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Midwest Memo
In my case, it's not a pretty sight, no, not at all, and a distinct wobble usually sets in pretty quick. But a worthy goal this illusive state of balance is, so we compete like two swans in a cold pond as though our aim were keeping one orange webbed foot warm at a time. Sometimes it's that tinkering with figures to get the checkbook bottom line to match the bank. Other times it's moving the big serving bowls around to get the growing bowl out of the cabinet shelf. Balance we seek in our person, in our environment, in our relationships. My wife and I like to sleep in the cold, no toasty warm rooms for us. But this state of perfect sleep requires all kinds of tinkering for balance. At the farmhouse we must open two windows at night, one in the bedroom, one in the hall. This effect lets the house breath and keeps us cool. But then under the down comforter we must burrow, first shaking the heavy cover into the air to distribute evenly the feathers inside. The perfect balance of cool and warm, outside and underneath, this is what we seek. In our tiny city place we have only one exposure of windows and only one of the 1960s aluminum windows that opens easily. If I raise that window just an inch or two the rush of air howls and moans and makes more racket than any sleeper can endure. The turbulence created makes the mini blinds shake so much you'd think a train was headed through our little space. So wide open I must pull open the window, letting more night air in than is ever desired. The draft thus created resembles a tropical gale wind as it rushes through our small confine towards the elevator shafts in the common hall beyond our front door. To balance this wind force common in high rises we must pile on the blankets, comforters and throws, then toss them off, one-by-one, as the night proceeds and the perfect balance that can be achieved on the farm continues to allude us in the big city. Though balance may at times seem illusive, I think one tends to seek it instinctively. I've chosen to stay busy at work for months now and I'm a few sessions shy of balance from reading a good book and sitting at the keyboard playing from the hymnal. My internal balance says an adjustment is needed. The first college I attended stressed what they called "the whole man concept." The premise was that a good education included the spiritual through religion, the intellectual via formal study, the social ala interaction and the physical with sports, toil and recreation. It made sense to me way back then and it makes even more sense to me all these years later.
At a party recently someone cornered me and went into that familiar monologue, a non stop lecture where the speaker goes on without any interaction and where the listener could just as well be a card board figure propped against the wall. I was rescued by a friend who sensed my predicament. Balance restored |
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