Jeans! Why not?

Thoughts of an Aging Man: Escalation of Expectations from "It Is Not About H...: "Here is another glimpse of my book. Now I am talking about 'Choice'. What does it mean to us, how important it is to have choices and w..."

Escalation of Expectations from "It Is Not About How, It Is About Now!"

Here is another glimpse of my book. Now I am talking about "Choice". What does it mean to us, how important it is to have choices and what these choices have done to us. Just this one issue here. In the book you will find a much more detailed aproach to this matter.

Hope you have fun.

Escalation of Expectations. 

"A perfect example for this is when I went to replace my jeans. I wear jeans all the time and there was a time when jeans came just in one flavor and you bought them and they fit like crap. If you wore them long enough and if you washed them enough times they started to fit and to feel ok. So after wearing my old jeans for years I went to replace them. In the shop I said “I’d like a pair of jeans, here is my size” and the shopkeeper said “Do you want slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, you want button fly or zipper fly? You want stone washed or acid washed, you want … bla bla bla.” My jaw dropped and after I recovered I said, “I want the kind that used to be the only kind!” He had no idea what that was. So I spent one hour trying on all these kind of jeans and I walked out of the store with the best fitting jeans I have ever had. I did better. All these choices made it possible for me to do better. But I felt worse!

Why? The reason I felt worse is, that with all of these options available, my expectations about how good a pair of jeans should be, went up. I had no expectations when they only came in one flavor. When they came in one hundred flavors, damn it, one of them should have been perfect. What I got was good, but it wasn’t perfect. So I compared what I got to what I expected, what I got was disappointing in comparison to what I expected. And if we go from the premise that there is no perfection, than I will be thinking that I could have chosen that other pair that fitted me as good as this one and all my satisfaction with my actually great pair of jeans is   g o n e !

Adding options to people’s life’s, can’t help but increase the expectations that people have about how good those options would or should be. What that is going to produce is less satisfaction with results, even when they are good results."

Stand up For Your Believes

In my book “It Is not About How, It Is About Now!” one of the major issues to live a life of happiness is the fact that we should believe in ourselves and stand up for our believes. Easy said I know, but trust me, I am not the only one who says that. I had the help of Greek philosopher Socrates on my way to find out how important this standing up for yourself-thing is.

"Independence of what other people think. Sounds somehow strangely frightening but attractive. Especially when we are used to hear: “Don’t do this or don’t wear that! What will our neighbors say!” I always wondered what and why it was so important what our neighbor, the milk man, the cashier at our local supermarket had so important, that I needed their approval for whatever it was what I intended to do" (from It Is not About How, It Is About Now!)

I decided to share every day a little of my thoughts written down in the book, here with you. I'd like to make this a place of discussion, revelations, findings, whatever is needed to help you on your journey to happiness. So here is my invitation. Be free to participate.

Have a great weekend and - be happy!

http://www.amazon.com/Not-About-How-Now-ebook/dp/B0052LFJBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AGFP5ZROMRZFO&s=digital-text&qid=1306586276&sr=1-1

Happiness

If you wondered where I've been, well I've been busy - publishing my first eBook!!

I am so happy you cannot imagine, and that is cool because this book is exactly about happiness.

Here is a link to AMAZON where you can find it:

http://www.amazon.com/Not-About-How-Now-ebook/dp/B0052LFJBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AGFP5ZROMRZFO&s=digital-text&qid=1306419609&sr=1-1

I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did and if so, be kind and tell your friend - he might enjoy iy to! :o)

Oh, in case you don't like it, tell your enemy. Make him miserable to! HAHAHAHA... no way you won't like it.

Love you all and here goes the cover:

Please give me some feedback! It is my first book and I need to know if I should stop here or not!

Kisses ...

Congratulations Mom's - You Surely Deserve It

This is my gorgeous Mother, Ursula

I was wondering when the idea started to celebrate Mother's day. Actually my thought was "Why should there be an oficial Mother's Day, rather than celebrating your Mom every single day?"

So here is what I found:

Celebrating motherhood is a historical tradition dating back almost as far as mothers themselves. A number of ancient cultures paid tribute to mothers as goddesses, including the ancient Greeks, who celebrated Rhea, the mother of all gods. The ancient Romans also honored their mother goddess, Cybele, in a notoriously rowdy springtime celebration and the Celtic Pagans marked the coming of spring with a fertility celebration linking their goddess Brigid together with the first milk of the ewes.

During the 17th century, those living on the British isles initiated a religious celebration of motherhood, called Mothering Sunday, which was held on the forth Sunday during the Lenten season. This holiday featured the reunification of mothers and their children, separated when working class families had to send off their young children to be employed as house servants. On Mothering Sunday, the child servants were allowed to return home for the day to visit with their parents. The holiday's popularity faded in the 19th century, only to be reincarnated during World War II when U.S. servicemen reintroduced the sentimental (and commercial) aspects of the celebration American counterpart.

In the United States, Mother's Day experienced a series of false starts before eventually transitioning into the "Hallmark" holiday that we celebrate today. In 1858, Anna Reeves Jarvis was the first woman to hold an official celebration of mothers, when in her home state of West Virginia, she instituted Mothers' Work Day to raise awareness about local sanitation issues. During the Civil War, she expanded the scope of Mothers' Work Day to include sanitary conditions on both sides of the battlefield.

Meanwhile Julia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," attempted to institute a national celebration of mothers that honored women's inclinations toward peace (rather than cleanliness). In 1872, she initiated and promoted a Mother's Day for Peace, to be held on June 2, which was celebrated the following year by women in 18 cities across America. The holiday continued to be honored by Bostonian women for another decade, but eventually phased out after Howe stopped underwriting the cost of the celebrations.

Then in 1905, Anna Reeves Jarvis passed away and her daughter, Anna Jarvis, took up her mother's torch. Anna swore on her mother's gravesite that she would realize her lifelong dream of creating a national day to honor mothers. In 1907, Anna launched her campaign by handing out white carnations to congregants at her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia. In 1908, her mother's church acquiesced to Anna's request to hold a special Sunday service in honor of mothers - a tradition that spread the very next year to churches in 46 states. In 1909, Anna left her job and dedicated herself to a full-time letter-writing campaign, imploring politicians, clergymen and civic leaders to institute a national day for mothers.

In 1912, Jarvis' efforts met with success: Her home state of West Virginia adopted an official Mother's Day; two years later, the U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution, signed by President Wilson, establishing a national Mother's Day emphasizing the role of women in their families - and not, like Julia Ward Howe's campaign, in the public arena. Ever since, Mother's Day has been celebrated by Americans on the second Sunday in May.

Perhaps the country's greatest proponent of motherhood, Anna Jarvis ironically never had children of her own. Yet that didn't stop her from making the celebration of Mother's Day her lifelong mission. In fact, as the holiday took on a life of its own, Jarvis expressed frequent dismay over its growing commercialization. "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit," she is quoted as saying.

Mother's Day is celebrated almost all over the world. See here when:

While Mother's Day in the US is celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of May, and the UK's Mothering Sunday is celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent, worldwide many countries also celebrate Mother's Day (also known as Ladies Day, Women's Day, Parent's Day) throughout the year.

Date Celebrated	Countries Celebrating
Second Sunday in February	Norway
Shevat 30 (falls anywhere between January 30 and March 1)	Israel
March 3	Georgia
March 8	Afghanistan, Albania*, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Laos, Macedonia*, Montenegro, Moldova*, Montenegro, Romania*, Russia*, Serbia, Ukraine. *In Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Guyana, Italy, Macedonia, Mongolia, and Russia the day is observed as International Women's Day (not specifically Mothers' Day).
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Mothering Sunday)	Ireland, Nigeria, United Kingdom
March 21 (Vernal Equinox)	Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen (most Arab countries)
March 25	Slovenia
April 7	Armenia
Baisakh (Mata Tirtha Aunsi - April/May)	Nepal
First Sunday in May	Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain
May 8	Albania (Parents' Day), South Korea (Parents' Day)
May 10	El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico
Second Sunday in May	Anguilla, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bonaire, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zimbabwe
May 15	Paraguay
May 26	Poland
May 27	Bolivia
Last Sunday in May	Algeria, Dominican Republic, France*, Haiti, Mauritius, Morocco, Sweden, Tunisia *(except if the day falls on Pentecost Sunday, in which case Mother's Day will be celebrated on the first Sunday of June)
May 30	Nicaragua
June 1	Mongolia (The Mothers and Children's Day. Mongolia is the only country that celebrates Mother's Day twice a year.)
2nd Sunday of June	Luxembourg
Last Sunday of June	Kenya
August 12	Thailand (the birthday of Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara)
August 15 (Assumption Day)	Antwerp (Belgium), Costa Rica
Second Monday in October	Malawi
October 14	Belarus
Third Sunday in October	Argentina (Día de la Madre)
Last Sunday of November	Russia
December 8	Panama
December 22	Indonesia

(If we are missing anything please make note in the comments below)

Source: Wikipedia - Mother's Day

So, no matter what, when or why it started, just celebrate your mom. She's done a lot for you and it doesn't cost you a dime to care!

Love you all,

Best