This six-sentence blog challenge prompt from GirlieOnTheEdge is the word cardinal. I’ve been thinking about my mother this week, I guess, so here’s another bit of Ella Mae-ism.
Cardinal: the color of a tufted red bird that sings “pret- ty, pret-ty, pret-ty” to his mate; the color of garments in the Catholic hierarchy; the color of the handmaid, Offred’s cloak; and a rule of primary importance.
My mother’s cardinal rule for her female children (that’s all she had) was, “You can do anything you want if you work hard enough for it.”
That translated into things like, “Can’t never done nothing, he died a long time ago,” and “Ignore it (your little aches and pains) and it’ll go away,” and my favorite, “Stand up, speak up, and pick up your feet.”
So, like the queen whose husband was off fighting a war when his enemy surrounded the castle, I stood up straight and tall and pretended I feared nothing, I spoke up for myself (the employee’s union didn’t hurt) so that I could advance with my male colleagues, I ignored a lot of “stuff,” and NEVER, EVER accepted can’t.
Now I’m revising my sixth book, even though I didn’t get started with this kind of writing until I’d retired.
And as for picking up my feet, I still work out barefoot (do almost everything barefoot) because the toe I drag always trips me when I wear shoes—sorry Mom.
You are obeying the spirit, if not the letter, of her law. Excellent six!
Enjoyable Six with an uplifting message! Congrats on working on your 6th book. There is much to be said for persistence regardless of age.
It seems (from your photo above) your Mom was something of a scott*
The ‘rules’ we acquire as children! Two words: aiiyee
How powerful is that process (when parent instructs a young child at a certain age)… whole lives are shaped but what sometimes is casual advice.
(My own example: while I was still quite young, my mother would repeat a statement about the virtue of ‘honest work’, and how, even if one were digging ditches for a living, it is a good thing.
… a lifetime later, I still derive an inordinate amount of pleasure from digging, in the garden… shoveling snow in the winter, anything involving a shovel. lol
Excellent and provocative Six ****
*one of the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine**
** all three represent a relationship with the world that, while distinctive from each other, contains aspects we all share***
*** a scott is a person for whom action is the most important thing, mercurial in temperament, they are fierce protectors, tough but fair taskmasters
**** a total compliment here in the land of short(est) of stories
Actually, my grandmother on the other side was the Scott. Mom was Irish to the core and I realize, not stereotypical. Your remark about sometimes casual advice reminds me of how I’m blown away sometimes when a person I knew years ago tells me he “heard” a remark I made and changed his life. WHAT! Sometime we’ll have a prompt that allows me to write about how Roger Shaffer changed my son’s life by teaching how to shake hands with a handicapped person.
Excellent six! So many rules become good habits. Congratulations on book six!
I loved your tribute to your mother. Oh, how words and examples shape our lives.
Very nice to be able to listen to you read your SSS.
She sounds like a colorful and venerable woman. Good Six.
Colorful and venerable and boy was she a shock to our conservative, patriarchal, farming community. (They were a shock to her too.)
Thats excellent advice and some brilliant effort from you 🙂
Thanks Pratibha. These little prompts force me to boil what I’m thinking down to very few words in a way that translates to better writing in my longer forms.