Since we had nothing special planned for Thanksgiving Day, my wife & I volunteered to work at the holiday community supper in downtown Raymond. My wife took orders, cleaned tables and, later, ate a fine traditional turkey meal. I, of course, volunteered to wash dishes and I washed dishes for nearly 3 1/2 hours.
As we were close to finishing the clean-up process, I told the organizer (Ollie) that, I'd like to say I had fun, but...and I winked. There was an awkward pause, then she said to me, "But you volunteered to wash dishes! If you wanted to do a different task, all you had to do was ask."
This is very typical of the conversations I get into with people. I meant nothing negative whatsoever. The simple fact of the matter is that washing dishes is not a "fun" task. For me, it does tend to be enjoyable, but fun and enjoyable don't mean the same thing in my book.
As I've written before, I tend to gravitate toward repetitive tasks. Since dish washing meets this criteria, I enjoyed the work I volunteered to do. When I finished, I felt a sense of accomplishment and I know that my work was valued by all the other volunteers who had spent their time cooking and serving.
I tried to explain what I meant to Ollie, but I don't think she got it. I'm afraid she went home thinking that my time was not pleasurable and that I won't volunteer next year. If this is her presumption, she's wrong. In fact, I told one of the other volunteers that, if she knew of other like events, I'm usually interested in volunteering to wash dishes.
So, there you have it. I washed dishes for over three hours. It was a very enjoyable experience -- but it wasn't a FUN experience.
*************************************
Addendum: It's the morning of the day after. As is usual, I can hardly move. So, today will be a down day.
People often ask me, "If you know doing this sort of stuff will render you lame and in pain the next day and beyond, why do it?" And the simple answer is why not? Since I have lots of down days anyway -- regardless of whether or not I engage in the above activities -- I might as well get out of the house and do something for someone else.
In other words, I can wash dishes at community events every week, just not on consecutive days or more than twice per week.
As we were close to finishing the clean-up process, I told the organizer (Ollie) that, I'd like to say I had fun, but...and I winked. There was an awkward pause, then she said to me, "But you volunteered to wash dishes! If you wanted to do a different task, all you had to do was ask."
This is very typical of the conversations I get into with people. I meant nothing negative whatsoever. The simple fact of the matter is that washing dishes is not a "fun" task. For me, it does tend to be enjoyable, but fun and enjoyable don't mean the same thing in my book.
As I've written before, I tend to gravitate toward repetitive tasks. Since dish washing meets this criteria, I enjoyed the work I volunteered to do. When I finished, I felt a sense of accomplishment and I know that my work was valued by all the other volunteers who had spent their time cooking and serving.
I tried to explain what I meant to Ollie, but I don't think she got it. I'm afraid she went home thinking that my time was not pleasurable and that I won't volunteer next year. If this is her presumption, she's wrong. In fact, I told one of the other volunteers that, if she knew of other like events, I'm usually interested in volunteering to wash dishes.
So, there you have it. I washed dishes for over three hours. It was a very enjoyable experience -- but it wasn't a FUN experience.
*************************************
Addendum: It's the morning of the day after. As is usual, I can hardly move. So, today will be a down day.
People often ask me, "If you know doing this sort of stuff will render you lame and in pain the next day and beyond, why do it?" And the simple answer is why not? Since I have lots of down days anyway -- regardless of whether or not I engage in the above activities -- I might as well get out of the house and do something for someone else.
In other words, I can wash dishes at community events every week, just not on consecutive days or more than twice per week.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.