Did you know that Mother’s Day is the third highest card-selling holiday behind Christmas and Valentine’s Day? Somehow that doesn’t seem right given if it weren’t for Mom none of us would be here.
Very this
But who am I to argue with statistics from a trade union named the Greeting Card Association, especially in such a perilous time for unions?
And if you are or ever have been a union member of any kind, please remember this November there are only two choices at the ballot box:
DEMOCRACY
DICTATORHSIP
Cast your votes accordingly.
That’s a yes from mother Oprah
Though living with my Mom was often a dictatorship, albeit a bottom line loving one, I’ll cast my vote for democracy every time.
You get to make those choices and more once you turn 18.
My mother Marion and my stepmom Shelly are no longer with us, though I randomly hear both of their voices in my head at least once a week. If not more.
And no, it’s not only because I’m the gay son.
Still doing it all
It’s because each of them, and mothers in general, are our first measuring stick of the world. They teach us what’s right and what’s wrong and often times, when you’re much older, you realize they were correct a lot more than you thought.
Though not nearly as much as you wished they would have been when you were growing up.
I, for one, will never quite forgive my mother for forcing me into a Nehru suit and medallion necklace when I was 13 years old (Note: Though did she really have to twist my arm all that much?). Yet I have to give her credit for an enduring narcissism that has never allowed me to leave home looking that fashion victim-y again.
Thanks Ma
Yet at this time of year all I can think of is that in random moments I miss her terribly. Ditto Shelly, who was determined to love me from the very beginning. She even forgave the teenage me for drawing double entendre obscenities on the eggs in her refrigerator in the middle of the night just so the entire family would see them first thing in the morning.
I guess I needed a creative outlet and somehow I sense she knew that because it took only about a day for her to encourage me to keep at it. This was something she, and my mom Marion would do for the rest of my life.
There would be no Notes without them
It’s weird what you think of on Mother’s Day.
Especially when you have no need to buy the mandatory card.
PS – I just learned Paul McCartney actually wrote this song for his mother, whose name was Mary. All these years I thought it was a biblical reference! #themoreyouknow
At this point, it’s probably better to look forward than back.
And I write this after a lifetime of believing that there is some benefit to understanding the past in order to move forward in the present.
Stay with me here…
But just because it’s probably better doesn’t mean we can’t briefly reflect on 2023. After all, I’ve also spent a lifetime doing things mostly the hard way and its mostly worked for me.
So why stop now?
Oh, 2023.
here we go!
I so wanted to do a bestof and worst person list. The former would have included all sorts of movies, TV shows and music that many of you would have agreed with and some might have found… lacking.
As for the worst person of 2023 – well, isn’t it reassuring to know we can still ALL agree on some things?
F-CK HIM and the diapers he rode in on this year and next.
Burn baby burn
Breathe in all that fresh air now that, at least here, he’s no longer part of the equation.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
There were worse years than 2023 but there were also better ones. After all, how bad can it be when the polar opposite of films – Oppenheimer and Barbie – together grossed more than $2.3 BILLION dollars worldwide and are credited with temporarily “saving” the theatrical movie business?
All hails these queens!
More importantly, since at this point, I’m happy not to mix it up with phone scrolling strangers without masks sitting next to me – Barbenheimer showed us that polar opposites can play nicely with each other, share the stage and produce a great result for everyone.
Perhaps we can learn from it?
Or not.
We can all watch the world burn!
Hi Zazzzzzz.
Hi MAGA.
Hi moron who cut in front of me in traffic last week but wound up behind a bus that allowed me to amble far past them thanks to the green light up ahead the bus ignored.
heh, heh, heh.
See, for better or worse we humans will always rise and fall on our best and worst instincts.
Meaning, who in the media predicted early on that many months of union strikes by the Writers Guild of America, the United Auto Workers and the Screen Actors Guild would net previously unheard-of gains in salary, plant re-openings, residuals and, at least, begin to address the unregulated use of AI?
It’s far from perfect but it’s a tribute to, as they say, the will of the people.
For-ever-ever
As is the bloody war in Ukraine.
As for the Hamas invasion of Israel and Israel’s invasion of Gaza, that’s a f-n mess.
Just when one hand of humanity gets it right the other becomes hopelessly entangled in all sorts of sh-t.
Even though I don’t listen much to Taylor Swift music, if at all, I can’t say I’m not thrilled her 2023 tour grossed in excess of $1 billion, she and the affable, well-dressed football star Travis Kelce seem deliciously happy together and that she gives a lot of time and energy to her devoted fans as well as millions of dollars and social media promotion to humanistic political causes and the politicians that support them.
Chairy is a stan!!!
And no, I’m not entirely trolling for readers by stating this.
In fact, I have plans with a friend to watch her concert movie next week.
We might even order BRACELETS!!!!
❤
This will take nothing away from my love of Maestro and the Leonard Bernstein/Bradley Cooper/Carey Mulligan story. It will only prove that, like Barbenheimer, I can appreciate two polar opposites simultaneously.
Like everyone else, I had challenges this year. My Dad died early in 2023 (Note: He was 94 years old, lived his like exactly the way he wanted and at the end of the day seemed really happy). I also finally got Covid in mid-September and am still feeling some incredibly annoying, lingering side effects from the virus that can’t seem to learn the age-old show business lesson of ceding the stage.
Though which of us can?
Time to go!
Nevertheless, I have a great spouse, excellent friends and I don’t look half bad for a guy who last month was offered an unsolicited senior citizen discount by some checker at the market.
I won’t forget it
Yes, I took it. But still……I was wearing a baseball hat, stylish glasses and slimming workout clothes!
At the end of the day all of this is beside the point because I often judge the year, and the state of our world, by the subjects of the original screenplays and TV pilots my students are writing about during the semester.
This fall all I got were dystopic, apocalyptic, cynical, murderous and horrific worlds. There was one bittersweet love story but you couldn’t quite call it happy.
What there was not was a SINGLE out-and-out comedy.
send help!
This, more than anything, tells me too few of us are doing enough laughing and experiencing the bare minimum of joy.
My hope in the coming year for all of them, and all of us, is to acknowledge and embrace the idea that humor is an important tool in survival, and in life.
notes from a chair 