What IS mush, anyway?
According to Wikipedia, it can be defined as:
- Mush (cornmeal), a kind of corn pudding or porridge
- Mush, slang meaning man or face.
- Mushing, a sport or transport method powered by dogs or a command to a dog team
- Muş Province, in eastern Turkey
- Muş, the provincial capital of Muş Province
- Mush, a 1992 album by the band Leatherface
- Mush Records, a Los Angeles-based independent record label
- Mush, a nickname for Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf
- Mail User's Shell, a Unix mail user agent
- MUSH, a text-based online social medium
Or, how my body has been feeling the last two weeks due to a nasty cold and the worst sore throat of my life. :-(
But those definitions are not what I prefer.
Mush, according to me, is lovey-dovey stuff. Anything romantic, super sweet, sentimental, tear-jerker quality...you get the idea.
I am a MUSHMEISTER! :-D
So on this mushy day, a.k.a. Valentine's Day, I dedicate this post to mush and things mushy, because I am a die-hard mushmeister and proud of it, too.
Others may wince, roll their eyes, spew out sarcastic remarks, or worse, at my melting heart tendencies, but do I care? Of course not! I have to remind myself from time to time that life is too short to worry about other people's opinions of me.
Hubby will always tease me if he catches me getting emotional during certain scenes in a movie, and I will blurt out: "Leave me alone!". I can't help it: I love romantic things!
Now, I do have my limits, such as with certain romance novels which I may find cheaply mass-produced, with little or no substance.
That's why I love classics. Like the works of Shakespeare, as well as the works of the artists, poets, novelists and composers who were part of the romanticism movement of the 18th and 19th centuries. Their words, music, and art can take your imagination to great heights, great places! They certainly have been--and continue to be, a source of comfort and joy to me. :-)
Mush can be a syrupy sweet photo of puppy dogs or kittens or (my fave) baby panda bears. Mush can be a photo of cute babies. Mush doesn't have to be a photo at all. It can be seeing two lovebirds walk past you.
Spontaneous mush is best! I'm not into the contrived sort where little pets (human and otherwise) are dressed up for a studio portrait. Then again, something like movies are a contrived medium. I'd say anything that can make my heart swell or make my eyes well up is mushY!
My top three mush movies? "It's A Wonderful Life", "The Sound of Music" and "Annie Hall". The last one isn't particularly outwardly syrupy, but it's still romantic, regardless of what you think of Woody Allen movies.
And my top mush novels: Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, and Middlemarch.
How about mushy men? I hope that's not oxymoronic--men tend not to be mushy...I've yet to meet one, though not being mushy doesn't dictate that one can't be affected by an emotional scene! I'm talking about leading men on the silver screen who make women swoon from imagined love and lord knows what else.
My favorite: Sean Connery (yes, I'm a Bond junkie). There's others, but I can't think of them now...they come and go!
Mush is best shared with a significant other! It's somewhat alien to my honey, but he knows it's part of me and I'm here to stay...so there--take it or leave it, dude. ;-b What man in his right mind would resist showers of MUSH on Valentine's Day, anyway? Lots of love and kisses go a long way. You don't need a special day to spread your mush!
Just so I don't forget to tell you: I love that other "mush", too. The one called oatmeal. I have it every morning with ground flaxseed and vanilla yogurt. Helps keep me healthy.
So you see, MUSH and "mush" are both really good for your heart and health. :-)
Here's to mush--plus more than enough to last several lifetimes in your lifetime!
* * * * *
Oh Lift Me!
Oh lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love and kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast:~
Oh! Press it to thine own again,
Where it will break at last.
--Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822
