March 20, 1997
Dear Everyone:
Today’s word:
to put
off doing (something unpleasant or burdensome) until a future time;
esp., to postpone (such actions) habitually
pro•cras¿ti•na¿tion
Etymology
[< L
procrastinatus, pp. of
procastinare <
pro-, forward (see
pro-2) + crastinus,
belonging to the morrow < cras,
tomorrow]
Well, here it is almost
Easter and have I gotten
the pictures I took at Christmas developed yet?
Silly question. Of
course not. How long would
it take to pick up the little disposable camera and trot over to
Kmart
with it, fill out the form and drop it in the box?
About 20 minutes. How
long to pick up the developed pictures?
Probably 3 weeks.
Let’s face it:
In this family, procrastination is virtually an art form.
How many of us haven’t gotten around to sending “Marshall” the
money to buy our consortium wedding gift for “Janice” and “Byron”?
How long until “Marshall” gets around to ordering the thing?
(For the record, I’ve sent my check.
And Miss Manners says that wedding gifts can be sent up until one
year after the actual wedding date, so we have until next October to get
off our collective keesters.)
Want to know how many people called to say that a
birthday card or gift was “on it’s way” because they hadn’t mailed it on
time? (“Richard” even stuck
on a little note to point out that the card was technically postmarked
before the 16th.) Want to
know how many people called the day
after my birthday to sing
“Happy Birthday to you (one day late)...” to my phone machine?
What difference does it make?
We all procrastinate.
When someone comes to my cubicle (“My door is always open.”) with a
problem, one of two things happens:
1.
I drop whatever I’m doing to look into
the problem immediately (thus postponing my current work).
2.
I tell them I’ll be there as soon as
possible (thus postponing the problem in favor of whatever I’m doing
now).
Either way, I’m procrastinating.
As “Jeannie” says, “Half of one, six dozen of the other.”
The problem is: We
all have too much to do and not enough Round To-its.
You know what Round To-its are.
They’re the things you need when you say, “I’ll do that just as
soon as I get a Round To-it.”
And then you never do.
All week I tell myself, “I’ll get that done this
weekend.” All day Saturday I
say, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
All morning Sunday, “I can do that during
60 Minutes.”
By the time 60 Minutes roll around, I have 3 hours worth of things to do in,
well, 60 minutes. And so on
to the next week.
In other news...
Some people might recognize that if I spent less
time at the movies, I’d have more time to do other things.
Silly people. One
must keep one’s priorities straight.
Saw
Donnie Brasco last
weekend, “Jeannie’s” pick.
This is a study in loyalty.
Johnny Depp plays an
FBI agent sent to infiltrate the
Mafia.
He links up with Al Pacino, someone near the bottom of the food
chain who decides to vouch for his new friend to the mob.
Depp finds he is identifying too much with his subjects.
Pacino suspects there might be something wrong with “Donnie”, but
can’t bring himself to face up to it.
Pogo called it, “We have met the enemy and they is
us.” (In anthropology we
call it becoming too empathic, or Going Native.)
Both actors are very good, even if the subject matter is a trifle
depressing at times. It
certainly doesn’t make you want to run right out and join the Mafia.
Or the FBI for that matter.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |