Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
In the By and By, Sometime Before I Die
A colleague of mine once told me, apropos of what I don’t remember, that it takes the average person seven years to decide to buy a new pillow.
At the time, I looked at him, his name was Ramon, while he lit yet another cigarette. He shared this odd fact before Google or Facebook or memes turning up everywhere and defining contemporary knowledge. So, he must have read it somewhere. He was a guy who read a lot. He’d been in a religious order before quitting to start a nonprofit, so he spent a lot of time reading, and smoking, and drinking Rob Roys, a drink I never knew anyone to drink but him. A Rob Roy is scotch, vermouth, and bitters if you’re wondering.
When he said this about the pillow, I thought it was nuts. But now that I’m older and keeping better track of time, I think he was right.
Every night, I think that I should get a new pillow. Mine is lumpy and kind of flat. Well, I have two pillows, both in the same deflated condition. I deserve a new pillow! I think. Other people have really great pillows. Super fluffy and soft. Pillow deprivation can be overwhelming but there is no remedy, especially late at night when one is going to bed. One just has to make do.
In the morning, the inferior state of one’s pillow doesn’t matter anymore because the day is unfolding, there are things to do, other areas of want and doubt to be addressed, possibly tiny victories. Whatever is to happen takes all the attention. And then that night, the pillow’s flatness re-emerges as a pressing issue. Then the next morning, life beats on and on and on.
And that, my friends, is how seven years passes. It makes perfect sense now.
_______________________
Prompt: What have you had for a long time that you use every day?
3 Comments on “In the By and By, Sometime Before I Die”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
it’s kind of like Groundhog Day, where each night we remember and in the morning we move on with our day and forget again
I just bought new pillows. I buy cheap pillows and replace them OFTEN. I don’t buy feather pillows because no matter what they tell you or how much they cost, they flatten out faster than anything else, including the cheapest pillows on the market — and trust me, there are a LOT of cheap pillows available. But the thing is, if you don’t spend a fortune on the pillow, you can replace them without having to brood on the experience. I buy carefully and wait for sales and yes, mostly via Amazon because we don’t have much shopping around here. We used to have a Bed Bath & Beyond until it closed. Also closed were pretty much anyplace that sold bedding. I’m betting that everyone in the valley has to buy online with delivery unless they feel like driving the 70 bumper-to-bumper miles into Boston, then pay who knows how much to park. It really improves one’s opinion of Amazon when you live in the boonies and don’t have a lot of choices.
I’ve been thinking a good deal about my pillow as well. It is a feather pillow and I told someone the other day that I’ve had it since I was a child but I think I was exaggerrating. I do know, however, that I’ve had it for at least 40 years. Seems impossible. It is like a child’s nigh nigh for me. It is so limp and floppy but so comforting. I’m thinking my neck pain is due to sleeping on this pillow and so I borrowed one from the guestroom bed, which has 4 pillows so can spare one. I’ve been trying to acclimate myself to it but it is sponge or some other more solid material and I keep gravitating back to the feather(less) pillow, which is so floppy you can bend it.