Town and Country

Reporting from Philly - I'm at a conference. Which is a whole other blog on its own! For today, I'd like to share something I'm a little ashamed about and how I taught myself a lesson. We all do this. And an airport is a great place to do this. Noooooooo - not that. Shame on you. I love to observe people... a quick glance at a passer by and I can create a whole backstory for someone. Clever, you may say. What a waste of energy you may think. Judgemental is the word I have chosen.

While purchasing my $10 bottle of tylenol at the airport gift shop on Saturday I overheard a woman asking for a Town and Country Magazine. I'm going to call myself out and admit that my first thought was "Why is this a little scraggly, middle aged (about 60) woman in a ratty t-shirt and jeans, long blonde/gray hair asking for a Town and Country Magazine?" The thought that she was even homeless zipped across my mind.

I couldn't stop thinking about this lady and how I passed judgement so quickly, not just on how she looked, but her choice of reading material. Who was I - Stalin? Sarah Palin? (those letters just flowed together well - talk about your mixed metaphors! :-) So anyway, I've been chiding myself ever since, and am going to refrain from leaping to judgement based on outward appearances.

And I've created a backstory for "Beatrice" - she grew up in Philly in the late 50's and 60's. Her dad was a dock worker and her mom worked at a grocery store. Bea idolized Grace Kelly and many had told her she even looked like Grace. She used to buy movie magazines and Town and Country and pretend she was a starlet just like Grace, with a house on the Mainline. Her parents worked hard and were able to send her to college. She fell in love with Joey, who was going to be a writer ...maybe for Town and Country! But Joey got drafted, and went to Vietnam. Bea found out she was pregnant, and Joey came home in a wheelchair. Bea quit school and worked at the docks to support her family. Their daughter took after her father and became a gifted artist, a photojournalist. Bea never stopped imagining herself in the pages of Town and Country - it was the dream that inspired her to keep going, hoping for a better life for the light of her life, her daughter, Grace.

And don't we all need that dream? What is yours? What did dream about while lying (laying?) on your bed listening to the AM radio on summer nights? Dust it off and love it. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Reporting from Philly, this is Carly Simon .... I mean, Dana Paulson Spies.