July 17, 2020 – “She doesn’t even know you.”
I
have been busy finishing the paved driveway and now sidewalks to match. Yes it
is a masterpiece even if I say that myself.
Yes, I did it all by myself, one
brick at a time, with my husband as my cheerleader.
Yes,
I am proud of it and have every right to be proud of it, as it was an enormous
undertaking. I will blog about it in the
near future with pictures.
We
have all been in this pandemic since March and for many it is tiresome, as
their wings have been clipped. As for
me, I am discovering I am more of an introvert than I realized, once I got used
to the reduced shopping, we have been able to manage nicely.
Notice
to friends and family – I don’t think this COVID19 is a hoax, I believe it is
real and dangerous and I believe in masks, disinfectants, and social
distancing. I have my opinion and you
can have yours. That is what American
freedom is all about and last I knew I lived in America, the home of free
speech and freedom.
I
can entertain myself easily with books, gardening, sewing, crafts, or simply
sitting outside in the shade listening to the birds chirping, catching a
refreshing breeze, or watching the butterflies flutter from flower to flower.
This
week, I received an impatient telephone message, the second one from an acquaintance.
Out of courtesy I decided answer it instead of ignore it. I replied with a text
that we were okay and well.
Short
of having a wellness check police officer arrive at my door, I was the gracious
one and extended myself, to calm this person.
Let
me put it as delicately at I can, the situation didn’t go well is an understatement
and I voiced my disappointment and anger to a dear friend, my private
counsellor for these instances. She is
the one I call to vent, or rant, or rave about personal affronts, slights, or
injustices.
All
my life, since I left home to marry my husband, we have taken the attitude of “island
onto ourselves”. We don’t require anyone
else. We don’t need to socialize daily
or weekly with another couples or people.
Over
the years, I have relaxed this island attitude as we both have no family in the
area, and I have made several friends, and my husband has had many golfing
friends.
My
lifeline used to be weekly letters from my Mom. She passed away a few years
back and now I only have my brother, Ken.
He,
too, is more alone now, as he lost his wife of 45 years the year before
last. We talk often now and I’ve
commented on more than one occasion, that “he is all I have now” burdening him
with an overwhelming responsibility. He
has children and grandchildren, whereas, I do not.
Our
parents were self-sufficient and we were raised to be self-sufficient. They taught us to not expect your friends or
neighbors to pitch in and DO for us what we should be doing for ourselves was
their teaching. They also drummed into
our heads that there is no such thing as a free lunch – there are always
strings attached.
This
is a Yankee attitude that you should be taking care of your own affairs and
that you should keep your own counsel that my husband and I have subscribed to
for decades. Yes, we keep secrets, yes
we don’t air our dirty linen as the phrase is coined.
We
learned that privacy and closed-mouth-ness from our parents. We don’t ask for advice, I will clarify that,
we seldom ask for advice and we abhor unsolicited advice and find it an affront
to our sensibilities. When we are asked
to give advice it is usually predicated with, you don’t want our opinion.
A
perfect example of who we are can be summed up with the phrase, we’ve never
asked anyone for a loan except from a bank, and it is on rare occasions that we
ask for a favor.
We’ve
made our island, I like our island, and we continue to safeguard our island
like fierce bobcats.
When
I was venting, my good friend was quick to assess the situation, knew exactly
what had set me off, and said,
“It
is Summer, you are out in your gardens where you always are. She doesn’t even know you.”
That
phrase was, as simplistic as a shiny penny in a parking lot that needed to be
fetched up and admired for the luck of it, and thankful to add to my million-dollar
life that I’ve made for myself.
Correct:
The impatient caller doesn’t know me.
Yes, my gardens are me and if you don’t know
that about me, you don’t know anything about me.
No, I don’t answer the phone, ninety percent
of the time they are solicitation robot calls. If you want me, leave a message,
that is what the answering machine is for – leave a message and I will decide
if I need to get back to you. I am at no
one’s beck and call, remember, I am an island.
I
like my attitude that we don’t need anyone or want anyone. It may not be realistic, but that is how we
feel. It may have to change in the
future, but that is the future, not
right now.
When
we want to, we know how to send a carrier pigeon or step into a canoe and
paddle off our island for contact with the outside world.
No comments:
Post a Comment