Overheard at . . . Home

“What was the Cold War, anyway?”

Another snow day and this one we spent playing board games with the neighbor. Interesting, indeed, to watch two 9-10 year olds playing Apples to Apples. If you haven’t played this game before the premise is that you match cards with people, events, things, on them against a descriptive card.

In this case the girls had already played the card, Napolean Bonaparte vs the card Mortician against ‘Dead’… extra funny because whichever one threw the Mortician card didn’t even realize what they were playing. I was the objective third part judge and was having fun talking about words and meaning and culture and history.

When the card, ‘Dramatic’ came up the two cards thrown were- The Cold War vs High School. Can you imagine two things any less different but at the same time more dramatic. I think it was a draw on that one since I honestly couldn’t choose between the two.

It did lead into an interesting discussion about the Cold War. I remember growing up and having arguments with my idiotic step-brother about whether we should, in his words, ‘nuke’ Russia. Seriously! If you’ve read a few of my blogs I am pretty sure you know which side of the argument I was on. These conversations definitely hit new levels of dramatic and may be what pushed me over the liberal edge.

More importantly, I remember sitting in my family room, watching the wall fall, and crying. My conservative family thought I was crazy. It was all just politics to them. But to me it meant hope. It meant that when I saw the twin towers fall I still had hope we would find peace. And when I saw Egypt in the midst of rebellion I knew there was hope that it could occur peacefully.

Still, as I now listen to the insane rhetoric coming from Russia I am reminded that life is a cycle and everything circles around again. Perhaps this is what my parents at least knew when the wall fell. It’s only dramatic the first time around.

Are you ready for less drama in your life? Just leave me a comment during the month of February and you'll be entered to win a copy of any of Julia Green's Decluttering/Feng Shui Kindle books http://amzn.com/e/B008IC65K6. Check back at the end of the month to see if you won and to let me know which one you want.

(Please note - while I love and appreciate your comments on twitter and Facebook, only comments made here, on my blog, will be entered into the drawing - this way all who read the blog post can engage in a shared conversation about it.)

Happy Journeys!

Deanne