Peter Salmon’s Ordinary Day, age 73
I’ll skip the English muffins and get right to the point. My ordinary good says are actually fairly extraordinary (ie rare), but since you coined the term I’m always aware of them when they happen.
They include a few elements. One is some significant amount of time doing creative work. It’s best when it includes painting pictures, but real drawing time, as in a day at the zoo, is just as good. At a lower level are writing projects, like sermons, social concerns articles, poems, or stories for the kids. (I really prefer to do less and less of all these things and more and more paintings).
Second is positive interactions with Linda; children and grandchildren; and good friends. All three types of relationship are needed for a really good day. The last element is physical exercise: not just dog-walking, though that is important; nor anti-arthritis exercises, though they are important too; but something like cutting the grass, splitting wood or building a wagon for grandchildren to play on.
One afterthought is that I’m glad that my life includes various kinds of community effort – church, food pantry, letters to editor, formerly Lake Swiftwater and so forth — but too often they rob me of time for an ordinary good day. Therefore I would say that they are part of such a day when they are just a part.
Of all these factors the one that probably matters the most to me is the human relationships. But I want it all. Even the English muffins. (And I wouldn’t mind a side order of fried eggs, preferably over easy).
Post a Comment