It’s always fun, for me, to look at things from different perspectives. Like how I am so cold now in the chilly California Central Valley mornings that hover around 50 degrees when, in my younger days, 50 degrees in upstate New York in December was a heat wave. It was cause for celebration, not having to put on a heavy winter jacket and gloves just to walk out the driveway to get the mail.
Or how it used to be driving on snowy roads was the worst part of winter; now it is trying to navigate through the fog.
It’s all in what you get used to, I suppose, as we learned to deal with shoveling lots of snow and having car doors frozen shut from time to time during the winter. And, of course, winter could start in early November and storm systems were known to blow in through April, just when we thought it was safe to put the scarves and boots away.
Perspective comes in many forms. I remember the year my daughter – in her early teens at the time – wanted to experience “Black Friday” shopping. We had never gotten up to hit the stores at midnight so I agreed. Of course, she isn’t one to rise early naturally, so trying to get her up after only being in bed a couple of hours was a chore in itself. Being somewhat of a night owl, I just stayed up. We managed to get to the mall by about 12:30 a.m. and while initially I thought how sweet it was that she wanted to look for gifts for friends and family at bargain prices, she had a bit of an ulterior motive – somehow finding things that she herself might like to see under the Christmas tree. As I recall, we did manage to get some items checked off the gift list for others during the trip as well.
Ironically, my ‘can’t get up early’ daughter later worked a very early morning shift at one of her favorite stores in the mall and though she liked the discount, she discovered folding clothes for display that other shoppers left in a haphazard mess was just not her cup of tea. Perspective. It was still her dream store; just not her dream job.
My granddaughter Lorelei also gives me perspective from time to time; making sure I know it is more important to stop what I’m doing and play a game with her or color a picture with her than do a Facebook post. She also is able to convince me on occasion that I need my fingernails painted. I have occasionally shown up at work with multi-colored nails, as she likes to be creative and use two or three different polishes. One of her favorite things to do is use her play kitchen and be a ‘chef’ – she presents you with a menu and you have to order your meal, which she then goes to prepare. Of course, knowing the various food items that came with her kitchen is helpful; I am always careful to order something I know she can bring back to me. The other day she brought my ‘meal’ and I started to pretend to eat one of the items but she stopped me with a quick warning – “No, Mimi, it has wrappage!” Meaning, to the almost four-year-old, that it was wrapped and I had to then unwrap it before I could pretend to eat it.
If it makes my granddaughter happy to have me pretend to unwrap fake food before I ‘eat’ it, that’s definitely something I can do. It’s all in the perspective.
Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.
