Style over Substance

I’m not one to care overmuch about the appearance of things. I usually drive an older car. As long as it runs and it’s safe, I’m happy. I don’t need big and shiny and new.

I used to wear makeup. I stopped this past summer because it was melting off my face. I never started again, because I find I’m happier without it. My left eye doesn’t tear up all day long anymore. And shoes! I used to wear sexy, strappy heels. Now I aim for comfort. If I’m comfortable, I’m happy.

I know a woman who bakes cookies as a side business. She gives the misshapen, slightly overcooked, not perfectly decorated ones to her friends. “It’a all about presentation,” she tells me.

I see elaborately decorated cakes or fruit/vegetable presentations and while I do admire the artistry–some people are really clever and talented enough to pull it off–I wonder, “Why?” Why go to all that work for something that’s going to be eaten anyway?

Okay, yes, I wash my clothes and shower on a regular bases, even though I know they and I will only get dirty again.  But a clean body and clean clothing are necessities. A cake that took 100 hours to decorate is not. Who am I trying to impress with cosmetics? I shouldn’t be driving a car at all (but I am a hideously spoiled American).

I would rather be known as fair, honest, and kind than stylish.

 

Defining a TV Icon

A celebrity of the past died recently. I heard him referred to as a “television icon.”

What? I looked him up. He was on TV for less than ten years. Sorry folks. That doesn’t make him an icon. I’m not saying he was a bad actor–I wouldn’t know. I’m not saying the program for which he is best known was bad–again, I wouldn’t know.

But I do know he was not an icon.

These people are television icons:

  • Bill Cosby (no matter how you feel about his alleged crimes, he’s still a TV icon. That can’t change)
  • Walter Cronkite
  • Dick Van Dyke
  • Mary Tyler Moore
  • Lucille Ball
  • Bob Newhart
  • Andy Griffith
  • Carroll O’Connor
  • Oprah
  • Betty White

These people are not:

  • Alan Thicke
  • nearly all of the cast of Friends
  • Alan Alda
  • Ted Danson
  • Kelsey Grammer
  • Jon Hamm
  • Bea Arthur
  • Anyone starting our in this millennium–they may be PENDING icons, but they’re not there yet.

 

 

Looking Back

I was leafing through an old note book and came across an exercise in which I was asked to describe my perfect work space.

Bare windows with blinds to close at night. Bare wooden floors. Pale apricot walls. A desk. A great chair.

Laptop computer.

Great audio system. A rocking chair in front of the windows.

I work there whenever I can. My dream schedule–work 7am to 3pm every day. No other people around.

How do I feel working here? Good. Productive. Fitting inside my skin.

Welcomed. I feel welcomed.

I guess it’s still a work in progress.

National Joy Germ Day

Today is National Joy Germ Day. It’s a day specially designated to spread joy. The day and the phrase Joy Germ is the brainchild of a woman named Joan White.

I have actually met and worked with Joan White. When I first started working in local TV, she had her own advertising agency—Joan of Art. In 1981, she came up with the concept of Joy Germs, renamed herself Joy Germ Joan and started infecting the world with a positive mindset. Today there are Joy Germs in every state, in Europe, and in Africa.

In 1981, I was a cynical, callow youth. I thought it was a ridiculous concept, although a couple of my colleagues at the TV station embraced the idea.

Ever wish you could go back in time for a do-over?

Happy Joy Germ Day! Try to infect everyone with whom you come into contact with happiness.