Inspiring Mountain Woman: Leslie Knope

I can watch Parks and Rec over and over again with complete delight... I realize that Leslie Knope is a fictional woman, but I can't help but be inspired by her. She is a true role model. She is brave, she loves conquering mountains, and she loves being a woman.... really, her character is an excellent example of being a proper mountain woman (which is why I have a portrait of her hanging in my cubicle, see picture above).

Well, I've been thinking a LOT about Leslie Knope (slash) Amy Poehler lately. Amy and Tina Fey hosted the golden globes again last Sunday, and then the anticipated seventh season of Parks and Rec aired a couple days later. On top of that, this whole week while drafting at work, I listened to Amy Poehler's own voice read her audio-book, Yes Please... where I enjoyed some of the personal insight and wise womanly advice she shares, and in one of my favorite chapter's... she share her thoughts and love for the character Leslie Knope. So when I say these two woman (Leslie and Amy) have been on my mind lately it's not an understatement.

Before listening to Yes Please all I knew about Amy Poehler was that she was hilarious and I assumed she must be a beautiful person because of the show, Parks and Rec. I feel like everyone who is involved with creating that magical world must be great people. Plus, Amy plays Leslie... the craziest most optimistic loving woman on tv, a woman who writes page long essays about the friends she loves, who gives extremely elaborate and thoughtful gifts, who constantly is saying aloud how much she loves everyone and everything, who finds joy in hard work and making positive change, she has skills and talents that she has grown and developed, and who sees every job as an important one that should be done thoroughly and with passion.

Well, after listening to her book I've decided that Amy Poehler (like Leslie) is a beautiful person. The preface of her book begins "I like hard work and I don't like pretending things are perfect", which instantly made me like her. Proper mountain woman like hard work, and perfection is boring. One of her good friends gave her the complement in the book saying you can always count on Amy to give a gracious laugh at your jokes, and she laughs loud. I love happy laughs given freely, and I like knowing that about her.

Her book is titled Yes Please, and when I took the book coat off... I really liked the simplicity of the white cover... YES PLEASE on the front... THANK YOU on the back.

She gives many reasons why she chose the title 'Yes Please' but my favorite one is because "[It's] a title I can tell my kids. I like when they say 'Yes please' because most people are rude and nice manners are the secret keys to the universe." Couldn't agree more with her.

Here are some other lovely excerpts from her book that I thought were worth sharing because they fit the theme of the blog (this is where I will file them for later studies on proper mountain woman)... enjoy:

"I have realized that mystery is what keeps people away, and I've grown tired of smoke and mirrors. I yearn for the clean, well-lighted place. So let's peek behind the curtain and hail others like us. The open-faced sandwiches who take risks and live big and smile with all of their teeth. These are the people I want to be around. This is the honest way I want to live and love and write."

"I had already made the decision early on that I would be a plain girl with tons of personality, and accepting it made everything a lot easier. If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be. I decided early on it was not going to be my looks.... ...Decide what your currency is early. Let go of what you will never have. People who do this are happier and sexier."

"Going from crying to laughing that fast and hard happens maybe five times in your life and that extreme right turn is the reason why we are alive, and I believe it extends our life by many years."

"The friends you meet over forty are really juicy. They are highly emulsified and full of flavor."

"I am interested in people who swim in the deep end. I want to have conversations about real things with people who have experienced real things. I'm tired of talking about movies and gossiping about friends. Life is crunchy and complicated and all the more delicious."

"Now that I am older, I am rounder and softer, which isn't always a bad thing. I remember fewer names so I try to focus on someone's eyes instead."

"Young people can remind us to take chances and be angry and stop our patterns. Old people can remind us to laugh more and get focused and make friends with our patterns."

"The only thing we can depend on in life is that everything changes. The seasons, our partners, what we want and need. We hold hands with our high school friends and swear to never lose touch, and then we do. We scrape ice off our cars and feel like winter will never end, and it does. We stand in the bathroom and look at our face and say, 'Stop getting old, face. I command you!' and it doesn't listen. Change is the only constant. Your ability to navigate and tolerate change and its painful uncomfortableness directly correlates to your happiness and general well-being."

"If you can surf your life rather than plant your feet, you will be happier."

"Famous people are never as interesting as your friends."

"I am a firm believer that every few years one needs to shake one's life through a sieve, like a miner in the Yukon. The gold nuggets remain. The rest falls through like the soft earth it is."

"Dancing is the great equalizer. It gets people out of their heads in into their bodies. I think if you can dance and be free and not embarrassed you can rule the world."