To Do or Not To Do

This sequestered quarantine time, however painful, can be seen as a unique opportunity for self-discovery, change and reinvention.  These new, weird times will change what we choose To Do, how and when we do it and ultimately who we are as person.  My wife and I are in this lock-down for the long run together so we have made our endless To Do lists and have gotten used to this new pace of lonely life.  We have been semi-retired almost 10 years, so we are kind of used to our free time and a deliberate lifestyle but this seems a little different - forced or imposed.  But we are also getting good at scraping the To Do list sometimes, letting the day come to us.   We wake up with a semi deliberate plan and a few choice things to accomplish but we remain flexible for changes and adjustments. Sometimes our days are upside down with restful mornings and active afternoons.  As the say, a change is as good as a rest.

 We try to get out in the sun a few times a day, when it is nice, so we schedule our reading and writing, fixing and painting around the weather and long dog walks.  We see our friends out on the trail and walking in the hood, everyone is walking and biking, but we stay apart and don’t shake or hug.  That elbow or ankle tap is kind of weird, so we don’t bother, but we opt rather for a virtual hug with eye contact and no funny faces, kind of like an Italian toast, without wine or touching. We have had a few people over for dinner, young and less than 10 of them, and it feels different, risky, inappropriate but we are wicked daredevils.  We are trying to pivot to the new reality but cannot give up our old busy ways completely and wonder if they will ever come back fully.

It is now almost a relief from the old constant pressures to be busy and travel, spend tons and work hard to go to places and do things that keep us educated and enlightened.  This is our constant battle for meaningful self-stimulation or entertainment as well as new and different things To Do.  Someone said that leisure time is the bane and burden of the upper and lower classes, for different reasons.  I think it was Oscar Wilde or Adam Smith or me.  I guess the middle class is too busy working.  Nowadays we all can just try to be, or not to be, without shame or incrimination, and dabble with what it means to be human and ourselves.  As James Taylor said, ‘The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time.’

Nonetheless we still write our To Do lists to give structure to our amorphous days and existential meaning to our lives  Some of us are more OCD about it than others and love to write our lists and cross off items as we complete them and move on to the next item.   If we do something not on our list, we put it on the list and cross it off triumphantly.  We are anal retentive, for lack of a better description, and we covet closure, compartmentalization, symmetry and completeness.  Franklin Day Planners made millions on this concept years ago teaching everyone to write lists and cross off completed chores and then forward unfinished lists dutifully to the next day.  The Franklin people hated James Taylor.

Others like to complete only 80-90% of each task and keep them on their To Do list forever, perhaps as a hedge against running out of things To Do.  This is a common human trait, the opposite of OCD.  Would this be called openness, impulsive or renal explosive?  I find that I am tending to the later these days, putting things off, practicing procrastination and solving problems slowly and deliberately, saving things To Do.  Procrastination, I am finding, is under rated since it lets us gather more advice and data about the chore, letting the problem incubate and come to us in its own time, sometimes solving itself. Who knew?

Here are some general suggestions from my own OCD To Do list, in no particular order, on how to organize, prioritize and spend your endless days.  Or not.

Take a walk.  Take a hike. Ride a bike.  Jog.  Nap.  Have sex.  Make Love.  Meditate, Do Yoga.  Do something new.  Learn to ride a motorcycle, mountain bike, snowboard board or  horse.  Ski. Surf, skate, knit, golf.  Plant a garden.  Play the guitar or the sax.  Adapt, Improvise, Overcome, Improve, Reinvent.  Make a new friend, support an old one.  

Get a new house.  Fix up your old house.  Paint the house, inside and out.  Stain all your wood.  Rake the lawn, trim the trees, fix the fence, clean up the dog poop.   Wash and wax the car.  Learn to shop, cook and clean - Naaahhh.

Go fishing.  Go skating.  Fly a kite.  Get a hobby.  Collect something - stamps, coins, antlers or rocks.  Learn a new skill or language.  Learn how to write code.  Improve yourself and others around you.

Purge everything. Clean the basement, shed, garage or barn. Sell your stuff or give it away, people need it.  Buy new stuff if you have coin, the economy needs it.  Share your wealth, health and blessings. 

Read a book.  Write a book.  Write a memoir for your kids.  Write a novel for yourself.   Write a Journal.  Start a blog or podcast.  There is a lot of stupid crap out there.  Don’t be shy, you can’t be much worse.  Write long emails and texts.   Share your knowledge and wisdom. Share your spirit and enthusiasm.

Write old fashion letters or talk in person or on the telephone to family, friends and loved ones. It’s all we really have. It’s all we really need, To Do.