Get Organized

A dear friend of mine told me that she had once been told, "You love the idea of organization, but you're not."  I'd say that is the case with the majority of us.  In my particular weird case, I am...organized that is.  I'm compulsively, OCD, anal-ly organized.  Since I always self analyze, I would say it comes a great deal from a young life where I had very little control.  Keeping order in my surroundings is my way of controlling.  There's still a huge portion of life that I have no power over but I can keep my little world ship shape and no one can stop me from it.

Of course, there are multi degrees of organization and dis-organization; from the complete slob, the person surrounded in clutter and disorder or the dysfunctional hoarder to the irritating nut that you literally could eat off of their kitchen floor and their home feels cold, you're afraid to touch anything.    You never sat a dish down in my grandmother's living room, it went straight to the sink and was washed, dried and put in it's place.  My mother-in-law was  not a dirty or unsanitary housekeeper but an incurable clutter bug and my own mother was a complete little pig.   I do have to say, I never knew a truly messy and unorganized person that seemed truly happy. There is something to be said for the Chinese philosophy of Fung Shui, the art of being in harmony and balance with your surroundings. 

Honestly, a person that is buried in their own clutter is truly a frustrated person. How much time can you happily waste, searching for something that you never put back in the same place twice, moving things around so you can put something else down, digging through piles of clothing or papers or what-ever?  Wouldn't be the first time that I was completely wrong, maybe some unorganized people are perfectly happy, it seems to me that most are very scattered and unhappy.

In the spirit of  let's get our s--t together, here's some of my personal suggestions to clear away your life a bit.

            ---Make up the bed. I know, you're going to get back in it. Doesn't matter, just make it up.
         
           ---Don't let the clutter of all the things you need to organize, overwhelm your mind.  Just pick one small thing.  Maybe the closet where you've been piling everything or smaller, just that catch all drawer.  Maybe the desk where you want to sit down and write, but depresses you to even look at it. Just choose one small area and work on organizing that spot to the max. 

          ---Containers and labels are BIG.  Contain it...herd it up...get six cheap laundry baskets, get six free boxes, empty coffee containers....don't place loose piles of any thing any where. Those piles tend to grow and spread. Label it. Socks, shoes, dirty, clean, mail, tomorrow, today, pencils, take outside....once you've stuck a label on, NEVER put anything except what it says in that container, even if one is empty and the other overflows.

          ---Do it right now, not in a minute.  If you're through with whatever is in your hand, walk right to where that "thing" goes and put it there.  If you're taking off your shoes, the moment you stand on your bare feet, walk to where they go.  And, I don't mean go outside in a huge storm to put away that "thing" in the shed.  You have a box for that, don't you?

         ---Chairs and sofas and beds were not designed as clothes racks. That's what hangers, closets and drawers are for.  Floors are supposed to be covered with rugs, useful pieces of furniture and feet. Flat surfaces, counter and table tops are meant to have smooth expanses of clear space. Cabinets, drawers and shelves were created to keep these expanses clear and available for all the temporary tools of daily life that we need to place there.

You will be amazed at how much simpler life will be if you just organize.  The best thing is when you have no control over other things in your life, when you are feeling depressed or overwhelmed, you will find such reward in just pulling together a single area of your world.  Even if it's just one drawer, it's a physical accomplishment. You can stand back and say Now, that looks good. Just do it.

Necessities of Life

This may be offensive to some people...well of course it will, in our times EVERY thing is offensive to SOME body.  I have had personal experience with the destructive and bad results of  over indulging in alcohol.  Most of us have someone in our family who has an abuse problem, perhaps knew someone that was hurt or killed by a drunk driver or at a minimum knows what it's like to wake up with that "I doubt I will live through the day hangover" from a fun night the previous evening. Having established that I understand all the negative attributes of alcoholic beverages, I want to state that the availability of a little nip on occasion is one of the necessities of life.

Yep, you heard me. I believe that as a survival tool, both in our present day world or in a world where catastrophe has befell us, a smidgen of alcohol will be imperative.  I once had a critic say of the characters in one of my first novels, They sure do drink a lot.  Really? I guess I never thought of it as a lot.  The characters not only liked their evening "cocktail", they were scavenging for alcohol for it's medicinal use and for it's bartering value.  On a story about Preppers, I saw a minister that had dozens of bottles of booze stored. He believed that it's value as a trading item would be priceless, he was right and smart.  Also, there are very good medicinal purposes as an antiseptic or an anesthetic. 

Think about it.  You're in a post disaster world, you've spent a long day searching for food and purifying water, hoping your chemical mask has protected you from the diseases floating around out there.  You've been fighting off the bad people who didn't do one flippin' thing to prepare for even a minor catastrophe...Zombies (if you believe in such) or just those folks who are starving and totally p.o.'d because the McDonalds is all busted up and closed, their cell phone is down and none of the plugs are working to charge it. You don't think that just a small alcoholic beverage would take the edge off that day? 

The thing is, some of my days in the so called normal world, feel like that.  Life is spectacular these days and hard, complicated, full of things we have no control over.  A toddy at the end of the day can put things right back into mellow perspective.  My ninety year old mother-in-law, god rest her soul, used to call and say, "Honey, if you're going to the county line?"...that was the mystical place where stores exist with shelves of booze and you can buy all you want if you just put one foot on the other side of that boundary..."would you get me a small bottle of whiskey. You know, it helps me sleep." Indeed, it did. That precious woman would take just a shot of bourbon before bed and it was a great sleep aid.

So, my point is, I think that a good smooth alcoholic beverage of your choice is one of the nice necessities of life. Have a bit on hand, you never know when you might need a sip.  JO

Life on the Roller Coaster

It's probably totally cliche' but I've always thought that the most accurate description of life was it's like a roller coaster.  Once you're on, you have no control, you are definitely going to ride up and down...extreme highs and deep fast lows.  I personally never liked that chug, chug, chug pull to the top. That climb, it was nerve wracking like the work it takes to reach your goals and dreams in life. Then there is that thrilling, exhilarating swoo-sh-sh down. I always loved that excitement of going over the top. But, quickly you're down, in the valley, in the pit and you have to do the pull up again.

Oh, I absolutely believe that we have great influence on a great deal of our life, whether it will be good or bad.  So much of it though, we have no control over.  We only have control over how we make that ride.  I mean, are you going to undo your safety belt and stand up in the barreling car (like an idiot) or hold on tight and try to ride out, even enjoy the ups and downs?

We would wish, would like, if for every down we got a big up.  Not going to happen. Sometimes it seems that we are riding high and sometimes we feel that we will never get out of the lows. It is never balanced, never fair. And even worse, some folks seems to get a totally undeserved number of lows. I think my point is, if you step onto the roller coaster of life...and, hey we don't have a choice do we? don't ask to be born...you are going to take the ride.  I suppose you could just amble around, hold on to things, hide in the corners. Doesn't seem to me that would be much of a ride.

My oldest and best friend is battling a terrible disease. It is such a horrible experience for her and her family and for we, who love her.  My heart breaks, but would I give up any of the great times we've shared over the years? would I wish that to avoid the pain I had never known her? Of course not.  I have three beautiful daughters and there is never immunity to the ups and downs of their lives. Do I wish that I had never had children? OF COURSE NOT! 

You can't just get off in the middle of the ride.  I have to admit to having no understanding or empathy for those that decide that they are so unique to human existence that they don't have to put up with the hard part. Those people that think they can just check out.  We must cherish, relish every laugh, every wonderful experience, store them up and save them for the sad and bad times. It's the life ride, from the moment that bar clamps down until it releases us, the ride to the end. We have to hang on through all the ups and downs.

Amazon vs. Publishers

I'm the first to admit, I don't always pay close attention when a  story that is even somewhat interesting to me first hits.  I often find myself going back later and trying to really find out what was told, now, what is that really about? True, the story should have been quite interesting to me. A big television celebrity and his big publisher (he evidently wrote a book) were involved in a dispute with Amazon about the online retailer selling books too cheap. 

At the mature age of 65+, after years of my pure enjoyment of writing and often being flattered when a friend, a reader would say, You really should write a book....I had long ago resigned myself to travel logs and letters to friends and family and an occasional sad and creative euology.  Publishers, editors, none of that was feasible at all in the past.  Then lo and behold, a miracle! Amazon.com was offering a free platform, an opportunity for unknown authors to publish their work. I was damn sure that, an unknown writer.   I could actually have a novel, on the internet and only if someone chose to take a chance and read my creation, at a very cheap price, would I then share in the profits with Amazon, the store window that nicely displayed my book. 

All of us, the enormous unpublished, unnoticed writers enthusiastically flooded to the market place.  Happy to have our little bit of extra income and just a bit of recognition. I mean, OMG, there's my book...it looks like a book, it reads like a book, it has my name on it and someone even paid $2.99 to read it.   And more importantly, people who love to read suddenly had a smorgasbord of material for their library at a pittance.  But then, the publishers and the already successful authors begin to take some notice.  What were they missing out on? What was all this e-book nonsense? This was not necessarily good for the independent, self published authors. It was stiff competition when known  authors begin to offer their wares in our marketplace.  But, hey, that's the way it is...it's a free market.

And then, there was the story. I decided that I better try to find out what the dispute really was about, the two sides. It's truly not much deeper than what it originally seemed.  It's...surprise! just about the money.  The truth is, the big publishers don't want to offer their clients books at discount prices, don't want to compete.  Of course they have the perfect right, not to.   Well, gosh darn it, why should they want to give up their business plan? They want you to continue to go to the book store and pay at least ten times what it cost to publish a book and you get a lovely volume for your shelf.  And lucky you, you own one of zillions of copies of a book by a famous author.  Wait though, that's not good enough. They want to TELL Amazon how they should be conducting business and how much the "fair" price should be for books offered.

Sorry, but the way I see it is Amazon is great for authors (both new and seasoned), great for readers and of course, fantastically successful for the company.  How ludicrous that a publishing company would assume they should control the policies of Amazon.  It's amazing to me that only when someone has an innovative and successful idea, the hit dogs start to yelp. Of course, they hate Walmart and Amazon and other real world and online discounters...they want you to continue to pay $50 for their $5 t-shirts or whatever...like books.