Episode #3 – Chanel Aviators…with sparkling lenses:).

Dear Aimee,

Today someone criticized the way I am raising my kids.  My kids are good kids and so are theirs, but they are just different.  Why do peoplefeel the need to impose their parenting technique on everyone around them?  ~Judged or Misjudged in Elk City, OK

Judged or Misjudged,

I’m sure you are familiar with the phrase “La vie en rose”
or “Life through rose colored glasses”.  Well in modern day suburbia, we have our own version of the classic phrase.  Every day we pass other men andwomen just like us. They are hauling kids here and there, running errands, checking off a to-do list, or laboring away to earn a living.  We greet one another, smile, wave, and go on.  But all the while, we are carefully observing and scrutinizing each other from behind our own carefully chosen filters to the world.  For example, my “rose colored glasses” this season are Chanel aviators with “lightly sparkling lenses” as the ad described.  But despite a sparkling lens, all that glitters is not gold. A hard lesson learned by my boys while panning for treasure in Red River, NM.  But that’s another story and has absolutely no purpose in this anecdote.  Yes, a curious Oakley observer may disagree with what he or she sees from behind their dark tint.  However the thing to remember is that often the problem is not that you are doing it wrong, but that you are doing it differently.  Here’s the nugget of wisdom…are you ready?  Individuals can often times be very uncomfortable with being individual.  Whether it’s about our gardens, our homes, or our philosophies on child rearing; we want others to affirm us…to agree with us.  But what kind of world would it be if we all walked around wearing the same clothes, having the same careers, liking the same foods, driving the same vehicles, all the while wearing the same CHANELS! (with sparkling lenses).  You can look around and determine that individuality is in our DNA.  The one thing most alike about all of us is that we are all different!  Yes, there are universal good ideas each of us should follow; such as treat others with respect, educate your children, and be a productive member of society. However the pathway we take to achieve these ideals will be as different as the very faces we see every day.  So the next time someone tries to assert their “individuality” on you;  take a moment to lower your Gucci Tortoise shells and admire the beautiful irony of anindividual looking for someone to be just like them!

“Real Housewife of Western Oklahoma”

_The Daily Elk Citian_27 October 2011,

_The Cordell Beacon_26 October 2011