WELCOME TO BIFOCAL FRIDAYS

I recently started a new job in a formal business setting after 20 years of working in a very independent environment. I absolutely love my new gig, but it does require a pretty unwavering commitment to a solid 9-5 schedule every day, with a generous but very structured vacation policy. I miss some of the flexibility I had before, to take a day or an afternoon or a few hours off at the drop of a hat.

So imagine my delight a few months into the job when I learned that we keep “Summer Hours” for the months of June, July and August. That means Friday afternoons entirely off. I felt like a kid in a candy store as I considered the unexpected gift of this special time suddenly available to me.

It reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books, The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright, which I have read countless times. In 1940s New York City, the four fictional Melendy children lament that their weekly allowance of 50 cents each isn’t enough to do anything really good with. So they decide to pool their money, and one child will have it all each week in turn, to do something special for a Saturday adventure.

Ten year-old Randy gets to go first, because it was her idea. As she luxuriates in considering her options, she thinks she mustn’t waste a minute or a penny of it. “It was like a door opening into an enchanted country which nobody had ever seen before; all her own to do with as she liked.” This is how I felt about the idea of my Summer Hours. While mine wasn’t an issue of limited spending money, the idea of not wasting a single minute of it was paramount. So I made the decision to approach my Friday afternoons very intentionally, committed to making each one count in a unique and meaningful way, all summer long.

As the Melendy’s father said when he granted approval to their scheme, “See that you do something you really want; something you’ll always remember. Don’t waste your Saturdays on unimportant things.” I wouldn’t waste my precious Friday afternoons. I would do something wonderful (or at least notable) every week, and write about it here so I’d be accountable to the commitment and fully mindful of the adventure.

Of course not every Friday will pan out as some big amazing thing. Maybe one afternoon I will simply clean my house and revel in the fact that I have this lovely home with a new love who has given me a new lease on life in my 50s. Maybe one day I will simply weed the garden and think about life. But there’s plenty to be gotten from that as well.

“We lead a humdrum life when I think about it. It’s funny how it doesn’t seem humdrum,” said Randy Melendy over tea with an old family friend. Mrs. Oliphant replied, “That’s because you have ‘eyes the better to see with, my dear’ and ‘ears the better to hear with.’ Nobody who has them and uses them is likely to find life humdrum very often. Even when they have to use bifocal lenses, like me.”

Join me on my “Summer Hours: Bifocal Fridays” adventures. Maybe you’ll find something new to do with your special time, or just a new way of looking at things.

Friday #5: July 1, 2016

Colonoscopy?! Yep. 

I’d love to be able to report something more fun for this week’s Bifocal Friday adventure – and in fact I did have a lot of fun the rest of the long holiday weekend. But the truth is, this particular Friday was slated long ago for my inaugural colonoscopy. I had put it off for as long as my conscience would allow (it appears that two years is my conscience’s limit) and in fact I had rescheduled it a couple of times because other things came up that seemed more important. But really, when you get right down to it, what could be more important? 

That thought was magnified for me over the course of the week leading up to my appointment. I was scheduled to meet Thursday with a leading cancer researcher at the University of Minnesota to interview him for a piece I’m writing. And the day before that, I spent the entire afternoon at the regional Cancer Moonshot Summit. Vice President Joe Biden had convened a national event in Washington that day, which sparked regional events around the country, including the one hosted by the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center. It brought together researchers, oncologists, care providers, philanthropists, public policy leaders, data and technology experts, patients and survivors – all convening to lead the national charge to double the rate of progress toward a cure for cancer.

Struck even more than usual by hearing about cancer from all these different perspectives, I was especially moved by one of the panelists at the summit: a woman my age with stage 4 breast cancer who spoke about her ongoing patient advocacy work. And even more so when her son, a first-year med school student, rose from the audience to add his perspective to her comments.

Together they strengthened my reluctant resolve to keep Friday’s appointment and get my damn screening over with. Everyone said it wasn’t so bad once you get through the icky prep stage, and they were right. The procedure itself was brief, comfortable and uneventful. Even though I had “conscious sedation,” I was not conscious of anything – except for feeling thankful that it was over and even more thankful that the results showed nothing abnormal. 

I slept the rest of the day, and that, in a nutshell, was my Bifocal Friday. Here’s hoping next week’s adventure will be more entertaining!
Posted by

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)