth.

2) If you could repeat an age, what age would it be?  I would like to re-live my twenties, with the knowledge I have today, that: I was beautiful, smart and articulate in my twenties; my intuitive feelings were often spot on; I was capable of becoming of so much more than I was raised to believe I could be; I was like-able and love-able.

3) What one thing really scares you?  Losing my mind.  My grand-mother spent 15 years in a nursing home with Dementia not knowing who we were or where she was in time or space.  My mother has now entered that place in her life.  I find it so sad; it is like losing one’s self while still trapped in one’s body.   It terrifies me to think about living out my last years  not knowing where or who I am and not recognizing the people I love. 

4) What one dream have you not completed yet and do you think you will be able to complete it?  I dream about feeling good about myself; about leaving a meeting or a social gathering without second-guessing myself; without worrying that I said something wrong.  I dream about feeling good enough about myself that I can risk developing new relationships; feel that people might want to get to know me.  I am hopeful that I will get there before I leave this life.

5) If you could be someone else for the day, who would you be?  I would like to be my husband for a day.  After 30 years together, I still don’t understand how he thinks. While I am an open book to him; sharing my unprocessed feelings in a stream of consciousness on an ongoing basis; he remains elusive to me.  He is sweet, sensitive and empathetic, but he does not articulate his feelings.  I often don’t know what is going on with him internally, and I wish I could, if only for a day.

I nominate the following blogs for the REALITY Award:

• I Trust My journey written by a woman who is re-examining her life through her writing at http://itrustmyjourney.wordpress.com/
• The Green Bough written by a spiritual teacher/writer in Toronto who authored the book, The Invitation, at http://oriahsinvitation.blogspot.ca/
• My Spiritual Sabbatical written by a 60-year old woman who has been going through a spiritual journey since finding herself living out of her suitcase in December 2010 at  http://eleanorbrownn.wordpress.com/about/
• My Spiritual Journies written by an Australian who has been under going an intense spiritual awakening since 2012 at  http://myspiritualjournies.wordpress.com/
•  My Journey to Beat Leukemia written by a young mother who was just diagnosed with leukemia 52 days ago at http://journeytobeatleukemia.wordpress.com/