I’m not sure what people expect from us.  We don’t own a pool, belong to a country club, or go to the beach more than once a year.  However, my father could not ever swim and it was very important to him to make sure that I could.  My fair red haired mother freckled her skin broiling in the sun to take me to swim lessons at the local community college.  Being part Indian, I just tanned a dark red and never burned.  But my mother still sacrificed to bring me and my father, who had contracted polio when he was three days old, only wished for me to know what he did not.  I went on to swim in junior high and high school and did pretty well.  All my parents really wanted though for me was to know that I could swim.  Before Mama passed she was very concerned that our little one knew how to swim on her own.  And I have somewhat stupidly and belatedly realized one MUST swim before going into the ocean.  So her Daddy and I were beyond proud and pleased when our little one was graduated from the beginning level to an intermediate one.  She went from a Dolphin 1 to a Dolphin 1-2.  Dolphin 2 is truly independent and that is what we are really looking forward to her achieving.  The American author Robert Collier, founder of Collier’s Weekly, once said:

“Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement – and we will make the goal.”

That is all we want for our little one … to make the goal.

One of the earliest commercials I remember is of a gorilla banging around luggage in a zoo cage.  I am reminded of that every time I have a package delivered looking like this.  No matter how many bright orange signs or how many times the word “fragile” appears, my packages seem to arrive looking like a gorilla has beaten them to bits.  Sometimes I think the stickers actually invite transporters to manhandle the packages out of some perverse form of pleasure.  I have a mental image of two guys kicking it toward the truck and waiting for the sound of broken glass rattling before chunking it inside.  Whatever the case it never fails to make me dread opening a package like this praying the contents are still in one piece.  The Roman poet Ovid once said, “Beauty is a fragile gift.”  I would like to think that is not so.  I believe that beauty is strength in the face of adversity and the courage to stand up for what is right.  Beauty is tenacious, beauty is defiant, and beauty is unconventional.  Feelings may be fragile, egos may be fragile, but never beauty.  No, to me beauty is anything but fragile.

Today was our fair day this year.  The hubs got off work, I had a free day, and our little one did not have school.  We were confident that a Monday would be slower and less crowded.  We were wrong.  It was so packed the who-knows-how-many-acres of parking inside the fair grounds were ALL completely full and it was just early afternoon.  So we did just what I remember doing as a kid:  Daddy parked the car on someone’s lawn and we prayed it would still be there by the time we got out.  When I asked if we needed a ticket the woman looked at me, cackled, and said, “Baby I AM your ticket!”  I winked and shot her a sideways grin as we made our way into the home of Big Tex, the icon of the Texas State Fair.  He is 55 feet tall, wears a size 96 boots and sports a 95 gallon hat.  Everything is bigger in Texas.  Of course we took our requisite picture with the big guy before I indulged in fried spinach balls with cream cheese (delicious) and beer.  The hubs got his traditional German bratwurst and only thing gluten free we could find for our little one was kettle corn.  It came in a bag so huge it quickly took her place in the stroller.  I proudly won a husky/wolf for my collection at a water gun shoot out (whomever fills the balloon first and it bursts wins) and then it was off to ride rides as the sun began to set.  Suddenly I was back in junior high with 80’s music blaring, lights whirling, and the underlying smell of Fletcher’s famous corny dogs.  My husband cannot ride because he gets motion sick.  So I found myself next to a middle school girl who got stuck riding with the lady she didn’t know.  But when we were in the air and I was screaming my lungs out she decided I was pretty cool.  The only difference was seeing my forty something feet swinging above my head in sandals instead of my fourteen year old ones in sneakers.  The famous French actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot said:

“A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.”

I agree.  There are also some rare things and special places that, if unchanged, have the ability to transport us backward in time.  For me, I have an eternal feeling reemerge once a year beginning when I stand with my family of three, just as I did as a child, and I hear Big Tex say, “Howdy, Folks!”

I think everyone likes to be appreciated, whether it’s a job one must do or one of your choosing.  My father said we may not always love the job we have, but we can always do it well.  Some jobs are thankless, some jobs are physically demanding, and some jobs do not get the recognition they deserve.  My little one is good about telling everyone thank you, from the checker at the grocery store to the police directing traffic, and that makes me very happy.  Just standing on your feet all day can be grueling and I think a soft smile or kind word goes a long way.  I love my job but I do not go in expecting a tip.  I am paid to do that job and I try to do it to the best of my ability.  I realize that my services add up and I am truly grateful to have the work.  I love spending my days taking care of dogs, cats, birds and any other creature that does not require me feeding another live critter to it.  I keep most of the notes clients have left me; they mean a lot.  It is a great feeling knowing they are confident entrusting me with their furry, finned, and/or feathered family.  Sometimes they’ll leave a gift for my little one, who has become an excellent helper and caregiver in her own right.  Their thoughtfulness and kindness has never gone forgotten.  I have been treated horribly by some but then who hasn’t?  It is not good to dwell on the negative.  So I was thrilled to receive this wonderful surprise from a family after they’d come back from their summer home for the winter.  They have a wine room and this July I just sat in there for about twenty minutes inhaling the soft scent of cigars and letting my body cool down from walking dogs in 100 plus degree heat.  They not only left me a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (my favorite) to enjoy, they wrote a kind note thanking me for all my work and added one hundred dollars to my check!  To know by the note I was appreciated was truly gratifying, to receive the wine was lovely, and to have an extra hundred bucks was an elated woo hoo!  In 1779 Benjamin Franklin, the first United States Ambassador to France, wrote to this to his friend, André Morellet, the theologian and philosopher:

“We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana, as of a miracle.  But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes.  Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy!”

I believe he was correct.  It’s hard to argue with Ben Franklin and a Cab Sav.

When I was a kid going through the car wash was a big treat.  Of course in the 70’s it was way different than it is now.  They had these giant blue mop things that would ineffectively swish the dirt around from side to side on the windows, creating an immediate sense of claustrophobia.  Next orange rolling brushes would come pounding down so hard I was convinced the roof of our station wagon would collapse right on top of our heads.  All the while I would be happily sitting on my father’s paint cans in the back “playing the drums.”  Not only could I ride backward (which I LOVED) there were no car seats in the back, no seat belts, or even seats for that matter!  I only vaguely remember 8-tracks but I do remember always singing the song, “Car Wash” by Rose Royce the entire time we were there.  Then to dry they had these yellow strips which would ineffectually flail at our sides as we drove out.  We did not have air-conditioning so by the end it was sweltering hot.  I could not wait to roll down my still wet window to let in “fresh” blowing pizza oven hot air.  Now I take my little one as a treat and I cannot help but compare our experiences.  She sits in her plush car seat with dual cup holders, drinking filtered water and having a snack as ice cold air blasts directly on her, all the while dictating what song she’d like next as I play DJ for her in my own car.  Most car washes use jets now and we both always stop and look up with awe when the pink, blue and yellow foamy soap comes squiggling down the sides and over my panoramic sunroofs.  It’s just cool.  Soon we are enveloped in a sort of psychedelic green haze and one of us never fails to remark on how good it smells.  As I write I realize I have a disco playlist in my music on my iPhone; I should add “Car Wash” to it and surprise her the next time we go.  The British photographer Cecil Beaton once asked and answered, “What is elegance?  Soap and water!”  I shall remember we are striving to maintain elegance the next time I can no longer see through the windshield and we take a trip to the car wash.

I loved cartoons as a kid.  I still love the classics as an adult … from Pepe le Pew to Scooby Doo.  In the past couple of years thanks to my little one I have found myself watching a new generation of cartoons like “Paw Patrol,” “Sophia the First,” and “The Octonauts.”  I would like to be writing but I think it is important to spend time with loved ones doing what they enjoy.  Our favorite program is the underwater adventures of the Octonauts, a group of animal explorers who travel the ocean in order to help creatures in distress.  Captain Barnacles is the polar bear who leads them, Kwazzi the cat is the Lieutenant, Peso the penguin is the medic, Shellington the sea otter (my favorite) is the marine biologist, Dashi the Dachshund is the IT officer and photographer, Tweak the rabbit is the engineer, and Professor Inkling is the octopus oceanographer and founder of the group.  The feminist in me likes that both the information technology officer and the engineer are both girls.  And yes clearly I have spent some time watching this.  The coolest part of the cartoon is at the end of each mission when they show actual footage of the creature they saved during their “creature report.”  I have discovered a lot and it is fascinating.  For instance I learned about the coconut crab, whom I had no idea existed.  They can weigh up to nine pounds and be over three feet in length!  They are the largest terrestrial arthropod and invertebrate in the world!  Speaking of incredibly big things, when Burk and I found out the Octonauts were coming to town I’m not sure which of the three of us was the most excited.  The cost to get in to see this show was, in my opinion, sheer highway robbery.  See that cool twirly thing she’s holding?  $20!  I remember going to the circus as a kid (something I will never do now if it involves live animals) and one of the highlights was my folks getting me this red and blue light that changed colors when you slung it in a circle.  No expending energy for this generation … they simply turn on a button and a myriad of different light patterns emerge.  Beer and pizza was OUTRAGEOUS and worse, the center had bars with no bartenders.  The whole thing came close to my idea of Hell.  I adore the cartoon and love kids shows, but for me this one fell short.  Did our little one have a good time?  You bet!  It was thrilling to see the cartoon characters “live.”  But our time spent together as a family was what was most important.  The Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev once said:

“Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail; but a man is happiest when he does not even notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly.”

This show oddly passed both swiftly and slowly.  I was still trying to process how much money we’d dropped and we didn’t even pay extra for the VIP pass where she could have met the characters.  I was sick about that until I found out it was only Captain Barnacles and Tweak.  I was hoping to see Shellington and our little one loves Peso because she wants to be a vet.  So that was a zillion dollars saved.  Regardless of the money, the most important thing a family can spend together is time; it is simply priceless.

Ever since I can remember I have loved the State Fair of Texas, the largest state fair in the nation.  My parents and I always went and had a good time but we pretty much had no money to blow on rides and certainly not on games.  Still, we went early and availed ourselves of the Natural History Museum, the Dallas Aquarium, the Dallas Museum of Art (now located downtown), and all the free exhibits they had to offer.  There was the Hall of State, the Women’s Museum, and the Texas Agriculture building.  In the ’70’s you could walk through and have an entire meal just on free samples alone.  My daddy lived for it!  They don’t do that anymore.  We would walk along Fair Park’s beautiful Esplanade, a 700 foot reflection pool with tall, spraying fountains, and admire the largest collection of art deco exhibition buildings, art, and sculpture in the United States.  I loved looking at all the murals which thankfully have now been restored.  Built in 1936 for the Texas Centennial and world’s fair, the exposition is credited with buffering Big D from the Great Depression.  I have always been aware of the irony of just how little money matters and, at the same time, just how important it can be.  This year I jumped the gun and bought our fair tickets on line thinking to save a little money.  To me the cost just to get in has never been cheap.  After that all food, drinks, rides, and games cost additional money.  Yes, there are discount days but sometimes one cannot make them.  Last night my husband came home from work with these two free tickets good for admission any time.  All I could think was that was $32 we could have spent on rides or games!  Then I was at the grocery store this morning speaking with my favorite checker about the fair.  I asked if she was going and she said no.  She went on to say she’d lived here fourteen years, that her daughter was fifteen, and they had never been.  “I’m paycheck to paycheck.”  And then with no small amount of chagrin I realized I’d become what I swore I never would be — someone slightly unthinking about money.  I was ashamed that after a lifetime of poverty I’d managed to somewhat forget in less than a decade.  But then I remembered!  I raced home to get my husband’s free tickets; texting him to ask if it was OK if I gave them away to this lady.  “Sure” my sweet love texted back without hesitation.  So I came back to the grocery store and waited until all the people were through her line.  Then I asked if she would like these tickets for the fair.  Tears welled in her eyes and I explained they were free from my husband’s employer and that we already had ours.  “Promise me you’ll go,” I said and she replied, “Well how can I NOT go now?!”  Then I smiled and said, “You and your daughter have fun!”  As I turned away I heard her say, “God is good!”  Yes He is.  I was so proud I’d found a way to share an October blessing that was personal (thanks to my husband) and I thought of the scripture in Acts 20:35 where St. Paul says:

I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Indeed it is.