Category Archives: Something About Nothing Column

Love Them All, But Differently

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Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf published Valentine Week 2015 in The Albert Lea Tribune and The Courier Sentinel

valentineLove is amazing. I imagine it is not surprising for me to make that statement during this Valentine’s week of love. However, this week is an afterthought that coincides with the reason I decided to write about love.

It was an amazing week of relaxation, writing, catching up with old friends and family and meeting new friends. I spent the week in the Cities visiting with my grandchildren. While they were at school and their parents were at work I had the house to myself for quiet time to create.

One evening we treated the kids to dinner at one of their favorite restaurants. Our conversation turned to love. The conversation centered on valentines for school but quickly, with silly children, turned to the subject of love and who their parents loved best.

Erma Bombeck wrote a story titled “I’ve Always Loved You Best Because…” It is a favorite story from one of my favorite authors. The gist of the story is Erma loved all her children best, but in different ways because they have different personalities, and were born at different times in her life. As each child came into this world, Erma was at a different stage of her life. She didn’t love each child more, and she didn’t love each child less; she loved them equally but differently. I cry when I read Erma’s story because it touches a place deep in my heart in the way I feel for my children and grandchildren.

One day I was being silly and wanted to see what kind of reaction I would get from my children when I sent this message in a group message on my phone to all of them: “I always loved you best.” One panicked and didn’t realize it was a group message and immediately texted me back and said, “You can’t say that. That’s not fair to my brother and sister.”

I was happy to get that response because he didn’t want his brother and sister to feel bad. One of my children knew I loved Erma and was familiar with the story. She knew where the sentiment was coming from and what it meant. The other recipient saw that it was a group message and thanked me on behalf of him and his siblings. It was a good experiment, but so true. I love all of them best.

My grandchildren at the table were bantering back and forth. My grandson decided his dad loved him best and his mom loved his sister best. His sister agreed with him. Their mom and I explained that she and their dad, along with their grandmother, loved them both the same, but differently. My grandson piped up, “Grandma we need to split your heart in two but I get the bigger half.”

The word love encompasses a variety of different feelings and emotions such as attraction, compassion, kindness and affection. We have those feelings in different forms and different ways for different people. We love in many different ways. We feel romantic love for a spouse or a mate; we feel friendship love for a friend. Our love for our children is a love that is so huge it is hard to describe. That is what I mean when I say, isn’t love amazing? Isn’t it amazing we can feel so many kinds of love in our hearts? It is overwhelming if you take the time to think about it. We don’t love more or better, just differently, and somehow, we know the difference in the feeling.

However, to be totally unromantic and sensible, we all know the emotion of love comes from the brain not the heart. I wondered why and how the heart became the symbol of love. The heart has been a symbol of love since Greek mythology. I only found theories as to the reason love and the heart became connected.

My sprinkled mind was off and running wondering who came up with the word love. Who came up with the word happy? Who came up with the words that we use day in day out and take for granted in our conversations? I guess that is a column for another day.

During this week of love, show your love in different ways to different people that matter in your life. Let them know, like Erma, you always loved them best. While you are at it show a little love and kindness to a stranger. Love makes the world go round and we certainly don’t want it to stop spinning.

“Love wasn’t put in your heart to stay. Love isn’t love until you give it away.” —Michael W. Smith

 

Did You Hear What I Heard?

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Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf – Published week of February 2, 2015rumour

Do you remember the telephone game? You would whisper something into someone’s ear and they would whisper what they heard to the person next to them. When it reached the end of the line what was whispered was repeated out loud to see how the words had changed and been misunderstood.

Recently I felt I might be in the middle of the telephone game. Actually the rumor, of which the subject was me, was caused by a misunderstanding with technology, namely the phone and texting.

It started with an early morning text I received from a friend in a city 100 miles away. The text said, “Are you OK?” Puzzled I answered, “Yes, why?” The reply was, “No reason, I just heard something.” My reply: “What did you hear?” The next text explained, “I heard you moved to the Cities.”

Thinking nothing of it and laughing about it, I continued on with my day until I received a message on Facebook from another friend. “Are you OK? Just wanted to make sure you were all right.” I was puzzled so I replied, “I am fine but this is the second text I received asking me the same question.” My friend texted me back and explained, “We heard you moved out and moved to the Cities.”

I thought that was interesting. My husband and I had both been spending a great deal of time in the Cities with our kids and enjoying the summer. At this point I laughed and thought about how rumors spread. Everyone that knows me should know I am an open book. If I would have moved to the Cities everyone would have known it. I didn’t make it any secret we were spending time in the Cities, but somehow that changed into my moving out and moving to the Cities.

This is where it gets complicated. Apparently the rumor came from a friend in Alaska who visited my community this summer while I was in the Cities. I checked back through my texts to this person and saw what might have been misconstrued. I would love to move to the Cities someday. I did state that in my texts to this person. I also stated I was spending time in the Cities. And I used the word “I” not “we.” A friend was getting a divorce, and I was spending time with them, too.

I don’t blame my friend from Alaska, and I don’t blame my friends here for the rumor. Thankfully they decided to check on me. I blame the fast pace of our world where we quickly text a message and we quickly read a message and don’t catch the entire wording or meaning. I do that all the time. A text comes in, and I quickly glance at it. I quickly answer and don’t check my walking fingers to see if my cell phone interpreted it right. The same thing happens with technology as did with the telephone game. The message changes the longer our fingers walk over those keys and our eyes bounce over the words.

It was my laugh for the day. I wonder how many things we misconstrue that we overhear or read in the media. We used to have a party line on our phone. For you young things out there, a party line is somewhat like group messaging or group calls. Most of the time we didn’t know anyone was listening. Or they didn’t know we were listening. Back then, if you wanted the good gossip, you turned to your phone when you heard it ring for your neighbor. You then put your hand over the receiver and gently lifted it up so they couldn’t hear that you were on.

Today, everyone knows you’re listening. Today we broadcast truth and rumor and let the chips fall where they may.  It is hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. There are some pretty outlandish stories out there that are true. There are some boring stories told on your neighbors that are not. How do we differentiate fact from fiction? The Internet is rife with stories true and false, there is a fact-checker website called Snopes that sets us straight if — we are interested in finding out the truth about some of those stories floating around.

I must admit I am not any different than anyone else and my ears perk up when I hear bits and pieces of conversations about someone else. I think that is human nature.

That I know of, no one was hurt by the rumor floating around that I had moved to the Cities. My friends decided to check out the facts. They did the right thing. Had they not and I not become aware of the rumor, maybe there would have been repercussions.

The Internet and news media have made it easy for lives to be ruined by rumors. Right or wrong, great men and women have been brought down, lost jobs and had lives destroyed by unsubstantiated rumors. We have lost teenagers because of rumors. It is time all of us take responsibility and figure out whether the rumor we heard should be shared. Will it help or will it hurt? What will the words sound and feel like at the end of the rumor tree?

 

Bath-Warming Gift? Is This A Joke?

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bath

This is my kind of tile. It’s pink.

Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf -Published in the Albert Lea Tribune the week of  January 19.

I have been in hibernation mode; at least, that is how it seems. The weather is cold and snowy. My house is warm and cozy. There is no question which is more attractive.

The problem with hibernation mode is the fact I can go a week without face-to-face conversation with anyone except my husband. Social media keep me up on the news of the world and my friends. I chat and converse online, occasionally over Skype, but it is not the same as face-to-face contact.

Along with personal contact, when you hibernate in your home, your life experiences hibernate with you and are confined to your home also. Hibernation mode makes my life smaller. It might not be a problem to be in hibernation mode for some. It might be a lonely feeling for those who are shut in all the time. I do know the more I stay in, the more I don’t want to go out into the world.

For me, hibernation mode is a hindrance when it comes to creativity for this column. My creativity has to come from inside — inside my house that is. I traveled up the stairs, down the stairs, pulling out drawers, looking at my yard and laughing at my shysters trying to find inspiration for today’s column. I had to rule out the shysters because that was last week’s column.

And then — and then — I found my inspiration in the bathroom, by the toilet.

Poop. I can’t believe I used that word in my column, but I did. No, I did not find any bits of excrement by my toilet, but I did find something that I know was a joke, but as it turns out the joke is on the giver of the present. I found Poo-Pourri.

It is widely known, because I have spread the news, that my downstairs bathroom had been in disarray for the last year plus a few months. It fell apart when the sewer pipe broke between the second floor bathroom and my downstairs bathroom.

We had to rip out walls, vanities, cupboards, ceiling, floor and toilet to fix the bathroom. It finally came together in November of this year in time for me to have company for Thanksgiving Day.

December is Christmas and the time for gifts. One of my good friends gave me a gift and in the bag along with my Christmas gift was a bathroom warming present. The name on the bottle was Poo-Pourri Magic Spritzmas. Under the name it announces “Tis the Season to Smell.”

We had a good laugh. She knew I had wanted to put a bathroom fan in my downstairs bathroom when it was tore apart but because my house is vintage or an antique it wasn’t possible. This was my friend’s solution to my angst. It was a joke and neither one of us thought it would work.

According to the label Poo-Pourri is a before you go toilet spray. It is a blend of vanilla, peppermint and natural essential oils that is supposed to create a barrier and stop the smell.

It is kind of like a “little dab will do ya.” You spray a little dab in the toilet bowl water before you go and no one will ever know what you left behind.

I launched an Internet search to find out how Poo-Pourri got started, but its website did not have that information. I did find out there are other scents and other products, and the testimonials are good.

I have to say the joke is on my friend. It is the best bath-warming gift I have received. It is also the only bath-warming gift I have received. My husband thanks her because I am no longer lamenting about having no bathroom fan, and I guarantee the word poop has never graced my column before. And it never will again.

I am out of hibernation mode and relentlessly pursuing other unsuspecting subjects outside of my home. I will be incognito. You won’t recognize me if you see me because the picture that resides with my column is from 2006. I will be out and about, waiting to pounce on my next unsuspecting subject whether it be an inanimate object or a human being. You are warned.

 

 

photo credit: neatlysliced via photopin cc