A Holiday Quiz: Please identify which of the following statements pertain to you.
At some point during this upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, I will:
- Scream at the traffic in front of me yelling “DRIVE” because I am obviously the only person on the road who knows how to.
- Implore my kids to stop that! Did you hear me? I meant NOW!
- Lament too many or too few marshmallows on top of the sweet potato casserole.
- Bicker about: sit down vs. buffet, silver vs. plastic, canned vs. homemade; apple vs. pumpkin.
- Silently plead with the Universe to make my _______________ (fill in the blank: husband, wife, mother, father, in-law du jour, crazy uncle) stop talking already.
- Curse my home football team.
- Curse the opposing team.
- Curse my child’s soccer team.
- Pester my husband to shave.
- Pester my wife to stop nagging.
- Suffer through the stores and wonder why I put myself through this every year.
- Fret about being late.
- Worry about being early.
- Regret inviting boorish or boring guests to dinner.
- Regret inviting dysfunctional family to dinner.
- Wish I never agreed to the dog.
If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, congratulations. Like me, you are officially sweating the small stuff and I encourage you to continue doing so at all costs. Go ahead and be as petty as possible!!
Bah humbug you say? Not exactly. A theory for the MoB readers to ponder:
For this weekend and every day, I think it is a true privilege to worry about petty things – i.e. things you won’t even remember a week from now. Because if you are worried about petty things, that means that there is plenty of room in your worry chamber to fill with small stuff. If you can bitch and moan about food and football, you know you have it pretty good. It’s when the list above doesn’t matter anymore that perhaps things are not so good. To those folks whose worry chambers are filled to the brim with big stuff, a prayer for you that someday soon your burden will be much lighter… comprised of tiny things like who ate the last piece of pie.
So tomorrow night when we go around the table and offer what we are thankful for, I for one, am so very thankful for all the meaningless griping. Especially mine.
