Peonies and Permanency

April 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Pink Peony

a pink Peony

As a native North Carolinian, I appreciate publications that highlight the wonderful aspects of my home state.  One such pub is Our State magazine.

I recently enjoyed reading the article, “The Peony Cure,” about Ricardo and Suzanne Fernandez’s Wildcat Ridge Farm in Clyde, N.C. and the peonies that bloom there during a season that is extremely temporary – it lasts only three weeks (if you’re reading this post today, April 29, and live in N.C., there’s still time for you to make the trip to the farm to see the peonies in full bloom.)

The peonies of Wildcat Ridge Farm are beautiful yet temporary things.  Do you think the temporary quality of their bloom life enhances their beauty?

It seems that so many of us experience mere moments of incredible beauty and joy in life – moments that can never be relived…moments such as hearing your firstborn’s initial cry.

What beautiful but short-lived things have you experienced in the world?  Do you admire those things, or do you resent the fact that those things of beauty could not last?

Also, have you experienced beautiful but short-lived relationships?  If so, do you believe that those relationships were like the peonies by nature and meant to be temporary?

In the 1988 tune Circle, American singer-songwriter Edie Brickell sang the lyric, “Everything is temporary anyway.”  Do you agree?

In your opinion, which things of beauty and otherwise in your life are temporary and which are lasting? And, are you making a permanent mark in this world?

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The Land of the Free and Lost

April 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Runaway train

a Runaway train

The issue of lost children resurfaced in America again this week as national media coverage centered on a more than three decades old missing child case, the case of Etan Patz.

Etan was just six years old when he disappeared on May 15, 1979, about a block away from his home in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, and he has never been found.  Etan was one of the first missing children whose face was shown on thousands of milk cartons in an effort to locate him – a technique that became widely used by those searching for missing children in the years that followed.

Do you remember seeing the images of missing children displayed on milk cartons? I remember the images and recognizing the disturbing irony of a milk carton as a communications channel.

I mean…what’s more synonymous with the apple-pie, wholesome view of America than milk?  Yet, the images of missing children on milk cartons seemed to blatantly run counter to that image and, instead, pointed to an ugly, unclean and hidden side of America.  The images silently screamed to all of us in America at our breakfast tables, “we don’t live in a pretty, clean milk-and-cookies sort of world.  This may be the land of the free, but this is also the land of the lost.”

It’s devastating to consider the tragedy of stolen youth and the number of young lives being snuffed out by sick individuals in our country every year.  Today, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that more than 700,000 children are reported missing each year.

It’s also equally harsh to consider how many of our youth are intentionally lost and the harsh realities that drive many of our youth to claim the title of intentional runaways.  In 1994, the band Soul Asylum released a track titled, “Runaway Train,” that earned the band a Grammy for best rock song of that year.  The video for the popular tune began by highlighting a disturbing statistic, “There are over one million youth lost on the streets of America.”  That stat has continued to grow.  For example,  in 2010, the National Runaway Switchboard estimated: “on any given night there are approximately 1.3 million homeless youth living unsupervised on the streets, in abandoned buildings, with friends or with strangers.”

What about you?  How do you feel about the lost in America?  Do you think their stories get told often enough, or do you think their stories surface from time to time in our national psyche but are generally hidden away like a national secret?

Also, have you ever been intentionally lost?  Have you ever wanted a ticket for a runaway train? If so, what kept you from running?

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The Constitution and Your Pennies

April 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment
US Penny image

US Penny image

This post is part of a 2012 monthly series of MySheCave.com posts on the topic of the U.S. Constitution.

It’s tax time for those of us in the United States.  Do you know which Article of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the right to collect taxes?

The answer is Article I.  To be specific, Section 8 of Article I states that “Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises…” as well as to pay debts for the common defense and general welfare of our country.

Since the reality of paying taxes is a heavy one for so many, I’d like to raise some light-hearted questions about, in Article I Section 8 terms, “the current Coin of the United States.”

What is your favorite U.S. coin?  Does holding a penny, nickel, quarter or dime make you most happy?  Or, do you pay (pun intended) more attention to your debit and credit cards and think the usage of coins has become somewhat antiquated?  In this age of e-commerce, how much loose change do you keep in your pockets or purse these days?

When it comes to coinage, I remember being taught the value of coins as a kid and playing with a coin-sorting machine similar to the Money Miser Coin Sorter, currently being offered on Amazon.  I also recall being given a Susan B. Anthony silver dollar by my parents back in 1979 (Susan B. Anthony was the first non-fictitious woman shown on circulating U.S. coinage).

Over the years, I’ve heard countless people speak using idioms that include the word, “penny,” such as, “That costs a pretty penny” and “A penny saved is a penny earned.”  What about you?  Can you recall any other idioms containing the names of coins?  I’d give a penny for your thoughts. 🙂

And, back to the heavier subject of taxes, remember that our Constitution requires that taxes be collected and the words of one of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, who wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.“

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Unconventional Pink and Greens

April 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Ping Bubba Driver US Presswire image

Ping's Bubba Driver

Do you consider yourself to be a person who generally appreciates social conventions, or do you enjoy instances when the social norm, unlike 007’s favorite martini, gets shaken and stirred?

If you are one of the latter set, when do you think it’s most advantageous to exhibit an nonconventional approach?  During competitive times?  During warfare, maybe?

At the start of 2012, one professional golfer joined countless other men who have in recent years bucked a long-held, Western social and fashion norm that “real men don’t wear pink.”

This particular golfer has not only worn pink-accented golf attire, but, in January of this year, he went so far as to literally bring the color of pink into the game, when he began using a new pink-headed driver.

Say what you’d like about the importance of sticking to tradition, but, today, at least in the world of golf, the gods seemed to smiling on one of the norm-breakers.

The professional golfer with the pink driver is named Bubba Watson.  And, after winning the 2012 Masters Tournament today using his pink-headed driver, he’s now one of the prestigious few golfers who are able to don one of the game’s most traditional green jackets.

Forget about real men not wearing pink.  At least when it comes to the game of golf, champions of men can wear pink and green.

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Memorable Fragrances

April 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Chanel No. 5 parfum

basenotes.net image of Chanel No. 5

In my earlier post, “Reaching Inspired Locations,” I commented, “music in general can be ‘an aero plane’ that elevates listeners to another world.”

Today, I want to make a similar point about fragrances.

Have you ever played with Scratch and Sniff cards and stickers?  I recall doing so in the days of my youth and remember how my mind would immediately go towards the idea of a certain object after scratching and sniffing a particular scent.

What about you?

Do you believe that fragrances, like music, have a transport-you-to-another-place-like quality?  Here are five quick examples that, for me, point to that reality:

  1. Chanel No. 5 – Almost every time I encounter Coco Chanel’s most-famous fragrance, I feel the warmth of my mother’s love and remember her hugs before and after attending cocktail parties in my eastern N.C. hometown.
  2. New Cans of Tennis Balls – Often when I open a brand-new can of tennis balls and catch a whiff of the “new” scent, my mind flashes to images of my twin sister and me playing matches in the summer heat on the courts of our youth.
  3. Rose-scented lotions – When I smell any rose-scented otions, I often think of my maternal grandmother (she used rose-scented Olay products).
  4. Honeysuckle candles – Each time I smell a honeysuckle-scented candle, I remember being about six years old and sucking honey from the flowers that grew on a honeysuckle bush in my parents’ backyard.
  5. Bain de Soleil Orange Gelee Sunscreen – Talk about transportation.  Immediately after opening a tube of this sunscreen, originally developed in France in 1925 after Coco Chanel started the fashion trend of sporting sun-bronzed skin, I return to the summers of the late 1970s, a time period when the dangers of sun tanning were less well-known, and sun worshippers in my hometown also used Johnson’s Baby Oil.

So, what are some of the fragrances that bring back memories for you?   And, does fragrance or music take you farther down memory lane?

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Blog Images: More than Hunky-dory

March 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Fun For Hunkydory Little Golden Book cover

Fun For Hunkydory Little Golden Book cover

Can you recall a cover image from a favorite book that you read as a child?  One of my favorite children’s books was a Little Golden Book titled, “Fun For Hunkydory.”  After all these years, I can’t forget the book’s cover image of a cute little puppy playing in the grass.

And, consider the popularity amongst adults of the new social network site, Pinterest.  Talk about images galore!

Without doubt, pictures and images within books and media for children and adults convey meaning and can make lasting impressions on readers and users.

But, what about blog posts?  Why should a blog author include images inside a post?

I can list two reasons to include images within blog posts:

  1.  Visual Learning – Many individuals who read blog posts are visual learners.  The visual learning Wikipedia entry cites an Institute for the Advancement of Research in Education study titled, “Graphic Organizers: A Review of Scientifically Based Research,”  which concluded that “visual learning improves student performance in the areas of retention, comprehension and organization.”  If you’re trying to convey a concept within a blog post, including a relevant image will likely help you be more effective in that effort.  Also, including images within your longer posts may help keep readers interested in reading the entire post.
  2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – After attending a recent SEO workshop sponsored by QIC Learning and led by SEO expert Phil Buckley, I was reminded of the fact that crawling search engines today respond favorably to tagged images on blog and standard Web pages.  Properly tagged images within blog posts can help you optimize your Web site for SEO and increase the chances of your blog content surfacing higher in organic search results at popular search engine sites like Google.  The Digital Graphics Inform post, “The Importance of Tagging Photos for SEO,” provides tips for successfully tagging images for SEO purposes, and, if you’re seeking royalty-free images for your blog, check out DailyBlogTips.com’s post, “Where to Find Images For Your Blog.”

According to Dictionary.com, the word “hunky-dory” is an adjective meaning, “satisfactory. OK. fine.”

When it comes to visual learning and SEO, blog images are anything but.

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Rebranding and You

March 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Branding and Rebranding image by Laine TanMany product marketers agree that the task of introducing new products and solutions into the competitive landscape is challenging yet exhilarating.

How many times have you heard a product marketer make a post-product launch comment along the line of, “…it took tremendous effort and collaboration across multiple internal division teams, but, in the end, we delivered a new, cutting-edge solution to market, and that’s extremely gratifying.”

What about the task of marketing already-established “older” products?  Is rebranding similarly challenging and enjoyable?

Actors are often posed with the question, “Is it easier to play a villain or a good guy?”  Many actors respond by saying that it’s much easier to play the villain, the character who is more unpredictable and who delves into new behaviors, and that it’s harder to play a character who exhibits consistent good behavior to an audience.

Likewise, marketing older products, even those products that have been consistent, “good” bestsellers, may be more challenging and less exciting than promoting a product or solution that is brand-new.

What do you think?  If you’re a marketer, can you recall specific campaigns that successfully re-branded older products?  If you need help recalling, check out Judith Aquino’s article, “The 10 Most Successful Rebranding Campaigns Ever.”

And, beyond marketing, have you ever been asked to “put a new face” on a situation or to examine a set of familiar circumstances in a new way?  If so, did you enjoy that process and was it easy?

One of the biggest challenges that we face as we age is to see our lives and ourselves in a new versus old light.  Some have said that each day we live offers each of us a new opportunity to become more.

How are you doing with that task?  How are you living differently today than you did yesterday, and how will you become new as an individual tomorrow?

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Passwords Protected?

March 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Password and Username fieldsThis post is part of a 2012 monthly series of MySheCave.com posts on the topic of the U.S. Constitution.

Bob Sullivan’s online article, “Gov’t agencies, colleges demand applicants’ Facebook passwords,” is a quick reminder that questions about the U.S. Constitution and the specific liberties that the Constitution protects continue to be raised in today’s world.

The article, focused on the fact that some universities and employers are now demanding access to individuals’ private social media content, raises questions about whether those demanding organizations may be violating the rights of the individuals involved – rights that some would argue are guaranteed by the Constitution.

For example, a Washington D.C.-lawyer quoted in the article states: “I can’t believe some people think it’s OK to do this.  Maybe it’s OK if you live in a totalitarian regime, but we still have a Constitution to protect us.  It’s not a far leap from reading people’s Facebook posts to reading their email. …As a society, where are we going to draw the line?”

I was personally surprised to learn that my alma mater, The University of North Carolina, recently revised its handbook, adding a provision that requires each athletic team to “identify either a coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of their team members’ social networking sites.”

Do you think that employers and universities should be able to require individuals to divulge their user names and private passwords for the social networks to which they belong?  And, if not, which individual right or rights do you think are denied when such policies exist?  Sullivan’s article references the individual right to privacy as well as to the right to free speech.

Turning back to the Constitution, do you know which Article or Amendment provides for an individual’s right to free speech?  The answer is Amendment 1, the First Amendment.  And, what about the right to privacy? Is that right protected by the Constitution?  The author of the online article, “Exploring Constitutional Conflicts,” contends that the Constitution “contains no express right to privacy.”

It seems like there are two sides to the social media coin today.  On one hand, we’ve recently seen social media tools like Twitter aid individuals in reclaiming their rights and defeating oppressive government regimes like Mubarak’s in Egpyt.  On the other hand, in the instances like those referenced in Sullivan’s article, social media technologies seem to be putting individuals’ rights at risk.

When it comes to the question of employees and universities demanding individuals to share their user names and Facebook passwords, which side are you on, and do you think the Constitution addresses the question?

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Sweet Thinking

March 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

ImageGiving up sweets each year during the Lenten season can be a true sacrifice for sweet lovers.  The first few weeks are tougher than the last, but, by the time Easter arrives, the desire to partake of sugar is often an afterthought for those who have weaned themselves off of crystalline carbohydrates.

What about you?  What is your relationship to sugar?  Do you consider yourself to be a sweet tooth?

In recent years, I’ve learned to appreciate the natural sugars found in fruits like strawberries, pears, etc.  But, oh, I do recall the candies of my youth.  Candy rings and candy necklaces helped start my candy history, a history that included many Gummi bears and the chocolate bar that I had fun joking was named after me (Baby Ruth).

Below is my personal “Top 10 List of Childhood Candies” along with brief descriptions of which part of my youth that I associate with the particular sweet:

10. Lemon Drops  – My third grade teacher kept a jar of these coveted yellow candies on her desk and would rewards students with them.

9. Mr. Goodbar – These chocolate bars were a routine, post-ballet class reward, along with Cherry Coke and peach ice cream scoops.

8. Now & Laters – Throughout the middle school years, an afterschool treat.  Favorite flavors:  green apple and banana.

7.  Nerds – Boxes of these tiny treats contained either one or two flavors and often were part of care packages received during the summers while away at Camp Morehead By the Sea sailing camp in eastern North Carolina.

6. Milk Duds – A “go to” chocolate and caramel candy often chosen while on high school dates at the local movie theater.

5.  Skittles – Hands down, the choice during junior high years while playing board games like Sorry, LIFE and Monopoly with friends.

4. Life Savers and M&Ms – Often devoured after eating pizza at many a middle school-age girlfriend’s “spend-the-night,” sleepover party.  The green-colored ones of both varieties were considered lucky.

3. Fun Dip – Similar to eating Tang drink mix, eating this candy was as simple as licking a sugar stick and dipping the stick into flavored sugar.

2. Snickers – Often consumed during summers by the pool along with a can of Mountain Dew.  Occasionally, chocolate melting-on-the-pool bag issues arose.

1. Marathon Bar – Discontinued in 1981, this bar is the first favorite chocolate candy bar that I can remember.  I’ll never forget the bright orange-red packaging that contained a ruler with inch markings to prove that the bar was eight inches long.  The braided chocolate and caramel was also unforgettable.  I was pleasantly surprised as an adult to learn that Cadbury’s Curly Wurly chocolate bars are very similar and are available to US customers via importing from the UK.

What about you?  What were your favorite childhood sweets, and what favorite memories do you associate with those treats?

If you can’t exactly recall, online sites like Old Time Candy can help jog your memory.  Careful though, you might just hit the order button.

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A Windshield Crack for Women

February 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Cracked WindshieldToday is one of the biggest days in modern U.S. sports history.

Today, the 2012 Daytona 500 race will occur in Florida, and, for the first time in 35 years, a woman will be competing on the track, when Danica Patrick makes her debut in the race.

As she speeds through the laps on the track today with millions of thoughts in mind, Danica would be right if she were to remember another woman with gratitude and think to herself:  “Thank you, Janet.”

Janet, who?  Janet Guthrie, that is.  Are you aware of Guthrie?

As a North Carolina native, I’ve been well aware of NASCAR and the history of stock car racing, however, I was previously unaware of Ms. Guthrie — until today.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I’m now aware of the fact that Iowa native Guthrie was the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.  Guthrie, who ran 33 races during her career, is a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, and her helmet and race suit are now housed at the Smithsonian Institution.

Guthrie not only raced cars, but she was also an aerospace engineer.  She is without doubt a professionally accomplished women and a pioneer for women in sports, and I would like to read her autobiography, “Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle.”

At this particular time in our U.S. history, when barely a week ago, a U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the topic of religious liberty and birth control included an all-male panel, it’s important and fitting to remember those women who have and continue to break through the proverbial “glass ceiling” and barriers into what have previously been all-male arenas.

NASCAR has been male-dominated for years with its own “glass windshield,” so to speak.  When Janet Guthrie ran in the 1977 Daytona 500, she made a crack in that windshield.  Sadly, it’s taken 35 years for another woman to have that opportunity, but, today, Danica Patrick has a chance to make her own dent.

As a native Tarheel, it will be tempting to pull for N.C.-born Dale Earnhardt, Jr. today, but, deep down, I know that when the race begins millions of women like me will experience a tug at the heart and a sister-cry, “Go Danica, go!”

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