Reading and thinking today and everyday

Here's what I'm reading and contemplating today:

1. Get Off Your Cloud, Marissa!

The New York Times' Maureen Dowd -- who sometimes nails it and sometimes miserably fails it -- published a thought-provoking piece today about the new Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer, who took a 2-week (!!) maternity leave, built a nursery next to her office, and has now forbidden all employees from ever "working from home." Dowd's column has me thinking a lot about being a working Mom and a woman in the workforce and someone who is constantly recalibrating every aspect of life, trying to maintain some semblance of balance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/opinion/dowd-get-off-your-cloud.html?hp&_r=0

 2. We Need to Stop Faking it on Facebook

This blogger's take on "Fakebooking" resonated with me, as I realized that 1) I sometimes am annoyed when friends make it seem like having kids is a daylong shower of sunshine and chocolate bunnies, and 2) I am guilty of doing this as well, and 3) I sometimes use Facebook to remind myself that life ain't perfect, but it's pretty damn good.

Here's what I wrote on Facebook about it:
Seriously, sometimes I post the really good stuff to remind MYSELF that my life is really good. Because I can get in moods where I'm like, "My house is a wreck; there's laundry everywhere; potty training BITES; I look 5-months pregnant a year after giving birth; my kingdom for 6 hours of solid sleep a night; what's this thing people keep talking about called a "vacation?"; where's all my MONEY I was supposed to be making by now??? And dammit, if I see another chicken nugget, I'm going to cry!" So I'll look at photos of my crazy cute kids and post it up all pretty and Instagrammed and someone will say, "Hey Tanika, your kids are super cute!" and I do feel better. I can't lie. I do. I remember that I love my kids and my life, just because someone hit "Like" and took the time to comment. Is that pathetic? Maybe so. But it's better than taking up a nightly Scotch habit.

And then, in response to a later comment:

I agree, Sarah. Most of our friends are good at balancing the humorous, the self-deprecating and the ain't-life-grand posts. But there are times when the best parts of my day win out over the worst. I could have posted, for example, the long list of poop-related things that happened last night to me (none of which were pretty) with the status message, "Boy, what a shitty night I've had. Literally." That would have been funny, I guess. But instead, I chose to post the video of Clair walking, which made me feel much better about my shitty night. It's a form of self-censoring, and also a form of Facebook-as-therapy. Nothing wrong with it, I don't think. So long as there's balance.

http://www.kveller.com/blog/parenting/we-need-to-quit-telling-lies-on-facebook/

3.  Life is short. Live it -- really live it -- now, not later. Because later may never come.

Mary Corey was the Features editor at The Baltimore Sun when I worked a brief stint as fashion writer. I admired her very much for her dignity and grace, which seemed to be from another time. But I admit to feeling like her life seemed very lonely. She died yesterday -- at 49 years old, just 10 years older than me. She had her journalism career (which is impressive, no doubt) and her dog. And that's it. I don't want to seem disparaging at all to her, please don't get me wrong. But her death has left me sadder than I thought it would, and I think it's because it reminds me what is really important in life. And I know I can sometimes lose sight of that in my quest to do more, be more, have more. Mary's death is a billboard -- in my opinion -- for the fact that loving is living. And loving well is living well.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-corey-obituary-20130226,0,600276.story

4. Overcoming a Racist Past in Baltimore

Having grown up in very diverse communities, I forget sometimes that for most people life wasn't always this multi-cultural, this tolerant, this Benetton ad personified.

This commentary in today's Sun was amazingly self-reflective and enlightening to me. Being a part of the "minority" population, one of the "aggrieved," it has always seemed like a no-brainer to me that people should be treated equally, not stereotyped or discriminated against or despised. But reading this writer's very honest reflection on his childhood illuminates for me the incredible work that has to be done for even well-meaning folks to overcome the baggage they've been spoonfed most of their lives --from society, from popular culture, from their own neighborhoods and families.
It reminds me even more that patience, grace and forgiveness are key to achieving the kind of fair society we all say we want to have.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-racist-past-20130225,0,1981054.story



So what do you all think of these articles and their themes?