Mama said...

No wait! She didn't!

Ok, forgive me for just a moment because this post will digress at little from the previous ones. So, if you are looking for solely inspirational talk, you can stop reading right now :)

I want to thank my friends Sara and Rebecca, for the, let's say re-inspiration for this post. They brought the topic up on Twitter last week,sort of. I have always been one to write things in my head, or start and never finish, and this topic was one of such musings in the past.

When did I become a ma'am?

As children growing up in the South, we are taught to respect our elders. Yes ma'am, no sir are the normal around here. I didn't realize how abnormal that was until I did a little traveling. About ten years ago, I spent two and a half months in Australia with a friend of mine working with and supporting a church there. One gentleman I had the honor of getting to know while I was there, had been a young man during WWII. He was German and did not sympathize with the Hitler regime at all, so he went into hiding. He was tended to by a Dutch nurse, whom he later married. He was, upon first impression, very stern and gruff. The accent made him sound that way whether he was or not! So, I called him Mr. along with his surname. He looked at me with his gleaming eyes and said with that accent of his "Ha! Just Tom. Just call me Tom." I looked at him in shock. That went against every fiber in my being. We settled on Mr. Tom.

Somewhere along the way I have crossed over into being a ma'am. I'm not sure when it happened. Sometimes I understand how Mr. Tom felt, and think "I'm just Andrea! No need to ma'am or Mrs. me!" but then I remember that thankfully, these young people are being raised right, and their parents have taught them to respect people, just like mine taught me. So, begrudgingly, I accepted the ma'am.

How did that happen?

I only wish someone had told me that at least some of these things would follow the ma'am:

-When you reach a certain age you will most likely wet yourself if you do any of the following:
cough, run, jump, laugh, sneeze, etc.

-That one day you will look in the mirror just right and you will see a 2 inch whisker growing from your face. Seriously! How long has that been there and how many people saw it and never told me it was there?!?

-Not only is wetting your pants a problem, but apparently gas is too, and it can "slip" up without notice, and once again makes bending over, coughing, sneezing, etc. an adventure!

-Hot flashes are typically only thought of in women of the menopausal age, but hormones can rage up inside you at any age and cause a mini tropical vacation all your own. Or, as one of my co-workers also likes to put it, your inner child starts playing with matches.

-That it would literally hurt when you get out of bed some mornings, even if you didn't do an extreme workout the day before.

-You would see young people with the piercings, tattoos, Bieber hair, short skirts, loud music and cars etc. and think about how you can't believe kids these days :)  Seriously though, does that head-jerking hair swinging thing not get on your nerves!!!!!!

-One day you will look down while washing dishes, or folding laundry and see your mother's hands.....ok, so maybe that one's not so bad.

I am sure there are more, but I can't seem to remember them right now. What was I talking about anyway???