Peace & Quiet Laughter

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June 22, 2018 by phicks2012

Sometimes, like Marlene Deitrich, I just “vant to be alone”, or if not ALONE alone, then alone with just good friends who make me laugh and who, if they can help it, won’t let me down or whiz in my Cheerios — assuming I liked Cheerios.

Some people thrive on DRAMA, but I’m not one of them. They seem to need it in their lives, like an addictive drug nobody in his or her right mind would ever ingest to begin with, and I’m not at all sure why. Maybe it stirs up their adrenalin and makes them feel ALIVE! I don’t know, but drama (other than in movies, on stage, or on TV) just never seemed to make it onto my personal Bucket List.

Nope, I like falling rain, and the sounds of the ocean and of flowing water, and cool breezes, and warm soft beds, and hammocks in the shade, and fires on the hearth, and the smells of flowers, and hay, and freshly mown grass. I like puppies, and kittens, and horses — okay, animals in general — and starry nights, and cool Autumn days when the sky is an almost painful blue. I even like storms, but shit-storms — nah, not so much.

If I want excitement I’ll watch sports, or SCA Tournaments or Wars in which friends are fighting, or an exciting movie. I won’t get into a hair-pulling match with another woman over some man neither of us should want in the first place, or decide that road rage might be “a good idea”, or shoot up a Chick-fil-a. I don’t lust after the kind of “excitement” that leaves me stressed out and wondering when the next industrial-size steel-toed boot will drop, and I don’t get drunk and marry some loser I met at the 7-11 under the aegis of a 400-pound Elvis impersonator.

I want excitement that has a satisfying conclusion, and allows me to settle back afterwards into a comfy chair or into a good night’s sleep — and maybe not beat myself up too much over also craving non-fat-free ice cream. I like happy endings, and real friendships, and the idea of true love. I’ve never FOUND it, mind you, but I really love the IDEA of it, and I’m told it really does exist outside of a Disney film. Somewhere.

I like seeing smiles on the faces of other people, and knowing the things I do are appreciated, and creating things that might actually outlive me — even though at this point it’s entirely possible that cockroaches might.

Spare me, please, the company of manipulative people with selfish agendas and total lack of a moral compass. Spare me the company of angry people who want everyone to be an miserable and pissed-off as they are, and who can never seem to let their anger and bitterness go, even for a moment. Spare me too from the eternal victims, the folks who look for reasons to be offended (and invariably find them), and of — well, anybody at all who thinks they’d actually like to “Keep Up With the Kardashians”.

Give me Peace and Quiet Laughter.