Wow, it has been a while since I last posted. I started on a very informational blog entry, and got bogged down on it. I got bogged on my blog. Anyway, I got into it, and about 75% completed when other stuff came up. That blog is still here, waiting for me to finish it and post it. You will love it, too. I have been very busy and not had time to think of much personal stuff. Yes, this is personal. I don’t get paid to do this, so this is on the bottom of my TODO list.
I write it like that because at the top of the magnetic pad attached to my refrigerator it says TODO with lines and boxes down the list. I love to put little checkmarks in the boxes (you may use X, but I like checkmarks – they feel official to me) but I never get past the 5th one, when I have to rewrite it.
You would think that #6 would make it to the top of the new list, but for some reason it stays at #6. I don’t know if it is because I am avoiding cleaning the patio, or if I just find more interesting stuff to add above it on the new list. You would think that I would want a clean patio since that is the first impression of my home, but I guess I don’t care much about that. Besides, with a little bit of rain, and a lot of cold weather, I won’t be using my patio much anyway.
Maybe the rain will ruin some of the stuff on the patio, and I will have to throw it all away. Maybe subliminally, I am looking for the weather to make #6 move to the top of the list before it gets all moldy and soggy from rain getting to it. Maybe I want to be pushed into a corner so I have no choice but to get rid of rotting, molding, festering, decaying stuff from my patio by spring. Maybe it’s my way of passing responsibility to someone ~ something ~ else. I guess if you believe that God brings us the rain, then it is someone else. I guess that would hold true for a Pagan, as well.
Maybe by letting the stuff stay on the list until it has to all be thrown away I am saving time. After all, if I do it now, I have to sort through it, decide what is good to keep and what is not. If I have to make all those decisions, then it takes up my precious time. It’s not like I can do it at night, either. I have to take up precious daylight, nice and warm, sunny, refreshing daylight to do something I should be able to do at night. However, I don’t have good lighting on the patio, it is cold at night now, and I don’t think my neighbor wants to hear “clank, thud, OUCH” til 10:00 at night.
I don’t think it’s laziness. I have been very busy. In fact, I have not had much time to myself. Okay, I stretch that a bit, as I do find time to watch King of the Hill, and an occasional Simpsons. Oh, and sometimes I’ll watch House, 2 1/2 Men, or the news. I used to watch Half & Half, but it is on so late, that I don’t even have time to watch that. Then there is Star Trek, but KSBY puts it on way later than I care to stay up. I won’t say I don’t, I just don’t want to. You might get the idea that I don’t have cable. No, I don’t pay for cable or satellite because there is a bunch of junk on TV and why should I pay $30+ a month for junk? It would be like that YMCA membership you pay for every month but barely use.
Where does this all lead? We are all selective about what we do, how we prioritize. I think there is a little passive-aggressive in all of us when it comes to our own stuff. We agree to do it, we write it down, we plan on it, but when push comes to shove, we have only played lip service to it. We don’t really intend to do it, do we? That is the passive-aggressive in us. We agree to do it, but then do everything we can to be sure we don’t do it.
That is, of course, if we are single. If you have a wife, you have a lot of motivation. If you have a husband, you can get HIM to do it. Okay, that’s not right. It depends on what it is. If it is something you don’t mind doing, of course you’ll do it. But, things like cleaning out the bait box, removing the dead skunk from the back yard, and killing spiders, you’ll probably get him to do.
Why? Why do we ask someone else to do something we don’t like to do? Do we hope they will do it? Do we hope that if they say no it will validate our disgust with the job? Do we hope they will just let you brush it off? We do our best not to do things we don’t want to do. I don’t mean things that are dangerous or we are feared of like killing that spider. I mean things that really don’t matter, or things that would enhance our lives. We thwart ourselves like that. This is above and beyond normal procrastination.
Many people pass it off as procrastination, but that’s not the whole picture. Procrastination is more like this example. Have you ever done something like that? I used to, but I catch myself now and either do it, or decide it just doesn’t need to be done.
We will go out of our way to avoid something, even if we know it will be a good thing for us. Even if we know it needs to be done sooner or later, we will often put it off unless it interests us. I’m not talking about you “type A” personalities, I mean the normal world. I mean the average Joe or Josephine that works for a living, and thinks of their time off as precious. Oh, and speaking of Obama, do you think that since he had problems with Joe the Plumber, he would have trouble with Josephine the Plumber, too? “Sorry, Mr. President Obama, but I can’t scrub your toilet today, I can’t afford a can of comet any more because of higher taxes. Maybe you can hire Sarah Palin.”
Anywho, take a look at your TODO list today, and start checking things off. If it is something you don’t want to do, face the truth. Put a smiley face next to it instead of a check mark. That will be our little secret that it means you don’t really want to do it, and probably never will. When people see all those smiley faces, they will think you are happy to work on your TODO list. You and I will just know that you have faced the truth and just don’t want to do it.
Let me know when your TODO list is nothing but smiley faces. I will get back to writing more blogs after a short break. If you will pardon me now, I have to go put a couple smiley faces on mine…
The Opinionator
