2000-02-03 - 00:17:50

Wake Up And Move !!!!!

Ritual starts then. I made a contribution to Nova Notes which asked, "What is your morning ritual ?"

It went something like this: At age 78 and retired I can do what I always wanted to do.

I wake up, usually in the morning (may be pushin' noon),depends on the night before. I open my eyes half way, survey the scene, looking for dangerous beings. Usually finding none I slowly, ease my creaky body out of bed.

I shamble out of the bedroom, tripping over things and go to the loo, by the Braille System find the coffee pot and the cup I put out before bed and pour a cup of coffee, these automatic coffee makers are marvels.

Fumbling, bumbling around, knocking my knees on corners I get my paper.

More or less by recent memory I manage to find my way back to my bedroom and sit in MY chair, hold my head in my hands a bit and take a sip or two of coffee.

I reach out and feel for my wallet, shuffle through it until I find a drivers license, check it to see who I am and if I really want to be me.

I scan the paper and get to the obits to see when my funeral will be. Not being listed there I go to the comics and inhale the breath of life, humor a cure all for the glumps. On finishing the funnies I drop them neatly on the floor.

Then I make the supreme effort, by struggling to the point of being semi alert and able to communicate without snarling and bravely open my eyes wide. Gradually forcing myself to be able answer if spoken to. Thus the day of rituals begins.

Most everything through the day consists of rituals. Things you do the same way every day, showering, dressing, checking your pockets to make sure you have your wallet, keys, handkerchief.

Kiss the wife, say good bye and go into the garage, get in the car, start the engine, punch the door opener, back out and drive to work. If you didn't do all those things by ritual you would be considered an oddity.

Most of us do all of those things on automatic, the same things, the same way in the same order day after day.

Work is so full of rituals, yours and other people's intermingled, that it is so varied it is impossible to list them.

The trip home is ordinarily ritual unless something "off schedule" has to be done, otherwise you go by rote.

There are weekend rituals as well. Golly, if any thing causes the ritual to be upset, so are we.

What makes those things rituals I guess is the habit of doing exactly the same thing in the same way and in the precise order, as always, never varying.

Almost like church or lodge rituals.Ritual has it's values, it keeps us on track.

While I was still working I would seek ways to vary the rote, robotic ritual, go different ways, maybe stop to look at something in a store. Essentialy I kept to my schedule, but varied my actions in between times. For me a combination of the two methods kept me happy. Life goes on but I vary the theme when I can, works for composers, huh ? -- point-counterpoint?

So each day it starts the same, I Wake Up and Move . . . . . . . . .

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