The Same Day Over and Over Again

It's cold, it's grey, and it's been a long time since I've posted so I'm staying tucked under the down comforter for awhile blogging until the house warms up. We watched Groundhog Day last weekend and it just occurred to me that the day Phil Connors had to live over and over again for more than eight years was a day just like today ... I would have gone mad. Everything I do is based on time and continuity and almost nothing is completed in a day. Think about it. If everything starts over each day, projects would reset and couldn't be continued. Whatever I put into the kiln would be gone. If I got the loom warped, it would be empty the next day. Even if I did manage to finish something, it would be back in its original pieces the next day. Gah! What a horrible thought! Well, except for ceramics. I'd become a lot better throwing clay if I just practiced and wasn't focused on a finished piece. Of course I'd never learn anything about glazing at all since I'd never get tp see a piece come out of the kiln.

There is nothing to do in the garden in February--and even if there were, how depressing would it be to weed the beds and find all the weeds back the next day! Any renovations to the house would also disappear by the next day. I'd have to change everything I love to do. On the plus side, the house would never get dirtier (or course it wouldn't get any cleaner either). I'd know exactly where Baxter was going to pee at any given time and be able to get him outside first so I'd never have to clean that up again.

So if I had one day to live over and over again, how would I spend it? Could I work out and get completely into shape? Considering that Phil destroyed his body several times and it came back undamaged and unchanged the next day, probably not. He was able to learn the piano though, which requires building muscle memory. Hmmm. That piece of continuity is a little bit squiffy. And at the end of eight years for me it would only be a day for everyone else so I'd have to look physically the same. So what _would_ I do?

Well, I could read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies. I could become fluent again in French. I could learn Japanese and Arabic and renew my relationship with Russian. Oooh, I could start saxophone and zoom ahead in piano! I could master making bread! That's it! Eight years of the same day over and over again is all about practice. It's about infinite resources and do overs. It's not about completing anything. Instead, it's about the journey.

So what makes it different, really, from eight years of real life? Don't some people say life is about the journey, not the destination? Well for one thing, in life there are consequences to your choices in the journey--just like there are endings to the projects. I skipped over all the doing-stupid-stuff-for-fun-because-there-are-no-consequences things because while they might be entertaining for a little while, they'd get boring fast. In life there isn't infinite time: Any things you choose to do mean things you don't get to choose. Life is a lot of this OR that, not this AND that. In life there are chores, all the pesky little things like housework, taxes, doctor's appointments, and such that keep you from spending all your time learning and practicing.

And real life has now intruded on my musings requiring me to get out from under the warm covers and go work out. Japanese, Arabic, and saxophone are going to have to wait.