MerryMaryQC's profile

Eons member since

May 20, 2007

Age, Gender

61, Female

Location

Lynchburg, VA

Hometown

Lumberton, NC

Places I've been

When I was a child we moved on average every two years, mostly within the states of North and South Carolina. When I was eight years old we moved briefly to Virginia, then along with an aunt, uncle and three cousins, we drove to Alaska where my dad worked for FAA. We moved within Alaska several times the first year and settled on Woody Island, off the coast of Kodiak, for nearly six years. Until now, that was the longest I had lived in one place. From Woody Island we moved to Anchorage where I lived in various houses or apartments until I was 28. At that time I moved to Roanoke, VA and two years later, to Lynchburg, VA where I have been ever since. I have visited Washington (both state and DC) Oregon, Louisiana, Arizona, California, Rhode Island and Florida and have at least driven through just about every other state as well as Canada. I have never been anyplace that I didn't love. Every place has its own unique beauty and character. I would still like to visit places like the Grand Canyon and other places with extreme geology like Yellowstone National Park. This is an amazing country and we are so blessed to be living here.

Education

• Woody Island Elementary, A one room school for all eight elementary grades. - 1955 to 1959
• Kodiak High, Academic track - 1959 to 1961
• West Anchorage High, Mixed academic and practical - 1961 to 1964
• American Beauty School, Roanoke, VA, Cosmetology - 1972 to 1973
• CVCC, Lynchburg, VA, Everything! - 1976 to 1988

More about me

I have always liked doing, as opposed to watching.  I always chose work that was active when I was still exploring possibilites and finally settled on cosmetology.  I thought that was the perfect way to interact with people, keep my hands busy and axpress my artistic side -- not to mention it was a great ego booster.  "There's magic in those hands!"  LOL

The very best was when I started teaching cosmetology.  I loved seeing the scared (or cocky) students transform into confident hairdressers.

After 17 years of teaching I decided that I wanted to do something different so at around 45 I studied massage therapy and worked at that for about seven years until I could no longer work at all.  

But that isn't about me.  That's about what I did for a living.  If you want to know about me it is a little different.  I am a starry eyed optimist and I believe that the universe is here for our experience and that no experience is bad, whether it is something we do, something done to us or something we experience through others.  What makes it bad is our reaction to it.  If it makes us angry or makes us act the helpless victim we obviously missed the point.  Don't get me wrong -- I've missed a whole lot of points.  Thing is, afterward I  have discovered without exception that I gained more than I lost.  I feel that if we allow ourselves to be victims we are giving our power to whoever or whatever we think has victimized us. 

You people in this group are obviously not victims and I am proud to be learning about you.

I am also intensely curious.  I want to know everything.  Not everything about something -- just everything.  When I go to bed at night I often meditate for a while on the nature of the  universe and ask the Creator to reveal some small part of it to me.  Sometimes I get that little "Eureka" feeling and a feeling of intense love fills my chest -- and sometimes I just fall asleep.  Of course I also use more material methods of getting knowledge.  The internet has been an unbelievable gift for me.  No more visits to the library except for an out of print book on physics or whatever. 

I feel totally blessed to have been born when I was and where I was and to my particular parents.  My dad was an alcoholic and we had to leave him when I was fifteen.  Of course I didn't understand it at the time and thought he should just quit drinking and go back to being my "Poppy."  I was angry with him for years and angry with my mom for allowing him to get in that condition since it was obvious he loved her with all of his heart. 

But, here is what I gained from it.  I have compassion for people with addictions.  I know it isn't just a matter of sucking it up and quitting.  They need support and love and a way to regain their dignity if possible.  If not, they just need to be loved.  We cannot control anyone except ourselves and should never, ever, judge anyone.  In his exact circumstances, with his exact genetic makeup, with his exact upbringing, with his exact experiences in the war, I would have been exactly like him.  That is what it means to walk a mile in a person's shoes.  We can't really do it but we can at least try to imagine it and put ourselves in their places.

The other thing I gained is near awe of my mom.  She raised us without complaining even once and she never said an unkind word about our dad.  As far as I knew, she loved him still, even though she couldn't live with him.  It was only as she was dying that she spoke to my dad and said, "Mac, Mac, I'm so angry with you."  Even after saying that she didn't say anything against him to me or to my sister.  She was a steadfast and ever present lighthouse and was a wonderful, quirky and funny woman in spite of the hardships she had to face in the days before food stamps and the like.  It would  never have occurred to her to shirk anything she saw as a responsibility, and my sister and I were her responsitility until the moment she died.

I love to laugh, I love to stop everything and examine a cool looking bug, I love to stare in awe at a sunrise or sunset.  I love cats, cheese, broccoli, pizza and rocks.  Yes, rocks.  I have rocks all over my house, and I don't mean fancy crystals or gemstones.  Oh, I have some of those and I work with them in my jewelry making but I just like cool rocks.  Fossils are wonderful.  Layered rocks are wonderful.  Just plain rock rocks are wonderful if they have an unusual shape or color.  I love trees and grass and flowers and wildlife programs on TV and mostly I love that I have lived through some of the most interesting history that has ever been.

When I was a child adding machines had buttons and cranks and typewriters were big clunky things with little round keys that my fingers slipped between.  By the time I was twenty there were handheld calculators, though they were quite expensive.  By the time I was forty most of us could afford home computers, but they didn't do much.  I had one just because they fascinated me.  Programs came on the same kind of tapes that music came on and had to be entered with a tape recorder/player.  There were more advanced ones but, again, they were very expensive. 

There were the flower children, the protests, the move away from segregation and the continued struggle to eliminate discrimination of any kind.  We went from Ozzie and Harriet to -- well, you know.  Basically, anything goes.

I am glad we are out of the Ozzie and Harriet phase but I would love a happy medium.  LOL

There is so much.  None of us can sum up ourselves in a few words.  All I can say is that I am basically a happy person who doesn't always act like it.  I stay alone sometimes for weeks at a time -- just me, my computer, my beads, my cats and my phone -- but I like it like that.  I am always delighted for an opportunity to do something for someone else but I just don't do the social thing.  I guess I have a strong tendency to think that any activity has to have a concrete purpose or it is taking up time that I could be using in another way.  Once somebody asked me if I would "help" her go to a movie.  I loved it!  She knew darned well I wasn't going to just go sit in a movie.  It was a really creative way to kick my butt and tell me to get out of the house.

OK, I'm going to have to stop.  If I wrote again tomorrow it would likely be completely different so don't be put off by anything I wrote.  The one thing about me that is permanent is change.

Love to you all.

Activities

Making beaded jewelry, computer games, petting cats and catching the mice and other things they bring in, contemplating the mysteries of the universe, reading, watching science and nature shows, trying to avoid housework and laundry, enjoying family.

Favorite Charities

SPCA, Cancer Society, Heart Association, any person in need that I happen to encounter when I have a spare dollar or two on me.

Favorite Music

Oh my. Mozart, Beethoven, oldies rock, some country, some bluegrass, some "show tunes" (the music from Phantom of the Opera, especially) -- almost anything that doesn't have such a heavy beat that it makes my head thump in time.

Favorite TV Shows

Eureka, Monk, almost anything on The Science Channel, National Geographic, and Discovery.

Favorite Movies

Of the old ones, Lawrence of Arabia, Ghandi, Gone With the Wind, DR. Zhivago, Sound of Music. Of middle aged ones, Schindler's List, Pretty Woman, Men in Black, all of the Naked Gun movies, Scent of a Woman, Devil's Advocate, Silence of the Lambs -- oh, so many. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a recent movie. I think the latest was, I Robot, and I loved it.

Favorite Books

The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Anything by Asimov, Heinlein, or any of the old guys with great imaginations. Biographies, science non-fiction, encyclopedias.

Favorite Quotes

Be outrageous. Nothing is permanent.

Favorite People

My family and friends.

Favorite Places

Home -- and every other place I've been.

Favorite Animals

Cats. Of animals I can't have in my house I like Bengal tigers, meercats, dolphins, beetles, octopi, deer, possums, clearwing sphinx moths. Actually, I think I like all animals.

More "About"

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