Pearls of Wisdom and Foolish Mutterings

The wisdom of refrigerator magnets

Some days, it just isn't worth chewing through the restraints. I read those words on a refrigerator magnet at my daughter's house yesterday. She has had that magnet for a long time, but it's on the side of the fridge, not the front, so I don't notice it all that often. But every time I do, it makes me laugh al over again and, for some reason, those words seem to stick with me for several days afterward. Maybe because I relate to them so well. Yesterday was the perfect day to read that magnet. In fact, when I saw it, I thought to myself, No kidding!

There was never any shortage of drama in the family I grew up in. It was a special kind of crazy - the kind you know intuitively is not just your average brand of dysfuncton. Even as a child, I was certain of that. But the only frame of reference I had other than my own twisted family, was Donna Reed or Father Knows Best or Leave It to Beaver. I didn't want Ward and June Cleaver for parents, and Donna Reed - not so much, but the dad on Father Knows Best who called his daughter 'Kitten'? Yep, that's the tv parent I wanted as my very own. Somehow, I could never imagine my dad morphing into that dad and calling me 'Kitten' and, sure enough, I was right, but it didn't keep me from wishing.

I was pretty sure those TV families never had all the drama we did. Not even the Cleaver family, even with that twisted friend, Eddie Haskell. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that Eddie's family was a lot like mine. Yep, there was a reason we never saw them.

I'm thinking that what my family needed was some really great refigerator magnets. It could have made all the difference.

For my mother:

Being unstable and bitchy is all part of my mystique.

I used to care, but now I take a pill for that.

And last, but certainly not least:

How beautiful it is to do nothing... and then rest afterwards.

For my dad:

How about a nice cup of Shut the Hell Up?

I'm only sarcastic when I speak.

Do I look like a people person to you?

At least then my brother and I would have known right up front what we were dealing with. There's a lot to be said for refrigerator magnets.