A BANQUET OR A BUFFET

Many people choose "heroes" as models for their aspirations and lives. It might be Superman, Wonder Woman, Mighty Mouse, a beloved parent, or relative. My hero has always been Auntie Mame -Rosalind Russell's Auntie Mame. I don't know of any one else who played Mame that was as classy as she was. Auntie Mame was expressive, expansive, creative, imposing, fun, radical for her time, and delightfully scatterbrained! She always seemed bigger than life.



I watch the movie every time it appears in the TV lineup, and I once saw the play, live, on stage, with Juliet Prowse in the starring role. I bought a sweatshirt that night with the word "MAME" across the front in cotton candy pink. I wore it only once. Since then it has occupied a special place on my closet shelf. It will be up to my daughter, grandchildren or great-grandchildren to dispose of it after I'm gone.



Mame's motto is/was "Live! Live! Live! Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death." When someone asks me what my favorite quote is - that's it! Mame and Buddha - these two speak the words that direct my life. Quotes from great thinkers, poets, religious figures and political icons may move me for a fleeting moment, but they don't change my mind or heart.



I was thinking of Mame and her motto today, and realized that I hadn't truly taken her words to heart. I have been living as if life was a buffet instead of a banquet. When you are at a banquet, you sit at a table with crisp linens, beautiful crystal, polished silver, and fine china. There is a delightful waiter or waitress seeing to your every need. The bread is hot, the entree perfectly prepared and presented, dessert is your favorite, and the coffee is just right. You are there to enjoy and celebrate.



Buffets happen at weddings, funerals, and family gatherings. Church suppers are usually buffets. Lunches at local restaurants may serve "buffet style" for business lunches. There is nothing better than a Chinese buffet if you want variety. Occasionally I serve dinner buffet style and put the food on the table, or in the kitchen, and everyone serves themselves. Sometimes the serving bowls are the pans the food was prepared in! Buffets are convenient, quick, but, rarely memorable.



In my "buffet life" there have been a lot of choices - too many, in fact. I have looked at, sampled, and worked at so many different things that nothing has been outstanding enough to capture my full attention. I have either chosen too quickly, or, so slowly that the opportunity is gone before I can make up my mind. Periodically I consume beyond my capacity and suffer for hours and days with a stomach ache from being bloated - "materialistic bloat." Those are the times I tell myself "remember this the next time you think you can't do without that special thing, or taste, or feeling."



In order to put Mame's motto into action, I must sit down at the banquet table and enjoy what is served to me, what is good for me, things I like, stuff that is healthy and benefits my life. At the age of 62, my time for the entree is finished and I am getting ready to have dessert and a cup of hot coffee to finish the meal. When the banquet is over, someone else will blow out the candles and I will go home.



This blog is to share my ideas, and art that I create and add, and to remind me to "save room" because dessert is on the way!