December 30th. The day has kind of a shifty quailty that I like. It barely belongs to 2011, but it's not part of 2012 yet either. And so it affords me the pleasant illusion of existing outside of time. For a few hours, anyway. It's like living on a borderland and being at liberty to cross back and forth without declaring my loyalty to one year or the other. I can turn my nose up at 2011--been there, done that--while smugly holding 2012 at arm's length.
Feeling exempt from time, I can ignore its laws and ravages.I don't age on this day. Nothing in my possession degrades. All is suspended. I am not accountable to anything. Everyone should know this. The e-mail I received as cookie mom, from another mom in our Girl Scout troop, asking for two boxes of Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies, was sent without strategy or planning for circumventing this day. Is it my fault that her e-mail will drop into the void of this non-day, un-answered? As for the violin shop, could it reasonably expect to collect its viola rental fee on such a sliver of a due date as the 30th, squashed as it is between the massive shoulders of two full-blown years? I should say it couldn't.
However, the mail man, prosaic laborer that he is, unaware of the metaphysical loopholes that abound on this day, brings me my mail just as routinely as he has done all year. I am not particularly pleased with his reliability, nor with the cher-klunk sound inside my mail box as he drops a mess of time-sensitive bundles into it. I hide myself until he is heading solidly down my driveway and his back is turned, at which point I stand before the window and glare at him. Why does he insist on these deliveries? Who can receive bills and overdue notices on such a day?!
Not me! I am un-girded by time. I shall not be fettered!
But wait---while quickly rifling through the bundle -- is that a paycheck from my employer I see? Conveniently mailed to my home because the college is closed for the winter break? Yes it is. Well then --Straight away to the bank, before it closes! There is not a moment to lose!
Feeling exempt from time, I can ignore its laws and ravages.I don't age on this day. Nothing in my possession degrades. All is suspended. I am not accountable to anything. Everyone should know this. The e-mail I received as cookie mom, from another mom in our Girl Scout troop, asking for two boxes of Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies, was sent without strategy or planning for circumventing this day. Is it my fault that her e-mail will drop into the void of this non-day, un-answered? As for the violin shop, could it reasonably expect to collect its viola rental fee on such a sliver of a due date as the 30th, squashed as it is between the massive shoulders of two full-blown years? I should say it couldn't.
However, the mail man, prosaic laborer that he is, unaware of the metaphysical loopholes that abound on this day, brings me my mail just as routinely as he has done all year. I am not particularly pleased with his reliability, nor with the cher-klunk sound inside my mail box as he drops a mess of time-sensitive bundles into it. I hide myself until he is heading solidly down my driveway and his back is turned, at which point I stand before the window and glare at him. Why does he insist on these deliveries? Who can receive bills and overdue notices on such a day?!
Not me! I am un-girded by time. I shall not be fettered!
But wait---while quickly rifling through the bundle -- is that a paycheck from my employer I see? Conveniently mailed to my home because the college is closed for the winter break? Yes it is. Well then --Straight away to the bank, before it closes! There is not a moment to lose!
yay! miss monie is back! and you couldn't have described dec. 30th any better. i love all the mental images your writing generates. dec. 30 was kinda like that for us today at work. no need to really DO anything, not wanting to begin any big projects,,suspended, as you so eloquently wrote. great post!
ReplyDeletethis is a great post!
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