Riding The Elephant

 Craig Ferguson wrote this book, Riding The Elephant, it will be my point of reference on this blog. I will use his words and mine to mesh my story, my perception of what I see. That is all we can do, write what we see, and borrow from others.
  There is an elephant in every room you go in, each phase of your life, and on any given day!! That gentle giant, Dumbo's mother is in the ROOM!!!
    What families skirt around, friends talk about anything else, and now with politics, it is a very large ELEPHANT with tusks and poachers!!!
   Do we discuss , the nice sweater Bing Crosby, or the young, angry, beat-the-kids Bing Crosby?? It is hard to navigate conversations, we chew down feelings in the south, especially!! We may park our crazy on the front porch, and offer a glass of sweet tea, but god forbid you discuss anything wrong.
Mental Illness is never an easy subject, and I promise you we all have a touch!! OCD, depression, full tilt breakdowns, on any day, that elephant is in the room. Like the same sense the BORGIAS were also a family!! so many trapped in resentment and alcohol, old age and disconnect, blue wave and beyond belief in your countries sanity. A discordant hymn, of fear and loathing, there is an elephant in the room.
    Having lost my brother and father within a few months of each other, I look to see how the changes in my family will occur. We are not the same people, I hope we are even better. Stronger, kinder, wiser, gentler, but....chaos and crisis can sure stir a pot. Daddy Homer would say, " Its just life Bonnie, pure and simple. Good and bad, circus freaks and people to pay money to see them.Make
good choices, and get off the pot!!!" ( Pot being toilet, in that metaphor!!)
   I want people to be safe and happy, well, whole, and give back. I think that is why we are here, to leave a good footprint. It is about The Ride, how you ride the elephant. Hold on!!! It may be uncomfortable, change, big changes, but we all have to keep trying.
  And just think, what is sweeter then an elephant, big old ears just flapping, listening to all of us, trying to figure this stuff out!! Read this book, very funny and sad, and just life, from his perception.
 While  I have a minute, another book to read, if you have lost a parent, is How to Forget by Kate Mulgrew. I loved it. It is always good to read that what you are feeling, has been felt by others. I am the only Bonnie Blackman Baron, that lost my daddy, Homer lived very large, but others have lost their parent, children, spouses, its an interesting book, even if you have not even lost a bird!! or turtle!! Read it.
       Couple of lines from the book:
          I realized with a dull, heavy certainty that she would never again in her life know pleasure.
          I feared the family would be constitutionally unable to withstand another breach.
          The reality of what lay ahead of us was not only daunting, but terrifying, and because of this our vision was blinkered.
           We are a strange little band, pretending to make jokes but only half listening to one another.
           I love all of you, but some of you better then others. You know who you are.
           She despised and fear mediocrity
           mothering years warning us against the unending perils of "herd mentality"
           I'm having a sinking spell, Kitten. Get me a cold cloth and some ginger ale.
           We had taken wildly divergent paths, and in so doing, we had lost each other.
           Her father was TIRED into death.
I could go on for days, this is a fab book about life and death of both parents, and family hoopla.
Homer would say, Ride the Elephant or join the damn circus!! I miss him.