Blogger Idol Play Along....When I Grow Up

It's that time again! Time to Play Along with Blogger Idol. This week.....What I Want to Be When I Grow Up!!! I love it! Quite obviously, I am grown and all that is left in the aging process for me.....is to grow old. However, that does not mean my hopes and dreams stop just because I am grown. The body maybe older, but the dreams are still young and somewhere deep inside me remains the hope that one day some of them (at least one or two) will be achieved.

So if you ask me what I want to be when I grow up....the answer is simple. I want to be what I have always wanted to be. I want to be.....just like my hero, Erma Bombeck. I have always dreamed of being the next Erma Bombeck, since the day I was twelve years old and picked up The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank! Even back then I "got" her wit and her wisdom which was carefully woven into each and every sentence. I already loved words and the way they could be used to tell a story, bring on emotion or persuade someone to a certain way of thinking. However, when I realized just how much joy, happiness and down right laughter someone could bring to life....as Bombeck did through her writing, I no longer just wanted to write, I wanted to write like her.

Much of my writing over the years has been modeled after Bombecks wit. I find it particularly inspirational knowing that she too had a house full of kids, a mortgage, family and health issues and still found time to write and the ability to also maintain her sense of humor even in the less than humorous moments of her life. Bombeck made the art of writing and humor look effortless as she talked about being caught in an innocent yet compromising pose by a nosy neighbor peering in her window or when she talked of those moments when her youth was dwindling along with her patience and life kept coming at her. And finally, when she talked of her own battle with cancer the humor remained along with a strength and honesty that had not been so clearly evident in her writing before. Her way with words made us laugh, held us captivated and held her in our hearts even after she was gone.

Those that know me know just how deep my love for this wonderful woman's writing goes. She endeared herself to an international audience and kept us entertained from septic tanks to post natal depressions and along the way taught us how to laugh at life, our selves and yes.....even in the face of death. So yes folks.....when I grow up.....I would be ecstatic to have just half the talent, a smidgen of the humor and a whole heck of a lot of the human strength that this woman allowed us to see. When I grow up....I want to be....just like Erma Bombeck.