THE INTERESTING THINGS WE DO THAT MAKE US WHO WE ARE

A series of essays.....

Idiosyncrasy From A Writer's Perspective

.....as seen through my eyes!


By: Jacqueline E. Hughes


Let's be totally honest here and admit to just how annoying we can sometimes be to others who often must cope with the idiosyncrasies that help develop the individual beings that we are.

If I'd asked for a show of hands in response to my honesty and placed myself in a large room, let's say filled with one hundred people.....I would have both of my arms raised and all ten fingers proudly pointing towards the acoustic ceiling! I've never been very good at math and percentages so, I really don't know why I filled the room with all these people.  But, my point is, some of my habits do occasionally annoy others. And, I know I do not stand alone here so, as you continue reading this, please feel free to acknowledge some of your own.




Jack LaLanne
Picture Courtesy: teamlalanne.org

I'm not entirely sure but, I think it all began when I was around three or four years old and a playmate told me that if I were to step on any crack on the sidewalk, I would actually contribute to breaking my dear Mother's back.....somehow. At this age, logic, reason and sound judgment, tends to fly right out of the window. Maybe this cryptic message was initiated by the likes of Jack LaLanne, a popular American fitness guru, in order to promote excessive movement or exercise in the very young! His teaching was considered ahead of the times when his television show first ran back in 1953. While my Mother was striking her best 'Glamour Stretcher' pose and perspiring in our living room in front of a grey-n-black, jumpsuited image of Jack on the small screen, I was out doing the 'bunny hop' along our front sidewalk with panic and fear tucked away in my heart.

Picture Courtesy: teamlalanne.org



Movie Night

Not every irritating regimen we concoct for ourselves is based in superstition. Dan and I have been doing this one for years now, ever since we began dating. No, not going where you think it is...... We happen to remain in the theater after a movie in order to look at every last credit that scrolls down on the Big Screen!! Yep! That would be us standing by our seats all alone in the eerie darkness as the house lights slowly come back on and the theater staff is seen scraping Jujubes off the natty, red cloth seats and sweeping up tons of spilled popcorn. Their rubber-soled sneakers become suctioned to the concrete floor by the sugary residue of every variety of soda pop known to mankind. Years ago, they used to wait to 'do their thing' until the credits were over. Today we must stand, eventually showered in bright lights, squinting at the fading screen in order to acknowledge all of the people responsible for the production of the film; this is our personal homage to so much talent and hard work behind the scenes.

"Rites of Passage"
Picture Courtesy: www.mlive.com

Do any of you recall walking in the halls before classes began in high school? What exactly were we thinking with this one? We were either showing off our new outfits and hair styles, majorly flirting with a particular someone every ten-minute round trip or, attempting to control a massive amount of teenage hormones (this would revert back to the flirting) and excess energy before having to sit for one-hour increments all day long in class. I don't believe we were necessarily irritating to the teachers....many of them did stand in their doorways just moving their heads from side-to-side and smiling. Most of us chalked-up their body language to wishing they were young and free again and never gave a second thought to just how absurd we all must have looked. To this day I wonder how many other schools held this ritualistic practice each morning. Maybe they still do for all I know. Anyway, for now, let's chalk it up to the 'rites of passage.'

Why do drivers leave ten car lengths between themselves and the car in front of them as they wait for the light to turn green? Why do families of five or more walk side-by-side at a theme park stretching out like cut-out paper dolls holding hands and taking up vast swaths of real estate while in this strategic dodge-ball formation? Who ever thought that applying make-up to one's face while maneuvering a multi-ton, moving vehicle down the highway was appropriate, necessary or SAFE? Wait a minute.... I get it. These come under the heading of "pet peeves" and will have to wait for another story and another time. Sorry about that.

We are special. We are all unique. Life itself is fantastic at any age and everything we do as loving, living beings does not require a thirty page instruction manual written in multiple languages. Sometimes we just need a little motivation to bring out the best in us. Often it's a simple matter of recharging our batteries for an extra boost of power. Spontaneity is one of my favorite words and a guideline for life and long lasting happiness.  Making plans is emphasized when your certain flight to 'somewhere' leaves on a predetermined schedule. When you arrive at your destination, be spontaneous, uninhibited and open for everything that comes your way. Sadly, spontaneity itself can feel quite strange for many people.

Turboprop Aircraft

Speaking of planes, I do have another superstitiously oriented ritual that I have performed since my very first commercial flight when I was sixteen-years-old. I was on my own and leaving out of the South Bend International Airport in Indiana on a 'tree hopper' business flight to Indianapolis. It was a turboprop plane carrying over twenty passengers and crew, as I recall, and could fly at a lower cruising altitude which lent itself to the short distance we had to travel.

My flight was scheduled to leave at eight o'clock in the morning but it looked dubious because of the thick, low fog cover that blanketed the area. I admit to being surprised and slightly apprehensive when we were told we could now board the plane. I couldn't see my hand in front of me as I walked out onto the tarmac being urged along by the stewardess/flight attendant pointing towards the movable stairs temporarily attached to the side of the aircraft. By the time I made it to the top step, practically feeling my way up as if I were blind, and before entering the doorway, I reached out to touch an outside panel of the plane with my right hand pressed flat, fingers splayed.

By now my hand was cold and wet. I kept it there long enough to say a short prayer to my angels and ask them to guide us to Indianapolis in one piece, much to the dismay of the remaining passengers bottle-necked behind me and clinging to the rickety railing for support in the fog. I was definitely a hindrance to their progress but, by the time I flung myself through the arched doorway and was greeted by another stewardess and one of the pilots, I was feeling much more at peace with my current situation. 



Flight instrumentation is truly a wonderful thing, isn't it? Within moments we lifted off into the thick, gray mist and became airborne! Holding my breath as I clutched the seat cushion beneath me, I realized I was staring through the cockpit of the plane and right out of the windshield into the clouds that enveloped us. Having allowed the cockpit doors to remain open for take-off, I was rewarded with a pilot's panoramic view of this soft, gray world as we slowly climbed higher.


It was mere moments of amazement before the actual miracle took place.....  Suddenly, as though the plane's propellers had teamed-up to push the mist away, our little plane poked its nose right through the cloud cover and Heaven opened-up all around us! The strikingly blue of the morning sky was so intense it was what I now refer to as "hurt my eyes..beautiful."  The rays of the rising sun sent shards of golden light piercing through the rolling white sea that stretched out beneath us and refracted off of the metallic fuselage and wings of our little aircraft. I was not alone. Nothing could be that potent and so beautiful that one could ever feel alone. Whenever asked, "Where did you find your wonderment?" I would have to say, as a young woman, aged sixteen, discovering the Heavens for the very first time.

From that morning on I have honored this maiden voyage of mine into that majestic 'unknown' by touching the plane before every flight I take. And.....I always will!






Blessed Holy Week and Easter Sunday

Copyright © 2015 by Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved

Observations.......

Hot Coffee In The Morning

A series of short stories......
                                                                 



Through My Eyes........

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes


At this precise moment, as I plunk away on my flat keyboard, I am so grateful for my steaming mug of HOT coffee!  Not necessarily to drink...although, my addiction to caffeine is quite evident to anyone who knows me...but rather, for the ability to place a strangle-hold on the scalding piece of pottery with my semi-frozen appendages!  Such bliss for my fingers as the Orlando temps linger in the low thirties outside for the second day in a row.  It is around six in the morning and already I fear that my biggest regret today will be the fact that we decided to remove, much too soon, the old sheets covering our delicate plants for warmth.  Sadly, for the plants, only time will tell.

Within the past nearly seventeen years of residing in Central Florida I have observed many things with regard to living the Floridian lifestyle.   Two of them have formidably stood out the most for me.  The first I like to call 'Everyone's God-given right-to-turn-right,' or, 'The inability to be able to bring your vehicle to a complete stop!'  People...a red light or a stop sign in front of you truly means you must come to a complete STOP before proceeding with your right turn!!  This is especially annoying when I feel I've been experiencing senescence as I sit in the 'left turn only' lane for several hours (exaggeration implied)  waiting for my green arrow privilege of turning left, only to have to 'play chicken' for that honor with the chosen-by-the-gods driver making his cruising right turn across the intersection from me!! 

And, along these same lines of ridiculous to dangerous... I refer to the people who consider that oncoming traffic should willingly come to a complete stop, if not, slow to a tortoise crawl, due to the fact that they have decided to merge into that lane from a side street or parking lot without stopping first or even looking to see if a car might happen to be traveling down the road already.  Then they proceed in front of you moving at a snail's pace! Do I sound bitter? 

Pet peeves, observations, annoyances......you make the call!

More than likely you have experienced similar activities wherever you may reside because 'inconsiderate behavior' exists worldwide.  For some reason, however, a blatant unconscious decision of the rights of others has always been a bone of contention for me.  It doesn't matter if it's ignoring certain laws, talking over one another in a conversation, disrespecting the opinion of others or the act of not allowing everyone the right to live his or her life in the manner they wish to....  We are all human and deserve respect, courtesy and understanding.

I've been working very hard on improving my attitude toward the above unconscious drivers especially when considering negativity gives birth to possible road rage.  And, if my supposition above is an honest one, these drivers are human and deserve my respect, courtesy and understanding, as well.  Oh, I'm trying.  I really, truly am.

Okay, so now I am practically hugging the coffee pot itself as I pour my next cup.  Another misfortune of existing in a warm climate, I'm afraid: When the mercury goes south, so do our spirits.  A bit evident by my shared thoughts this morning.  Ouch!! 

And, I have yet to mention my second observation regarding living in Florida.  Here goes....  Nothing ever really dies!  I wholeheartedly believe this phenomenon to be truthful and accurate, at least according to my personal experience with local flora whether it be indoors or out-of-doors, existing in a pot or residing in the ground.
  

Not having been born with a green thumb, (apparently, only blue fingers this morning!), many once green, healthy and thriving plants have succumbed to.....okay, croaked, bought the farm, gave-up the ghost or kicked the bucket because of me in the past seventeen years.  Or, so I thought, until conditions begin to agree with the poor, shriveled and brown friend I left semi-forgotten within a glazed blue pot. Unbelievably, succulent new green shoots begin pushing their way towards the light and multiplying.  Plucking the dead leaves away from this new life, I realize this plant has survived to see another season in my care.....whether it wants to or not.  Sincere apologies to the delicate plantings left naked to the elements throughout this cold night.  If my ideas are correct, however, there is hope!

 

Along the lines of the 1985 science fiction film, Cocoon, directed by Ron Howard, perhaps dismissing the alien intervention part, my imagination has often applied itself to this hypothesis, "Nothing living in Florida ever dies."  My plants, more or less, prove this to be true.  And, given the fact that according to the publication of Active Retirement Living, an average of one thousand people move to our normally sun-filled state each day with a majority moving into Florida retirement communities.  Are we to assume that many of them agree with my theory and just might know something more than we do?  Just wondering!!

My concern and Love goes out to all of you coping with the frigid weather conditions and temperatures within your particular areas of the country!  Stay warm and safe....