“Never mind the details.”
With Thanksgiving almost here and Christmas looming, I find myself thinking; “I thought I was busy in October!” With this on my mind, I would like to share an excerpt from Robert Fulghum’s book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” I hope it will serve to remind us that no one person is perfect!
“The man next door cleaned his gutters yesterday. Downspouts too. He’s done it before. I saw him last year. Amazing. I was forty years old before I even knew that people cleaned gutters and downspouts. And I haven’t been able to get around to doing it once yet.
“I live in awe of people who get those jobs done. The people who live orderly lives. The ones who always do what needs to be done and do it right. I know of people who actually balance their checkbooks each month. I know that’s hardly credible, but I swear it’s so.
“These people also have filing cabinets (not shoe boxes) with neat, up-to-date, relevant files. They can find things around the house when they need them. There is order under their sinks, in their closets, and in the trunks of their cars. They actually change the filter on their furnace once a year. They put oil and grease on mechanical things. Their warranties runneth not out. Not only do their flashlights work, they actually know where the flashlights are!
“When their car was last serviced-they know that too. The tools in their garage are on the pegboard-right where they are supposed to be. Their taxes are based on facts, not hunches and prayer. When they go to sleep at night, their list of Things to Do has a line through every item. And when they arise in the morning, their bathrobe is right there beside the bed and it is clean and new. Socks-right there in the drawer, folded into matching pairs. Yes! And as they prepare to walk out the door into a new day, they know exactly where their car keys are and are not worried about the state of the car battery or if there is enough gas to get to work.
“There are such people. Ones who have it all together. Exmpt from the reign of Chaos and the laws of entropy. I see them every day all around me. Calm and easy pillars of society. They are the people in your high school yearbook you wanted to be. The ones who made it.
“Well. I am not one of them. Out of the frying pan, into the spilt milk is more me. Most of the time daily life is a lot like an endless chore of chasing chickens in a large pen. Life is an air-raid drill. Never mind the details.” -Robert Fulghum
I, for one, would like to meet a person who’s list of Things to Do has a line through every item when they go to bed! Are you more like Mr. Fulghum, or the fictional super hero he describes? My guess is most of us fall somewhere in between the two. Instead of “never mind the details;” remind yourself during this busy time to “never mind the unimportant details.” Prioritizing is always the key!


