Them: “What do you do for fun?”
Me: “Uhm. Work.”
Them: “You consider that fun?”
Me: “Yes.”
Them: “Don’t you have a life?”
Me: “You mean working isn’t living?”
Work to live. Live to work. Who’s to say which is right. Many years ago my Mom put together some photos from old slides that Dad took as we were growing up on the farm.
She had the slides spliced together and put onto a VHS tape. If you are of a certain age and are saying “slides??” … “a VH-what?”, then please move on…there is nothing for you here. kidding. She didn’t have the technology available at the time to add a voice-over to the tape, so she typed out a script to go along with the photos as the tape played. Boy, how times have changed!!
It was a lot of fun to see these old pictures of our life as we grew up farming, setting water in the fields, driving tractors, mowing lawns…all the chores that go along with a farm and a big family.
One of the comments that my Mom added to her script is a comment that I will always remember. The comment accompanied a slide showing a couple of us kids playing in the irrigation ditch…dirty…wet…happy.
I’m sure that it was a really hot day and we were out setting water in the corn fields. One of the “rules” that Dad had layed down is “never get into the ditch”. I’m sure that it was for safety, or to preserve the integrity of the ditch, not sure…but we usually always followed that rule. On this particular day…not so much.
Dad caught the moment on one of those cherished slides. (I wish I had a copy to post and show you. I always wondered why Dad took a picture instead of being mad at us for breaking the rules. It must have been a REALLY hot day!) The photo showed some young kids with huge grins on their faces. The comment from Mom: “You worked so hard, but you thought you were having fun.”
That comment has been a lifelong philosophy that has followed my brothers and sister and I. All five of us know how to work hard. My younger brother and I have talked about this before. We work hard, then we work hard some more. But we still think we are having fun.
Please don’t tell me that I’m not having fun, that could ruin it for me!!
