Pay It Forward
Saturday, June 11, 2005
9:18 AM
I had quite an eventful morning...from a writer’s prospective, anyway.
Last night, I had to twist my arm (that was hard!) to make myself wash clothes. I’ve experienced a sort of malaise lately to the point that I don’t want to do anything. So I finally washed clothes, got up early and dragged my ass to the laundromat. When I got there five minutes after they opened, there were three cars taking up all the spaces in the back. Lovely. This alone pissed me off, added to the fact that I’d rather walk into an empty laundromat and not have to deal with people. But I only had two baskets, so I calmed myself and tried to redirect my energy toward the positive end of the scale. Fortunately, no one was drying clothes, so I had that going for me.
They were all older patrons, no kids, so that was nice too. Not that I have anything against kids, but it’s hard enough for me to get up that early without having enough dexterity to dodge kids pushing laundry baskets through the place.
During the time I was there, a lady went up to someone I recognized from somewhere, I’m not sure where, and asked her about using fabric softener. “What’s that? I see a lot of people using it.”
This lady had never used fabric softener? Had she been doing her clothes on a rock all these years? I was dying to ask her, but I knew it would be rude. Then my attitude was change by what happened next. The woman she asked told her she thought the grocery store next door had the stuff on sale. She offered to let her use some of her fabric softener and she proceeded to start pouring it in the lady’s machines. The lady, whom I wonder if she might have been suffering from the beginning of Alzheimer’s or something, went bopping out the door to the store to buy some. The other woman continued pouring softener into the other lady’s machines. “Bless her heart.” She kept saying. No one talked about how stupid the woman was, or why she didn’t know what fabric softener was. Maybe it’s something I’ve always taken for granted. Come to think of it, I never used it until I moved to this town, where the water is so hard I can’t even use powdered laundry detergent because it won’t dissolve.
Anyway, I guess I was just so moved by this group of people and their outpouring of generosity and goodwill. It was all so “Pay It Forward,” you know?
Afterward, I stopped by City Lake to walk. I had been thinking about it for weeks now, deciding finally that the days I go to the laundomat and Walmart, I would stop by and walk. There are a lot of people out there, grandparents with their grandkids, kids fishing, other people walking that it’s all perfectly wholesome and safe. I had no qualms about going by myself. In fact, by the time I got there for a trial run, I had thought I might make a writing time out of it, too. Surely I would think of something to write while I was walking.
I didn’t have the proper shoes, but since it was just a trial run I was only going to walk around once. And I’m glad I did. Because after one trip around, my legs were tired, I was getting out of breath. Maybe it was the shoes. Or the fact that my body has almost completely atrophied to the point that I can’t even make up the bed without giving out of breath. My legs have become quite skinny and I’m tired all the time. I think this will be good for me.
Plus there’s fresh air, ducks, geese, crows, turtles and human wildlife to observe. It should be quite a mindful experience for me.
9:18 AM
I had quite an eventful morning...from a writer’s prospective, anyway.
Last night, I had to twist my arm (that was hard!) to make myself wash clothes. I’ve experienced a sort of malaise lately to the point that I don’t want to do anything. So I finally washed clothes, got up early and dragged my ass to the laundromat. When I got there five minutes after they opened, there were three cars taking up all the spaces in the back. Lovely. This alone pissed me off, added to the fact that I’d rather walk into an empty laundromat and not have to deal with people. But I only had two baskets, so I calmed myself and tried to redirect my energy toward the positive end of the scale. Fortunately, no one was drying clothes, so I had that going for me.
They were all older patrons, no kids, so that was nice too. Not that I have anything against kids, but it’s hard enough for me to get up that early without having enough dexterity to dodge kids pushing laundry baskets through the place.
During the time I was there, a lady went up to someone I recognized from somewhere, I’m not sure where, and asked her about using fabric softener. “What’s that? I see a lot of people using it.”
This lady had never used fabric softener? Had she been doing her clothes on a rock all these years? I was dying to ask her, but I knew it would be rude. Then my attitude was change by what happened next. The woman she asked told her she thought the grocery store next door had the stuff on sale. She offered to let her use some of her fabric softener and she proceeded to start pouring it in the lady’s machines. The lady, whom I wonder if she might have been suffering from the beginning of Alzheimer’s or something, went bopping out the door to the store to buy some. The other woman continued pouring softener into the other lady’s machines. “Bless her heart.” She kept saying. No one talked about how stupid the woman was, or why she didn’t know what fabric softener was. Maybe it’s something I’ve always taken for granted. Come to think of it, I never used it until I moved to this town, where the water is so hard I can’t even use powdered laundry detergent because it won’t dissolve.
Anyway, I guess I was just so moved by this group of people and their outpouring of generosity and goodwill. It was all so “Pay It Forward,” you know?
Afterward, I stopped by City Lake to walk. I had been thinking about it for weeks now, deciding finally that the days I go to the laundomat and Walmart, I would stop by and walk. There are a lot of people out there, grandparents with their grandkids, kids fishing, other people walking that it’s all perfectly wholesome and safe. I had no qualms about going by myself. In fact, by the time I got there for a trial run, I had thought I might make a writing time out of it, too. Surely I would think of something to write while I was walking.
I didn’t have the proper shoes, but since it was just a trial run I was only going to walk around once. And I’m glad I did. Because after one trip around, my legs were tired, I was getting out of breath. Maybe it was the shoes. Or the fact that my body has almost completely atrophied to the point that I can’t even make up the bed without giving out of breath. My legs have become quite skinny and I’m tired all the time. I think this will be good for me.
Plus there’s fresh air, ducks, geese, crows, turtles and human wildlife to observe. It should be quite a mindful experience for me.
posted by gypsyfenix | 10:21 PM
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