you-TOH-pee-uh

Some time ago, in effort to 'David Moffitt' my vocabulary, I signed up for Merriam-Webster's 'word of the day'....

Most times, I ain't never heard of it.. .sometimes, I've heard of it, guess as to it's definition (usually wrong, or partially wrong)... sometimes, like yesterday (the word was 'peculiar') I know 'zactly what it is, means.

Uh huh, today's is Utopia.

Bare with me:  1. often capitalized: a place of ideal perfection.  I likes that definition... The next two, patooey:  2. an impractical scheme for social improvement... and 3. an imaginary and indefinately remote place.

As we age, learn, grow, grow too much, ache, love, smile, laugh, pee, poop, be grumpy, offer help, call for help, age, have wunnerful things happen, have really crappy things happen for no explainable reason..  to me, the saying that fits perfectly is....  "It is what it is."

I think the same for Utopia.  It ain't imaginary.  It ain't impractical. It might not be perfection - but, it's ideal for you......, 

I have an outlaw sister... one time, she lived in a big ole ranch house.. damn near bought out all the ceramic tile there was at both Lowes AND Home Depot, did ALL the floors, had doggies and doggies and s'more doggies - was her, their Utopia.........

She came 'home' for a bit (which, I've slobbered all over all of you in that Liberty is my Utopia... Now, she's on Plan B Utopia, down there in that State where we (who don't live there) have impractical beliefs (they ain't got dentists there, and, they 'suckface' with their cousins.)  Anyways, she doesn't do that, it's just what non-Arkansas people (oops) think.

Now, she lives atop an Ozark Mountain, (Holiday Island, sounds kinda utopic doesn't it?) overlooks Beaver Lake (might be Table Rock hell I dunno, I just know it's perty and wet).. and still, has a bevy of 4 legged critters.  Utopia.

Nuther buddy.  6 months a year here.. 6 months a year in Puerto Pensasco, Mehico. Gorgeous.  The view is their pool, then above that the ocean, then within the ocean, a kajillion shrimp boats. Winter is an unknown there, the kind we here know anyways.. $5 haircuts.. $6 meals.. the Mehican beers ain't any longer imported, they're domestic, and they're cheap.  Utopia. (AND, the other 6 months are utopic because he's got his mom, brothers, friends here..)

I have friends who live where you can't see no neighbor. They get the mail in their undies.  That's the way, uh huh uh huh, they like it. Utopic.

Nuther couple of friends.  I gradjugated HS with them. Cats, high and low (and pictures to prove it.) Cats also get dressed up for occasions, and Jimmy even takes one on walks with a leash. DOES TOO! Then they got their 3.4 mile path around a cool lake, take yummy pics - and vely early in the morning they fish and they must have a fish finder cause they always do well.  Oh, and SHE has a ruby red Mustang.  Merriam Webster tells me this is Utopia.

And then there, yet anudder couple, long, hard, years of work, planning, saving - bought a really nifty house on some acreage, big ole lake (too big to call a pond).. gotta swim pool with chairs all about so big, inviting and comfy it's as if they expect Andre the Giant to come visit, or, the Chief's offensive line. They ain't gots no "POSTED: NO TRESSPASSING" signs, better yet, THEY SHARE THE PLACE.  They be friendly like that.  Our HS reunion was there.  Yummy.  Recently, had a 'Hootenanny" there featuring a famous local singer that was really popular when we were kids in HS.. filled them big ole chairs with friends.  Green Acres they call it.  It's Utopic.

What I really like when I think about Utopia - it's not about money. It's about what you love.  What makes you happy. It's where ya wanna hit the sack after a long, fun day. It's special to you, or me, or whomever.

Come to think of it, mebbe Utopia is all about how we look and react to things.  Yes, 'it is what it is' stuff happens, both good and bad - but we (hopefully) look thru the lens of Utopia.

I likes me some happy.  I likes me some smiling, loving, hugging.  Smiling at friends for no reason other than all the fun, trouble, times we shared in the past.  And, much like Merriam-Webster's one word a day, SOMETIMES, a new person in our lives enters the fray. U go from I dunno whointhehell U are, to soon, including them in your (and/or their) Utopia.  Life's fun like that.

Grumpy happens. Forgive me Father we are all human.  Words slip out (some of us more than others) that just as soon as they leave our lips we wish we could take our Zebco 33's and reel 'em back in.  Sometimes the names and people within a Utopia change, are no longer around.  Merriam-Webster never said nuttin' about us only having one, and only one Utopia. We take the broom and that picker-up thing, clean it all up and starts us another Utopia.

Utopia.  It is what it is, and that's perfect. Not perfection, but perfect.

I kinda hope tomorrow's word is Pollyanna.  Thataway we'll learn whether or not he/she lives in the same world we do... has (good and bad) "it is what it is" stuff happen.. yet, still lives on Utopia Street.

"The movie says, You can lose your job and your way and still rescue yourself. "Larry Crowne" creates a self-excavated utopia, and I love that idea, that message."    Julia Roberts.

Me too Julia, me too.

Love, Victurd