I have a coffee mug, a gift from my brother, that says “Live like Rose, Love like Blanche, Think like Dorothy and Speak like Sophia.  I love this mug, use it often.

While drinking my coffee this morning, I began thinking about what it means. Is it just a silly saying on a mug? Does it have a deeper meaning that only a fan of the Girls can understand? No and no, I don’t think it’s silly, and it probably doesn’t have any deep profound answers to life.  But, it did provoke some thought.

It made me think about all the silly Facebook  quizzes “Which Golden Girl are you?” I take these quizzes and as a fan can often manipulate the answers to get the answer that I want. But the mug says to be like all of the girls. This got me to thinking that there is a little of each of them in each of us.

Today, I’d like to explore the characters personalities and my own to discover just how there is a little bit of each one of them in me.

First, there is Rose. If you are an occasional watcher, you may think that living like Rose would not be such a good thing. She is often made fun of because of her outlandish stories and she seems not too smart. I think that she is smart but innocent, and not very worldly. She doesn’t have “street smarts” so to speak.  Living like Rose is really good advice. She is  happy, most of the time. She has a huge caring heart, is always working on a charity or volunteering for something.  She has a “me last” attitude, unless there is a competition. Rose hates to lose and will go to great lengths to win, whether it be bowling or getting an award she always fights to be the winner. Explaining to Dorothy her competitiveness she said that she had to change high schools due to a field hockey incident.

Oh Blanche! She loves being in love. To “love like Blanche” may seem a bit odd because she is quite promiscuous. She revealed once that she has had 143 relationships. I am sure that no one really wants to have that on their record. I think that to love like Blanche is really telling us to love life, take chances and have confidence in ourselves. Blanche is mostly in love with Blanche, but she is able to love others unconditionally.  She gives her opinion wholeheartedly when she disagrees or just doesn’t understand. She is accepting of others even if she can’t accept their choices or lifestyle. Blanche can be very extravagant, she loves expensive things and truly believes that she deserves them. Rose once lost her job, was worried and Blanches response was ” I’m glad I had the foresight to marry money”.

To think like Dorothy is pretty sound advice. She is often the voice of reason. She is constantly trying to absorb more knowledge, whether it be to audition for Jeopardy, learn a foreign language to get a raise in her paycheck. Dorothy thinks out her problems and often helps Rose and Blanche when they dive head first into a sticky situation.  Having book smarts doesn’t always equate no problems. She has her share of them. Sometimes it takes the simple, caring, loving minds of the others to help her through.  Even though she is probably the most intelligent of the group, she often feels like the big loser, having been divorced and not financially stable. Dorothy is very practical and is not a risk taker. Every day and every penny spent is planned.

Sophia, Sophia, Sophia! I think that deep inside we all wish that we could speak like Sophia.  She is blunt, sarcastic and very wise. I think that her wisdom comes from the fact that she is much older than the others, or maybe she just makes it up and they buy it! The stories that she tells always have a message and in the words of Rose that message is; “Hidden deep, deep, deep inside”. There isn’t always a message, sometimes she just makes it up, but when the others call her out on a tall tale she says, “So what, I’m old, I’m suppose to be colorful”.  She often gives the other girls some good advice. My favorite is when she gives Dorothy a talk about anger. She says “Anger is a lot like a piece of Shredded Wheat stuck in your dentures. If you leave it there, you’ll get a blister and have to eat Jello all week.  if you get it out, the sore heals and you’ll feel better”.

Well, that’s my take on the personalities of the Girls. I am sure that there is much more to their characters, but for todays purposes and to not have an incredibly long post I only talked about the obvious traits of each.  I also like short because my attention span is short and I really don’t like typing, but I digress…

Call it good writing, good acting or just plain ‘ol human nature to have innocence, passion, intelligence and  a colorful personality all rolled into one.  I like to imagine what each of the Girls were like when they were younger. I am sure that, like most of us, they too have each of these traits. I think that as we age, experience life and meet new challenges we find that there is a little of each of the Girls in all of us, although one trait always outweighs the others.

When I watch the Girls I often see myself in Rose. I am very competitive and love to win. I can get pretty grouchy if I lose. That is not the part of Rose that I want to have. I would love to have her innocence and her heart for charity. ( I’m working on that). I would love to have the confidence of Blanche. She is usually the center of attention and as is never afraid of self compliments!  I am probably more like Dorothy, if truth be told. I can be very ridged in my ways and don’t like the whole “fly by the seat of your pant’s thing.”  I like to read and am very content being alone.   When I am old, I want to be like Sophia. I want to be able to share my life experiences in a colorful way to maybe teach a lesson and at the very least put a smile on someone’s face.

Until next time…Thank You for Being a Friend

MLG