not a barometer

Interviewer: I ran across this quote of yours. I’ll read it to you: "I get out of bed, and I look around and say, 'Don’t you fuck with me today.' I tell the spirit, 'Today, I am in charge, and you are not going to screw with me.' And that’s how I start my day."

Elie Tahari: That’s right.

Interviewer: So who or what is this spirit that’s trying to fuck with you?

Elie Tahari: There was a show with Lena Horne—this must have been 25 years ago—and I watched her start the show like that, where she’s lying on the bed and she is waking up, and she says to the audience, "Good morning. I pray it’s going to be a nice day.” And then she stops and she looks at the audience and says, "This is how I get up out of the bed.” And she gets up out of the bed [Tahari stands up to demonstrate], and she walks over to the window, and she turns around, and she says, "Now you don’t fuck with me today!" But it stuck with me. . . . You can start your day saying, "I am not a barometer. A barometer goes up and down. I’m a thermostat. I’m going to set on 72 degrees, and I’m going to stay like that today. And nothing is going to take my mind off me and my center." I kind of have to deal with the spirit, and I think everybody has a ritual. It was, I think, Thoreau, or Browning, or Eric Butterworth who said, "I get up out of bed, and I get all the wrinkles out of my bed. And when I finish taking all of the wrinkles out of the bed, this is when I take all the wrinkles out of my day. And I’m set to be the master of my spirit, the captain of my soul."

-- from an interview with fashion designer Elie Tahari, 

Iranian-Israeli-Orphan-Refuge.