View RSS Feed

Notes from the Field

The Mandolin Life

Rate this Entry
In various threads about getting better you will hear complaints about how little time is available for mandolin. Working two jobs, keeping three kids fed, negotiating four ex-wives, only five days of vacation… I hear you.

This is not a “priorities” lecture, I am not going to tell you that you have the same 24 hours in a day that everyone does, this is not going to be a time management tips and tricks discussion.

My experience is much more gradual and organic. Mandolin started as something I did now and then, filling in occasional free time, and has become something my whole life is organized around. I am not sure I made a single over-arching conscious decision to make it happen, or that I made that many individual conscious decisions along the way. Looking back it seems as if it just happened.

Well yea, my journey contains a few conscious decisions, I have to admit, the biggest being I gave up watching television. I decided that instead of watching the lives of others, I wanted to have a life that was interesting enough to watch. I wanted to live the selected channel, not just change the channel.

That opened up huge great vistas of time. My goodness. Nowadays, if I occasionally watch a television, I feel very mortal, and my time running out. I feel the sand going through the hourglass.

A second conscious decision I made was to hire someone to take care of the lawn, yard and driveway. And I made a performance deal – instead of paying for someone to come out biweekly, need it or not, I said here is a lump sum for the year to keep my yard presentable and my driveway clear of snow. Come whenever it needs work. Don’t come if there is nothing needs done.

I am not a rich person, not even close, but that is the best money I have ever spent. Just about every day I consider, would I rather have the money, or the freeing knowledge that it just gets done. The money never wins that battle.

There are less conscious things that have saved time for mandolinning. I eschew owning items that require special care or special attention. I gave away all the dishes that cannot be put in the dish washer, I don’t wear anything I can’t throw in the washer and dryer. (Well I have some formalwear that needs dry cleaning. But they pick up and deliver.) I don’t have a lawn mower or snow blower (as you would expect) so I don’t have any small engine repair or maintenance to do.

The main thing, however, the thing that makes the difference, is that mandolinning has moved from something I used to make time for, to what it is now: along with family and work, it is what I do. It’s the other stuff, housework, fishing, reading, that I fit in where I can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k877h5POs80

Submit "The Mandolin Life" to Facebook Submit "The Mandolin Life" to Yahoo Submit "The Mandolin Life" to Google

Updated Jan-29-2018 at 12:54pm by JeffD

Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Gelsenbury's Avatar
    I think you're onto something there. I wish I had the courage - or family support - to make those decisions.
  2. JeffD's Avatar
    I know. All stake holders have to be "on board".

    Observation - I have never seen a headstone in a grave yard that reported on how neatly the deceased folded his underwear, or his superlative garden maintenance.

    Just sayin...