We are getting ready to put our house "on the market" and move. Fixing up a house was part of the language of everyday life for Bob and Linda. They bought houses, renovated them and sold them, sometimes we lived in them. We always had "our home" - but these were summer places or weekend homes and it was fun and work for Bob.
Linda kept everything organized and on schedule at home - and with their projects. Bob had pink office pads. They had boxes and lines - I think that they were for phone messages. Linda had yellow legal pads. Then she ripped pieces of legal pads - very neatly and taped them where she needed them. When I was older I said that she should have invented "post-it-notes" - and when post- its came out in the stores she immediately bought them, but they were all shaped the same and Linda was a creative woman...so...
Linda's post-it-notes had logic. She would not have said that she was creating a language, but she was. It started with a heart at the end of her notes. Then it became a face and then she added hair. The hair reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore in her flip days when she played a journalist on TV and her best friend was Rhoda. If mom used "the hair" she was usually in her 1970's feisty spirit place, other times, the eyes were huge or the mouth was large. I started saving them over 10 years ago. I decided that I needed a bigger sample than individual images and that is how the file began.
After Bob died, Linda reverted to wearing her hair in a twist at the back of her head - with lots of hairspray. I hated it. It scared me. Slowly, over the years it came down and became softer, but never again the long "that girl" hair.
Marlo Thomas as That Girl
Language, critical thinking, logic... I count on these tools in order to understand life, but for me the terms are flexible in how I process the information. "Actions speak louder than words"- this always made sense to me because I could observe and respond. Actions often reveal patterns. This is my bridge between left and right brain thinking. I love that I was taught to see pattern. I am Bob's daughter.
As our house is being rearranged, I miss Linda's post-it-notes. I am finding occasional post-it, but they are out of sequence and no longer relate to our current life situation. The pattern is broken and I am trying to create my own.