What REALLY Matters.....
As I heated up the last bowl of spaghetti in the microwave, I took a minute (literally, as it was in the microwave and I was very hungry) to consider that I ALWAYS put plastic wrap on top of bowls of leftovers that I heat. I have received no less than one million emails urging me NOT to, as well as not to drink out of plastic bottles left in the car, aluminum coke cans, any diet coke at all (especially not out of plastic bottles left in the car)--all for the sake of my health. It occurred to me, as I eyed the spotless interior of my microwave, that it is the ONE appliance I never have to clean. Why? Because I cover everything I heat in it. You know what? It's worth it. If I live one year less due to free radicals in my leftovers, well, golly, I enjoy having one appliance that I don't have to de-grease, de-crumb or swab out weekly. It's worth it.
That got me thinking about life and death in general. (Because as I started eating the food, knowing that the real problem with it isn't the plastic wrap but the 800 calories, I mused about my shortened lifespan due to morbid obesity...) And I thought how it's all a big lie. All those little sayings...like this one, "At the end of your life, you won't care if you had clean closets".
What? Oh yes, I will. I can't imagine anything worse than knowing the end is near and someone, probably in a CHURCH GROUP will go through my drawers. I will not rest easily knowing that I have left the drawers unattended to. And it will be a source of great amusement at the next potluck (where my old pots and pans will be sadly sitting in a corner for the homeless to pick through). Cleanliness IS next to godliness in my book, and I just cringe at the thought of people milling about, sympathizing with DH, and knowing that the poor man was lucky to have matched socks at all, let alone stacked neatly in a drawer.
And what about that other little edifying poem which says, "What matters is that you were important in the life of a child"? OK, so my mind wandered to my children. I can picture them, after the CHURCH GROUP leaves my funeral, sitting at the table, missing me, saying such profound truths as..."She made such good brownies" (and I do, by the way!), or "Remember how she never forgot to put that dollar under the pillow for our teeth? Oh wait, no, she usually did forget that..." Compare "my passing" with when other woman die. Say, Florence Nightengale? She left behind nursing as we know it today...literally changing the chance of wounded men on the battlefield from a 99 percent likelihood of death to over 50 percent liklihood of life. Or? How about Marie Curie? I mean, talk about searching for the cure for cancer? She devoted her life to that. There are two women on the dollar coins. I don't see my face nominated for any currency yet. Well, OK-- my brownies and my messy house don't really stack up to those sorts of achievements, but I can truthfully say I was important in the lives of three children. THREE???? Mother Theresa was important in the lives of untold children. THREE??? That's not even enough for a good game of Monopoly between them (although, I was a force for good there, when I taught them to be nice, stop throwing the board, and no more tears....maybe there IS a reason for motherhood after all!.)
All of this musing just made me hungrier. I'm trying to decide whether to microwave a plastic-covered-something, or really test the odds by using a teflon pan to cook. My diet coke is in a plastic cup, so I'm not sure what the danger level is there, but it sure tastes great. Funny how no one has ever commented on the dangers lurking in a standard candy bar wrapper (isn't there some plastic there?)....but of course, the really important thing is that Hershey Kisses come wrapped in foil. Surely that's just fine!
That got me thinking about life and death in general. (Because as I started eating the food, knowing that the real problem with it isn't the plastic wrap but the 800 calories, I mused about my shortened lifespan due to morbid obesity...) And I thought how it's all a big lie. All those little sayings...like this one, "At the end of your life, you won't care if you had clean closets".
What? Oh yes, I will. I can't imagine anything worse than knowing the end is near and someone, probably in a CHURCH GROUP will go through my drawers. I will not rest easily knowing that I have left the drawers unattended to. And it will be a source of great amusement at the next potluck (where my old pots and pans will be sadly sitting in a corner for the homeless to pick through). Cleanliness IS next to godliness in my book, and I just cringe at the thought of people milling about, sympathizing with DH, and knowing that the poor man was lucky to have matched socks at all, let alone stacked neatly in a drawer.
And what about that other little edifying poem which says, "What matters is that you were important in the life of a child"? OK, so my mind wandered to my children. I can picture them, after the CHURCH GROUP leaves my funeral, sitting at the table, missing me, saying such profound truths as..."She made such good brownies" (and I do, by the way!), or "Remember how she never forgot to put that dollar under the pillow for our teeth? Oh wait, no, she usually did forget that..." Compare "my passing" with when other woman die. Say, Florence Nightengale? She left behind nursing as we know it today...literally changing the chance of wounded men on the battlefield from a 99 percent likelihood of death to over 50 percent liklihood of life. Or? How about Marie Curie? I mean, talk about searching for the cure for cancer? She devoted her life to that. There are two women on the dollar coins. I don't see my face nominated for any currency yet. Well, OK-- my brownies and my messy house don't really stack up to those sorts of achievements, but I can truthfully say I was important in the lives of three children. THREE???? Mother Theresa was important in the lives of untold children. THREE??? That's not even enough for a good game of Monopoly between them (although, I was a force for good there, when I taught them to be nice, stop throwing the board, and no more tears....maybe there IS a reason for motherhood after all!.)
All of this musing just made me hungrier. I'm trying to decide whether to microwave a plastic-covered-something, or really test the odds by using a teflon pan to cook. My diet coke is in a plastic cup, so I'm not sure what the danger level is there, but it sure tastes great. Funny how no one has ever commented on the dangers lurking in a standard candy bar wrapper (isn't there some plastic there?)....but of course, the really important thing is that Hershey Kisses come wrapped in foil. Surely that's just fine!
posted by herewegoagain at
6:27 PM
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