Seize the day

To say that life in the Martin house growing up was predictable – as anything can be said to be predictable – is a rather strong understatement.

Monday was washday and according to Rose, the maid from next door, “Your mama sure knows how to hang a pretty wash!” Mom took the time to hangout the wash in a particular pattern. Naturally all the “unmentionables” got hung on the inside of all the other laundry. Couldn’t … shouldn’t … allow our neighbors see our underwear! No clashing colors were ever hung next to each other. Size matter in that she always moved from the larger items down to the smaller items. And she did all of this while using a minimum number of clothespins … and for heavens sake … she never allowed laundry to stay out on the line longer than it was absolutely necessary.

Monday night she would sprinkle any shirts, pants, dresses, etc. which would need special ironing the next day. While everything got ironed on Tuesday – and I mean everything – there were only certain items that needed a certain amount of dampness to be ironed correctly. Those items got sprinkled on Monday evening, rolled and placed in the refrigerator to wait their turn come Ironing Day – Tuesday.

Wednesday and Thursday were cleaning days – vacuuming, dusting, etc., as well as finishing up any ironing from Tuesday that didn’t quite get finished. Friday, since it was payday, was shopping day. It amazes me even today how many senior citizens still do all of their grocery shopping on Friday. When we were a much younger couple this use to frustrate me to no end … exclaiming, “They have all week to do their shopping why clog up the aisles on Friday?”

Then came Saturday … that day was set-aside for Mom and me to wash every window in the house (she on the inside and me on the outside) EVERY WEEK! I would thank the good Lord when he would bless me by sending rain. We couldn’t wash the windows if it rained! But the kitchen’s white linoleum still needed to be scrubbed and waxed and that lovely tasked fell to me as well … even when I got my Miami Herald paper route and had to do my collecting on Saturday morning. As she would say, “Well, the kitchen floor will still be here when you get back.”

What amazed me was that when all of us boys got married and moved away from home and Mom got a full time job the weekly, regular “important” tasks no longer mattered as much. I mentioned this once while visiting, stating that the windows looked a little dirtier than normal. Her response? “Well, Jimmy, just don’t look through them if you don’t like seeing the dirt!” My, my how things do change.

Our evening meal menus didn’t change either from one week to the next. Dad and mom were born and reared in Ohio so they were meat and potato type people. Our suppers reflected that mind set. One didn’t need to look on a calendar to know which day of the week it was all you needed to know was what was being fixed for supper. The least favorite meal was Friday because that was one where Ma took all of the leftovers from the week – Dad didn’t like to get leftovers as a meal the next evening so they collected in the frig – and she would grind them all up together to make hash – all the meats and potatoes together. It really wasn’t bad if you used enough ketchup, but my brothers really didn’t like it … even with the ketchup. If Ma had more potatoes than would really work in the hash she would make fried potato patties. Those were especially good!

Life had a certain ebb-n-flow. It was predictable. It wasn’t either bad or good it just was. It was a comfortable routine for them. I’ve often wondered how many opportunities passed them by because of their predictable routine. Is this how God desired life to be lived?

One of my favorite movies, Dead Poets Society, speaks directly to this concern with the Latin phrase, Carpe diem … seize the day. Take hold of all the opportunities that avail themselves to you in the moment because the future is not guaranteed. I also believe that as you take hold of those opportunities … as you seize the day … as they emerge then God presents greater possibilities that were not in the original plan for you life.

Don’t just “mark” time until it is your time to “shuffle off this mortal coil,” but seize the day – enjoy the ride … you only come this way once so why ruin it with predictable routines or by the fear that you will be judged or misunderstood. It is better to have lived your life with no regrets than to have sat back and allowed life to pass you by.

Quote for today: Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart. Erma Bombeck