From Chaos to Controversy to Gratitude to the Fonz

All of your responses to the original post about chaos and the follow-up post about being humbled have been helpful and insightful. Thank you for pondering and exploring this with me.One time I was explaining blogs and blogging (and my blog itself) to my sister-in-law. At the time, I had been following a couple of bloggers who seemed to generate tons of traffic and comments from topics that people wanted to debate. She said, “Well, your blog sounds like it’s too helpful and positive! You need to generate some controversy!” Several friends who know me well seconded that. They said, “You hate conflict so much, it’s a wonder you like to blog so much!”So this almost felt like I’d done it — I’d generated some controversy! I’ve been reading all the comments and the various opinions are fascinating! Thank you to everyone who took time to write.I still feel that the challenging perspective from the comment yanked me out of my one-track train of thought and helped crank open the gratitude gates.Though I hope not in a fake way, like some of you cautioned against in the comments. I agree that those who blog life stuff ideally are able to maintain their “voice” and style while keepin’ it real.I also see the value in choosing to think about my life and express gratitude. I’ve appreciated the efforts of Ann V. and the many in her Gratitude Community, and Iris‘ Thankful Thursday to promote gratitude as a personal habit or practice.I’d love to talk more about this, but I only have a few minutes to write a post today.So I thought I would abruptly change the subject and show you what came out of my closet during all of this upheaval.

 We are so ashamed of the amount of junk we’ve accumulated, we resolved to declutter. This jacket has some kind of manmade poly-something arms and pockets. It’s starting to chemically break down and weep some kind of sticky substance. I guess it’s the curse of being made from petroleum…it must now be banished, because it can no longer hang next to anything else. I think that the sticky goop may have ruined a really nice jacket that pressed against it.Bye-bye, Letter Jacket. It’s been nice knowing you for so many years.Not that I want to admit the number of years since I graduated.Oh, okay. It’s right there, sewn onto the deteriorating petroleum-based sleeve. Let me show you.1985.A good year?Looks like the model thinks so, or else she suddenly thought of The Fonz.“Aaaaayyyyyyyyy.”