Blog 3406 – 03.01.2025

You Got To Please Yourself

Above is the picture I promised yesterday of me in my Go Texan cowboy outfit. Over the years I have grown a beard on several occasions. They usually do not last long after getting through the itchy stage. I do not know how long this one will last. Probably not long at all if my granddaughter, Emma Grace, does not like it. People, especially the fairer sex, usually have pretty strong opinions about beards, but then people have pretty strong opinions about a lot of things. It would be pretty difficult to live, trying to meet everyone’s approval all the time.

One of the great advantages of reaching almost seventy-five is that after spending my first three-quarters of a century being a consummate people pleaser I find myself free of that impossible burden and agreeing with the chorus of Rick Nelson’s last big hit song, Garden Party:

“But it’s alright now,

I learned my lesson well

You see, you can’t please everyone

So you got to please yourself.”

Sometimes we might find that our personal pursuit of happiness might indeed please others as well, yet, trying to please everyone all the time is not only impossible, but quite frustrating. It reminds me of the “trying on the treasures of youth” line in the Indigo Girls’ song Power of Two.

Even our closest most intimate relationships must allow us the freedom to do a few things just to please ourselves.

I may end up deciding to keep the beard this time and little Emma and others may just have to get used to it. Actually she’s so busy testing the limits of her little world and the patience of her parents that facial hair or not probably matters little to her.

It’s a new day, it’s a new month and Spring is on the way, when not just young men’s hearts but old men’s too, turn to thoughts of love.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZenRxHqwY1KHVoQTcJQx_fEvdeioTA7S/view?usp=drivesdk

Garden Party