Don't Feel Guilty...Feel Pleased

What is a guilty pleasure?  Of course, I understand the definition per Webster and I do love a good oxymoron, but I cannot comprehend the guilt in the pleasure.  Think about it, if you partake in something that makes you feel delight, why should you feel badly?  Moreover, if you do feel downtrodden about what you have done, then can you really say that the thing is amazing or pleasurable in the first place?  I don’t know about you, but the amazements in my life are certainly not things that cause me remorse.  For instance, I find it very gratifying to stuff myself with a plethora of Taco Bell bean burritos while watching reruns of Family Ties.  Now some may say I should be embarrassed because I enjoy the exceptional taste of warm tortillas with cheesy goodness inside, or some may say I should be ashamed that I find sitcoms from the 80’s refreshingly simple and entertaining.  However, I feel very pleased with my fast food indulgences and television show preferences.  Therefore, I think the phrase guilty pleasure should be changed to glad pleasure or gladly pleasured… for those on the freaky side.  The next time you tell someone in secret about some trashy television show you watch or some funky thing you do, don’t whisper…shout it out and say, you are glad for your pleasure!     

Word Up...Peace Out--Susan

Light Up The Shade

All women have unique and multifaceted personalities, and we have the capacity to use those traits for good, evil or to be just plan annoying.  I try very hard to be respectable, but I have found that even when I am being the best me I can be, other women still get persnickety with me.  Apparently, the new “term” for this is “throwing shade.”  When someone else is in the spotlight or does something well, and another woman cannot handle it, for whatever reason, she “throws shade” on the other in an effort to minimize the sunlight that is shinning on someone other than her.   However, some cannot stand to have others good deeds highlighted that when they try to throw the shade they end up chucking pitch-black midnight at others!  It is pure insecurity.  I used to feel sorry for women who lacked self-confidence…but I am uninviting myself to that pity party.  Being a grown woman of 30 plus years, I find it terribly maddening when other grown or overgrown women have to act their shoe size and not their age. 

This harkens back to my post “Don’t Hate Celebrate.”  Almost every day, I feel the breeze of icy female disdain, because many women have been programmed to hate and not celebrate.  We have to switch the channel and change this archetype.  For some women who are utterly contemptuous at not being the star of the moment, I am sure “throwing shade” is progress for them.  Congratulations…keep on truckin’.  The bottom line is this: someone can only put you in darkness if you allow it to happen, so let the candles of genuineness and genius inside you burn so bright that others will have to wear sunglasses to look at you.

Word up…Peace Out---Susan

Set Your Inner Child Free!

As I took a shower this morning, I found my mind relaxed and wandering off.  As my brain rambled, my thoughts became stuck on one thing...something I used to do as a child.  I held the shampoo bottle as it if was an Oscar and gave my acceptance speech.  I found it very gratifying accepting the award for best actress and best score of which I wrote and sang.  I of course made sure I thanked the Academy and all of the industry people who brought me to that moment.  I gave a nod to my husband and God.  It felt so good playing in my childhood imaginary world that I allowed myself to win an Emmy, Grammy and Tony as well.  Each acceptance speech was more stunning than the last.  To top it off, I made sure I was on the best-dressed list at each ceremony…Joan Rivers had nothing on me!  It was the best shower I have ever had.  I think I will make that my new tradition on Sundays…act like a child for 10 minutes.  Maybe next week I will use the bar of soap to give my imaginary friend a call…the last time we talked she was living next door to Big Bird and on her way to a vacation at Fraggle Rock. She and I have a lot of catching up to do!

Word up, Peace out--Susan