Hello, Sunshine☀️

I recently finished a great book: "Hello, Sunshine" by Laura Dave. Not to worry, I'm not giving anything away in case you read it, but it's about this woman who became a culinary internet superstar. Her fame was built on fraudulent pretense, and her empire gets torn down in a matter of days by a hacker with a vendetta. Sunshine, the title character, who is actually a super cool person, is forced to reevaluate her entire life. Facing truths, owning up to her mistakes, finding out who would want to hurt her like this. Since her entire fake identity was detonated overnight, Sunshine has to rebuild her life from the inside out. Her outside in veneer was shot to shit. This book is so cleverly written, with a snarky, acerbic undertone. Don't be fooled by the title; this novel deals with hard hitting relevant issues. The perils and poison of social media. How easy it is for us to lie, even to those we love. How a selfie with duck lips is used to create a certain impression, ignoring whatever else is going on inside or around us. People photo bombing the unfortunate situations of others. The entitlement we feel in videoing other people's lives, then posting it. The utter lack of respect the world has for privacy. The fear we carry that some nutcase will hack our phone, finding out intimate details about our lives and our children. Cyber bullying is just another means of punishing others for our own misery. It's so easy for us to construct a lie with the touch of a couple buttons. The underlying topic of the book is the NEED to lie above all else.

When Sunshine comes clean to someone in the big shot culinary business about how she was a fraud, the response was that out of all the cookbooks, blogs, shows etc, only maybe two of them are real. The celebrity food business is just as dishonest as any other avenue of fame. Who cares, Honey, take the pic, post the caption, and just say it's yours. This really made me think, and what I thought about made me proud. It would never occur to me EVER to be inauthentic. In any area of my life. Anything that I've shared with the precious Lady Blaga audience is 100% real, true, and original. I would never buy followers. It's just not for me. I have no problem copping to when I can't do something. I can admit vulnerability. It jives better with me to be at a plateau in growth on social media, than it does to use smoke and mirrors to gain popularity. No, I don't like it when a beautiful photo that I worked hard for doesn't get as many likes as something vulgar or mean on IG. But that's just the way this cookie crumbles. There's no sense in letting it get me down.

What I CAN do is just keep creating in a vacuum, and keep my blinders on so that I can just go forward. I promise that every recipe, fashion concept, inspirational message, and musical selection is all authentically mine. Any personal experience I share is pure truth. I know you feel that, which is why you read.  I pour my heart and head into Lady Blaga. It's a wonderful challenge to constantly come up with material worthy of your eyes and ears. I take that seriously. We have clicked on this Blaga community; because it's all real. I will never lie to you, bullshit you, or disrespect you with mediocrity. We are above that. It's not what I want, and it's not what you want. Anyone who manipulates the masses is not doing the right thing. It may be the common and popular thing, but it's wrong. We should never try to deceive one another, or dumb each other down. Naw, Dawg, not the Blaga philosophy. In my private life or my "public" life. LB is not a persona or a character. It's who I am. I have many facets, just like you do, and they're comprised of actuality. As I wrote on the site's home page,"there's too much great stuff out there, we don't need to make shit up". Well, it seems I've just made my first official book recommendation. How lovely is it to be able to share literature with each other😀📒. No technology required. Just eyes and a brain.

Goodbye, Sunshine☀️.