Tag: self-expression
-
Her Roots Are Showing
When she was little, strangers would ask, perplexed, if she was my daughter. There she was with white-blonde hair and me with dark brown…or burgundy…or auburn…or black. She didn’t get her blonde hair from me, and I had customers in the grocery question once or twice whether I might have stolen her or comment that…
-
What’s So Wrong With Being Different?
Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in “Third Degree of Freedom.” The only bad part—to me, anyway—about being “different” is that I sometimes get lonely for other people who are “different” like me. But here I am in the Bible Belt, in suburbia, in the midst of Republicans, conservatives, and a scary variety of fundamentalists.…
-
“Be Yourself” and Other Lies
Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Third Degree of Freedom. We tell kids—and grown-ups, too—to “Just be yourself.” Do we really mean it? Or do we just want them to be the selves we want them to be? The corollary to that, usually aimed at adults and errant wives, is “I just want you…
-
My Mom Has Sex Hair
My taste in clothes hasn’t changed, not really, since I was 19. I remember once in college, alone in my apartment with Roxy Music playing “Avalon” in the background, a glass of red wine in one hand, candles burning, and me barefoot and singing to the record and wearing a long burgundy velvet dress. And…
-
Dress for the Hell of It
Newly single women tend to dress sexier, according to my colleagues. That may be true, but it’s not necessarily to catch a new man. It may be that the woman is dressing more “herself” than what her divorced or deceased mate wanted. Several years ago, in my hometown church, an elderly widow was the brunt…
-
Reclaiming My Voice: The Fifth Chakra Connection to Illness and Communication
The first thing people notice about me–the people who read just about everything I write–is that, in person, I’m actually not very talkative and when I do speak, I have a soft voice and a quiet manner. Most people are surprised because they know I have a lot going on in my mind and heart,…
