Not much happened today. It was one of Those Days. Which made me think about how many Not Much Days we have in our lives. You know the ones. You get up, you get dressed, you go out, you come home, you go out (if you have kids), you come home, you eat dinner, you watch TV, you go to bed.
People who jump out of planes would say that this was not living. That the only thing that makes you realised how alive you are is to try to kill yourself. I don’t agree. The living is in the detail. The daily stuff is life. The Not Much days.
Mr6 has a lot of Not Much Days at school. Every time I ask him what he did that day, he says Not Much. If he doesn’t say that, he says Nothing. Which makes me wonder why I bother sending him to school. He could do that stuff at home.
I don’t mind Not Much Days. Particularly when they follow busy weekends and busy Mondays. Mr3 loves them. He lolls about on the sofa, occasionally rousing himself to go for a quick zoom around the deck in his Little Tykes police car.
Of course, when you think about them closely, Not Much Days still involve quite a lot. Walking to and from school, a bit of shopping, a chat here, some cleaning there, reading a magazine, watering the garden, writing a blog post, planning a story, pitching a story, cheering when pitch is accepted, checking emails, writing two parties on the calendar, taping a $20 note back together (don’t ask)…and that was all before lunch.
Like I said, the living's in the details.
It is indeed. Whenever Mr Large answers "not much" about his day, my follow up question is "What was your favourite part of the day?"
ReplyDeleteAnd there is always a response. As you say, it's in the detail. Some of my best days have been "not much days."
I'm hoping for one tomorrow.
I love Not Much days. My children do too. They call them lazy days. With Help Yourself lunches.
ReplyDeleteI read a good response to a problem page recently. The enquirer wanted to know how she was going to pack everything into her life now that she had children - visit Niagara Falls, see the Sphinx, parachute jump. All that sort of stuff. 100 things to do Before You Die. The agony aunt replied that what we will in fact remember are the details - the small things we do with our children, the days at the park, the picnics, the lazing around, the bedtime stories. I hope that's true. It made me feel better anyway.
Someone said to me recently that they were waiting for life to start and then realised... this is it. This day-to-day 'nothingness' *is* life.
ReplyDeleteSo many days are like this, but it's like we're just waiting for the next big event. We really need to stop and enjoy the Nothing Much, as you say.
'Not much' days are great in that sometimes it's nice just not to have dramas. The joys of things just ticking over can never be underestimated.
ReplyDeleteSSG xxx
There have been times in my life when I would have almost killed to have just one of those days. You know, the times when you recall that old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times", and wonder who hit you with it?
ReplyDeleteThese days, I occasionally like to re-label a day filled with procrastinating as a Not Much Day, required for mental health. It defeats the purpose, though, when I remember all the thing I COULD have been doing. Le sigh.
My favourite kind of day. Thank you for reminding me of them Al. They get lost in the daily grind sometimes. xx
ReplyDeleteLoved it and can so relate.
ReplyDeleteMy 3yo uses bedtime to prolong his awake time by "telling me about his day" where he makes up a whole heap of shit and I sit and listen.
Although last night he told me he was sat on the "thinking chair" for cutting his chair and throwing a ball at the babies. Wondering if I should check up on this and maybe his wild stories aren't bs after all.
:)xx
Loved this post.
ReplyDeleteI personally love a good "Not Much' day. And if pyjamas are also involved, better still.
Hey Al,
ReplyDeleteBit late to this one, sorry.
Love not much days, especially when they involve wearing flannelette (spelling?) pyjamas.
Am hoping for one of those tomorrow!
Here's to Not Much days and reticent children. They both make you smile, don't they? =>
ReplyDeleteI am currently having a Not Much Day right now! Or as you would say, I am currently living in the details - the detail of reading blogs , the detail of all the food I keep eating, the detail of the cups of tea I keep drinking...you get the picture!
ReplyDelete