Monday Monday

It's time to go back to work. It's time to focus again on things that have need to be done. I'm one of the fortunate few whose work is also his passion - I wake to purpose, I work with purpose, I go to bed having fulfilled purpose. This is such a wonderful way to spend a life - being enriched simply by being open to the opportunity of relationship. How cool is that?

When I was younger, vacations meant something different than they do now. Vacations involved partying, hitting the bars, drinking, even carousing. Vacations were loud. Vacations were fast. Vacations were expensive. More than anything, vacations were exhausting. One needed to get back to work to rest from the work of partying. Mondays came hard, but they were like a bucket of cold water splashed on a beery face.

Not so any more. Vacations now are for rest and relaxation. Napping in the afternoon, complete with drool, is simply delicious. Curling up on the couch with a book, working on DS puzzles, playing games on the computer, ah, hours well spent. Visiting with the neighbour across the hall, chatting with friends on the phone, going shopping and considering it an 'outing', ah, I'll take days and days like these.

There was a scene in the movie 'Nuts' where a woman was in court listening to the written opinion of a psychiatrist. She was offended at what he had written and stood up in court and said of the psychiatrist to the judge, 'What if he's just an asshole?' Though I remember nothing of the movie, I've always remembered that scene. That word 'asshole' is so replaceable with 'tired' or 'hung over' or 'distracted'.

As someone who write reports about people for people, as someone who gives opinions, as someone who has more power than he ought in the lives of others. I'm not going to work with a hang over. I'm not going in with a dry mouth and a headache. I'm not going in exhausted. With responsibility comes responsibility - it took me a long time to notice that.

Of course I still party. Of course I still go out to bars. Of course I do silly things with my time. But carefully. And judiciously. With full awareness of what tomorrow brings.

So, I can promise that tomorrow I will be clear eyed ... whether or not I'm an asshole at any point - others will have to judge.