Working Hard Toward Zero
sometime in 2015
katie and I don't drink alcohol. It isn't a moral choice, and we are not in recovery. We just don't find value or pleasure there.
But today we bought two bottles of Kahlua (one was peppermint). As we came in the door the plastic bag broke.
The peppermint Kahlua bottle broke, the rug sucked up nearly a full liter, and the rest of the contents sprayed the entire tile entryway, the walls, the shoes, and katie.
First I retrieved katie from the blast zone, uninjured and sticky. Then we cleaned. A lot.
During the cleanup I foolishly filled the vacuum from one end to the other with sticky peppermint Kahlua.
After the entryway was mostly salvaged, I took the rug and vacuum out and cleaned both for a long time.
Kevin - 0, Kahlua - 5 I'm facing having to call FEMA.
Elapsed time from walking in the door with groceries to clean-up finished: 2 hours.
We worked 2 hours to get back to zero. Back to where we were the instant just before the Kahlua broke.
And I realized, Life is like this. Life is often about working our ass off just to get back to zero.
Got a dirty house and wish it was clean? That is a lot a work to get back to zero. Got a lot of debt? Time to fight back to zero. Packed on a few too many pounds? It will take effort to get back to zero. Mess up something in the relationship? Maybe with hard work you can get back to zero.
Life sometimes is fighting against entropy. Things fall apart, and unless you want the chaos, disrepair and rot to win, you have to pour in your energy to just maintain. It sometimes is disheartening. It sometimes feels pointless. Why work that hard just to get back to square one?
And working toward zero is often unnoticed or unappreciated. If I was at work during the Kahlua Disaster of '14, katie would have sunk 3 hours into cleaning up the mess, and I would get home and the house would look like when I left. I might not even know I should notice. Three hours busting ass to get back to zero, and not a word of appreciation.
Life sometimes, is about treading water. Sure progress and growth are the goal, but often working toward zero is the reality.
Peace,
Barak & Sheba
©2015 Kevin & katie