Go For the Gold!

I said in my last post that I love the Olympics.

And I do.

Totally.

Winter or summer, doesn't matter to me.

I get such a rush out of watching these kids (and at 43 I'm including anyone under the age of 30 as a "kid") doing something they are so passionate about!

I always prefer amateur sports to professional sports. I love watching people compete that are still enthralled with their sport. Money means nothing. Of course some of them play and train with the hopes that they may some day make money with their ability, but for right now they play for pride.

Pride in their school, representing their families, love of their country.

For some of these young men and women, the Olympic dream culminated with the opening ceremony. They knew from all their other competitions that they probably didn't have a snowballs chance at a medal.

But they made it. Made it to the Olympic Games and they would do their best no matter what.

Because all eyes were on them.

The eyes of the world.

We watched skiers and skaters fall. We saw the best efforts fall short.

But we also saw the best and brightest and no matter how they did we were watching dreams come true.

The dream of just competing.

For so many of these athletes this is it. This IS the lifelong dream. Slumber parties and camping trips were replaced when they were growing up by hours and hours of practice. Before school. After school. Training in facilities away from their families. Year after year, competition after competition.

All for just a couple of minutes.

For some, that is all there was.

One race. One jump.

One and done.

And for that poor young man from Georgia, not even that. Killed doing what he loved to do at a place he had dreamed of being. But he had not actually gotten to compete yet.

So, as I sit here waiting on the Gold Medal hockey game to start and will watch the closing ceremonies tonight, I will also wonder about tomorrow.

For those that will not compete again. How will they transition into a "normal" life? A regular job or a standard school schedule.

How will they become like us?

Spectators. Watching another generation of Wheaties boxes.

Waving our flags, hands over our hearts, holding our breaths, willing the young men and women to go faster and higher.

How indeed.

You Just Have to Want It!

Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.

Who was President during World War I?

Name one of the writers of the Federalist Papers.

What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?


Recently one of my friends posted on Facebook that she and her son had been invited to, and attended, a naturalization ceremony for new US citizens.

How cool is that!?!

Another friend of mine has a sister-in-law that was also made a citizen last spring.

I decided to look up some of the test questions to see how I would do. I am pleased to say that I would have done OK. But the questions above did give me pause.

I've been thinking a lot lately about "being" an American. What it means. Why it is sought.

It is an honor and a privilege.

I totally "get" wanting to be an American. Until recently, whenever I would answer polls about issues facing America I would typically respond that illegal immigration is one of our biggest problems.

I understand why people would want to come and live in America. BE an American.

I just wish they would do it according to the rules.

So I really think it would be cool to see the ceremony of those that do earn their citizenship. Those that work for it.

Because really, aren't those the people that we want to be citizens? Those that want it bad enough to wait and work for it. Citizenship should be earned, not just handed out.

I saw the other night that one of our Olympic athletes is a naturalized citizen.

And here is my thing on the Olympics. I love them! I love the sports but I love the national pride even more.

Team USA.

Imagine, loving a country so much that you not only give up you own home country - leaving behind family, friends and a language you understand, you study and pass the exam and take the oath, and then you represent your new home in the biggest sporting event in the world.

Very cool.

I will admit that one of the items on my Bucket List is to live in foreign country for a while. 6 months. Maybe a year.

Italy springs to mind.

But I don't want to give up my citizenship to do so. Just a nice long visit.

Because I know what it means to an American.

Freedom.

Freedom to speak my mind. Freedom to have a say in my government. Freedom to worship as I chose, where I chose. Freedom to be anything I want to be, wear what I want to wear, go where I want to go.

I am proud to be an American. I am proud of our country and what we represent. I am not always proud of our representatives, but I am proud of what we are.

I still, every single time, get tears in my eyes when I hear the "Star Spangled Banner".

Because we are the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

So, I say Welcome! to all the people who have consciously decided to join our great nation they way they are supposed to. To those that have just chosen to come to America by other methods, I say Adios!

I Love You

I have, like most people, a morning ritual. Mine includes drinking my coffee while checking my email and reading my morning devotional.

I sat down this morning to see in my list of unopened emails "Hayden McConnell has sent you a message on Facebook."

Intrigued, I opened that email first.

"I can't write on your wall for some reason but I was going to say I love you, so.... I love you."

This young man will be 17 in a few months.

I can't tell you how it made my heart absolutely SOAR this morning to read those words!

8 letters. 3 small words. One huge reaction.

I'm good for the day now.

Puppies can't get on my nerves - and on Day 11 of being a single mom they have managed to get on my nerves a lot lately - work is not going to stress me out; nothing.

I am loved.

Those words are always important to say. No matter what. But it seems like they get a little extra kick when they aren't expected.

I mean, Billy and I tell each other we love each other many times a day. I tell my mom and my sister most of the time when we hang up the phone. But to get it out of the blue from an unexpected source, well, that is just the topper.

Hopefully he'll never read this and know that I told the whole world but I just couldn't help it.

Furthermore, I think I'll spread the joy by telling each every one of you

I Love You.

I mean that. I really do.

Too Good to Be Real

This is kind of a crazy society we're living in. I've been thinking about how to best approach this subject.

You see, I'm a little mixed on some of it.

A recent cover of People Magazine showed a young (23) television personality who underwent 10, yes 10, plastic surgeries at one time.

And this was not her first time under the knife.

Nor will it be her last. She still wants bigger breasts.

Ten surgeries.

This, to me, is 1) having more money than sense, and 2) such a sad commentary on how people (male and female) can view themselves.

Who, at 23, truly and honestly needs 10 plastic surgeries? She had her ears pinned back, chin reduction, liposuction, nose job, breast enhancement, you name it. And y'all, she looked wonderful to start with.

She was already a television celebrity.

I don't get it. But she said she wanted to feel "perfect".

I say perfection starts on the inside.

And there are no surgeries for that.

But it shows you some of the issues that we all face. She has a career that many people dream of, she is newly married (for the record, her husband was very much against the surgeries but supported her right to do it), and is living a life that many would envy.

Yet she wasn't happy.

Now, what part of this am I mixed about?

I don't agree with what she did, but I respect her right to do it.

I understand what it's like to want to look different. I wish I were taller, but there is no surgery for that. High heels are the best I can do on that front.

I do color my hair when I get dissatisfied with it.

I'll try every product that Oil of Olay can make to try and get rid of bags under my eyes or wrinkles.

And while the impetus for me to work on losing the 50 pounds I've dropped (so far anyway) was for health reasons I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the way I looked.

But I have never suffered from the confidence problems that this young woman obviously does. I never really associate what I look like with who I am.

I am me. Wife, daughter, sister, friend, "mother" to the puppies, CPA, partner. Doesn't matter if I'm blond, brunette, short, tall, whatever. All of these I accomplished because of who I am on the inside, who and what I was raised to be (thanks Mom and Dad!), how I view myself.

Unfortunately, though, that kind of self-awareness doesn't always translate. So, I actually feel sorry for this young lady.

Sorry that she can't see how beautiful she was before. Not that she isn't beautiful now, but it just isn't the same.

Sorry that she didn't opt to work on the inside first, before spending all that time on the shell.

Because, in reality, our bodies are simply that - shells. Delicate, fragile shells that hold an even more fragile and delicate soul on the inside.

And, like so many other things in this world, it is only the inside that counts.

A Deficit of Trust

This phrase was one of the few I picked up the other night in the President's State of the Union address.

It also one of the few things I actually agreed with.

I have to admit that I didn't listen very closely, though. (Every time he has opened his mouth lately the stock market has dropped and we lose money. I'm not sure who he thinks owns all these Big Banks he keeps blasting but I am one. Middle class. Me.)

I trust nothing and no one associated with Washington DC. Either side of the aisle. Makes no difference to me.

Deficit of trust also very aptly describes what I think a lot of people in this country feel. I never thought I'd actually agree with Geraldo Rivera on much but he said something on Fox News the other day that is exactly what I've been saying. The bipartisanship in this country right now is downright depressing. It's as if no one in Washington DC has an original or independent thought.

I suggest this experiment. Have all members of both Houses go to their offices and close the doors. Slide a bill (obviously a thin one, not the thousand page tomes they are accustomed to) under the door for their consideration. They have to read it and vote in a given time period. During that time they are not permitted to see or talk to anyone.

No phone calls. No committee meetings. No memos from the party leaders.

Just them and their own thoughts.

At the end of the time limit they pass the bill back under the door with a yes or no vote.

Wonder what would happen.

Would some of them even vote? Or would they just try to defer? Say they need more time? I'm certainly curious.

I realize that I've said all this before but I can't help it. I am so incredibly disappointed in all the current leadership that I literally want to send everyone home and just start over.

No old boys club that way. No "that's the way we do things around here".

Nothing but fresh faces, not yet jaded by the process, and some fresh ideas.

I'm sure that in that whole bunch there are some good people. The law of averages demands it. But they don't get the attention.

Obviously they are not making enough noise. All we ever hear about are the ones leading the charges and making the deals.

Which is why I don't trust them. If they were truly doing the job they were "hired" to do we would see the results, not have to be told. But we are told, every single day, about all the garbage going on along the Beltway.

I wish I felt differently. I really do.

This is such an incredible country. All the freedoms and privileges. All the opportunities we have. I really want to love the leaders and the work they do. I want to believe they are working for the American people.

But I don't.

I can't.

I have a deficit of trust.