Ten Day Review of Couch Life
This is the morning of my check-up with the surgeon. I am not at all sure that we will learn anything definitive today -- she may only be looking to see how everything is healing and we may still have to wait for results to learn about what comes next. Rest assured that I will share the news as soon as there is any.
In the meantime, this seems like a good time to do a ten day review of this life on the couch. I am rather astounded that this much time has passed, but it has been a busy ten days, considering that I have not left this neighborhood the whole time.
As I said a few days ago, rituals have been establishing themselves. Many of them involve the generous stream of guests who have come to spend some time on the visitor's couch. I have kept a rough list in the back of my calendar because I like to remember as much as possible. This morning I did an estimate of the ages of all the people who have come -- not including my own family members who live nearby. The average age is 46. This number is surprisingly high because my impression is that the parade has been mostly young people. In addition, I have had phone calls with people who can't come and lots of email conversations with anyone who writes. I have been thinking that all this social activity is sparking some kind of energy, something different from going to a party or a conference. It is making me think about so many different topics -- other people's lives, their stories, problems that need solutions.
I said this earlier also and it does sound crazy, but what if there were a Couch Lottery for everyone? Like jury duty, you don't know when it will happen. Unlike jury duty, you don't get to opt out because you are too busy. But once every few years, you get a summons to the couch, with no notice, and you have to figure out how to manage that. For some people it would be crushingly hard, like if their household depended on them for everything. But if everyone were doing it, there would be a whole new mindset around that sudden sabbatical. Everyone would do something different with that time, and perhaps even unconsciously prepare for it.
This type of thinking is Tony Newcomb thinking. He had ideas like this all the time, and some of them we actually carried out. I can talk about some of those things later (No Electricity Day, Raw Foods Day, No Vehicle Day), but for him it was the idea that we should practice, we should be ready just in case a certain skill set was suddenly required.
In my own case, I didn't have any idea that I was prepared to be sentenced to the couch, but in fact I was completely prepared. I have plenty to do and enjoy and I have used some of this time to push a long simmering plan forward. I call this a success.
Yesterday I got to put my snowpants and jacket on over my couch clothes and get on my golf cart in the spitting snow to go down to the stand to meet Sam as she returned from our first Dupont market of the year. I felt so happy to be outside, so delighted to look like an outdoor person, and thrilled to be doing a task that I have done for so many years (watch others come home from market). It was the best.
Special thanks to Brian and Hiromi for finding their way out to the wilds of Northern Virginia to visit us on one of the few weekends they get to spend together. While they were here, Brian got word that his flight back to Boston was canceled, and that opened up all sorts of interesting possibilities. He rejected the idea of flying out of BWI at 5:30 AM, even though I offered Jon as his early morning chauffeur. Can't imagine why he didn't want to arrive in Boston in the middle of a snowstorm.
Rebecca got home last night and Benjamin leaves today.
More later.
In the meantime, this seems like a good time to do a ten day review of this life on the couch. I am rather astounded that this much time has passed, but it has been a busy ten days, considering that I have not left this neighborhood the whole time.
As I said a few days ago, rituals have been establishing themselves. Many of them involve the generous stream of guests who have come to spend some time on the visitor's couch. I have kept a rough list in the back of my calendar because I like to remember as much as possible. This morning I did an estimate of the ages of all the people who have come -- not including my own family members who live nearby. The average age is 46. This number is surprisingly high because my impression is that the parade has been mostly young people. In addition, I have had phone calls with people who can't come and lots of email conversations with anyone who writes. I have been thinking that all this social activity is sparking some kind of energy, something different from going to a party or a conference. It is making me think about so many different topics -- other people's lives, their stories, problems that need solutions.
I said this earlier also and it does sound crazy, but what if there were a Couch Lottery for everyone? Like jury duty, you don't know when it will happen. Unlike jury duty, you don't get to opt out because you are too busy. But once every few years, you get a summons to the couch, with no notice, and you have to figure out how to manage that. For some people it would be crushingly hard, like if their household depended on them for everything. But if everyone were doing it, there would be a whole new mindset around that sudden sabbatical. Everyone would do something different with that time, and perhaps even unconsciously prepare for it.
This type of thinking is Tony Newcomb thinking. He had ideas like this all the time, and some of them we actually carried out. I can talk about some of those things later (No Electricity Day, Raw Foods Day, No Vehicle Day), but for him it was the idea that we should practice, we should be ready just in case a certain skill set was suddenly required.
In my own case, I didn't have any idea that I was prepared to be sentenced to the couch, but in fact I was completely prepared. I have plenty to do and enjoy and I have used some of this time to push a long simmering plan forward. I call this a success.
Yesterday I got to put my snowpants and jacket on over my couch clothes and get on my golf cart in the spitting snow to go down to the stand to meet Sam as she returned from our first Dupont market of the year. I felt so happy to be outside, so delighted to look like an outdoor person, and thrilled to be doing a task that I have done for so many years (watch others come home from market). It was the best.
Special thanks to Brian and Hiromi for finding their way out to the wilds of Northern Virginia to visit us on one of the few weekends they get to spend together. While they were here, Brian got word that his flight back to Boston was canceled, and that opened up all sorts of interesting possibilities. He rejected the idea of flying out of BWI at 5:30 AM, even though I offered Jon as his early morning chauffeur. Can't imagine why he didn't want to arrive in Boston in the middle of a snowstorm.
Rebecca got home last night and Benjamin leaves today.
More later.
(I'm waiting patiently for the ideas to come!)
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