{"id":1439,"date":"2014-07-23T23:21:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T03:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2014-07-23T23:21:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T03:21:15","slug":"berthas-got-it-in-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=1439","title":{"rendered":"Bertha’s got it in for me."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"meandfish\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What do you want to be when you grow up?<\/p>\n

We ask kids this all the time. Especially\u2026 when someone is trying to make conversation with a kid. You know how it goes\u2026.. \u201cWhat grade are you in? What is your favorite subject? What do you want to be when you grow up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the time they give an non affecting\u2026 \u201cI dunno.\u201d Why would they tell a total stranger\u2026 or for that matter\u2026. anyone at all?<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t. I found out pretty quickly that certain aspirations were met with\u2026 either a patronizing response\u2026 or a spoonful of jeer.<\/p>\n

Yet. When I was little, I totally knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. (It would morph from time to time\u2026 but I always knew.) I wanted to be Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. I wanted to be the starting shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds. I wanted to be one of the Jackson Five. Yes\u2026 it would change\u2026 depending on the season.. I suppose.<\/p>\n

But I had three standards. These were the three biggies.<\/p>\n

Mark Spitz. Saint Francis. Dr. Doolittle.<\/p>\n

I know what you are thinking\u2026. all three were pretty unrealistic. And in fact\u2026 none of them came to an exacting fruition.<\/p>\n

On the other hand\u2026 Let\u2019s break it down\u2026 one by one.
\nAs for Mark Spitz. Well. I DO swim every day.. when weather permits. I have never won seven gold medals swimming. But I eat Gold Medal Flour. The bottom line is\u2026. though\u2026. I love being in water. So I get in water.<\/p>\n

Now St. Francis. Nope. No Sainthood here. That fell through the cracks a long, long, long time ago. But I am kind to animals. I care about animals. Just like Franky-boy\u2026 I think they are worthy beings.<\/p>\n

On to Dr. Doolittle. Same genre. Different dude. I talk to animals all the time. This is so easy\u2026 I am surprised more people don\u2019t do it. But. Then there is the rest of it. Some of the times\u2026 I can guess what they might be saying back. But. This is the hard part. The listening.<\/p>\n

We THINK we know what they are thinking\u2026 but DO we?<\/p>\n

Take our fish for instance. Ethel, and Esther, and Josephine.. will eat right out my hand these days. But then there is Bertha. We have nicknamed here the bus. And here is why. She is a bus. Like Jerome Bettis. She has Steelers colors too. But I digress.<\/p>\n

Every morning, noon, or night\u2026 when I feed the group\u2026 Bertha sneaks up and splashes the holy-heck right out me. It never fails.<\/p>\n

You can bet I talk to her. I tell her all about my Catholic upbringing\u2026 and how we used to have big Fish Fry\u2019s at the Church. I tell her how much I love fried fish. With tartar sauce. On a bun.<\/p>\n

Well…. it is in one fish ear\u2026 and out the other. She\u2019ll splash me tomorrow morning.\u00a0 You can count on it.<\/p>\n

So\u2026 I guess I don\u2019t have the Dr. Doolittle thing quite down pat. Or for that matter\u2026 the St. Francis thing. Maybe I should just get in the water\u2026 and swim with her. Like Spitz.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIf one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again.\u201d\u00a0 –\u00a0 \u00a0Flavia Weedn<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.\u201d\u00a0 –\u00a0 \u00a0C.S. Lewis<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you want to be when you grow up? We ask kids this all the time. Especially\u2026 when someone is trying to make conversation with a kid. You know how it goes\u2026.. \u201cWhat grade are you in? What is your favorite subject? What do you want to be when you grow up?\u201d Most of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1443,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions\/1443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}