At least that’s the common belief. But I have to tell you, it ain’t true. I may have played at being a princess with my friends, but it definitely wasn’t what I wanted for my life. I wanted to be an actor or a writer. (And there was a brief stint of wanting to be a waitress. Yeah, I don’t know what that was about. I’m sure my career aspirations scared the mess out of my logical, practical parents.)
We’ve romanticized the idea of being a princess. It means being special, wealthy, loved. And so we think, “hey, if we can make girls feel like princesses, they’ll understand their self-worth.”
Sometimes I’m plagued by who I should be, things I should do.
I should be the kind of wife who makes supper for her husband every night. I should clean the bathroom every week. I should get up early and be happy about it. I should hum cheerfully while I dust.
Should, should, should.
Everyone’s got an opinion. Family especially. They’re all too happy to share their ideas on what a good wife is. They offer prescriptive rules dominated by the should clause. (more…)
I’m onto you, it read. I know you have just skipped the first eight chapters and started right here. I set the book down, a little creeped out. How did the author know?
It wasn’t some sort of magical, mind-reading book. It was The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman, and I was a middle-schooler seeking to understand myself and my family. It may have been the book that sparked my interest in personality psychology.
First born, only, middle, baby. Your birth order has an impact on your personality. When it comes to the classic nature versus nurture debate, birth order captures the nurture side of things. It’s all about the environment you found yourself in as a child. (more…)
You can tell a lot about a person from their eyes. It’s not specifically their eyeballs so much as the muscles around those eyeballs. A slight raising of an eyebrow, tension along the sides. It speaks volumes. Pair it with body language and you have a wealth of information sitting in a single picture.
This weekend, I got to study tons of eyes. That sounds creepy. Before you picture piles of eyeballs in jars (oops, too late!), let me tell you they were paintings at the National Portrait Gallery. The presidents in particular were intriguing. Last year, I finished a fascinating book about the presidents and their personalities (Personality, Character, and Leadership in the White House). Armed with snippets of personality info, I studied the portraits.
One by one, I stood in front of the presidents, seeking to know them. (more…)
Confession: Yesterday I tore a page out of a book.
I’ve never done that before. I’ve never even dog-eared a page. I try to keep everything as new as possible. If I could make things look newer than when I got them, I would. I’m the person you want to lend books to, because I can promise there won’t be a single wrinkle in those pages when you get it back.
So what was it that compelled me to rip a page? It wasn’t anger. There was nothing wrong with the book. But I tore in the name of craftiness. (more…)