What is that word...that means when 2 things contradict each other? I am having an issue here and need a thesaurus or something. Is there one of these on this blog? Where is my college thesaurus anyway...Okay...I just looked up what I thought was the word on Webster.com and I was correct. Oxymoron. When 2 things contradict each other, like cruel kindness. Yep. Oxymoron will be tonight's reflection...

Anyway, that is tonight's topic. Those contradictions can sometimes be a pleasant surprise, as this photo depicts so well. There is a little girl dressed to perform a ballet, placed in a setting so far removed from any stage. Instead of an audience, we see cows. Instead of a bouquet of flowers cradled in her arms, a flowering plant hangs above her. For all these reasons, I love this photograph. But what happens when these things don't work? When they make us feel uneasy? When something about them just isn't right?

Like a GREEN flag flying high on a flag pole at school telling kids to JUST SAY NO! to drugs on our drug awareness day. Something about the color green tells us to just say YES! Green is relaxing...green makes us feel good, green is money, luck, parties and fun. If drugs come along and are offered when we are amongst so much green, where is the warning? Where is our RED LIGHT? I cannot say at that moment that I would just say no. The green JUST SAY NO flag just did not work for me.

Yesterday, while sitting outside the YMCA, waiting to pick up my daughter from camp, I watched a woman in her late 30s, wearing a YMCA HEALTH AND FITNESS STAFF t-shirt slowly work her obese body up the stairs. Something about that made me very on edge. What message is this? That working out isn't really the answer? That the staff here couldn't possibly help us attain our ideal weight and strength because, after all, look at how they look themselves? It is like going to a dentist with decayed teeth or to a Doctor who smokes. Something just doesn't feel right here!

My favorite was the conversation I overheard between 2 older ladies at JCPenney yesterday. They appeared to be in their early 60s perhaps. A tad on the heavy side, but well dressed and smiling. The lady in blue said hello to the woman in coral, whom she had not seen for some time. Blue remarked to Coral how well she was looking and complimented her tan. Ah, the tan. Looking great while killing us at the same time! But then the contradiction. Coral said that she knew she really shouldn't be out in the sun...as she was just finishing up a round of CHEMO!!! She had had cancer and been declared cancer free, but then some returned and she had to begin again. How sad!

But as I watched Coral, all dressed up and perfectly accessorized, she was happy. She was upbeat, she was getting better, and she was TAN. She'll beat this cancer again I am certain (and it was not skin cancer on a side note)...she is the little girl in the yellow tutu, on her imaginery stage with her farmlife audience. Isn't that the kind of contradiction we all need in our lives?