Packages and other gifts.

This computer thing is amazing. When I was born, my parents had just bought their first TV set and the VCR was many years later. Progress was slow and we had the time to adjust to the new technology easily. I remember buying our first fax machine at work and how great an impact it had on our jobs. Geez, now we buy a cell phone that takes pictures, plays videos, makes movies, and sends emails. I remember that we used to see changes in surgical technique a few times a year and now it's hardly a day that a rep doesn't come in with a new screw or rod to show the docs. Now we use a type of navigation where we do an MRI, put the disc in the machine, and the docs can see exactly where they are in a patient's head during brain surgery. I just think it's magic. I want to understand how they put all that info on something the size of a penny and how I can write a word in google and in a second there are two zillion and fifty answers. It's just magic.

What brought me thinking this way? I write this blog, this way of getting to know myself and share my thoughts with you. And, for the most part, I don't even know who you are. Sometimes at my parties, one of you will come up and say that you enjoy reading the blog and I think, you know that person I just met knows so many personal things about me and I know nothing about him. Kind weird, but then it's been good for me to open up, to write about me and learn that it's OK to be revealing.

I especially enjoy your emails to me, how you comment on something I wrote, how it is just what you were thinking or that you were glad I brought up a certain subject that is important to you. I've recently realized that some of us dearly want a "soul mate" but that we seek someone like the Prince on the white horse and are not realistic about who he should be, like he is our age but has to have all his hair and be really tall and make lots of money and make us laugh. And one of you wrote this really cool email to me: I must comment on the "Laws of the Jungle..." blog. First, thanks so much for including this info. I hope the women in WOW take it to heart. Although I'm considered an attractive man by most standards, I'm just a smidge under 6', have a little more avoirdupoir than I should, have a bit less hair than I used to and most of it is gray. I'm no Donald Trump, but have no debts and will retire with a nice income. You'd be surprised how picky women have been, even in your wonderful group. It's time we all changed our value systems a bit. Do nice guys still finish last? Thank you for all you do. Geez, doesn't he sound like the nicest guy?

Me, I like surprises. I think of all the things I've done in my life that I would have missed if I took the safe route. I might not have traveled by myself to meet friends in Puerta Vallarta, I might not have bought my house on my own, I might not have gone to Paris with someone I barely knew, I might not have taken that amazing parasail ride, and who knows what else. I sure might have never created Wow or these really fun parties that have made my life, and maybe yours, a lot brighter. Maybe we should think of prospective mates like this, like we are open to surprises and that we have almost no preconceptions about what they should be. Maybe we should learn to ignore some of the packaging and wait until we see what's inside. Think about receiving a gift that is wrapped at some fancy store in the shiniest paper and ribbon but might be some silly doo-dad inside that we don't want and some gift that is wrapped in the funny pages with the tape showing and holds inside something that would really make us smile and be happy.

I have a picture of my twin grandchildren walking into a room to see their 4-year-old birthday gifts. They had absolutely no idea at all what might be in those boxes and each time they opened one, they were thrilled, just thrilled, like it was the neatest thing ever. Maybe we should view life, and potential mates, like that, that they might just be the gift we hoped for all our lives. My beautiful curly-haired daughter sent me this quote last week, "Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold." ~Maurice Setter. Let's open whatever special gifts that are waiting for us, regardless of how they're wrapped!