Objects in the mirror; change in blog name

Yesterday, while driving, it occurred to me that I had forgotten the perfect name for my blog that I thought of long ago.  There it was, right outside the window on the car mirror:  Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.  How crazy is that?  Why aren't the objects in the mirror just as close as they appear to be? 

I've always wanted that saying as some sort of article title, tag line or quote on my business card, and when I started my very first blog, it left me completely until yesterday. Just goes to show you I don't look at my right side mirror very often!

First of all, WHY do they (car manufacturers) do that?  With all our technology, you'd think they could make a mirror for the passenger side of the car that shows the REAL size and distance from the object to you. 

This little feature on the cars has haunted me since the day I first got behind the wheel in driver's ed oh so long ago.  Exactly HOW MUCH closer is this object?  Just a bit?  Quite a bit?  RIGHT NEXT TO ME?  How can I ever trust it?  What moron thought this is a good idea? OH GOD, I'll never trust my right-side merging and can I really believe that the driver's side mirror is telling me the truth?  Arrrghh!

Back in the day, there were no outside mirrors on cars, and then there was only one, on the driver's side.  Finally, some safety guy, or insurance person, or mother came along and said "we need a mirror on the other side too!"  But, maybe that mirror should be misleading, just to keep a little excitement in the driving experience!  Yeah, that's it!  Let's keep it fun!

So who made that decision to put in a funky mirror that distorts the image to make it appear farther away giving me a false sense of security?  Who I ask?

The newer cars have cool things in the mirrors that light up when someone is in your smack zone.  The closer they come to your zone, the brighter the lights get and some even beep.  So, if you look in the distorted mirror, you think the car is farther away but the lights KNOW the truth.  The light sensors shout "danger, danger - don't believe what you see in the mirror!"

Odd, eh?

Well, if I were an English teacher, or a philosophy teacher, I'd use this sentence as a class assignment.  It's a goodie.  Think about how it actually pertains to our lives, in a metaphorical sense.

The objects in the mirror are usually the things behind you, right?  Stuff from your past.  Looking back on your past, don't some events or situations seem LARGER than they really were?  Or, do they seem smaller than you thought at the time? 

We don't get any blinking lights that go off and say "hey! that old stuff is sneaking up on you again and it's getting close!  There's gonna be a big bang here!"  Memories are always conjured up with filters on them.  Either we make the story bigger, worse, more drama, or we minimize what happened.  We pick and choose what we remember, for the most part.  And HOW we remember it.  We give memories new or continued life if we keep talking about them, writing about them, dwelling on them.  Some are good, and some need to be given a proper burial and let go of completely.

So there you have it!  My blog name has been changed to what I originally wanted it to be.  And if you have any thoughts about the car mirrors, memories or whatever, leave me a comment.  By the way, be careful while driving, and keeping old memories - be sure to watch for the signal before the big bang!

TTFN!

Beautiful Ball Gowns and what happened to dressing up?

Most of you who are reading this blog, may have just been on the edge of a time when dressing up and dressing beautifully was very important.  In 1964, when I was 11, I remember going to see Mary Poppins at the Valentine Theater in downtown Toledo, in a taxi (because most people only had one car, and our dad's took that car to work) with my mother and sisters on a weekday afternnoon.  We were dressed in dresses and I wore white cotton gloves and carried a small patent leather purse.  I remember it was hot outside, but very cool in the theater, and wanting to take my gloves off, but my mother insisted that I leave them on, because I was a big girl now and I had to act like a lady.  I know she did let my sisters take theirs off because I had to put their tiny gloves in my empty (except for a crochet-edged hanky) purse. 

I think that was the last time I ever wore gloves, except in the winter and to prom.  The world was changing and it took away our graceful manner of dress, many of our manners and courteseys, and in exchange, gave us "comfort" clothing, casual days, jeans for everyone and every day and fewer and fewer formal events.

Ah.  My heart pines for those days - the dressing up and manners parts.  This link will take you to a video, with narration, about ballgowns.  Not that most of us will ever get to dress like this, but it is the stuff that girls dream about and is good eye candy for today!


Beautiful Ballgowns