Dear Universe,
I have been listening to you. I have absorbed your lessons. I really have. I have learned many things, and I am trying to be a better person. So can we just take a break, just for a few weeks? I promise to do better next year.
Sincerely,
Me
I did some Christmas shopping today. I seem to have already hit that desperate, depressed, and sort of mindless realm of shopping that I usually don’t reach until much later in the season. So I’m ahead of schedule. Hooray?
When my husband and I got home from a shopping trip the other day, there were two packages sitting on our doorstep. I said, “They’re probably for me. I got a little reckless with our credit card.” He nonetheless thought the packages would be for him, and he was surprised when they both turned out to be for me.
“Like I said, I got a little reckless,” I told him. He still didn’t seem impressed. “Really, I went to Wild Town,” I insisted as we carried the packages into the house.
He didn’t respond immediately, so I looked directly at him, awaiting his reply. Finally, he said, “Yeah, I’m trying to think of what would count as ‘Wild Town’ for you. The library?”
So far in Christmas prep:
Still left to do:
After watching Livia neatly pour milk for herself today, I thought she deserved a compliment. I said to my husband, “Wow. Livia has gotten so much better at pouring her own milk.” Her father, trying to impart some fatherly wisdom, told her that we get better at things by practicing them, to which Livia replied, “You’re only saying that because you want me to believe it.”
Damn. She’s clever. I hope we managed to instill some wisdom in her before she got too smart to listen to us.
I don’t like getting my hair cut, so I tend to put it off. My tresses had gotten very long and unruly, though, so I finally went to the salon this week. When I got home, my husband said, “Thank God! Now I can fit in the room with you and your hair!”
On this day after Thanksgiving, I am thankful for having survived the holiday. We spent the day with my in-laws and managed to get through the whole thing with no political beefs. I also finally managed to get my parents on the phone. Having been out of contact with them for a few weeks, I am relieved to know they’re alive and well (though perhaps a little chillier than usual) at their new place in Vermont.
Today is also the day to get serious about Christmas prep. My main goal for the afternoon is to make a list of all the things I have to do (i.e., the bare minimum), plus all the things I want to do (i.e., the extra touches that will make the holidays more fun), as well as the deadline for each item on the list. These days nothing gets done without a list, so making a list is always the first thing on the list 😉
I met author John Green in a dream last night. He wanted to thank me for tipping him off to that “turtles all the way down” thing. That was quite nice of him, and he was every bit as personable in my dream as he is on his Mental Floss videos. Meanwhile, in real life, I had only recently stumbled across a reference that explains what the turtles are about. That had already had the effect of making me consider reading Turtles All the Way Down. But now that the author has personally paid me a dream visit, I guess I have to read it.
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Grade: A
Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life was my 16th book of the year and much to be admired for both its content and its brevity. Keller’s authorial voice was charming, positive, and on nearly every page, a sheer joy to read. I enjoyed the book immensely.
Helen Keller, as almost everyone knows, is renowned for having overcome the dual disabilities of blindness and deafness, which were caused by a severe childhood illness that occurred before she had learned to speak. Most people can probably imagine life without one of those senses, but it’s difficult to imagine how anyone could learn to understand the world without the benefit of either sense. That’s what makes the story of her life so fascinating.
I remember a particular tale about Helen Keller being told to me as a schoolchild. The setting was a well pump. Anne Sullivan, her teacher, poured water over the girl’s hand, then traced the letters W-A-T-E-R into her palm. That was said to be the moment when the light bulb went off in her head and she finally started to understand words.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that story in this book. Far too often as adults we discover that the things we learned in school aren’t quite accurate. But though I’d heard that story before, I don’t think I fully understood until reading it again, in her own words, how amazing she was. It’s impressive enough that she learned to understand words being spelled into her hand. It could not have been easy learning English that way. But she went on to learn many forms of communication, including how to read lips, how to speak intelligibly, and how to read Braille. Then she learned French, German, Latin, and Greek. She also mastered the art of writing. All of this she did by the age of 22, when this book was first published. She became famous around the world as an author, speaker, and activist. (She also became, apparently, quite radical in her politics, which was not mentioned in school or covered within the time frame of this book, but which I am interested in reading more about in the future).
As amazing as Helen Keller was, what I found most remarkable about her story was that she had so many friends and mentors who helped her over the barriers that blindness and deafness had placed in her path. We should all have so much support. If we did, how many more amazing people might our society produce?
Many, many more, I think. And that is the message I have chosen to take from The Story of My Life. Each human being is born into this world with potential, but also with weaknesses and situational difficulties that hinder them from becoming their best possible selves. Giving every child the resources and aid they need ought to be one of the highest goals of our society. The way to make a country great is not, as some people believe, to build a wall around it. The way to make a country great is to fill it with great people, and the way to make great people is to provide every opportunity for greatness to arise within them.
I already feel the panic creeping in. Christmas is coming, and I just know I won’t be ready for it. I have so many things to do before the holiday. I’d hardly have enough time if I were on the ball, and I’m not even close to being on the ball. I’m constantly struggling against my own inertia, and not very effectively.
But, as I have to always tell myself, “Just do something!” Even if you can’t do everything, even if you feel like you’re being squashed beneath the weight of your unfinished tasks, you can do one small thing. So all you have to do is pick one small thing and get it done. When you’re done with that one, pick another, and then another. Create a cascade of positive, forward motion. If you’re lucky, it will carry you through some of the bigger, more difficult tasks.
So today I’m going to work on small tasks. I will put in Livia’s book order, fold the laundry, send a few necessary e-mails, wash the hand-washables, make a grocery list, etc. Nothing difficult. Nothing terribly time-consuming. One thing at a time.
My mantra: I can do this.
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