Wednesday, October 9, 2024

How Repeated Routines Keep You Sane (Or Not.)

Rituals aren’t just reserved for religion.

I think sports have even more of these repeated ceremonies: The national anthem, the tossing of the coin, the fight songs, the seventh inning stretch, even the commercials.

Committee meetings have the reading of the minutes, the treasurer’s report and the adjournment.

Let’s look at our own lives to see what rituals we have. Here are some:

The awakening. “It’s too early. Why did I wake up now? I didn’t get enough sleep!”

The making of the coffee. “Is it two scoops or one? I should have prepared it last night.”

The reading of the paper (online in my case.) “They did that? Outrageous! &%$$#$##!! I think I had too much coffee.”

The feeding of the dogs. They follow you around all morning and start barking if you are too late. One of them devours everything but the other sniffs her food, refuses it and looks up at you as if to say: “Why are you feeding me this crap again?”

The buying of the groceries. “If you forget to give me stamps after I paid for them again, I will scream!”

The honking of the horns. OK, I am slow driving out of Food Lion’s parking lot.

The opening of the mail. I hate this. If it’s important, it is sure to be bad news.

Answering the unexpected phone call. “I never should have answered that phone solicitor!” You can say “I am sorry I am not interested.” Or “Have you thought about a different line of work?” But I usually just hang up to save us both time.

The dinner preparation. “It’s your turn to cook!” “No, it’s your turn. I just cooked last month.”

The prayer.

The eating of the leftovers. If dinner is not leftovers, it’s “Excellent dinner. Thank you.” Or: “You didn’t say anything about the dinner. You hate it!”

The turninng on of the television. “I know I have a billion channels and streaming services galore. But there is nothing on!” You resort to a video game or read a book.

The “Oh, I forgot moment” at bedtime. As in:

“Its my sister’s birthday. I never called her.”

“I left the stove on. Is that smoke I am smelling?”

“Oh, we had $100 tickets to the show at DPAC tonight.”

“I was going to pay the electric bill today. The power goes off at

 midnight.”

Except for the stove, these things will have to wait until tomorrow.

 Good night, everyone!


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