The Red Hat Society - Belonging

[surfermike]

red is such a facinating color because there are so many different shades which really make them all seperate colors duhhhh. no really. "She moistened her ruby red lips." I feel firm just thinking about it. I once owned a T shirt when I lived in Honolulu that was the most beautifull of all reds. That was twenty years ago, and I still search for a duplicate in most mens' clothing stores.
also there are some bad ass looking red shades. Like with an orange tinge. Yikes.
_________________
schrom pics

[Doreen Peri]

Deb - Points well taken. All of them. Thank you. Just hoping for harmony and peace and I love it that all the ladies here have spunk, attitude, determination and outspoken personalities. I agree that we need to be careful with our words and make sure people know when we are joking.

But our styles differ than each other. I hope for tolerance, acceptance, and keen senses of humor.

You have your take on hester's post and I have mine and I thought she was funning around. Making jokes. Yeah, I see your point that when we refer to ourselves that's one thing but referring to another with the same term may be taken as something else indeed, depending on our point of view. But the red hat ladies refer to themselves as old ladies and Kelly stated that she didn't care what anybody thought and hester called herself an old bitty.. lol..., so I guess I thought that the comments were levity and that's my interpretation.

Again, I love ya, Deb! And I know we both love Hester... and hell, I love Kelly and she just got here!

Thank you all for being who you are! And I appreciate the hugs back! Hell, let's all have a group hug, wanna?

surfermike! -
Great to see you! I haven't red you in a long long time! Hawaiiya? Doin' ok, I hope? Orange ya glad you stopped by? I am! No shirt!

[stilltrucking]

Nevermind


Have you ever noticed how hester ends almost every post with an emoticon


Nice to see ya mike.

WD that is very sweet, I am happy you noticed.

Thanks for the music Hester. You help me make it through the night. Smoke um if you got um.

I just can't get over the expression on that woman's face, the one wearing the T-shirt or dress with the voluptuous female body on it. She ain't expecting nothing she can't deal with. I love her smile.

Last Tango In Paris. "In forty years you will be kicking them around like soccer balls."

Doreen I love out spoken ladies too. It is those dick head men I can't stand.

[judih]

clubs.

the red hat club.

the purple wearing red hat club.

since the poem has become a kind of institution with one of our teachers at school and she insists that 16 yr old kids read it and answer comprehension questions, the red hat club idea is a kind of generic statement.

Do what you love. Better sooner than later, but later is better than not at all.

myself - i don't join clubs, but so what. Freedom of expression is what i feel is being celebrated here.

Hester has her tie-dyed flat out way of putting it.
Kelly has the goods on the red hats.
i read Deb's response as taking a more political stance: seeing Hest's response as an attempt to usurp another's rights to free expression.
i didn't read Hester that way. She, in my opinion, was expressing immediate personal reaction to 'clubs'.
Kelly seemed to take it that way.

In any case, we all respond to what's put out here according to our perception of intent.

i've blushed and been totally pissed off at how certain phrases written here land in my heart. Usually, i take the reaction as something i have to work on within myself, and so i don't put it in print.

Other times, if i ruminate and get angry enough, i'll respond.

i can only admire the style of reading, reacting and posting when angered.

My training is to absorb, consider, deliberate and find a way to middle-ground. But i miss out on that fast immediacy. When it happens to me, i'm thrilled. Often i repent things i've said, but the energy is something.

In short, red hat or no hat, energy used to express inner longing, as long as it's not infringing on another's territory, lights up the place.

It's all good. Let the colours fly.

[stilltrucking]

"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member."
Groucho Marx

[mousey1]

Just put it all out there everyone

if you hold it in

you'll turn into a mouse

and there's already a mouse in the house

and she looks damned silly

in a hat

even a red one

[judih]

ha ha, mousey

silly mouse, hats are for people

[abcrystcats]

Hi, Kelly, pleased to meet you!

I'm not much of a joiner, myself, but I'm beginning to see the value of it, if only for this:

Or get off your ass and go out and have some fun. I'm having fun in my life and If I look like a dam fool ...I don't care...

I don't know anything about The Red Hat Society, but if it's what I think it is -- getting together just to BE together, without regard to anyone's beliefs or purpose, then I think it's GREAT.

The world is filled with purposes and goals already, so why not just get together to have fun and enjoy good company?



Doreen, not to beat a dead horse or anything, but I would have taken Hester's comments badly too. Perhaps they weren't meant that way.

[hester_prynne]

Whoa Nellies Whoa Whoa and I am truly sorry if I offended anyone!

Doreen is right, I was speaking with wryness and satire, but also anger too.
I can see how my comments came out harsh but it was in no way directed at red hats or any society of red hat wearers.
I have a cool red hat myself that I wear and have been wearing for years!
And I heartily endorse fun in numbers and connections made under a common goal and bond, I really do, of course as long as they don't hurt anyone.

I suppose, after thinking about it, I was also speaking from that dark place I perceive all of us to be in, outside of our control, and I was feeling succumbed to it.

In my heart there is a protective anger for all of us who do these good earnest red hat things. Too many times I've seen it become reduced to the consuming end of something tangible, over the original intent of seeking something deeper and less tangible, like true self release.

Red hats symbolize a deeper connection, a free spirit unleashed and I love this, the pictures show it hands down.
But I don't need a red hat on to be that. I've always been that!
And I don't want any red hat retailer to have anything to do with it!!! (Silly me!)

I got my red hat at a thrift store for a quarter about 30 years ago!
I'm in! I love what you're doing. I always have. Maybe i'm just disappointed it took us/you so long?
Heh.

Again, sorry for any insult pang or jolt I caused, I didn't mean that.
Those are nasty.

Forgive me please.
Shake? Please?


H

[mousey1]

I vote we all dress up like teddy bears...

We'll get lots of hugs! Hugs are nice! Especially the undeserved ones!

[hester_prynne]

You know Mousey, I think you're onto something. A little time in a teddy bear costume would do me good....I'm too much bear and not enough teddy anymore. I'm jus a mean ol cuss!
I want my teddy self back!!!!
How can I get her back? I need ideas.....

H

[tinkerjack]

Who you talking to? I feel like Earl in the Comic strip Pickles the one that did the serries on the Red Hat Society.

If it was me I would go back to childhood find love there. Someone you loved as a child. And feel their prescence.

We have painful memories of childhood that is true
but we can not let them steal our joy.

morning manac compulsive typing.

[hester_prynne]

I loved Flower, the l'il skunk in Bambi.
My first plush toy.

I thought it was enchanting, that he had a name like that, being a skunk and all.....
the whole idea....
it made me sort of......
well....
melt

..........y'know?


What was your first plush toy?
H

[Diana Moon Glampers]

plush toy? I come back here to add a comment as Diana the woman too dumb to live. I was going to say Hugs, great big teddy bear hugs are good Rx too.

But you floored me with the plush toy question. Did I ever have one? I got vague memories of a blanky (blankey?) but no plush toys I can think of. But I always loved the song Today's The Day The Teddy bears have their Tea.

[mousey1]

Find your inner teddy bear
give him a hug
cuddle him
snuggle him
love him all up

yes, sometimes I think my inner teddy bear lost all his stuffing
most of it came out through his ears

I see him though
off in a corner
doing what teddy bears do
loving stuff up

they're not mashers
they're tip toers
furry air bubbles of delight

Hester, perhaps life has drowned your teddy bear
but he can resuscitate
they're immortal you know

Never lose the inner child
some people will look at you funny
think perhaps that you should grow up
I wonder why
why people look down their nose, why
they want us to be serious
I am slapped in the face often enough by reality's forceful ways
I think it's fine, fine and dandy
to lighten up

my advice
ask yourself
what would a teddy bear do?

the answer of course is
nuttin' honey
just feel the love
and return the hug

Ah, if only life were so simplistic

your post made me smile "I'm too much bear and not enough teddy"
Sadly in this world we all quite often have to become bears just to survive, to protect our cubby selves. Sometimes I think I'm too much riled up hive...too much B...and not enough honey!

Well, here's a teddy bear paw of friendship and a big fluffy hug for ya!

As for plush toys I'm not sure what my first one was but I always wanted, was always in love with, Pooh Bear. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too with a little dash of Eeyore.

Here's a thought, when I die bury me in a teddy bear suit. Picture it! Picture the funeral mass...you can't help but laugh...and that shall be my motto of existance...she lived and died laughing...but nobody wanted to hug her.

ps: I thought Flower was a female. Oh my, I may have to rethink everything I ever thought I knew.

Paddington Bear was a cool dude too...but really, what teddy bear isn"t. There is no such thing as a mean teddy bear...unless Steven King's had at 'im!