Thursday Th(ink)s - May 14, 2026

It’s Thursday and here I come again with all my Thursday Years wisdom—an old lady with a

slightly shrunken, apple-shaped face here to tell you how glorious it is to say NO in your old age.

Especially to five apples that cost $24.

We are too old for that nonsense.

It’s not because we can’t.

It’s because we won’t.

Maybe I was born eighty-seven because this Prairie farm girl has never been emotionally

prepared to spend five dollars on a single apple.

Do you remember when apples used to be just… apples?

Now they are:

heirloom

organic

massaged by starlight

harvested by emotionally available farmers named Luna

and wrapped in branding language that reads like a Napa Valley wine brochure

Meanwhile, my farm roots are over here muttering:

“It’s an apple.”

The cashier delivers the devastating news:

“Twenty-four dollars.”

He’s middle-aged, slightly pudgy, and carrying the confidence of a man who absolutely buys

luxury produce. Regularly. He’s part of the IT crowd. The Golden Apple Society.

Why can’t I be like him?

But no. My Ice Queen smile has been perfected over decades. I can flash and freeze

simultaneously.

“No thanks.”

I will not be like Eve who got marketed by an overpriced apple. I mean the trouble with the

world started because a woman couldn’t not say NO to a beautiful piece of fruit.

Another cashier wanders over to inspect the disturbance.

“Girl, I’m just refusing the enchanted apples. Go back to selling

Himalayan goat yogurt to Miss Fancy Pants. Nothing to see here.”

Aging has taught me a few beautiful things:

• Saying NO is not embarrassing.

• I do not exist to please grocery store cashiers.

• Performing affluence is exhausting.

• I will not be marketed into submission.

• Not every desire deserves obedience.

So, I stop at another grocery store on the way home because I forgot salsa.

And there they are:

A bag of eight apples for $4.99.

Beautiful. Ordinary. Everyman apples.

Apples you don’t have to insure before slicing.

Done.

I’m a Thursday gal living out my Thursday years with a Thursday attitude.

And one of those attitudes is this:

If the apple requires a payment plan, leave it there.

If only Eve had just said, “I’d rather have a banana.”

Big Brains: “To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring —

these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”

― John Burroughs, Leaf and Tendril

Old Souls: “...there are often many things we feel we should do that, in fact, we don't really have to do. Getting to the point where we can tell the difference is a major milestone in the

simplification process.”

― Elaine St. James

The Ancient of Days: "For I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. -Philippians 4:11-12

Norma Jean:
The glory of old age is not your silver hair,
it’s your voice.

Thursday Chat: One of the hidden gifts of aging is finally becoming unmarketable.