Meme

I was tagged by Jenell at The Paris Project with a meme, which of course is completely new to me. An internet meme, according to Wikipedia, is "used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads in a fast way from person to person via the internet. The term stems from the broader term, Meme, which is a a "unit of cultural information that propagates from one mind to another as a theoretical unit of cultural evolution and diffusion". For this meme, here are the rules.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you’d like.

Here are the seven facts about myself.

1. My great-grandmother, Alice Stebbins Wells, was the first policewoman in the United States. She was arrested so many times in her early years as an officer in Los Angeles for "impersonating a police officer" [others assumed she had stolen her husband's badge] that she was issued Policewoman's badge #1. My middle name is Alice, in her honor.
2. I love black licorice, but it doesn't love me.
3. My favorite place in the world in Laguna Beach....fond memories of my favorite grandparent, beautiful roses, ocean, cliffs....what's not to love?
4. During recent runs in both Central PA and Southern California, I stopped...literally...to smell the roses. In PA, I heard a voice from an upstairs window yell "Always take time to smell the roses" and I smiled affirmatively in the voices direction. I noticed a California driver notice me smell a rose, and she smiled. A smile on the face of a California driver is nothing to sneeze at. Perhaps its a bias from my Southern California upbringing, but the California roses were much more fragrant.
5. I am a daughter and a mother, but I feel like I'm parenting in both directions on my family tree.
6. I'm renovating my house in the Arts and Crafts tradition, and my son is used to saying "hello" by name to the seemingly random stream of men who let themselves in to our home each morning.
7. I am very happy to be 42!

One of the cultural realities of the meme is rapid revision of the original unit of information. In that spirit, I've tagged not seven but three blogs I like:

Malinda at ilni1
Kristina at tinabeth
Amanda C'est ma vie!

I assumed, at first, that martial discord was a typo for marital discord, but in tracking this particular meme's history, it turns out that martial discord is a image of war. My latest image of martial discord occurred in the airport when a family welcomed their soldier/husband/father home. I was heartened to witness their reunion, but deeply distressed and saddened by where he'd been and why he had to be there.

Cynthia