...Erma Bombeck.., "At Wit's End" ...Best time to enjoy life? How about right now?...

[Stuart G]

Wednesday June 26, 1991, page 51, Chicago Sun Times....(I found this cleaning out a pile of stuff, and I wanted to share this with you...)
_______________________________________________________________________________________
At Wit's End,
Erma Bombeck..

.... I have a friend who lives by a three word philosophy. "Seize the moment." Just possibly she might be the wisest woman on this planet. Too many people put off something that brings them joy, just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too ridged to depart from the routine...
.... I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that night in an effort to "cut back." From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
....How many women out there will eat at home because their husband suggested they go out to dinner after something had been thawed? Does the word refrigeration have no meaning?
...How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat there in silence while you watched "Jeopardy"?
.... I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, "How about going to lunch in a half an hour?" She would gasp and stammer, "I can't." Check one: I have clothes on the line." "My hair is dirty." I wish I had known yesterday." "I had breakfast." "It looks like rain." And my personal favorite, "It's Monday." She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.....
....Because Americans cram so much into our lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all conditions are perfect. We will go back and visit the grandparents...When we get Stevie toilet-trained. We will entertain when we replace the living room carpet. We will go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
...Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter and the lists of promises to ourselves get longer. One morning we awaken and all we have to show for our lives, is a litany of, "I am going to." "I plan on." " And someday when things are settled down a bit.."
...When someone calls my seize the moment friend, she is open to adventure, available for trips, and keeps an open mind on new idea. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious You talk with her for five minutes and you are ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungi cord.
....My lips have not touched ice cream for 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my hips with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process........The other day I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car hit an iceberg on the way home, I'd have died happy.

[shraby]

1. I always enjoyed Erma Bombeck. I read her book and it brought tears to my eyes. She was

a great writer!

[Stuart G]

2. I agree with you completely..

This column was stapled and copied in a way that it would be preserved. I looked at it a while ago, and said to myself, share this with others. It really is an important idea, and this idea is expressed so clearly and to the point. I read it, (yes today)..and read it again, and again.. It is for all of us, to enjoy and live each day as best we can.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Seize the day.............live in the moment!

My good friend WCGreen felt and lived this way, all his life. Since he was chronically ill, he had to, if he wanted to live at all. He died young, but his life had been full in many ways that those of us stuck in our little grooves never experience. He taught me so much about living!

He is gone, but his influence on me goes forward. I have learned how to get out of my oh-so-comfortable rut and live life on the edge!

Thanks for your great post, my dear Stuart G. It's a good one, and now it's on the Greatest Page, where more people will see, and benefit from it.

[llmart]

4. Love Erma Bombeck.

I read her column in our local newspaper every day growing up. I also read all the book she wrote. She was funny as all get out. If I remember correctly she was diagnosed with kidney failure and did dialysis for awhile, but then decided her quality of life was not what she wished for in her senior years, so she stopped the dialysis (someone correct me if I'm wrong - my memory can be sketchy sometimes).

I tend to be a fairly spontaneous person. Years ago I had a neighbor whom I had only known for a couple of years. She was terribly vain and wouldn't go up to the corner drugstore unless she was all put together. She called me up one time and asked me on the spur of the moment to go to a place she really wanted to see. I said, "Sure, come on by and let's go." She had told me more than once that one of the things she liked about me was how spontaneous I was. So, she comes by to pick me up and when I get in her car she says to me, "You would look so much better with mascara." LOL I never said anything to her because I actually pitied her for her inability to be spontaneous.

[Fla Dem]

5. Erma Bombeck was an American Treasure. I was so sad when she died at 69 in 1996.

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'."
-Erma Bombeck

You succeeded Erma, you succeeded.

[kairos12]

6. I love Erma's advice like this one.

Never have more kids than you have car windows.