Taglines

Like a lot of people, I use taglines on my emails at work. Usually, I put something funny there, or whimsical – the current one says “....with many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.” (I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me what that’s all about, but no takers. Perhaps the interested ones just google the phrase. A while ago, I had 'I live to serve. And sometimes to volley.'; one recipient of an email told me he laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair.) ,,A little bit ago, I came across a nice one in an article from the current Real Simple magazine. The article is about people in a chorus who sing to terminally ill people. One of the illustrations of the article shows a sampler hanging from a cabinet knob; on the sampler it reads “Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here, we should dance.”

On my wall at work I have a photograph that I took of a friend at a hospital, a week before she died. I don’t look at it all that much - I don’t look up at the wall at all, usually, except to grab a glance at the calendar – but when I see the picture, I stop for just a moment and remember her. She’s there to remind me that work is not all there is to life. For some people, life isn’t an option any more. So when I think about her, sometimes I think about endings, and about beginnings.

I am within three years of retiring from the job I hold now. I tell people that somewhere between this June and December 2008 I’m going to pack it in. The date varies according to how much I’m enjoying what I’m doing. The fact that there is an end date gives a pretty good indication of how much maximum joy there is, where I am, doing what I do; the fact that I’m still there (past the magical ‘vested in the retirement plan’ date, which occurred last year) is a pretty good indication that it’s usually at least a positive number. Usually.

I have an acquaintance who’s a doctor, and though her specialty is internal medicine, she has a number of sideline interests, focusing on women’s health issues. She told me the other day that she recently had the opportunity to pitch an idea to the script writers for the Desperate Housewives series; in the past, she’s jetted halfway around the world to give a presentation to a convention of sellers of a health product, and she’s written a book on health. I am impressed by her energy and intelligence, not to mention her considerable achievements, and sometimes when I think about my life, it seems amazingly drab compared to hers. I don’t usually compare us, but when I do, I wonder if I had worked harder, had more drive, more vision, if I would have turned out better at some things. I guess it's ironic, because I'm not really a competitive person, and I don't feel the need to achieve. I'm happy as I am.

Yet that feeling recurs. Sometimes, when it does, it helps to be reminded that life includes dancing !