Sometimes in the morning when I get to work I like to listen to the Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits 1974-78. It picks me up. It gets me going. But it’s a funny thing – if I turn it on a couple of hours into my day it doesn’t quite do it the same for me.
I find that’s the way it is with a lot of things. If I start my day studying Korean, the studying goes better. If I’m reading, I get more out of it. If I write for this blog, I can rattle off a thousand words no problem. But if I do any of these things later in the day, it’s completely different. I’ll pick up a piece of work I was writing in the morning and just not see it only a few hours later. I’m stuck on “where was I going with this?”
If I had my way, I’d be living an endless morning. Wake up, grab a cup of coffee, and get into whatever I want. Unfortunately, this kind of thing always gets interrupted. There’s always work. There’s always a schedule. There’s always the sun going down.
I was reading the Stephen Ambrose book Crazy Horse and Custer, and in it, Ambrose contrasts the upbringing of both men. Custer lived a regimented youth, but not so Crazy Horse, and I can’t help but think the American Indian had it right. They weren’t tied to anything. When they needed it, they did it. They made everything from what they had – they didn’t set up elaborate factories or huge farms or plantations. If they didn’t have anything pressing, they seemed to enjoy just lying there and taking it easy. This was only “laziness” in the eyes of those from a European background. The Indian had survived for centuries in this way. I know I can’t do the whole thing any justice…maybe even Ambrose can’t in his book. It seemed a utopian society, and while I’m not sure it could work in a place where population outpaces resources, I think they certainly had the idea. As Ambrose observed along the way – they lived in the present. Their stories of the past had a purpose, but only in teaching what they should do now.
And that brings me back to the schedule.
I can sometimes be a stickler about time. I always try to be on it. I like to get to places early (the being there matters to me more than the getting there). I’m so satisfied by my Naver app for navigating – it tells me in the bottom left the ETA on my drives. I like knowing that I’m going to be there at 14:37. But this doesn’t mean I love being on a schedule. If you told me I had to be there by 14:37, there’d be no satisfaction in that at all. This is one of the things I hate so much about airline travel. You’ve got to get there two hours early…which means you’ve got to catch an even earlier bus, and if you miss that bus, it throws the whole thing off and the stress piles up. I’m never comfortable until I’m on that plane and we’ve taken off.
I love my weekend mornings. Outside of the early rides (weather depending) – which I start before 5 – I love the quiet, the cup of coffee, the book, the writing. If only every day could be like that. But maybe it’s just as well that they aren’t. I love my work. I love the people. I’m seldom bored. There’s always something to keep my brain engaged. I wonder if I might come up on retirement and find that I can’t stand the peace and quiet. Or more likely, my wife won’t want me around the house all day.
But there are certainly times when the endless morning seems to have its appeal.
Bonus material: When I ride with Joon at 04:30, we always take note of the first rooster’s crow of the day. And it’s a guarantee it starts me on this song…