Holiday from Ordinary

We have a monthly calendar on the refrigerator door.  It’s made of white board material so we can make changes when a new month arrives. It’s kind of cool to see how busy we have been over the month.  For instance, I see we’re already a week past Thanksgiving.  It doesn’t seem like that it’s been a whole week already, but on the other hand I would venture to guess it had been a long time ago.  Funny how time can take on that quality at the same time; almost like water. 

   One of my wife’s quests of recent is to economize household expenses.  That effort entails reviewing all of our service contracts to see if we can get them at a lower cost, or decide if we are not using them, to cancel them outright. She is exceptionally determined in this pursuit, as I applaud her DNA for that predisposition.  Now sometimes, I’ll admit, I get glassy-eyed when she’s telling me about all the variables she’s juggling in her comparison process.  Guys will know what I’m talking about if they have ever had the distinct pleasure of being dragged out to find living room drapes.  An astute woman will know exactly when she has won her argument by that easy to discern vacant-and-nobody-is-home look on her guys face.  We don’t come right out and say “I don’t care” because first of all, we love what they are doing for us, and honor that sort of dedication.  Secondly, and more to the bedrock truth of it, we don’t want to do relationship damage control if it can be avoided:  Some call that taking the easy way out, others would venture to call it wimping out.  But for those who claim the latter I believe have not been indoctrinated to the joys of living room drape selections; the choices are ponderable and without distinctive qualities to defend. If you do happen to ‘like’ a possible choice; my favorite reply to why I make the choice I do is this:

   “I don’t know, because I think you’ll agree and then we can go home?”

   So this time the topic was cable (slash) Internet provider.  Most folks I know are bundled, so, when you decide to hop from, say, COMCAST to DIRECT TV, you are not just talking about entertainment venues.  You are addressing the differences in phone service, Internet service, and most of all, the delicate configuration of your computer, router, and Wifi to the current settings.  If you change, then all of those painstaking efforts to make-the-stuff-work-the-way-you-want are in jeopardy; I am, therefore, resistant to change.  I am spurred to consideration if there is a fifty per cent savings; then I’d say it hit the threshold of willingness to consider.

   As we weighed the attractive features alongside the value, something Montse said stuck a nerve so profoundly I had to dedicate today’s posting to it.  And that was: “Change gets us out of our comfort.”  Now she may not have used those exact words (she’ll tell me when she reads this what the actual phrase was, but work with me now.). Her observation was so right-on that any rational appeal I was gathering in order to resist facing the possibility of losing my network access, or having to once-again pull out the documentation on the Wifi in order to configure it to a new carrier, were all swept away. 

   Life IS change: I rant on about it to anyone within earshot and who, out of social grace, don’t start running in the other direction when they spot me coming.  I can be worse than a pregnant woman talking about babies when it comes to the topic of change.  Yes it’s our friend, yes it’s the only true law of our physical existence, yes avoiding it is futile. But an aspect I’ve totally let slip by me was that it not only challenges our comfort, it breaks it up faster than a High School teacher disperses a gaggle of gossiping girls in the hallway during class break. 

   Boom, the way it used to be is gone; darn, and to do it on purpose?  Yeah, yeah I invite it for the sheer exhilaration of the unknown in my midst. Will there be chaos and mayhem should we choose another service? 

Bring it on. 

   What about familiarity with surfing the current program provider? 

I’ll learn different. 

   For every worry, there is a positive response; and that is the very essences all of us need to live.  RESPONSE and ADAPT; not reaction to keep things as they are.  What a beautiful opportunity to wake up to the real.

  End of this tale is that we did make the switch and we had a blast examining how to master the changes while learning new ways of adjusting to different methods to get where we wanted.  It was a holiday from ordinary.  Any time you can get the chance to do that, I strongly recommend a healthy dose of it. If only for the thrill that change makes you feel……dare.