Random Thoughts by Shelley: Cooking up some aphorisms

And herein lies the danger as well as the appeal of the aphorism. A statement can be so well put that its cogency is entirely dependent on its formulation, but as soon as we reflect on it we may come to another conclusion. – Arthur Krystal

Week 8 in 49 Weeks ‘til I’m 50 – Ready, Set, it’s all about A FOCUSed plan to get there!

Aphorisms for the aging process seems appropriate don’t you agree? I admire those people who can make pithy comments without apparently thinking too hard. My husband is like that. I told him that my blog this week was about aphorisms and wanted his input. He thought for a moment and said to me, “Don’t bother me I’m pithying.” Enough said I guess. He can be such a funny curmudgeon. Perhaps he should be a main character in this week's blog?

So what does aphorism mean?

"There is nothing more difficult to define than an aphorism." – Umberto Eco

Well, on second hand, there apparently is a definition. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/aphorism

I think aphorisms are funny. At 49 approaching 50 it is a perfect time to reflect and eject into the future by noticing the pithy discoveries made along the way. The things that have made you who you are and prepared you for the future are moments of pithiness. I also call them moments of joy.

Let’s see if reading some of my favorite “quoted” aphorisms gets us thinking about the past and the future at the same time:

"There is truth in wine and children." – Plato (Oh boy…I’d say that’s very true).

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." – Sun Tzu (Very wise statement, how many times in life have you tried to keep those enemies at a distance and it has come to bite you in the ____?)

"The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple." – Rebecca West (Life in and of itself is complicated. I think we need to be able to forget something, why not the simple things? Wait, making life less complicated is by simplifying things…)

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." – Kurt Vonnegut. (There are so many things in life I could apply this to. How about job interviews or job performance reviews - both as the boss and as the employee; as a student and as the teacher; as a parent or a child; as a 49 year old dressed in 20 year old hand-me-up clothing, but it is a free wardrobe.).

"Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise." – Alice Walker (Think of all the adventures had when the most fun was on a free day at a free event.)

"The only way to fight nostalgia is to listen to somebody else’s nostalgia." – Pete Hamill (This one hit home to me when I think back to my own nostalgic feelings of losing my mom as I went through all her nostalgic belongings.)

"Life corrects the errors of logic." – Marty Rubin (How many times can you look back and say to yourself, “well it seemed like the logical thing to do at the time.”?)

Okay, you get the gist right? I would say that life presents us with many moments you could coin as an aphorism. Let’s see if I can write a few of my own as we prepare ourselves for the next phase of this journey to 50.

Last night as my husband (who spoils me daily) was cooking dinner, I thought back to the days when our children were little and I was a stay at home mom. It took all the energy I could muster to cook one more meal. It wasn’t that I couldn’t cook it was that I was tired of cooking. It wasn’t a creative experience any more, it became a chore. I'd have creative moments after I read a book or two. One of my all time favorites was Confessions of an Organized Homemaker by Denise Schofield. http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Organized-Homemaker-Secrets-Uncluttering/dp/1558703616

My husband was always better at it and would save me on the days when I simply gave up. I personally was content with a bag of chips and some salsa. You can’t feed a family that way though. (Shhh, don’t tell him, but it’s a little secret, both my kids must have seen me do that meal technique enough to embrace it themselves on occasion.). Oh…there’s a pithy comment, “Well, that’s an interesting technique.” I’ve said that when I don’t want to offend someone but want them to think about it just the same. A perfect moment is when the customer service person is less than a customer service person.

Back to my husband and dinner last night, he had gotten to my point of dreading cooking meals now that we are empty nesters. Remember, I’d be fine with chips and salsa or hummus to add a twist. Cooking for me is not a challenge. I’m happy with anything he comes up with. I guess that could be frustrating if you’d rather have someone who requests a dish to prepare, versus having to come up with something on your own all the time. Yesterday he found a new website with great recipes that apparently fired him up a bit.

Enter in a new recipe and a new pan and we’re back to that old excitement in cooking. Aphorism on cooking: No matter how many meals you’ve cooked, a new pan and a new recipe will make it fun all over again. It was delicious! Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, back to aphorisms.

A few more of my aphorisms for you to ponder:

You will teach your children as much as they will teach you.
You will laugh until you cry and cry until you laugh.
Amorphous piles are created in one’s lifetime.
The aging process, no matter the medium, has its ruts and grooves.
The more you do something, the easier it gets.

Is it just me, (probably), but I think aphorisms are fun and I can write them after all! Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the aphorisms of your life. Next week we’ll begin looking at the Foundations to succeed at being 50.

PS – Photography this week was so much fun for me. I had the opportunity to volunteer at work to take portraits, still shots and action shots. I applied the techniques I’ve been learning by shooting RAW with my camera in Manual mode. It would have been easier to simply set it on Portrait mode, but I kept thinking of Jared’s advice from http://froknowsphoto.com/. The camera will work better for you if you tell it what to do, versus it choosing for you. And...volunteer your time to practice what you're learning.

My photography aphorism: Practice creates permanence, not necessarily perfection. I’m permanently convinced I love shooting in the RAW.