An observation

One of my main life philosophies: keep your mouth closed, and everyone thinks you're brilliant.

This morning was the Ladies' Christmas Tea luncheon-thingy, which I was to provide light Christmas music for (as well as accompaniment for a few singalong Christmas carols). There were probably about a hundred women there. Each table of 8 was decorated by a separate person, so they were rather festive and nicely done. I sat at one where there was one woman I'd met before, just to be sure I wasn't totally in the dark here. A conversation was struck up by a woman who was commenting that her son had enlisted in the military and was going to Iraq soon. She revealed her ambivalence about it because she'd always been an anti-war, 60s peace-child liberal, and she didn't know where she'd gone wrong. (!!) I kept my mouth shut and just listened intently; several at the table were of the same ilk -- quotes like "The Vietnam war was wrong and I knew it then, and every war since then has been wrong too" or other sorts of statements. The woman I already knew was sitting beside me, and I murmured to her that if I were 18 right now, I'd probably join up, too. She nodded her head quietly and said that she would, too. I am just the kind of person who likes to live things out to the Nth degree rather than talk about them or hold back fearfully. Stuff needs doin', and if I can do it, I'd like to try. I'm too old, too fat, and I'm a mom ... all three of which put me into a stage of life which prohibits that sort of commitment. But I wholeheartedly believe in our cause over there and in the necessity of a global war on Islamic fundamentalist suicidalist nincompoops... and whatever I could possibly do, I would.

Anyway, I never really got a chance to speak up, but that's okay. Sometimes it pays to observe quietly.