Jell-O Molds

When I was a kid my grandmother who we all called "Nanny" had several brass Jell-O molds that hung on the wall in her kitchen. Do you remember those? The one I remember best was a fish. I remember her making lime-green Jell-O in it. When it was chilled she turned the little fish mold over and tada! The yummy green fish slipped out perfectly and it was if there had never been anything in the mold. We greedily ate the Jell-O up! Jell-O isn't even that good but as little kids Jell-O is the best thing ever or at least back then it was.

Interesting.... I've been thinking a lot about that Jell-O.

Recently I've written things on my facebook wall and I've posted funny cartoons and pictures that have offended people. These offended "friends" rather than writing their opinions on their walls have put comments, some really uncalled for comments, on my wall. On my wall. Wow! I'm sure this is a discussion we could have about social media and how the general populous feel free to write offensive things because we are almost anonymous on social media, yada, yada, yada. But that's not where I want to go tonight. I want to talk about Jell-O.

I'm not Jell-O. I'm not green Jell-O. I'm not even red Jell-O. Life might be easier if I was but I'm not. I don't fit in a little brass fish Jell-O mold. You might turn over the mold to tump me out and I'm probably going to stick and I'm certainly not going to make a perfect little fish.

I'm different from you. I have talents, skills, I'm funny, and I know a lot of trivia. I can be cranky, I'm easy to anger, I've been called fiery and I'm occasionally argumentative; well, maybe more than occasionally. I like country music, I like Italian opera, I love blues and jazz, I love Led Zeppelin, and I love Billy Holiday, Bessie Smith and Nina Simone. I dislike Rap and I'm not really into Hip-hop music. I love Jesus and rock-n-roll and beer. Can you love all those things? I do. I'm a Christian and I read a lot of Buddhist books and I mediate. Can you do all those things? I do. I practice yoga not voodoo though I've been accused of doing both. I love the movies A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE, BRAZIL, THE PIANO, V FOR VENDETTA and THE LITTLE MERMAID. I'm a democrat and I love peace and I have a very strong work ethic. I hate prejudice, guns, weapons of mass destruction, judgment, poverty, ignorance, narrow-mindedness, crimes against women and children, and violence in general. I believe in kindness, love, understanding, charity, laughter, family, spirituality, education, hugging, the future, art, art, and art. There are a few that agree with me and some that disagree (and I'd argue that they are wrong :) ).

We're all different. It's true. We all have strengths and weakness. We all have opinions, loves, and hates. Isn't it better to celebrate our diversity than to try and force our differences on one another? Isn't life a little more interesting because we are all different? Isn't it cool that we live in a country where we are allowed to express our real, authentic selves?

Or at least that's the theory--that we are free to do that. If I express myself and people shoot me down on my own Facebook wall just for being me what does that say about our country, our society? Well, I'll tell you what my Aunt who lived in the house with my Nanny and those Jell-O molds would say, "Don't let the bastards get you down." So rather than have my mind changed by those comments or become angered by those folks on Facebook, I defriended them. I continue to defriend folks each day. It's a sad day when someone doesn't want to let me be me or you be you. But it's okay; don't cry for me, they were "fake friends" anyway. And I bet they wouldn't fit in that Jell-O mold either!