Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Needto

I love Shel Silverstein's poems, and have been thinking a lot abut this one lately:

Whatif
from the book "A Light in the Attic" (1981)

Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I'm dumb in school?
Whatif they've closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there's poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don't grow talle?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won't bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don't grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems well, and then
the nighttime Whatifs strike again!

I've always liked this poem, and always identified with it.  The nighttime Whatifs definitely like to sneak in and annoy me regularly.  But lately I've been having the morning Needtos.  They don't rhyme, but they go something like this:

I need to get up.
I need to take a shower.
I need to go to the gym.
I need to eat better.
I need to bathe, feed, take care of the puppies and dragons.
I need to run xyz errands.
I need to do laundry/clean the bathrooms/vacuum, etc.
I need to work on THE LIST (the hubby's project, and believe me, it warrants the capitals)
I need to write a blog post.
I need to update the financials.
I need to call xyz, etc.
I need to return 8 million e-mails. 
I need to have a normal sleep schedule.
I need chocolate.
I need to stop eating chocolate.
I need to give up caffeine.
I need to organize the filing system.
I need to clean and organize all of the closets.
 I need to figure out what happens next, job-wise.
I need to figure out my life.
I need to get healthy--mentally, physically, spiritually.

Anyway, you get the point.  The needtos start out simply enough and then get more complicated until I'm thinking crazy things like how I need to save the world from zombies (hyperbole, people).  There aren't a lot of  wanttos or gettos on my list, I've been noticing.  So then I add more items to the needtos, like I need to make more space for the things I want to do and I need to start thinking of things as "I get to" instead of "I need to."  It's kind of exhausting, but I haven't figured out how to make it stop.

And it has nothing to do with shoes, so let's look at some, shall we?  I know I've done floral shoes before, but flowers and cheerful, and this post needs some cheerful, don't you think?  I've blah-blahed enough already today, so I'll let you peruse the shoes with no commentary from me.








1 comment:

  1. I was OK with the shoes until the last picture. ME

    ReplyDelete