Two kinds of people
Where are you right now? Photo: Velocia, Creative Commons, some rights reserved
Weekdays most folks are pretty much the same. They get up a little too early, buzz through a set ritual of morning ablutions, then hope the go-cup of coffee and the commute will awaken them enough to put in another long day’s work. Afterwards, there’s dinner to rustle up, eat, clean up, mooch around the house for a couple hours in search of light entertainment, then back to the sack. Rinse and repeat.
It’s weekend mornings that really test a person’s mettle. There are two kinds of people, and which you are is determined in this very moment–on Saturday, what do you do while waiting for the coffee water to boil?
One kind is already in the shower. By the time the water boils they are in the kitchen making a list, charting out the plan. They have to sharpen the blade of the plane so they can shave the bottom of that sticky cupboard door. They need to change the oil and the air filter in the garden tractor. Visions of chain saws and come-alongs are dancing in their heads. They are the ones you find drinking coffee in the parking lot of the hardware store with one or two others of their kind, waiting for the doors to open. They have tidy outbuildings full of useful objects.
The other kind of person is already back under the quilt, inhabiting a blissful zone of semi-consciouness, knowing that the whistler on the teakettle will rouse them at the proper moment. Their favorite lines of poetry (and this type has them) come from Roethke:
I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
Where they have to go (in due time) is out to the kitchen to watch the water seep down through the Moondance blend in the Chemex–watch the birds and the bunnies outside the kitchen window until the brew is through–then back into bed. Maybe read a little, maybe listen to the radio. The day can wait until they’re ready. Maybe one cup of coffee–what the hell–maybe two. It’s all good.
The one kind is no better than the other, but what they hold in common is the smug certainty that the other kind is nuts.
Tags: listeningpost
Not proof read; terrible grammar; C/C+ (being generous ) for structure and content. Not a good face for your organization.
Dale,
LOL! So delightfully put! Being of the second type with many friends of the first, it makes life, and scheduling most interesting! 😉 Have to share this, once I get back out of bed! 🙂
There are never just two kinds of people. People are much like snowflakes. No two are alike.
To use the above scenario, you need to realize people may sort of fit into one category one day and into the the other on another day.
I agree that there are more than just two “kinds” of people; nevertheless, the generalization holds some truth. Unfortunately, though (since I’m the second kind–it’s Saturday, and being awake at 10:30 is kind of early for me, and I have no clear plans for the day–I think many would consider that early group “industrious” and the lounging group “lazy.” Is that a result of our Puritan heritage? Thanks for giving me food for thought, while I lounge around…!
I strive to be the slow Saturday morning person. But not just on Saturdays!!! Hell, it’s only work. Why hurry?
Enjoyed this column, at about 11:30 am… especially reference to Chemex, which I used the 20 yrs in The Village (NYC, of course) but haven’t seen in this area ever. Puts you up a notch on my list. Thanks for the memory.
Some of my favorite lines from Roethke! And at 11:30 am, I’m still on my second cup of coffee!!
Dale pegged the two types of Saturday’s people to a point. Looking at it a bit deeper, and a cup of coffee short, may I comment that whether a person is “Type A” or “Type B” oft depends more on whether the pillow next to you is Type 1a or Type 1b. At least that’s my experience (French press rules, then Chemex!)
I can rise to the occasion if necessary. Used to milk cows, feed legions of children and tackle a whirling-dervish day. Now I prize the calm and peace that’s possible- unless there’s company, or grandkids are here. Love those lines of poetry- some of my favorite. The luxury of beauty- the peace of wasting time. And I give it an A+.
This dang sense of duty makes me a bit of the former–mother abhorred sleeping in!–yet, I do love the luxury, on occasion, of savoring the start of the day with coffee, paper and, of course, NCPR!
Evelyn–
Whenever possible I avoid that “dang scent of dootie” by not walking in the dog park.
Dale Hobson, NCPR