By Way of Explanation

"I spend a fair amount of time explaining myself. I don't know whether this is a generational thing or a family trait. I know that my grandmother would stop even the most casual passerby, who had expressed no interest in whatever her predicament, to explain herself."

I ran across this quote in a magazine several years ago. I cut it straight out of the page because it reminded me so much of me. . .I'm not speaking for either of my grandmothers. . .just myself. I do a lot of explaining about my actions for lots of different reasons; guilt, confusion, a need for approval, or just because it's so much fun depending on the situation.

This is a "just because it's so much fun" explanation. The name of my blog is a bit odd, but there is a story. My senior year in college, I was talking to my dorm mother, Katrina (who had also known and put up with me--and with Sarah--throughout highschool) about something--probably lack of a boyfriend. Anyway, she told me about an old blues song she had heard, and the refrain was "It be's that way sometimes." She, in her ever prolific way, reminded me that all of my life there would be "something" that "be's that way sometimes." I shared the thought with an art student friend of mine, Stephanie. And when I bought a piece of her pottery at her senior art show at Harding, she inscribed the bottom with "It be's that way sometimes."

I'm still friends with Katrina. She faithfully gives me nuggets of wisdom from time to time. I'm still friends with Stephanie. Her piece of handthrown pottery sits on my dresser right this second.

And for all of these years that little phrase has stuck in my brain because it's just so true.

We've been doing a foreign words and phrases unit in our vocabulary book this week in 6th grade reading. One of the phrases is "c'est la vie." I told the kids the literal French translation is, "such is life." In America we might say, "That's the way it goes."

But if your singin' the blues you'd most definitely say, "It be's that way sometimes."