# 124 DRESSING WITH ATTITUDE

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. That when my feet hit the floor in the morning, I take on a responsibility that is shared by no one else – only me. And that is my independent decision to make or break that new day.

So the philosophy for a gr-r-eat day is straightforward. But wait, there is something else. I also need to take into account something that happens each day that I have no control over. The backlash I have to deal with that arises from the attitudes that make me who I am. You know what they are. You’ve heard me mention them numerous times before – lucid, abstracted, distracted, elusive, and sometimes, though seldom, and therefore seldom mentioned – logical.

And because of these attitudes, despite a firm resolve to make each day a good day, that doesn’t always happen. Because as soon as my feet hit the floor, one of those attitudes that I’ve mentioned, rolls out from under the bed and magically shrink-wraps my body. And so, without choosing or deliberate selection, I find myself robed in attitude.

Now the other thing about my wardrobe of attitudes is that they are not like the clothes in my closet. I can’t wake up with one robe on and strip it off and toss it back in the drawer in exchange for another when I find it is biting my skin and just a wee bit uncomfortable. It doesn’t work that way. Whatever robe I have on when my feet hit the floor is the robe that I am obliged to wear for the balance of that day. So now if we were to do a wee fashion show of attitudes, this is what we would find.

Coming down the catwalk right now is lucid. Lucid is good. I’m a storyteller and my robe of lucidity makes that job so much easier. On lucid days thoughts are crisp and clear. I absorb stuff around me like a sponge.

And now here comes abstracted. Abstracted is also good. When I’m abstracted, I am seldom discouraged as I can easily convince myself that even the most arduous task can be done in less than a minute. How great is that?

And then there’s distracted. That’s good too. But not the best kind of day for socializing because on a distracted day I find myself buried in self-reflection. Quite unable to focus elsewhere.

And elusive is good too. That’s a day of easy avoidance of chores as well as irritations or others’ flaws.

So finally, here comes logical. And that’s the ugliest bit of this fashion show. Logical days easily turn into days of misery. These are days with numerous annoyances. When I’m dressed in my logical robe, I fully expect everything to make good sense. All that I hear, all that I see, all that I do. And I suppose that would be okay if everything did. But it doesn’t.

So today, oh woe is me, didn’t I wake up with my logical robe on. So I grabbed a fresh coffee and went to the living room to watch a bit of morning news. The first thing I was exposed to was an ad for food storage bags with zippers. Oh my, look at that. How vastly improved they are? Now they’re made with two zippers instead of one. Well excuse me. If the first zipper worked, there would be no reason for a second zipper. And since the first zipper didn’t work, the solution is to put a second zipper of the same fashion and quality as the first on each bag? Logically not. We now have a bag with two useless zippers. And I know that to be true because I still have 102 wayward kernels of corn rolling around in the bottom of my freezer.

So now the news is on and from the get-go it is all too illogical for someone wrapped in a robe of logic. The American Port sales, nukes for mangoes in India, more young soldiers dying, the unrest in Iraq, protesters all over the globe smashing and burning, completely forgetting reasonability, etc.

And that makes it necessary for me to return to my original thought about being solely responsible for making or breaking my new day. Normally a statement of truth, today it is false. Because when I have my logical robe on, everything I see and hear is illogical and therefore radically upsetting. It’s not going to be a good day and I can’t do a darn thing about it.

Man, what I wouldn’t give for a new day to snuggle in the warmth and comfort of my abstracted or distracted robe rather than this nasty thing.