My Martyrdom

Sample a gazillion blogs at Alpha Inventions

Why Wait?

I read about some research: “Getting Children to

Delay Gratification.” As if that were a Virtue. As if
there weren’t a glut of such delayers, those who

have forgotten how to play. As if there were no

mothers.

Yes, we knew that comatose we would be useless to
our families, and faced with that, as fact and not
a nervous relative's conjecture, and because it was
a duty, we could be persuaded to protect our
health, relax, and learn to balance the demands
upon our time... and maybe even (gasp!) let go, let
God. Perhaps.

I started practicing in college: work first, recreation
later. If at all. I got so good at it, I couldn’t quit.
There must be something onerous to do, I’d tell
myself, and stall before agreeing to a movie or a
long and lazy weekend at the beach. I can’t have
finished everything repugnant. And I hadn’t.
No one ever
does.

And thus it was that always I could find a reason
not to be available for fun. Perversely (it occurred
to me), the drudgery was what I had begun to try to
not delay.

Gratification has become
my martyrdom.
==================

Click HERE for Annagrammatica's "Cards & Gifts" Home Page. Sale ends Thursday!