The Grass is always Greener

One of the benefits of a regular job is the simplicity of routine. You do not have a lot of time in the morning to ruminate about how to spend your time. Since the boss wants your corpus to be at “the office” by a certain time, you need to jump out of bed, get abluted and dressed, grab some toast and coffee and be on the road – with all the other happy commuters.

This obligatory routine is denied to those of us who are characterized as: not-working.

You would think that I would be thrilled with the indolence of it all. The lack of demands on my time and physical location - which are normally dictated by one’s work - should be liberating. But, I have to admit, sometimes the sheer freedom of it all is a bit intimidating.

Choices are easy when you have to decide between two or three alternatives. But, we are not equipped by training, or habit of mind, or societal rule, to inform us how to make choices about what to do when you can do virtually anything (within the bounds of law and budget).

For example, I have before me a hastily scribbled list of things I could do right now:

Take a walk
Go fishing
Cook something
Go to the market
Work in the garden
Sweep-up pine pollen in the screen porch
Take the trash to the RDF (dump)
Read (newspapers or magazines or book)
Listen to the radio
Feed the cats (why are they always hungry?)
Watch TV
Check the help-wanted job boards
Go to the movies
Write (something more pithy that a weblog entry)
Mow the lawn (look at how well-manicured our neighbors' yards are.)
Prune the hedge
Call someone (Network)
Get in the van and drive around, go to the carwash or Jiffy Lube
Check stocks and IRA accounts
Put on my Johnny Winter’s greatest hits CD (Or Paul McCartney singing "When I'm 64")
Re-string the line on my fishing reel
Refurbish the gas grill
Get new eyeglasses
Go back to bed

I could go on for another 10 minutes but, I think you get the idea. None of the things on this list are dictated by any one telling me what to do and how to do it.

So. You are asking, “What’s your big problem?”

Well, actually, I am not really complaining. I just thought it might me interesting to those of you who are still schlepping every morning to some hellhole, where you never have to make a decision beyond choosing the type of bread you want with your tuna sandwich at lunch . You might realize how lucky you are not to have all these options to agonize over. The grass is always greener in the other fellow's yard.

It requires a certain toughness of spirit to work your way through such an intimidating (and if I say so, exhausting) list and to select one activity - at the exclusion of all others. After all, Life is short, and, especially at my age, one wants to optimize every minute. That’s a lot of pressure, my friend. It makes you sleepy...very sleepy......zzzzz.