I have fond memories of curling up with my mom and reading books together, including The Bible. She taught me to be charitable to others. I haven't always lived up to her expectations, but I try.
I have a confession to make: I love women
I don't like unwarranted snarky slams on any woman's appearance. I sympathize with women; they have a much higher standard than men. We men have it easy. We can throw on whatever clothes we want and nobody cares. Our wrinkles and grey hair make us look experienced and could easily convey to younger women experience, prosperity and calm self-assuredness. Women don't get off so easily. We're even forgiven a few extra pounds, while a woman's weight is mercilessly commented upon, and not in a good way.
Society demands they always look perfect. I appreciate the beauty of the hand that rocks the cradle, whatever state the woman may be in. Pregnant women are not misshapen in my eyes, they are flowering founts of humanity, blessed by God to share in his creation. Look at an older woman, and you can always see beauty there, if you look with a sense of humanity.
I detest Hillary Clinton's politics, but I have a grudging admiration for her. She is smart and she is a hard worker. I have known a few Colonels over the years, all conservative, who had substantive interactions with Ms. Clinton. Every one said she was personable, warm and in complete command of the facts.
But to get back to the point of this post... I like the Drudge Report, but I didn't like the way they poked fun at Ms. Clinton's appearance. I admire Hillary for stepping out without makeup. I also thought the slams on her for partying in a Colombian nightclub were so much ridiculous sour grapes. I don't get the criticism. By all accounts she and her entourage kept their pants on, which can't be said for the Secret Service. She was mingling and having fun with the locals, which is what our state department personnel should be doing.
So happy Mothers Day, to all mothers out there, including Hillary, and most especially, to my own dear Mom.
Daily Mail - Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton's Au Natural Moment
A Refreshing Image
Society demands they always look perfect.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that men understand how much pressure we women are!
Work on being more attractive, and men like us. But other women are often very catty when one improves her personal appearance, particularly if the improvement is weight loss -- and even if the woman who has become more attractive has no contact whatsoever with other women's spouses or eligible males. I found out about that curious phenomenon when I became "a thin person" in 1985.
Wonderful post, Kurt. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about your Mom, in particular, and women, in general. Very astute observations, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteVery nice, Kurt. Your thoughts about your own mother are downright endearing. I can see how you got your store of unusual sensitivity and graciousness to others.
ReplyDeleteHowever, your article would have been much improved and done greater service to the truth, if you had moved these words slightly to the left, and placed them neatly under the picture of Her Heinous:
I have a confession to make: I love women
~ FreeThinke
Thanks, FT, although I don't think sensitivity is one of my strong suits.
ReplyDeleteYou might be pleasantly surprised -- in ways that few of us would -- if you saw yourself as others see you, Kurt.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who could conjure up gracious sentiments regarding Hillary Rodham Clinton is a rare bird, indeed.
Like the chivalrous Knights of Old, however, I think you may be burdened with a somewhat-starry-eyed, overly-idealized concept of femininity.
That's all right. It reflects well on you. In a world grown cynical and hard-hearted it's better by far to be uxorious than misogynistic.
So, Happy Mother's Day! I'm sure it's bound to be a Great Event in your house.
~ FreeThinke
A very warm thank you for this beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteYes, for the most part, we women are judged first by how we look and second by what we accomplish.
It's refreshing to read this, especially coming from the opposite sex. I don't know if you have any sons, but whether you have sons or daughters, you're giving them a beautiful gift by promoting this very human value.
Today, my special thoughts go to the mother I never knew. From what my sisters have told me over the years, she was intelligent, vivacious, and loving woman.
Blessings to all of our mothers.
Thank you Shaw. I have daughters and a son, and I strive to get them to rise above the superficiality of so much of our culture.
ReplyDeleteIf all you great adimrers of Hillary Rodham Clinton just can't enough of your idolette, I guarantee you will thoroughly enjoy this website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zombietime.com/really_truly_hillary_gallery/
};-)>
~ FreeThinke
A Few Quotations from Notable Women on Motherhood:
ReplyDelete"I looked on child rearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world and one that demanded the best I could bring to it."
~ Rose Kennedy
"Sometimes when I look at all my children, I say to myself, 'Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin.”
~ Lillian Carter - at the 1980 Democratic Convention, where her son was nominated for a second term as US President
"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much."
~ Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
”The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant -- and let the air out of the tires."
~ Dorothy Parker
"Spend at least one Mother's Day with your respective mothers before you decide on marriage. If a man gives his mother a gift certificate for a flu shot, dump him."
~ Erma Bombeck
Submitted by FreeThinke
FT, you just don't get it (although we know you really do).
ReplyDeleteHow many 'bad' pictures of any of us would surface if we had a camera pointed at us 4-6 hours of every day while we went about our daily business?
The photographers take hundreds if not thousands of photographs at every event. The fact that 'bad' pictures get published says far more about the photographer than the subject - petty, and shallow.
I agree with SF, and not just regarding Hilary, about photographers who publish 'bad' photos... what's the saying? "The art reflects the Artist"?
Happy Mother's Day!
Politics aside, I bet it would be fun to party with Hilary in a Columbian nightclub.
Cheers!
Sorry, Finntann, but I have yet to see a good picture of Hillary. The enemedia certainly did its best to make her look fetching during the build up to the Clinton White House Fiasco and beyond, but it never worked. The poor creature just happened to have been born with a face that would stop a clock. Short of asking her donning a burka, nothing could be done to improve her appearance.
ReplyDeleteAs for partying, I'd rather party with a den of rattlesnakes -- I'd feel a lot safer. ;-)
~ FT
Nice post Silver and yet draws controversy?
ReplyDeleteI was talking to a buddy today when he mentioned that Duck Dunn of the MGs passed. Now how does this mesh with the topic? If you want to hear a rock steady soul groove just listen to the MGs backing Otis Redding on Try a Little Tenderness. Can't be beat.
ReplyDeleteNo how did we move from that to L'il Wayne and Stupid 'ho. I don't know but we would be well served to understand it.
Now don't blame the 60's. I'd just as soon be back in the day listening to Otis. So just how and when did it happen?
When did we get so mean tempered? Myself, I think we have to admit that women (and others) gaining some of that freedom that everyone talks about had something to do with it all. But its still a tough environment for a lot of women.
My mother died before I reached my teens and I don't have much of a memory one way or the other of her. As a result women have been a bit of a cipher to me. Part of the landscape but I never felt women were obligated to go out of their way for men. I think that's still a minority view.
That's sad news, Ducky. I have to confess, the only reason I know about Duck Dunn is because I was a Blues Brothers fan.
ReplyDeleteTo A Muthah We Know Too Well
ReplyDeleteHating you for many’s now a hobby ––
Incisive, bossy, proud iconoclast.
Lusting after power, you may lobby
Loudly for the the poor –– the lowest caste ––
Amassed -- applauding at the Polling Gate.
Railing at the Rich, you scorn their gold.
You would have us be Slaves of the State
Cheering as our lives become controlled ––
Lost –– in endless snarls of red tape.
Inventiveness to you should harnessed be
Not to bring fulfillment, but to rape
The profit from creative energy.
O, Self-Appointed Goddess of the Ill,
No one can afford to pay your Bill!
~ FreeThinke - The Sandpiper - Autumn, 1996
Christopher,
ReplyDeleteHow could imagine post at a CONSERVATIVE-LIBERTARIAN blog saying nice things about HILLARY CLINTON that would NOT generate controversy?
Proof, I suppose, that if you hang around long enough and keep your face in the news, eventually people will accept you and stop questioning your bona fides.
Or, put another way, if there's a turd in the punchbowl at every party you attend, eventually you will accept the presence of turds in punchbowls as normal, and possibly even "fashionable."
To this we've come.
GOD, HELP AMERICA!!!
~ FreeThinke
Nicely said Silver, happy mothers day to all the moms out there.
ReplyDeleteMy artistic son just presented my wife with a Picasso-esque Mothers Day drawing. Kinda looks like a cross between demoiselles d'avignon and Guernica. The head looks like that of a mandrill and one breast is blimp-like and the other is a deflated balloon, and Mrs Silverfiddle enjoyed it very much and embraced him and thanked him. Love conquers all... I guess...
ReplyDeletePhilip Larkin - Mother, Summer, I
ReplyDeleteMy mother, who hates thunder storms,
Holds up each summer day and shakes
It out suspiciously, lest swarms
Of grape-dark clouds are lurking there;
But when the August weather breaks
And rains begin, and brittle frost
Sharpens the bird-abandoned air,
Her worried summer look is lost,
And I her son, though summer-born
And summer-loving, none the less
Am easier when the leaves are gone
Too often summer days appear
Emblems of perfect happiness
I can't confront: I must await
A time less bold, less rich, less clear:
An autumn more appropriate.
Shaw...I'm so sorry you didn't know your mother...it really pained me to read that....it's a testament to your sisters that they kept her memory alive for you. And a testament to her that she was a mother deserving of such glowing adjectives. Since I have many sisters, your comment hit home. We're lucky enough to still have Mom, and your comment reminded me how lucky I am. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSF: I thought the jabs at Hillary for going out for a night of fun at the club were ridiculous, too. And do you know they only stayed for thirty minutes? And I don't like the jokes about her 'fat butt', etc..very few men get insulted like that.
I do have to say that I wish she'd cut her hair as it looks sloppy and even unprofessional these days...she looks very neat and attractive when it's short, etc. Just a personal thing with me to expect our public servants to represent us well by looking their neatest and best.
I don't admire her viewpoints but I am impressed that the conservative Colonels spoke so highly of her. Nice to hear.
A Feminazi's Legacy
ReplyDeleteBlithely terminating family life
In mad impulse to boost her ego strength
The little woman ceased to be a wife.
Told by pop psychologists at length
Existence as a mother was a scam ––
Robbing women of Fulfillment’s joys ––
Outmoded –– overrated –– a flimflam ––
Like childhood with no candy and no toys.
Deserted and dumbfounded the poor father ––
Bereft of help –– was left alone to raise ––
In sorrow and chaotic endless bother ––
The little ones perplexed and in a daze.
Children so deserted often grow
Harpooned by every blade of grass they mow.
~ FreeThinke - March, 2012
Larkin's poem is exquisitely crafted. His work may be enigmatic, but it's always beautiful.
ReplyDelete~ FT
Silver, you're a good man.
ReplyDeleteJMJ
Ingratiating words –– honeyed and prosaic
ReplyDeletePossess the vital force –– of a mosaic.
~ FT
Hi SF, we do mother's day on a different date over here but hope you had a brilliant one. Your son's drawing sounds excellent, and particularly impressive since I understand he's only seventeen? ;)
ReplyDeleteDuck Dunn was a side-man, so you're not really meant to know who he is... he's famous to other bass players, though.
Thanks Jersey, and you gone up in esteem in my eyes since we've discovered you're a restaurateur.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post SF. And who objectifies woman more than Hollywood?
ReplyDeleteI too am blessed to still have my mom at 81. I can't imagine life without her since she has always been my best friend.
By the way I am coloring my hair tonite.
Jersey, ditto on what SF said about your cookin' ! I'd like to hear more about it...the kind of food, etc... I hope you had as good a night last night as you'd hoped! (or is that too capitalistic of me to say?)
ReplyDeletebut seriously...I wish you the best.
Saccharine sentiments set the teeth on edge
ReplyDeleteLike roughly pruned parameters of a garden hedge.
~ FT
I can't even begin to thank you for this post!
ReplyDeleteWe are under so much pressure to stay thin, stay fit, exercise, eat right and to always look good. Well, that doesn't always happen. Some of us don't have that high metabolism and have to fight to keep the weight off, I am one of them. I am 4'11. So any extra pounds will show immediately! And there are days I wish I could just quit and eat all the Jalapeno Cheetos I want, darn it!!
Unfortunately, we live in a society that wants women to be super thin and to always have makeup on and their hair done.
Yeah, we aren't step-ford wives. We are human. And at least, I can say, that in God's eyes, we are all beautiful regardless of what man thinks of us.
God bless you!
Thanks for the kind words, Leticia!
ReplyDelete"Cleanliness is next to godliness."
ReplyDeleteMaking an effort to look one's best whenever one appears in public is not a sign of vanity, but rather one of respect and consideration for others.
Making the necessary effort to look as attractive and well-put-together as possible is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
My mother and all her friends went to the hairdresser faithfully once a week. Mother was hardly a clothes horse, and could never have been thought vain, but she made sure even her most informal outfits were color coordinated.
It was the custom sixty years ago, but aside from that it was a gesture of respect to the community at large.
I see too many women -- and men too -- walking around looking like so many unmade beds -- unkempt, unwashed, uncaring -- frankly insolent in their utter self-absorption. Casualness is one thing; slovenliness is another.
When people took greater pride in their appearance -- when dress codes were enforced in schools and men were not allowed to enter high-quality restaurants without a jacket and tie, the world was a far more agreeable, encouraging, stimulating place than it is today.
I was brought up never to go out the door to any kind of "function" without bathing first, combing and brushing my hair, putting on clean clothes and making sure my shoes were properly shined.
When we took pride in our appearance, we also took pride in our society. We greeted each other politely, made pleasant small talk, passed the time of day pleasantly, and often dropped in to visit one another briefly, and were always served a cup of tea or coffee and some sort of food. It was never demanded, but it was expected, something you did graciously, whether you particularly felt like it or not.
Such codes of conduct had a salubrious effect on all involved, believe me.
Just as most people still brush their teeth and wash their groin and armpits to avoid halitosis and body odor, we took it a couple of steps farther and made considerable effort to avoid looking ugly and disheveled.
Today, dandruff, crusty secretions at the corners of the eyes, greasy, stringy, uncontrolled hair, snot hanging out of the nostrils, and a general aura of grubbiness are "accepted."
NOT BY ME!
Sorry, but I think The New Normal -- a product of the Counter Culture in the era of Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll -- is revolting.
~ FreeThinke