Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Hot Masthead, Cool Makeover







Check out this hot, cool new look! This boomin’ corner of cyberspace just got a glamour treatment by Pop Art Diva! Thanks, Terri, for this fabulous and colorful transformation for Hottie/Cool. She’s becoming quite a blog babe!

I had a neat experience recently with
Kayla, the teenager and budding author I mentor. Kayla had brought her protagonist into a unique setting in her novel, just in passing. Until we started brainstorming, Kayla didn’t realize this unusual place had a real purpose and potential for furthering her story in a most hilarious way. We had a discussion about the right and left brain—how our creative right brains often give us a bits of information or ideas. Then it’s up to our left brains and analytical skills to figure out what we’re supposed to do with them.

That’s how Mini Me—Joyce at Three—got to be prominent on this blog and in my new masthead. When I discovered this photo in an album some years ago, I knew instantly that it was "the" picture of my inner child. The round, Jester motif picture frame was pure synchronicity—something I found in a unique shop on a business trip to Minneapolis. It took a long time before I realized that Joyce Jr. belonged in it.

Everyone should have a picture of his or her inner child where s/he can see it often. Mini You is the source of your inspiration, playfulness, and the beginnings of your lifelong process of learning by trial and error. Little You lived out loud and was full of wonder! This aspect of ourselves is what makes cool later living possible. If your childhood was troublesome and lacking in this aspect, let Big You nurture Little You and remember the wise words of novelist Tom Robbins: “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”

It took many things adding up cumulatively before I realized: my intuition to have Mini Me in my blog masthead represents an important aspect of blowing up the old Old. Stomp your foot and refuse to be a fuddy duddy!

Then there is the fact that we are called “baby” boomers. That surge of post-war fertility that we were born of packs a lot of symbolic whammy. We are a generation that is fertile with imagination and creativity. Our population swell is swellest of all as our collective wisdom permeates the general population all at once. In the same way, our sheer numbers, as children, changed how society coped with most everything from child rearing to education and housing.

This year at
Winter Solstice, the Magical Child was the theme of our Solsisters celebration. I shared this photo, and everyone caught the concept instantly and planned to go home and find the picture of her Inner Child. I invited everyone to bring it to next year’s celebration.

Young me and Older Me have a constant intuitive dialogue that Terri has captured as an electric, psychic bond joining past and present. There is that well-known addage--heavy, but at one level highly truthful, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Remembering the best of our childhood past is no condemnation—why the TV show
Happy Days was so popular. Or if we’re condemned to laughter, joy, wide-eyed curiosity, and high energy from here on out, give me a life sentence.


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking as "PopArtDiva, the artist formerly known as Terri" I have to say the masthead design I did for you looks "mah-ve-lus dahling!"

Excuse me, I broke my arm patting my own back - rofl!

But seriously, it looks great - electric energy for an electric lady!

Joyce Mason said...

Thanks, righteously proud Pop Artful One. (Are you going to go through one of those periods where you give up your name for a symbol? If yes, dare I ask what it would be?)

I am very plugged into the planet Uranus in my personal astrology chart. I have the astro-equivalent of my finger in a figurative light socket. In the SkyHints Sidebar, you'll note that Uranus rules the Sun sign Aquarius. I am often mistaken for one. Which, reminds me to give a word of caution to Aquarians everywhere: Don't spill any of those buckets of H20 from your Water Bearer symbol onto your electric personas. We know what happens when you step on a live wire when wet. A new hair-do with serious frizzies--not just split ends, but fried to a crisp!

Anonymous said...

Joyce,

Your new masthead is, as Pop Art Diva put it, "mah-ve-lous!" I love the interplay between your inner child and the present, cool and hot, frivolous and fun, and the seeker and the spiritual. Your mini me is adorable and your maxi me is remarkable. What a combo--a real coalescence of "hot flashbacks and cool insights!"

Joyce Mason said...

Thank you so much, Eileen. What cool compliments. It's great to know that these aspects of myself come through my blog and new masthead. That's a big BINGO for me, because that's the atmosphere I aim to create. I guess I'd call it a spirited, spiritual playground. "The Feisty Side of Fifty" is one of my favorite playmates because we obviously go to the same school ... the one with the keep on swingin' sets. :)

Melodieann Whiteley said...

Isn't PopArt amazing? She did Bob's masthead and I just love it. Yours is everything I would expect for a hot blog babe like you! Her PopArtDiva-ness has struck again!

I love your challenge for finding that picture of our Inner child. Mini Joyce is so obviously a big part of you. I am inspired to go find my own "mini-me" photo. I think we all should - then maybe we could share them and perhaps tell why we chose that particular photo. Might be enlightening!

Joyce Mason said...

A big YES on that photo swap, Melodieann! I'd love to see Mini You and Mini My Other Blog Followers and to hear why they chose that particular photo. I agree, PopArt is so talented, and what's more, she "gets" me as the new masthead reflects. (I feel like Sally Field at the Oscars, "She gets me! She really gets me!") I think the colors are just delicious.

Hmm. Now I'm envisioning a playdate with all our Mini Us-es!

Anonymous said...

Joyce,

Reading this post was a lightbulb moment for me. You are so right!

I do have a pic of myself, and have used it on my blog, and recently posted it on my facebook. I think I'll make it my main picture.

I had never heard the quote by Tim Robbins. It is insightful. Too many people dwell on the bad in their childhood. I choose to remember the good. It truly is a choice.

Thank you so much for this!

Joyce Mason said...

Pam, today you made my day twice! When one of my readers gets a light bulb, it's like the scoreboard shooting fireworks at a baseball game. Home run! I'm so glad you resonate to the inner child picture concept and what it can do for you. Can't wait to see yours!

The Tom Robbins quote is from his book, "Still Life with Woodpecker." His early books were wild, wacky, and full of little surprise bits of wisdom like that quote. His later books got a little too strange for me, which takes some doing! :) Tim actually met him once when he lived in Dallas--got his autograph.

Lisamarie said...

Thanks, Joyce! I've been neglecting my inner child lately!

Joyce Mason said...

Hi, Lisa Marie:

Hope you'll take that little kid out to play or for an ice cream cone! Thanks for visiting. In fact, bring her back for our group playdate. :)

Anonymous said...

As soon as I looked at your new "header" on your blog, I had a feeling it was our very own PopArtDiva's work...such a talented lady!

Oh, I see from Teri's post that it's called a "masthead", well I learn something new every day:-)

Nice job, Teri, and nice writing, Joyce...even if I'm not particularly into mystical things or astrology, I do love the Creator of our Universe, the God of miracles :-)

Joyce Mason said...

Thanks for your good words for both PopArt and me, Claudia! So glad you stopped by--and I hope you and your inner child had fun here!