Category Archives: Something About Nothing Column

Embrace Your Quirkiness!

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embrace it new signedSomething About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf published in the Albert Lea Tribune March 3, 2014

Recently I was browsing on the Internet and I came across an article on one of the Hollywood celebrity pages. The article had pictures of celebrities, women celebrities without their makeup. Next to their unmade-up faces were their public faces all glammed up.

The thought crossed my mind that it is no wonder we women and young girls have image problems, though I think that changes as women get older and feel more comfortable about knowing who they are. I wouldn’t recognize Sofia Vergara from “Modern Family” or Nicollette Sheridan from “Desperate Housewives” and “Knots Landing” fame without their makeup. Not that there is anything wrong with the way the celebrities look without their makeup, but the makeup does hide those age spots and wrinkles for some older celebrities that us older women seem to moan and groan about.

The article actually had a picture of Barbie from Barbie Doll fame without makeup. It made me wonder why they don’t have a Barbie without makeup. Would it not sell? There has been much hype about Barbie’s skinny figure and the thought that it give girls the wrong idea about what they should look like. I played with Barbie’s and I never once thought that I should have a figure like Barbie and I didn’t.

The article made me think back through my life and what influenced me when I was younger and trying to find out how to fit into my skin and the society I lived in. I wasn’t influenced by the movie stars or the dolls I played with. As I got older and lived in our society I was influenced by the people around me and their thoughts about the way things should be.

I am going to share a little about that today because I have to think there are more people that felt like I did. Possibly some of the younger adults feel out of place in their role in society now. I have found sharing our experiences may help someone else. I am not whining. I made the choices I did and let those opinions influence me. I wasn’t yet comfortable in my skin.

I love to paint. I like to do watercolor. I like to use acrylics. I like to paint birdhouses or anything I can get my hands on. I am not a conventional painter. I don’t do straight lines. I don’t paint beautiful scenery. If I did, it wouldn’t look like the work of Thomas Kinkaid and other beautiful artists. Many years ago there was a project to make lighthouses and sell them in church. It was a painting party.

Most of the people there painted these beautiful perfect lighthouses. I didn’t. I got creative with my painting, and I loved it, but I could tell by the comments that my lighthouse was not up to snuff. They didn’t outright tell me that they didn’t like it; it was the looks and the subtle comments. I bought my own lighthouses because I knew they didn’t live up to the expectations of others. I didn’t want to be crushed when no one bought them. After that experience, I quit painting for a long while because I felt less than adequate at the task.

The same could be said for my singing. In grade school it depended on what teacher I had as to what grade I got in singing. One year I actually got an A. The rest of the years I got a C. I started singing more as the years went on. I didn’t know whether I was an alto or a soprano. I found out I was an alto. I didn’t know how to find my notes. I was lucky enough at one point that the choir director in a choir helped me along and accepted me good or bad into choir. Because you see, one of the reasons I was shy about singing was because around that same time someone else told me I couldn’t be in their group because I wasn’t good enough. I hadn’t asked to be in that group. They assumed because my friends were in it that I wanted to be there. I didn’t, but that didn’t matter when I was made to feel that I didn’t measure up. It was like they were heading me off at the pass so I wouldn’t ask to join their group.

It wasn’t until one day a friend and I were out and about and having fun and we started singing for fun. This friend said to me, “You have a good voice.”

It was then I realized that it didn’t matter that I couldn’t join the group; I could still sing and feel good about it. I almost quit the other larger group I was in at that time because of one opinion.

I didn’t have enough faith in myself to not let these experiences bother me. I wanted to fit in. I wanted to belong. I wanted to be liked. I did it at the expense of stifling the talents I did have because they were different from those that society expected.

If you have a talent, if it is a crazy talent, if you see colors where others see black and white, embrace it. We need those talents too. And if you want to try something new and enjoy it, go for it. We don’t have to be good at everything. As long as we enjoy what we are creating, cute or ugly, it is creativity.

Recently my world has expanded to new friends in new places that embrace their talents. They, too, in their lives felt at times like they didn’t belong in their world. It was those same talents that others didn’t understand that led them to those that did understand. These artists kept on going until they found their niche.

Don’t give up. Years back, those that I spoke about earlier weren’t trying to be mean. They felt comfortable in their world and they didn’t understand mine. We can only feel accepted if we accept ourselves.

 

What Is Your Attitude Toward the Hungry in America?

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Column: Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf

Are you hungry? What do you do when you are hungry? Do you go to the fridge and grab a snack? Do you trek to the grocery store to pick up some groceries? If we can do that, we are very blessed.

homeless photo: Homeless homeless.pngToday I am writing about hunger in America. We live in a rural area and because we do not see homeless people on the streets we tend to think poverty does not exist in our area. Of course, we know about the food shelves and the backpack programs in our schools. We know about the homeless shelters in the bigger cities. We donate to the bell-ringers each Christmas season.

Recently the Wells Area Food Shelf Volunteers and area coordinators were invited to a movie called “A Place At The Table.” It states that 50 million Americans, 1 in 4 children, don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

This movie reinforced some of the things we already know and opened our eyes to a new way of thinking about the people who are in need of our resources. It may surprise you to know that a large number of those who use the resources available from the food shelves, the backpack program and the free meals are two-parent households working 40 or more hours a week. They are called the working poor because they work for minimum wage.

Minimum wage in Minnesota is $7.25 per hour. If you are concerned, do the math. Figure out how to live as a family of four on minimum wage. Calculate your utilities, your insurance, transportation and most of all food. Look at your own budget and then figure out if you could live on minimum wage.

As of this writing five legislators from Minnesota are taking the minimum wage challenge. I only wish more legislators were doing this and that those taking the challenge were from both parties. Maybe we all should take the challenge and walk in the shoes of those that make low wages and work for a living.

Recently I was involved in a conversation with someone whose opinion differed from mine. I welcomed that. Something is always learned from someone that thinks differently from you. The conversation revolved around those who get low pay and do some of our most valuable jobs. I can’t disagree with part of the conversation, and that is, if you get an education you should have a higher-paying job.

What I did not say was that when you do get that education you need good jobs to pay for the debt you incur getting that education.

That said, there are educated people who need help for a short period of time, too. Finding a job in corporate America has become complicated and isn’t as easy as it once was.

There are people living in shelters who have jobs but can’t afford a place to live. If you happen to be homeless and, yes, there are homeless families in our area, where do you find the clothes to be presentable at a job interview? Where do you take a shower? How do you get to the interview? Can you afford a cellphone so employers can call you? And how do you find the resources to help you through this?

Let’s examine these lower-paying jobs. In our conversations respect isn’t always connected to lower-paying jobs. Some of the top lower-paying jobs in America, according to US News, are: fast food cooks and servers, farm workers and laborers, cashiers, personal care attendants and home care aides, nannies, child care workers, housekeeping and cleaners. They are service workers who take care of us and the needs of those we love.

What would happen if all these jobs and people disappeared? We wouldn’t have anyone to care of the elderly or disabled. We wouldn’t be able to eat at our favorite fast food restaurant. There would no clerks at the grocery stores or anyone to serve us coffee or clean our homes or our hotel rooms. What about all that food we love to put on our table? Those workers that get the food to us by working in the fields and factories would no longer be here. What would happen if you took this low-wage working class segment away from America? Yet we do not want to help them survive.

Obesity is a problem in America. According to the movie and other statistics, part of the problem of obesity is because healthy and nutritious food is unaffordable for those on a low-income budget. Processed foods high in sugar, salt and high in saturated fats are cheap. Take a look at the grocery flier the next time it arrives in your paper and mailbox and see how cheap this food is. It is the food that those on a fixed income can afford to buy. Could your grocery budget withstand minimum wage?

It also might surprise you to know there are many families that do not have beds and stoves or furniture in their homes. They will never tell you. They are too proud.

It might surprise you to know there are families, single adults, senior citizens who are hungry and do not use the food shelf. They do not apply for fuel assistance. They do not apply for food stamps. They do not go to free meals. I can only guess at the reason. Could it be that they have pride and have heard the comments occasionally made by those who don’t understand the hunger and poverty that America is facing today?

These proud people have seen the looks at the grocery store that people have given to those who use government resources. They have heard the comments about those that freeload with government resources and they don’t want to be that person. They have stood in line at well-meaning free meals sponsored by organizations wanting to help. The donation basket for offering is by the food plate that is that given to them. The person ahead of them put in a $20 bill and they know they can’t do that. The person serving the food was watching. It is too hard to swallow their pride so they don’t go. It is hard to ask for help because it is something they have never had to do before.

We can keep telling ourselves that those who need help, need to help themselves. We can keep telling ourselves that it is not our problem. We need to take care of ourselves. To steal a quote from Dr. Phil, “How is that working for you?”

We have more people needing the food shelf every day. More and more that number is the working poor. The number of homeless families and hungry children are increasing each month. Older Americans who worked hard all their lives are struggling.

Until we quit blaming, until we change our hard-headed attitude about who deserves what, we will never solve the problem. There are solutions in open minds and differing opinions working together to find a common ground.

Hunger in America touches each one of us. It is the silent virus eroding our way of life that is known as the American dream.

Please take the time to watch “A Place at the Table.” It is available on online. It is also available in book form. It may change your life and the lives of others.

Imagine Love Over The Course of 98 Years.

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Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf in the Albert Lea Tribune February 10, 2014

“Image what these 98-year-old eyes have seen.” holding hands photo: gero hands hands.jpg

Those words, spoken in a sermon during a funeral for a friend’s mother, gave me pause to reflect on what this woman had seen during her lifetime. It isn’t often we think of that when someone we love has died. Of course we reminisce about the person’s past, their accomplishments, what they loved, and how they lived, but for some reason when I heard this sentence the thought that came to my mind was love. Pretending to look through her eyes as I looked at family pictures, I saw love.

This is February and the week of Valentine’s Day. You might wonder what a funeral and someone’s death has to do with a day that is filled with hearts, flowers, declarations of love and clever advertising. The day is commercially about all of the glitzy, outer trappings, but what a better day to think about the love that we receive through our lifetime.

What better day to reminisce about those who have shown us love and that we have loved, that are here today and that we have known in the past.

Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday, not because I get so many Valentines, but because the day seems to bring out the best in people.

Recently I interviewed someone about the day and they said every day should be Valentine’s Day in the way we show love to people in our lives.

Back to this wonderful 98-year-old woman by the name of Sophia whose funeral I was attending. Looking back through her life I could see that it was her love of God, her love of family and her love of friends, and giving and receiving that love that carried her through her life all those 98 years.

Sophia married young, a man, older than she. Looking at the pictures and talking to her daughters and listening to the stories, you knew that she felt loved. Her life wasn’t always hearts and flowers. She lost two children, her husband, family members and yet her attitude was always encouraging. The love that her husband and those two children gave to her before they died stayed with her even when they were gone.

She helped raise a granddaughter after her daughter died. She had grandchildren. Later when she was no longer able to take care of herself, when she was in her 90s, she entered an assisted-living home. Still her family showed her love and caring by visiting her often and watching out so that she was happy until the final days. They did not forget her. Her sense of humor carried through to the staff and those she met. Pictures told a story of love and you could see the love she showed others even in her later years with sense of humor and the kindness she showed to those who took care of her.

What did those 98-year-old eyes see? They saw many changes in the world. They saw sorrow, heartache and happiness.

Sophia is not unlike many of us today. What do our eyes see each day? At the end of our lives what will our eyes have seen? Will we remember special Valentines Days? Maybe. Will we remember the glitz and the glam and the show? Will we remember what meal we ate when we were wined and dined by our sweetheart? Will we remember disappointment because no one remembered us on Valentine’s Day? Or will we remember the feeling of love throughout moments of our lives?

We get hyped up about this one day, Valentine’s Day, the day we take to show someone how special they are. Some people get romantic and some people get forgotten all together. It is good we do have a day like this to remind us to treat someone we love with a little special care because perhaps some people don’t think about it the rest of the year.

There are people, and I used to be one of those, that are very hurt and sad if this special day passes and they feel alone. If that is the case I want you to think about that statement; imagine what these 98-year-old eyes have seen. What will your eyes have seen over your lifetime? Think about the love that you have shown or been shown by others on a normal day throughout the year. Find the “love moments” in your life and remember them. Think about the love moments, or hours, or days that you have had.

Those 98-year-old eyes saw a lot of sorrow. Our eyes do, too. But in sad times, find the Valentine moments of love that you can cherish and remember your entire life. Love isn’t pinned to a specific day; it is pinned to the shadows of your heart for you to pull out when needed to make those dark days feel better.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” — Lao Tzu