Captain Augustus McCrae, my favorite character in Larry McMurtry's only truly great novel, Lonesome Dove, observes the following to Lorena, the "sporting woman" who wants to leave Texas to go to San Francisco: "Life in San Francisco is still just life. If you want one thing too much it's likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk--and feisty gentlemen."
I think Gus is right about appreciating the simple, everyday pleasures in life. Just the other day, for example, I was thinking about how much I appreciate my favorite casual long-sleeved shirt. The shirt is actually something of a Godsend because Delys found it one day recently hidden behind the washing machine in the laundry room where some careless person had left it. Truthfully, until I saw it again I had forgotten all about it.
The shirt's all black except for the Asics logo on the left front. It's a size Large, which fits me perfectly, and is made of 90% Micromatique Polyester (widely known for its wicking power) and 10% Lycra (widely known for its stretching capability). All in all, it's a warm, versatile, comfortable shirt that I wear whenever possible. Just last Sunday, for example, it was such a pleasure to get home from church at 5:30 after 11 hours in a suit and tie and then to change into my favorite shirt just before Travis and Heidi and Luke arrived for Sunday dinner.
My advice to everyone is to find some everyday thing, like my black long-sleeved Asics shirt, to take some regular pleasure in. Like Gus says, it'll be a healthy thing to do.
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5 comments:
Travis used to say the same thing about a shirt he had - it was black, Asics, size large (but a little too big for him; he is still just little) - until I lost it while doing laundry. Hmm...
Heidi--Are you implying that Travis's shirt may have been reincarnated? I know that we have a lovely view of the Krishna temple, but I'm not yet ready to buy into karma or reincarnation for items of clothing. However, it does make some sense that if Travis's shirt had good karma, it would have reached a higher caste as my shirt.
It's only an everyday pleasure now, but I'd say a simple plesaure for me is feeling the baby move around (he's on the go right now!).
What else?
*seeing the ocean
*when Alex comes home from work
*showering while listening to music
*blogging while Alex paints :)
I'd like to have a DNA test done on that shirt checking it for Travis sweat in the armpits. I wore it while running the St. George 1/2 marathon a few years ago! aka IT"S MINE!!!!
With all my clothes steals from you over my lifetime you deserve all the satisfaction you're getting from wearing that shirt every dang chance you get!
Phil Snyder... the man in black.
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