Television trauma

All my life I’ve felt different to other people.  It’s not because I have distinctive skin colour, ethnicity or appearance, it is more about my thoughts and attitudes. As a child I remember wanting to be like other children but never feeling completely at ease with who I was. I was happy but felt I was looking in from outside the circle.

I think children’s television shows in the 60s and 70s should take some responsibility for my confusion. My child self didn’t fully comprehend that these shows were make-believe and subconsciously my life didn’t measure up to the exciting lives of my television idols.

Everyday after school I’d watch television and imagine how great it would be to live in America and belong to one of my tv families.

The Brady Bunch, the antics of a blended family with three perfect boys and three perfect girls entertained me every day. When I first started watching I desired Cindy’s cuteness but by the end of the series I craved Marsha’s popularity. And if only I could have close brothers and sisters like the Bradys (*sigh*).

The Flying nun; The nuns in the convent San Tanco had fantastic adventures and made me wish I was religious so I could join their sisterhood. But  more than anything else I wanted to fly like Sister Bertrill and to this day I often still dream I am flying like her.

I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched were favourites shows that had me secretly practicing twitching my nose or making genie arms to create magic and travel through time. Sadly I never managed to make anything happen, not for the want of trying.

Everyone had a dog or a cat but I dreamed of having a talking horse in my backyard like Mr Ed or a pet dolphin like Flipper. I couldn’t understand why this wasn’t possible even though I lived in the suburbs.

As a teen I dreamed of hanging out with Richie Cunningham and the Fonz at Arnolds after school and going to the high school proms I saw on Happy Days.

But my all-time favourite show was Little House on the Prairie about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s. My dream was living the simple country life of Laura Ingalls.

Now I’m older I know tv families and characters are make-believe, animals can’t talk and people can’t fly or change situations with magic. The funny thing is that all these years later I still wish I could live in that little log cabin in Walnut Grove just like the Ingalls family. (*sigh*)

A mother’s day wish

Today I am especially grateful for the privilege of nurturing three precious children who have enriched my life since their birth and hopefully will continue to share their love and lives with me for many more years to come.

Just like the Queen gives a message to her people each Christmas, I would like to give a message to my special three offspring today on mother’s day 2013.

Enjoy and celebrate the simple pleasures that life can bring.

It seems like everyone these days is preoccupied with keeping up and getting ahead while spending less time enjoying the simple pleasures in life.

Children used to be happy with small birthday gifts and having a few friends over to their house for a party to share fairy bread, balloons and play pass the parcel.

The school dance used to be held in the gym hall with girls and boys wearing clothes they already owned.

Weddings were quaint ceremonies shared with family and close friends enjoying a meal and a dance to wish the bride and groom a happy life together. Gifts used to include mixing bowls not pledges of money.

Pregnancies and births were private times shared between the new parents and close friends and family.

Giving mum a homemade card, a gift from the school mother’s day stall (that she probably donated) and a lovingly prepared breakfast in bed surprise constituted the joyous celebrations on mother’s day.

At the risk of being old fashioned I urge everyone to strip their lives back from modern ways by taking a break from checking Facebook notifications, sending/receiving multiple text messages or spending money on unnecessary items just to impress others.

I would like everyone to gain more meaning out of what they do and enjoy the pleasures of the simple things in life.

My fondest memories of motherhood include seeing my children play with a mismatched group of toys and creating personalities, voices and adventures for them.

It was a lot like Toy Story………..maybe I should have written that down 20 years ago.

Maybe that was why the movie was such a success, we all love the thought of living in a time when life was more fun and less cluttered.

It’s a small world after all

Sitting in a small space with hundreds of people while trapped inside tonnes of metal is not my idea of fun but I endure it because I love to travel to see other lands.

It is not only the feeling of being confined in the aircraft that is confronting but also the arduous administrative and security processes we have to go through before finally finding our assigned seat.

That being said, the flying component forms a small portion of the overall travel experience and is only a miniscule inconvenience in the span of a lifetime.

The knowledge that I can be standing in Nanjing Road, Shanghai one day and be back in my house in Australia within 15 hours blows me away. The world is so small.

Gone are the days when the closest people got to other countries was hearing stories of faraway places on the radio or reading about them in novels.

As a child of the 60’s I had a picture book called “Children of the World” that had cute illustrations of  a boy and a girl from 76 countries dressed in their national costume. Each page had a short paragraph written in the voice of a child about the characteristics of where they lived.

Every night before sleeping I would lovingly look through the pages and wonder what life would be like in other countries. My favourite page was Japan and I know this page sparked a lifelong fascination for this country.

When I finally visited Japan four years ago as a middle aged woman I remember feeling like the 8 year old version of myself being amazed by standing in ancient temples, walking next to women dressed in Kimonos, and spotting Mt Fuji in the skyline for the first time. I was in awe that the images I had stored in my imagination for so many years had come to life.

To me this feeling of amazement is the number one beauty of travel.