Thank you Ros. Your post gives me a new perspective on my occasional (but always annoying) habit of commenting on everything I dislike while watching TV (advertisements are the worst trigger) or films. I'm not adding value, I'm obsessing over peanuts!! Maybe I thought I needed to educate those around me on the world's shortcomings. All I did was reveal an inability to understand my important role in making this immediate world a better, calmer place. I might have listened to my inner coach, "If it's really bothering you, girlfriend, leave the room." Or, follow some old fashioned advice: as Ma used to say in Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books, be cheerful, bestir yourself, let's get to work.
Thanks, Kathryn. I'm very happy to make a small contribution to increasing your happiness by even a notch! There is so much in this world to annoy us, but it's alway good to take Ma's advice and turn our focus to what we'd like to see (or indeed eat) more of!
I loved this! A peanut morning. It’s such a useful phrase. My Dad used to designate certain days “doggy days”. We’re not entirely sure what he meant - I think it meant days when he felt like signing “it’s a doggy daaaayyy” in a goofy dad voice. I’ve co-opted this. And now I have “peanut mornings”. Except I love peanuts. Thank you for this delightful read and your impactful analogies!
Thank you, Bethany! I had a lot of fun writing this, so I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you love peanuts, you'll have to adapt your own version of the phrase into something meaningful for you: pick your throw-up food. Mushroom morning? Sardine afternoon? And then the key is to notice when you're having your equivalent of a peanut morning and switch out of it; that's when it's useful for me to have someone around, like Offspring, to point it out!
An Oyster Occasion. Very appropriate for times when other people seem to be loving life and having a blast ("who doesn't like oysters" - those oyster-lovers ask my glibly...)and I just want a cup of tea and permission to Talk to No-one.
I really love this. I can tell that with your "peanut morning" you also make humor, which I think is another way we can move on or move through our anger and ennui. I know that if I can find something funny to say (usually about myself or a situation) I can get past the sorrow and into action, and then into movement towards happiness or at least feeling useful. I wrote a little bit about this in my own Substack on Pleasure Activism, a term coined by adrienne maree brown and introduced to me by the poet Xochitl- Julisa Bermejo. The title of the article is "How Love Leads to Revolution" on Your One Wild and Poetically Imperfect Life. https://treshathepoetrysaloncom.substack.com/p/how-love-leads-to-revolutions?r=1ir5i&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Thank you, Tresha. And thank you for recommending this Substack, and your lovely comments on the link! Yes, laughing about those things that make me angry often feels like the best route through, and I love the way writing makes that even more fun! "Pleasure Activism" is a terrific term; thank you linking to this interview. I'm looking forward to listening to it!
I loved this whole thing, soup to nuts! - not to be too "corn-y" about it. Can't be helped. I'm trading peanuts for tripe. A tripe morning (which I am not having at the moment.) Reading this this morning turned the day to strawberries!
Thanks, Ros. Sometimes reading your material I wonder how we could help you. Would you even want it? I have been sitting here today thinking of things to create for our social media program. It wouldn't surprise me if some Stratfordians would give you a peanut day. They do me. At least you have an offspring with a sense of who you are. Never doubt you are respected by people that really matter.
That's what truly matters, Ken, on a peanut day. The people I live with understand me and support me, and I know there are plenty of folk like you, in my wider circles, who also wish me well and are glad of what I'm doing. I don't enjoy attracting flak but on the other hand, it's hard to make waves without annoying someone. I mean, even the loveliest people in the world, if they thrive, will inadvertently trigger certain folk with their thriving loveliness!
Right now, the chief way anyone could help me (if you want to!) is to share my Substack newsletters and help me find new subscribers who would enjoy the content. Publishing contracts these days more or less depend on how much of a "platform" a person has and I need to get my Substack subscribers into the thousands rather than hundreds. So if you like something, hitting that 'share' button is a great way of helping me.
Thank you Ros. Your post gives me a new perspective on my occasional (but always annoying) habit of commenting on everything I dislike while watching TV (advertisements are the worst trigger) or films. I'm not adding value, I'm obsessing over peanuts!! Maybe I thought I needed to educate those around me on the world's shortcomings. All I did was reveal an inability to understand my important role in making this immediate world a better, calmer place. I might have listened to my inner coach, "If it's really bothering you, girlfriend, leave the room." Or, follow some old fashioned advice: as Ma used to say in Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books, be cheerful, bestir yourself, let's get to work.
Thanks, Kathryn. I'm very happy to make a small contribution to increasing your happiness by even a notch! There is so much in this world to annoy us, but it's alway good to take Ma's advice and turn our focus to what we'd like to see (or indeed eat) more of!
I loved this! A peanut morning. It’s such a useful phrase. My Dad used to designate certain days “doggy days”. We’re not entirely sure what he meant - I think it meant days when he felt like signing “it’s a doggy daaaayyy” in a goofy dad voice. I’ve co-opted this. And now I have “peanut mornings”. Except I love peanuts. Thank you for this delightful read and your impactful analogies!
Thank you, Bethany! I had a lot of fun writing this, so I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you love peanuts, you'll have to adapt your own version of the phrase into something meaningful for you: pick your throw-up food. Mushroom morning? Sardine afternoon? And then the key is to notice when you're having your equivalent of a peanut morning and switch out of it; that's when it's useful for me to have someone around, like Offspring, to point it out!
An Oyster Occasion. Very appropriate for times when other people seem to be loving life and having a blast ("who doesn't like oysters" - those oyster-lovers ask my glibly...)and I just want a cup of tea and permission to Talk to No-one.
Perfect!
I really love this. I can tell that with your "peanut morning" you also make humor, which I think is another way we can move on or move through our anger and ennui. I know that if I can find something funny to say (usually about myself or a situation) I can get past the sorrow and into action, and then into movement towards happiness or at least feeling useful. I wrote a little bit about this in my own Substack on Pleasure Activism, a term coined by adrienne maree brown and introduced to me by the poet Xochitl- Julisa Bermejo. The title of the article is "How Love Leads to Revolution" on Your One Wild and Poetically Imperfect Life. https://treshathepoetrysaloncom.substack.com/p/how-love-leads-to-revolutions?r=1ir5i&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Thank you, Tresha. And thank you for recommending this Substack, and your lovely comments on the link! Yes, laughing about those things that make me angry often feels like the best route through, and I love the way writing makes that even more fun! "Pleasure Activism" is a terrific term; thank you linking to this interview. I'm looking forward to listening to it!
I loved this whole thing, soup to nuts! - not to be too "corn-y" about it. Can't be helped. I'm trading peanuts for tripe. A tripe morning (which I am not having at the moment.) Reading this this morning turned the day to strawberries!
That is very good to hear!
Thanks, Ros. Sometimes reading your material I wonder how we could help you. Would you even want it? I have been sitting here today thinking of things to create for our social media program. It wouldn't surprise me if some Stratfordians would give you a peanut day. They do me. At least you have an offspring with a sense of who you are. Never doubt you are respected by people that really matter.
That's what truly matters, Ken, on a peanut day. The people I live with understand me and support me, and I know there are plenty of folk like you, in my wider circles, who also wish me well and are glad of what I'm doing. I don't enjoy attracting flak but on the other hand, it's hard to make waves without annoying someone. I mean, even the loveliest people in the world, if they thrive, will inadvertently trigger certain folk with their thriving loveliness!
Right now, the chief way anyone could help me (if you want to!) is to share my Substack newsletters and help me find new subscribers who would enjoy the content. Publishing contracts these days more or less depend on how much of a "platform" a person has and I need to get my Substack subscribers into the thousands rather than hundreds. So if you like something, hitting that 'share' button is a great way of helping me.