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Apr 2006 Issue
by Gail Jackson
Really, aren’t we something!
Teenagers want to stress their individuality so they dress like their peer masses. Seemingly, more and more, many mothers want to be younger so they dress like their daughters. Apparently that desire isn’t a new thing. I just finished tracing a family from my line on census reports from 1880 through 1930. Amazingly two of the sisters had dropped nine years off their ages in that 50 year time span.
We know we can’t fool all of the people all of the time but that certainly doesn’t stop us from trying to fool some of them some of the time. Or, ourselves!
We do some really interesting things like:
• pot plastic plants, accessorize with artificial trees, and gild silk lilies.
• beat, scratch, pickle and glaze new furniture to make it look old.
• shop for clothes, spending more for pre-washed, stone-washed, acid-washed, or frayed denim garments than we do for ones that look like what they are–new.
• abhor the treatment of humans in third-world countries, then buy the cheaper products turned out by those same countries.
• use chemicals and aerosols for convenience in most aspects of our lives, then shop for organically grown produce.
• avoid natural sugars and animal fats like the plague but eat their unpronounceable replacements (often created from seemingly inedible components) with nary a thought.
• opt for most every time and effort saving device available and pay a club membership so we can exercise to keep fit.
• bleach our hair or dye it; scrunch it and crimp it, and inhale harsh fumes while we perm it; we twist it and tease it; but, if it’s naturally curly, we iron it straight.
• then—we buy expensive conditioners to try to keep our over-processed hair healthy.
• pluck our eyebrows and pencil in replacements; or have them tattooed on.
• attempt to cover sleepless-caused dark under eye circles with concealer, yet color our eyelids with a wide range of pastel shadows.
• either tuck, stuff and cram our bodies into euphemistically-named shapers or fill them out with a variety of pads and padding.
We are constantly bombarded, through what we read, watch or hear, with just what we need to do to be happy or thin or organized or attractive or successful or popular. We are told what is in and what is out. What is healthy and what is unhealthy. It is hard to accept that, with today’s electronic wizardry, “seeing is believing” ain’t necessarily so.
And the amazing and sometimes scary and sad thing is–we keep falling for it.
“What is real?” asks the Velveteen Rabbit, in the classic children’s book.
A friend dated an attractive and shapely girl with long chestnut hair and beautiful white teeth. He married her and it turned out only her personality was her own. Fortunately she had a great one! I was in awe of the striking green eyes of a co-worker and then one day she was without her contact lenses. Please, tell me Paul Newman’s aren’t a fraud.
Since it is spring and we 1) live in the red desert (beautiful but missing cooling, growing green stuff) and 2) I have a gray thumb, the child’s antique wagon that sits in front of our large window is currently overflowing with a colorful array of mixed blooms and potted greens. Though the majority are not real, the eye is fooled into thinking they are all real because a live flowering potted plant, a growing but indestructible “philly,” and an easily replaceable six-pack of blooms, nestled in a basket, languish among the foolery.
Several years ago a clever marketing mogul convinced us that it wasn’t nice to fool Mother Nature. As the lawns green up and clover raises its snow white blossoms, you may want to see if you can. (If you don’t use chemical fertilizers!)
BeeLess Honey
85 clover blossoms*
30 red rose petals*
10 cups granulated sugar
3/4 tsp powdered alum
2 cups water
*The blossoms are best picked in the cool of the morning and then the honey made as soon after as possible. Rinse blossoms and petals in cool water and drain. Set aside. Boil sugar, water and alum gently for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Gently stir in blossoms and rose petals. Let set for five minutes. Strain and pour liquid into sterilized canning jars. Seal. (If using rings and lids, I place the closed jars upside down on a folded towel so the heat of the liquid will help complete the seal.)
Where ever you are in life, don’t just cook the roses, make time to smell them!
