LIFE REVIEW FOR MIDCENTURY MODERNS

Life review all need onething: a life to review.

It’s usually reserved for famous people talking about famous people they met one time.

Celebrity: We were very, very, close for a long, long, time.

This is a different review.

‘Mid-century modern’ is a fashion term, a style, a look.

 

The key characteristics of midcentury modern include:

• Furnishings emphasize function over ornament

• Lack of ornamentation in favor of simple geometric lines

• Frequent use of teak, rosewood, and oak

• Use of metal, glass, and vinyl

• Bold accent colors (midcentury colors include reds, sages, yellows, blush pinks, and more)

• Organic shapes and patterns, as shown in midcentury modern architecture

• Mixed materials and textures such as a wood tabletop with chrome legs or a vinyl upholstered chair with wood legs

 

It also includes baby boomers, the midcentury modern cohort.

They are the people fueling the mid-trend started by their parents.

Boomer: I grew up with this table and I will keep it forever.

It’s a common threat.

Boomer: Do you have anything from your childhood, any furniture? You should. Maybe turn your old bedroom set into office furniture?

 

Maintenance Is Most Important

You’ve heard this before: Maintain an even strain.

It translates to maintaining your shit so someone else doesn’t have to.

Think of it as connecting the dots from dot to dot and creating a picture you didn’t expect.

Who doesn’t love a good surprise?

I was shocked to scan my garage for a Good Will run.

A few bags were already in the car and ready to go, but there had to be more.

I looked high, I looked low, to the left and to the right, and couldn’t see anything more to toss on the pile.

That’s when reality hit and hit hard. I connected the dots.

There was nothing in the garage to cycle out, so it must be in my wife’s nooks and crannies.

I will search the crawl spaces, closets; behind doors of mystery, under beds.

Anywhere clutter is found is where you’ll find me.

Or, more likely, you’ll find me in my cluttered space writing about clutter.

My space is a mess, but with one key element: I know where everything is.

Just ask me for anything and boom, there it is.

Same as the garage. The organizational appearance is subtle, but it’s there.

After you take a good look around, compare your clutter to your life’s clutter.

Then compare it to what you see in others.

Uh Oh.

 

Life Review On Others

I heard a man telling about tossing their kid out of the house on Christmas Eve one year, maybe last year.

I wasn’t listening that hard because of the remorse in the story.

‘Drugs, homeless, disrespect, fuck you, goodbye’ is how it sounded.

Those were the highlights.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with my mom once in the 70’s:

 

Me: I’ve got some friends who smoke more weed than they should.

Mom: I hope their parents are proud of them.

 

That is one of my default thoughts now that I’m in my 70’s when I hear something screwy.

‘Are their parents proud of them?’

The guy talking about his kid was not a proud parent, but I got the feeling he’d told the story often by the way he eyeballed me.

Whenever I get the intense eye contact an old movie quote goes off in my head: ‘Don’t eyeball me, boy.’

 

Guy: I threw them out.

Me: It’s tough love.

Guy: I don’t care anymore.

Me:

Guy: I’ve had enough.

Me: My kids are in their thirties and I encourage them to be boring, as boring as they possibly can be.

Guy: How’s that working out?

Me: I’m proud of their effort. Married, kids, jobs, house, trees, and leaves.

Guy: They sound like they’re sixty.

Me: That’s what stability looks like. How old are you?

Guy: Old enough.

 

This was not a friend and I wasn’t proud of the way he aired things out.

He didn’t care either way, which makes for a poor life review.

If you don’t care, how can you expect anyone else to care?

If nothing else, Midcentury Modern style has shown it has legs; it’s lasted.

Midcentury Modern people are coming into their own in traditional ways and showing lasting values.

I saw it all in action yesterday with three generations and it was a thing of beauty.

I’ve got on eye for these things, and a heart full of THANK YOU to one and all of my sweetie pies.