UNCONSCIOUS OR OBEDIENT

Sometimes when an authority I respect – anyone from my Mother on up, and that would include policemen and doctors – tells me what I must do, I do it. I stop at stop signs in the middle of the night when I know no one is coming. Except for pushing the boundaries of the speed limits right up to the nine miles over, I’m law abiding to the nth degree. (I do love speed – I think I’m a closet NASCAR driver, a Tony Stewart. I’m chunky enough!)

When I was about four or so, my Mother dressed me and put me out in the back yard to play. Her parting words were “… and don’t take off your sweater.”  Obedient child that I was, I left on the sweater – but I took off everything else! My mother would have me sit on the floor while she shopped at a department store counter, and if we were walking and shopping I wasn’t allowed to touch any of the merchandise. To this day I am obedient, and I unconsciously follow the rules set down for me eons ago. It’s not always a bad thing. That’s one of the reasons I have such good luck shopping on line: I don’t have to touch what I’m buying. Sometimes when I do shop in a store, usually for some decorative item, I wish I was more observant. I’ve gotten stuck a few times, carried away by the moment. It’s like driving: every once in a while I drive along, almost unconscious of the fact that I’m driving. Wake up woman!

In recent weeks I’ve come upon little sentences, quips, ideas that strike a chord in me. A Sherlockian quip to someone was “you see the world and miss the details.” Unless I really am mindful, unless I really concentrate, that’s me. In the Wallender TV mystery series someone told him “you don’t look at the world, you drive straight through it.” Me again.   

Most times I just don’t think – I just go about life doing what I think should be done. On occasion I wonder if I’m really conscious, aware of what I’m doing, or am I just going through the motions. Well, I’ve gotten this far safely and in one piece. No traffic tickets, no broken bones, no major maladjustments. Yes, it can’t be all bad.

 

An Obedient Plant - that's me!
I am obedient and I bloom where I am planted.