Thursday, April 30, 2009

You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile


With a strange flu season upon on us, I love that the richest nation on Earth has as it's virus-fighting slogan: Cover Your Nose and Mouth. Is that what we've come to? It's right up there with the post-9/11 "Just Keep Shopping." Because that's worked so well. It reminds me of a kind of 50's girl slogan that my mother used to say sarcastically: You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile. This, foisted upon women who ran the frickin' country while all the men were off at war. When the men returned, all the Rosies were supposed to put up their rivets and go back to the home. Where presumably all that concerned them was whether or not they were properly dressed. I'm sure in their time of psychic stress, that the fashion slogan "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" came as great comfort. About as comforting as our flu-fighting mantra: Cover Your Nose and Mouth.
But it's not all bad, I mean, it's ultimately harkening back to the pioneer spirit. Whatever Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger. Or the Boy Scout motto: Always Be Prepared. Which kind of make some of the post-war slogans seem a little wimpy. Boyscouts and pioneers are at the ready to bite a stick while taking out a bullet, or steeling themselves for a long winter trapped at Donner lake. We could take a page from their book in these uncertain financial and epidemiological times. Today I'm neither shopping, nor - apparently - am I fully dressed. But I am ready to cover my nose and mouth. Mostly because I'm not leavin' the fricken house until all my hotpockets and juiceboxes are gone. And I've got a 2-year supply!