habits

  I have a table clock that came from my great grandfathers house. The exact story of how it came to be in his possession I can't say. A couple stories surround it. But whatever the story was I now own it and have had it repaired. It's an eight day movement. I wind that clock each Sunday morning, when I remember that is. I looked up at it this morning and realized it was time. That is what inspired this piece. Winding the clock has become somewhat of a habit. It's a simple thing but a necessary one. And that's the thought, in days gone past winding the clock was a necessity lest you lose track of time. What I'm thinking about is suppose you only have the one timepiece, you forget to wind it, you have now lost track of time. You won't know what time it is until someone else can tell you. A little thing perhaps and one we take for granted these days. We always know exactly what time it is. We practically live by the clock, by the hour. In the past we lived by the day.

 That lead me to think about what other simple things we did, as a necessity, in the past that we don't think much about today. We had to have firewood, for one. You had to chop it, split it, stack it, and bring it in the house. It was a necessity. My grandmother used coal and you had to ensure the coal scuttle was filled. Grandma had running water but there was a day when people didn't, had to bring in water. Today we have food in the refrigerator. Think about when you had to grow, hunt, or get your meals before the supermarkets were open 24/7. Yeah, was necessary to take care of that stuff. Those basic chores had to be done, every day. They were habits, of a fashion. The habit of staying alive!

 I think that did make us all a bit more focused on life. As a result we enjoyed the little things in life a great deal more than we do today. Today we are distracted by too many choices. Too much free time to do nothing, to build nothing, to love nothing. We are concerned mostly with what we can buy. The measure is, what can we buy. When you chopped down the tree to build your home, you appreciated that home! Same with all those thing you had to care of. The garden, the animals, the tools you used, whatever. The clothes you wore and the friendships created all mattered a great deal. In todays world, we can just buy most of that stuff, enough money will certainly buy you popularity, if not friendship.

 It seems like the more free time we get, the worse off we are. I'm thinking Grandma Bennett was right when she said, idle hands do the devils work. I'm certain she heard that from her parents and possibly grandparents. Grandma was certainly busy doing something useful all of the time. In looking back mostly she was doing what was necessary for her survival. Oh I expect she had idle times, doing something she wanted to do rather than what she had to do, it's just I never saw that. Still, she was certainly busy doing what was necessary and not giving that much thought, just doing. It was a habit. 

 That leads me to think what habits have we formed today? The habit of criticizing and complaining about what we can't afford? Sounds that way most of the time.  We simply count on the supply chain to provide our wants and needs. We are dependent. Dependent upon others for just about everything. Need warmth? Pay the electric bill or fill the gas or oil tank. You buy or rent housing. In fact, we have progressed so far that we are now destroying what once sustained us. Back in the day taking care of those resources was a habit, until we decided to use those resources for profits. Then we used the profits to simply buy the necessities. We had more "free" time. That's the goal isn't it? To be able to just do whatever you want without worry, without effort, without conscience. 

 Yes, I think Grandma was correct. Idle hands do indeed do the devils work. That work may take a hour, a day, a month, a year, or a millennia. It could just be all this progress is the work of the devil. How are we using our "free" time? Doesn't seem like we are doing much of benefit with it, just entertaining ourselves. What habits are we fostering in our children? That's what we should all be concerned with. A habit of dependence? Have our necessities become hobbies? Yes in many cases they have, as long as we can afford them.