Journal of a Living Lady #77
Now I like holidays,
especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. But my least favorite holiday is
up-coming. Who ever designated Labor Day as a celebration must have been a
workaholic. Now there is a difference in having a work ethic which is sadly
missing in today’s society and being a workaholic. One is good. The other is
bad.
Workaholics place their
values in the wrong place. While many are trying to be the brightest color in
the crayon box, their own house of wax is melting.
I am speaking from
experience, having put in my share of 12 hour work days. While I was juggling
my job as a school principal with being a wife, mother, Sunday School teacher,
plus trying to be all things to all people everywhere, I never managed to have time for
old-fashioned fun. I did mud wrestle
with a friend once, but that is another story for another day. Looking back
now, I don’t know how I overlooked the value of fun. If I had time to do it over again, I would do
it differently. That is what is appropriately called “hind sight.”
At every appointment with
my oncologist, she asks me what I am doing for fun. That question always throws
me. I finally admitted to her that I didn’t know how to have pure fun. When enjoyment came along as a by-product of
my work or activities, great, but I can’t remember ever setting a specific goal
of having fun. Enjoyment maybe, but not fun. Dr. Stead strongly suggests
that I change that.
So here comes Labor Day!
How depressing. Okay, doctor, let’s have a Fun Day. We have a day for everything else on our calendar. There is April
Fool’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, 4th of July, Hanukkah,
Kwanzaa, President’s Day, Secretary’s
Day, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries and the list goes on and on. We
do need a Day of Fun. So I hereby declare it.
I challenge you this week to ignore Labor Day and do
something for fun. There are only three rules: it must not require much work or
money and cannot be potentially harmful. Other than getting the keys to
somebody’s condo on the beach, I can’t think of anything. But I will do something for fun
later. The psycho-babble term for this is
”delayed gratification.”
In the meanwhile, Buddy
and I are off to visit his 97-year-old ailing mother. Riding twenty hours in the car, swatting swarms of mosquitoes and
surviving the stifling Mississippi heat
is all the fun I am going to get this week-end.
But the challenge is still
on. Please do something for yourself this week for personal pleasure. Fun takes
many forms as in different strokes for different folks. But the goal is the
same. I’d like to hear what you do, so
write me a note or send an email..
Having a good time isn’t sinful. It is necessary in the scheme of
life to balance the all too serious.
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August 24, 2000
