Oh Look! A Blibbering Humdinger!

It seems like a lot of people I know are going through periods of somewhat self-indulgent sulking these days. I'm doing it myself. And there's nothing wrong with that if we actually get something out of it. There's a lot going on right now --- it's cold, presidential elections are coming up and we've got one sorry lot to pick from, this horrible war has dragged on far too long, and the economy --- good grief, let's not even talk about the economy! It's hard not to wallow in the awfulness-of-it-all.

Of course, the other side of all of that is that there is very little we can do about most of it on an immediate day-to-day level. Try to conserve, dress warm, recycle, be nice to one another --- but above all now is the time to indulge in quiet pleasures, reading books, visiting friends, writing letters (or emails), learning to play the piano or to knit or to tango. A friend of mine once said that if a person lives in a place that they like, has enough income to pay the bills, has a library card and membership at the Y they can have a very happy life. There is much to be said for that.

But we are human and we will always find ways to divert ourselves from simple enjoyment. In the last few pages of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, after Harry had dispatched the Dark Lord and been through more trials and tribulations than one can imagine he is utterly exhausted and just wants to go to bed but there is a party in his honor and he can't get away. Luna Lovegood (my personal favorite character in those books) recognizes Harry's exhaustion and distracts the crowd so Harry can toss on his Invisibility Cloak and sneak off. She points out the window and yells, "Oh, look! A blibbering humdinger!" Everybody looks and Harry gets away.

What made me think of this story was something that happened last night. I've had a busy week and an upset stomach, too. I finished up work, went to the store and bought some groceries and box of mint tea, came home and made some soup, cleaned up in the kitchen, brewed a pot of the lovely mint tea and was about to settle down with some knitting when I noticed a cobweb on the lamp. Of course I had to take care of that and then I saw a few more and the next thing I knew my tea was cold, my stomach was even more upset, and my quiet evening was shot. That cobweb was a classic blibbering humdinger that distracted me from something that should have been quite pleasant.

It's not that cobwebs don't need to be swept away or that any of the things we distract ourselves with don't need to be attended to. It's just that these days too many of us give them too much importance. Sometimes things like cobwebs and dirty dishes and unbalanced checkbooks and making lists of all our failures as a person serve a purpose but sometimes they are just ways of keeping our lives in a state of chaos that precludes actually living our lives. We spend so much time in little tasks --- or in procrastinating about not doing those little tasks --- that time goes by and we have forgotten about living our lives.

Yesterday a friend told me a story. She and her husband were getting ready for work one morning, the kids had already left for school and they were in the bathroom bumping into each other and, well, one thing lead to another and... So there she is bent over the sink during a tender moment and she notices that nasty black crud that accumulates around the faucet. She automatically picked up a sponge and started scrubbing it away. Her husband freaked out. "You are blanking cleaning the blanking sink while I'm blanking YOU!" He was hurt and she was embarrassed. "I swear," she said, "it was totally reflexive. I didn't think what I was doing!" I believe her. It reminded me of the time when I didn't like having sex in the morning because it always reminded me of how badly the bedroom ceiling needed painting.

Sigh. We've got to lighten up on ourselves, folks. There's bad stuff out there --- terrorists, and. internet viruses, and radical rightwing politicians. There is a time and a place for cleaning the sink but we don't need any more blibbering humdingers in our lives. Be nice to yourself this weekend.

Thanks for reading.