I, like many people in my generation, loved The Cosby Show, and, most especially, loved Claire Huxtable who surely deserved many mother of the year awards for everything she endured. Last night, I was doing my annual end of year chores (cleaning out file drawers and shelves, gleaning whatever I no longer need) when I came across Phylicia Rashad’s list to her younger self which was published in O Magazine in 2006.
Her letter, written to the 21 year old Phylicia, starts out:
Romantic involvement distracts you and can blind you to what’s really in front of you. And what really is in front of you?
You are. You don’t even know yourself yet. You think you know and you want to assert that you do, now that you’re a certain age, but you don’t.
You can read the rest of it here.
I read that letter and thought it was a letter I could have written to myself. Thanks for linking to it, Rosie.
I especially loved how she ended it– the idea that all these choices end up as physical memories in our body. It reminds me of how you turn on the car radio and a song takes you back in time. A scent of something takes you to somewhere in your history. Those physical memories are so powerful. I like the idea of trying to make choices that will bum rush you in the future with a wave of positivety.