Two kinds of people

"There are two kinds of people in the world — those who walk into a room and say 'There you are' and those who say, 'Here I am!'" ~ a quote from Abigail van Buren

A book and a review of my blogging week

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life ~ by Arthur C. Brooks, 2022, aging, 272 pages

This #1 New York Times Bestseller is a roadmap for finding purpose, meaning, and success as we age.  This bestselling author is a Harvard professor and the Atlantic's happiness columnist.

Many of us assume that the more successful we are, the less susceptible we become to the sense of professional and social irrelevance that frequently accompanies aging.  But the truth is, the greater our achievements and our attachment to them, the more we notice our decline, and the more painful it is when it occurs.  So what can we do, starting now, to make our older years a time of happiness, purpose, and success?

At the height of his career at the age of 50, Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress.  This book is the result, a practical roadmap for the rest of your life.

By drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks shows us that true life success is well within our reach.  By refocusing on certain priorities and habits that anyone can learn (such as deep wisdom, detachment from empty rewards, connection and service to others, and spiritual progress), we can set ourselves up for increased happiness.  You, too, can go from strength to strength.

Week in Review

• On Monday, HERE, I mused about butt dialing (also called pocket dialing).
• "Negative Nellie" were the words I chose for Wednesday Words, HERE.
• Book Beginnings on Friday was from a book showing a black cat, HERE.
• Saturday's post, HERE, was full of cats to celebrate International Cat Day.  So it really WAS Caturday that day!

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts Sunday Salon, a place for us to link up and share what we have been reading and doing during the week.

Today is International Cat Day

Clawdia at her window, and Kiki kissing me.  They are my most recent cats, so I have photos of them online (and on the sidebar to the right).  I'm also celebrating Duchess, the gray cat I rescued from a mud puddle when she was a kitten and I was only nine years old.  And then there's Jack, the gray and white cat who lived on the mountain with us.  I don't have a photo of him to share.  Sorry.  If you have (or ever had) a cat, please share a name or something about your cat in the comments.

Beginning ~ with the black cat superstition

Beginning

I can't think of a better way to kick things off than with a discussion of black cats and all the superstitions swirling around them.  Whether you are a cat person or a dog person, super religious or a stone-cold atheist, you've probably heard that seeing a black cat is a bad omen.

The Book of Superstitions: Black Cats, Yellow Flowers, Broken Mirrors, Cracked Sidewalks, and More Cultural Behaviors and Myths Explained ~ by Shelby El Otman, 2023, folk lore, 192 pages, 10/10

You'll learn the cultural histories behind some of the world's supernatural beliefs with this book:  things like Friday the 13th, rabbit feet, knocking on wood, walking under a ladder, and the curse of the evil eye.  I guess we all have a superstition or two.  The author unveils the origins of some of the most universal and and the little known superstitions that have influenced cultures around the world for centuries.  These include beliefs that gained a foothold in African and European folklore, notions from ancient Greece, and legends of the British Isles.  It's a captivating read that shows how superstitions vary from country to country.

I guess this could be called Caturday, a day early.  Clawdia would disagree with the idea that black cats are a bad omen, if she were still alive to still blog on Caturdays.  Click HERE to read about my little black cat named Clawdia (and what she posted on our blog).

Added later:  If you run into me today, you'll see I'm wearing black cat socks.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

My negative neighbor

al·lit·er·a·tion /əˌlidəˈrāSHən/noun = the occurrence of the same letter or

sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

One of my neighbors is a Negative Nellie.  Whenever she sees me, she likes to point out every negative thing about me that she can think of, from how I look to how I walk.  That's why I usually find another way to go if I see her.  She caught me at the elevator on Monday.

I've decided I need to learn how to be rude (sorry, Mom) and walk rapidly away from her, even when she is talking to me.  As I fumed in bed that night, I came up with the negative Nellie alliteration.  Looking for an illustration for this post, I learned I am not the first to notice that "negative" goes nicely with "Nellie."

Monday morning misery

My phone woke me at 6:43 a.m.  It was a friend, but nobody was on the line when I answered.  Not a good way for a retired elderly person to wake up on a Monday morning.  Was it a case of butt dialing?  AI quotes Wikipedia with this definition:

"Butt dialing (also called pocket dialing) is the accidental phone call made when a mobile phone in a pocket or bag is pressed by body movement."

When I answered, ready to talk to her, no one was there.  Maybe the phone call was an accident, but not the text from my cardiologist's office 28 minutes later, wanting me to confirm my appointment for next week.

Come on, people!  Retired folks, especially now that I'm 86, don't bounce out of bed that early to get ready for the workday.  I had read until after midnight and would have gotten a full night's sleep without those notifications.  I guess I'll go to bed early tonight.

National Friendship Day

Thursday's post was about International Friendship Day, HERE.

That's one day to celebrate our friends.  In the United States,

the first Sunday in August is National Friendship Day, so

let's enjoy all the possible days to celebrate friendships.

Dear Author: Students Write about the Books that Changed Their Lives ~ collected by Weekly Reader's Read Magazine, introduction by Lois Lowry, 1995, children's literature, xii + 188 pages, 5/5

A collection of letters from students to an assortment of authors both past and present about the impact of their work on the lives of their readers.  One person who commented on Amazon (after giving it a 5 of 5 rating) wrote:  "This book provides a brilliant reading list for young readers.  I highly recommend it and intend to pass on to my fourth grader."

Week in Review

• My subject for TWOsday was two rolls, HERE.
• Thursday was International Friendship Day, HERE.
• On Saturday, I shared the Action for Happiness calendar for August, HERE.

Hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz,

we bloggers gather at separate computers in different time

zones — to share what we have been doing during the week.