What Is Your Persona Today?

I have many personas.  I don't mean different personalities, I mean personas like who I want to be right now or who I want you to see.  These are the many sides of me that come out depending on my mood.  I can have more than one in a day.  Right now I am the Suburban Country Lady sitting on my pink desk writing my blog!  We all have different personas.  If we didn't we'd either be quite boring or be bored with ourselves.

A simple definition of persona is the personal facade we present publicly.  This is how people see us and perceive us.  The other day at my hair appointment I complimented my hairdresser on how nice she looked in her outfit.  She usually wears jeans with a top and cowboy boots.  That day she wore an attractive dress with heels.  She thanked me for the compliment but went on to say she felt out of place and kind of out of body.  She said she used to dress up all the time but she somehow stopped doing that.

When I started seeing her my first impression of her was a sassy cowgirl kind of lady, but that day I saw her as a feminine professional hair stylist.  Either way, she does an excellent job with my hair.  When I started seeing her a year and a half ago I had short hair.  I told her I wanted to grow my hair long, keep it blonde and not have it look dorky in the process.  She managed to do that for me.  She turned me into a middle aged woman who felt frumpy and dumpy into a middle aged woman who feels perky and attractive.  Now I can use my hair for any persona I want to present to the world.  I can wear it up in a sophisticated style, I can wear a sassy ponytail or I can wear it down for a glamorous look.   

It is a known fact that how you dress will determine how people see you.  How you dress also dictates how you carry yourself.  If you are dressed formally you will glide as you walk, if you are dressed for success you will walk with confidence and if you are dressed casually you will walk with a swagger.   Personas can be fun and that can be useful.  When I run errands sometimes I feel like dressing up and being a confident and successful housewife!  Yes, you can be a successful housewife.  Other times I dress more casually and want to be seen as a easy go lucky, come what may kind of woman. 



You can use your personas to your advantage, too.  You can use them as a mood lifter when you are feeling down by dressing in some bright colors or wear a hat when you want to be mysterious.  You can be silly and frivolous by taking yourself on a picnic in a downtown park and be a people watcher or sit down in a busy mall and count the number of people walking around with cell phones up to their ears.  They will think you are a total loser who has nothing else to do, but you know better. 




Just follow your mood and see what persona you want to be.  You can start with the serious gotta get my work done person in the morning and end up being that silly hippy love child by the afternoon to that grateful blessed person in church tonight.  At least you know you are more than just a one dimensional cardboard cutout.  You are someone with substance.  Just go with the flow.

"For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

and His truth endures to all generations."

Psalms 100:5

Curiosity

 I think curiosity is as important as imagination.  Having a sense of wonderment makes us all ageless.  Curiosity, along with imagination,  never grows old and it helps to keep us young.  Curiosity may have killed the cat but at least it didn't die of boredom.  How many times are your bored?  Or how often do you hear your children say they are bored.  Boredom stagnates us and gets in the way of enjoying life in the moment.



Our dog is curious about the feral cat.

I prefer to experience failure than not be curious.  Curiosity has
lead me to many adventures in my life.  Like when I  joined the Army.  I was looking for a way out of a somewhat mundane life I was living.  I was 23 years old, a two times college dropout in a dead end job.  I was curious where the Army would lead me and it was one of the wisest choices I ever made.  They used to have a motto that said "Be All That You Can Be" and in my case it was absolutely true.  As a journalist it was the perfect fit for me with my extreme curiosity. 

I had carte blanche to ask all kinds of questions, to meet all kinds of people, and to see many interesting things.  This was the perfect fit for me in the Army.  This experience helped me to use my curiosity in my professional life, also. The Army's eductional benefits provided me with my college education which eventually led to a career in the human resources field where I dealt, again with people from all backgrounds.  This is where my curiosity of the Army took me.

Curiosity drives me to experience new things all the time.  I took art classes at a vo-tech school and took an online writing college course and now I am taking horseback riding lessons.  My husband and I developed many new interests when we started camping.  Because we love American history we began visiting museums and this led to our collections of things from the past.  Our love of the outdoors led us to hiking and geocaching.

Curiosity places an important role in all these things because they require some degree of research. 
We buy books to read and research on the worldwide web.  Curiosity also plays an important role in my cooking.  I love to experiment and fortunately I've had more successes than failures.

Today's recipe of the week.

"Crockpot Vegetable Stew with Navy Beans"

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

4 carrots, sliced

2 potatoes, diced

4 celery stalks, chopped

1 can tomatoes

2 cans navy beans, drained and rinsed

1 small can of tomato sauce

1 bay leaf

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1/4 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in the crockpot, cover with vegetable broth or water.  Cook on low for 8 hours.

Serve with cornbread or a crusty hot loaf of italian bread.

Enjoy.

If you use your curiosity along with your imagination,  I guarantee you will not experience one boring moment!

"You will show me the path of life;

In your presence is fullness of joy;

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Imagine

Can you imagine not having an imagination? I've been giving this some thought today and, well frankly, I can't imagine it!  I have a very active imagination as you can tell from my opening sentence.

I accuse my husband of not having an imagination.  He is very smart and he is a very good man, but he is not big on unnecessary conversations.  One day while we were waiting for our breakfast at a local restaurant I was determined to get him engaged in some sort of conversation with me.  I asked him what would he do if he was being chased by some angry tribal natives with poison arrows to the edge of a roaring river full of large boulders and rapids with only a rickety wooden bridge to cross it and a hungry, ferocious angry bear on the opposite bank.  He just looked at me like I was some kind of crazy woman and then our food arrived.  He didn't answer the question.  I accused him, yet again of not having an imagination.

Thankfully the world is full of imaginative people.   Where would we be without our favorite authors, our movie producers and most importantly our scientists?  It takes a mighty big imagination for scientists to think up the things they come up with.  We wouldn't have made such great strides in medicine, computer technology, and space exploration if it wasn't for their great imaginations.



When my husband and I visit museums, historical sites and antique stores my imagination goes wild.  When I see items used by women in their homes I picture myself using these items.  I imagine using a pretty set of china, setting the table with it and beautiful silverware.  I imagine the clothes she might have worn at that particular meal and if it was a special occasion or maybe a Sunday dinner with her family.  This explains why it takes me longer to get through these places than my husband! 

Or when we visit old cemeteries, as I look at the headstones I try to imagine what their lives was like.  Many headstones give you just enough information to have a good idea of what kind of life a person might have lead.  For example,  "Anna May Smith, Beloved Wife, Mother and Grandmother.  She will be dearly missed by all whose lives she touched."  This was a woman who devoted her life to her family and left a loving legacy.  Or, "Pvt. John A. Smith, 76 Regiment, WWI Veteran."  This was a young man taken before he had a chance to grow old.  He will remain forever young because he gave his life to his country.  He probably had a girlfriend back home waiting for him who had to go on with her life.  She eventually married a good man, had children and grandchildren, just like Anna May Smith, but her first loved remained forever in her heart never to be forgotten.

Yes, imaginations are very important.  We need them to grow, to survive in a hectic world and to stay sane.  It is a way to filter out the ridiculous things we see every day.  So, the next time you're in a long line or waiting for a food order with someone who doesn't talk, look at a person near you and imagine who she is.  She is probably in the witness protection plan working for the CIA, speaks fifteen languages and can wrestle a 200 pound bear waiting for her at the other side of the raging river while she is running from crazy tribal people carrying poison arrows!   Try it, it's fun!

"Now faith is the substance

of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen."

Hebrews 11:1