The press of work and expectations of what was planned seem to elbow each other sharply about now, pushing, crowding, and yelling for a better place in line in an already packed mind.
In short, the “should’ves, would’ves, and could’ves” crowd the balance of summer around the end of July. We may begin to feel the impossibility of completing all the items listed on the “To Do List” in what has become an all-too-short summer.
The situation reminds me of the phrase, “trying to saddle a galloping horse.”
Imagine a wide-open expanse of the open prairie. As the wind whips your face, your horse races through the grass toward the horizon line. Riding bareback, you dig your hands into the mane and lock your knees around the animal. You see the barriers ahead – mountains, ditches, brush, trees, steep banks and then the river. Your head knows that a saddle would make your ride over, around, and through the barricades far easier and safer.
However, you chose not to saddle the horse at the barn, and now there is no time to stop. Without stopping, how can you accomplish the task?
This is no trick question. It quite simply is impossible to saddle that galloping horse.
However, such is the task we each face every day, especially as summer accelerates towards its close. We can see where we are headed, but because the distance closes too rapidly, we can’t adjust our plan quickly enough.
It is a topic that Alvin Toffler explored in his 1970’s book Future Shock. He defined “future shock” as one’s perception of “too much change in too short a period of time.” That lack of time impinges on our ability to live deliberately and leads to “information overload.” As our world has gained more knowledge, we know that the learning curves have become steeper in order to keep up.
The situation could be compared to the difference between a 2 year-old and a 20 year-old in how they perceive time. Tell a two-year-old to sit still for an hour, and it is asking the impossible. For a 20 year-old, the same request is absolutely reasonable. Why? The two-year-old sitting still for an hour is spending a greater proportion of her life than the 20 year-old.
So how in the face of the escalating demands do we dismount and saddle the steed on which we find ourselves right now?
To ask the question is not meaningless, nor does saying it make it a facile task.
Who hasn’t awakened at a 3 a.m. unable to go back to sleep because the list has grown too long and all the creative solutions vie for attention?
How about trying the following?
- Do not allow any self-recrimination, even though the loud voices reading the mental list keep shouting.
- Forswear any use of the word “should.”
- As a counter-measure, start an alternative list of accomplishments or progress made during the early part of the summer.
- Remind yourself of what you do best and beautifully.
- And if none of the above work, remember the words of Scarlet O’Hara (at the end of “Gone with the Wind”) and say, “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”
Who knows, perhaps Number Five is the secret to Thoreau’s advice to living deliberately!
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