Where the Hell Have I Been?

I seriously didn't realize that it's been two weeks since my last post. But happily, my absence is not because of anything bad that happened. Quite the opposite. I've had company, begun some projects, finished a couple of novels, visited the beach, and procured a Florida Medical Marijuana Card. It's all good.

Life at this age is funky. There are just so many things one can let go of. I've been thinking a lot about how brainwashed we can all be when we are young. Take that rule that one must never wear white after Labor Day or before Palm Sunday or Easter or Memorial Day or whenever the hell it was that the fashion police said it's okay now. (Is this just a law in the Northeast?) I lived by that rule most of my life . . . until I finally stopped and realized what a stupid friggin' rule it is. Even though my winters in Florida make this a non-issue, I still call up that rule whenever I dare to wear a pair of white jeans in the off-season. I feel downright defiant when I don those jeans and go out in public, damnit!

So what other rules can and should be broken? I've been working really hard at not saying, "Bless you!" (or god forbid, "God bless you!") when someone sneezes. It's a hard rule to break! I know, I know, its origins lie in the idea that, during the bubonic plague in Europe, Pope Gregory suggested that saying "God bless you" when someone sneezed would protect that person from getting the plague. Last time I checked, there was no bubonic plague going on in my neighborhood, so why do we continue? We don't say "God bless you" when someone coughs or farts or otherwise expels some holy spirit into the atmosphere, do we? Please don't misunderstand . . . if you want to God bless everyone who sneezes, go right ahead. And if you don't like that I am trying to break the habit, then just don't sneeze around me, okay? (At least I won't catch the plague from you.)

And then there's that Marijuana Is Evil rule that has been around most of my life. Reefer Madness. Gateway Drug. Just Say No. I thought I'd never see the day when pot would be decriminalized, let alone legalized. But here we are! Yes, we have to go state-by-state, and oddly, marijuana use is still against federal law. Last year, Canada made pot legal in the entire country, which makes more sense than this state-by-state thing. But, hey, it's a start. And it's about time.  Just try not to go "one toke over the line," okay?