Solidarity

Several months ago my mother decided it was time to let her hair go grey. Twenty-five years of covering her silver roots and she was sick, literally sick, from the hair color and the migraines and scalp shingles that would occur as a result. She had flirted with the idea of going grey for years, asking my siblings and I if we would mind.

"I'll look older," she said. "I'll look different and older and if that bothers you I won't do it."

"Of course you should do it," I said! "You'll be beautiful grey. A silver Fox. Rarrrrhotstuffrrrr."

It wasn't until this winter when she finally made the decision to go for it, reluctantly, self consciously, go for it.

"My friends keep asking me why," she said to me a few weeks back, her grey roots then about an inch thick. "I feel like a skunk."

"Sexiest skunk I've ever seen," I said.

My mother seemed unconvinced and I annoyed that she could possibly doubt her beauty, she who is the most luminous woman on earth, so I came up with an assignment for her, a book to write about her year Going Grey. A book to empower herself and women like her to be real, to embrace age with grace and dignity.

She began work on it right away.

...

Two days ago I found my first grey hair sticking out of the top of my head, silver and jagged as a pube. I plucked it out, examined it and shrieked.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Guess what just happened!" I said to her over the phone.

"What! What! What!"

"I found my first grey hair!"

"Uh oh."

"Dude! Not uh oh. Amazing. My hair is totally standing behind your hair. It's solidarity! My hair is supporting your cause!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

I could hear my mom smiling over the phone.

Fable's dress made by my mother and me

GGC

And in other news... Macaroni and Cheese is a complete balanced meal, and my brother goes to Harvard.

Judgement Day

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to keep comments on this post open or closed, mainly because I already feel like far too much ado has been made over Nadya Suleman and her decisions, her doctor and everything else surrounding her story. I've also felt very uncomfortable with the bru hate-hate occurring as a result. 

This topic is interesting (and unsettling) to me because it makes hypocrites of us all. Myself included. Is it easy to judge her? Of course. Are we all judging her? Yes! But my mother always told me "when you point your finger at someone, three fingers point back at you." And I believed her. Still do. So here I am pointing at myself, feeling like a dunce.

I personally feel like right now more than ever we should be standing beside each other, rather than tearing one another new assholes which is why I was wary of this particular subject (as well as wary of opening up the floor for dialogue.)  I also think that it speaks volumes about our society that this has become a major news story. In many ways I feel like Nadya has become a sort of scapegoat for our economic woes, (First the bank bailout and now Nadya? Down with Nadya!) as well as THE personification of "The American Dream" gone totally wrong. (Families bought homes they could not afford, trusted in loan officers, the market... not too different from Nadya essentially buying a pregnancy she could not afford, trusting in doctors, the system. Down with Nadya!)

If you have an opinion on the subject or want to add your .02, that's fine. (I guess I decided to keep comments open, then, eh?) But do something for me? Pretend she's here, sitting in front of you, and you are telling her to her face how you feel about her decision. And then, if you feel so inclined, cite an example of something you have done as a parent that would most likely be judged as wrong. 

I'll start: My almost-four-year-old still sleeps with a pacifier. My daughter often watches television with us at night. Archer's often late to school because I suck at getting up in the morning. I keep a stash of cigarettes in my glove compartment for nights spent out on the town. 

The anonymity of the Internet often makes us fearlessly uncensored as a responding force, forgetting that there are feelings attached to every human subject, blogger and fellow commenter,  but we needn't forget that our voices carry and that hate is inexcusable no matter the circumstances.

GGC

I also would like to add that Portraits of an Economy has thirty-five heartbreaking, always enlightening, even optimistic stories that span twenty-four states and four countries. As I have said before, all submissions are accepted and desired. Or you can post your stories on your own blogs and email me the links. Kiss.

"Slumber Party"

Starring...

The lovely Angela Boatwright (one of my oldest besties),  Valley Girl  (Two words: Nicolas Cage's freaky baby teeth), Vogue magazine, and Fable's giggles (which, if they don't kill you? Will surely make you stronger.)

Yet another example of girls not sucking:

It's never too early to heart fashion

Angela explains photographic lighting techniques to Fable

But the real highlight of the night was watching Fable bust a gut for three minutes:

Life be good. Like totally to the max. 

GGC