Laurel and Abe

The girls and I went outside several times yesterday. I don't mind going in and out, however it's the little bathing suits that have to go on when we go outside. Luckily Laurel has started to get her own on, which she is quite capable of doing. She just likes to think she has to be dependent on mom, and wants me to do everything for her. Well, yeah, it's faster if I do it, but I'm not going to go to her house every morning when she is 30 and dress her. So she gets really frustrated with me, that I am not helping her first and doesn't even think about the fact that I have 2 other kids, younger than her that I have to help out. It'll be interesting to see her one day in the future when she gets that slap in the face, and realizes life doesn't revolve around her. Yes, I know she is 3. She won't realize it for quite some time. And that's alright, I just want to see it.

Laurel is most definitely like her dad. Her whole Pung side of the family. I see so much of them in her, and she really isn't around them that much to pick up on those things. So it's hereditary. She's going to have a lot of trouble in school. She borders on the edge of brilliant, but can't seem to get her act together. I know every parent thinks that they have a genius (or geniuses). I almost hope that mine aren't. They can learn better things than about being super smart. And a lot of "geniuses" can't get the basic concepts down. It's all about how they are so much smarter than other kids their age, and they turn out selfish, self-reliant, and unconcerned that there are other people around them. We are raising a country of geniuses here. And a couple of plain jane, run of the mill, normal girls is what this world needs to set the record straight and get those geniuses to realize that there is more to being human than being smart. What are you going to do with those brains? Sit on them? Watch them rot?

Really.

I was reading a few articles about Abe Lincoln in Time. They did a good 4 to 5 articles on him, one was on how he became friends with a black guy name Douglass, (which was pretty iffy for the times, I mean, really, civil war here) it showed how he was shot, who he put on his cabinet, (and they were his worst enemies) and so on and so forth. Some people claim he was brilliant, others, thought he was ridiculous. I seem to remember that he ran for the candidate for president 16 times, and actually ran twice. How's that for success stories? Some viewed him as a spiritual man, but he didn't have any religious affiliations. He educated himself, only going to school for a year.

I guess what gets me about Abe is that though he was smart, he didn't use that line of I'm smarter than you, to get him that higher seat. In fact, he let his education speak for him. His spirituality speak for him. His wisdom. No matter what he decided to be as a man, he put that aside to speak for our country. And I like that. I like when someone is straightforward about themselves that there is no need to doubt who they are.

I've been thinking about what my brother stated a couple days ago.

I was thinking about change in relationships. Is it okay for someone to change something about themselves to better accommodate the other person in the relationship? I'm not only talking about the automatic assumption of just dating relationships, I'm talking about family and friends as well.

People say "stay true to yourself" or "be yourself" and I'm not sure I buy into that. Isn't life just one big compromise anyways? I don't like doing certain things, but for those people I truly care about, sometimes it's not so bad. Tell me what you think.

I believe that if someone has to say to themselves "I've got to stay true to myself" then they probably aren't really being themselves. It really comes down to character. How much you are willing to go for someone you care about? If you can't see past your own self and be flexible with those you love, what kind of person does that make you?

Change is just one of those things that humans do. I think people close to you tend to notice those flaws. And if you don't change you are most likely hurting yourself. I don't mean changing your music type or hair color for someone else, that's just superficial. It gets superficial results. I'm talking about changing after you have known someone for a long time. When you want to change. Like for me being consistent. It's one of those things I have a hard time with. But I keep trying because I want to be consistent for my kids, husband, my family, and friends. So I am changing. Does this make me less "true" to myself? No, because change is a part of me.

And you just have to accept that.