Noticing: When the Problems are First World

Coming up with a weekly blog topic ain’t always easy. Now that’s a first-world problem if I ever heard one.

It’s not like I have a spreadsheet full of ideas waiting patiently for their turn. (Note to self: Terrific idea! Make one of those suckers.)

Mostly it’s random shit that enters my brain, twirls around in there for a while, and then pops out when I sit down at the keyboard. Little fleeting thoughts the Muse decides I should pursue.

Tonight it was a dryer full of towels.

Towels that would have happily lived there indefinitely had a family member not needed the dryer and communicated—with considerably more attitude than actual words—that perhaps I might remove them.

Well, excuse me.

Am I the only person in this household capable of folding towels?

Apparently I am.

So there I was, folding towels. Mostly dishtowels, of which we own approximately fifty hundred thousand.

This is because I have kept every dishtowel I have ever owned.

The good ones. The faded ones. The stained ones. The ones worn so thin you can practically see through them. Because I believe dishtowels have feelings and that throwing one away after twenty years of faithful service would be an act of betrayal.

I regret this deeply on towel-folding day.

And that’s when the Muse came out of nowhere, whacked me upside the head and yelled:

THIS!

This what?

THIS IS YOUR NEXT BLOG POST!

What, the fact that I am apparently the Keeper of the Towels? The fact that I am a little OCD about how they’re folded and stacked in the drawer?

Laundry. First-world problem.

She said this in her perky little lightbulb-over-the-head voice.

And I stopped.

Because, well…

She’s right.

I’m standing in a warm house being annoyed because I have to fold clean towels that came out of a machine that washed them for me before I tossed them into another machine that dried them for me.

I didn’t haul water. I didn’t heat it over a fire. I didn’t scrub anything against a rock down by the river.

I pushed buttons.

And now I’m pissed because I have to fold things.

First World Problems

This got me thinking about all the other tiny inconveniences that can assume ridiculous importance in the course of an ordinary day.

The dishwasher is clean.

Damn. Now I have to empty it.

The Wi-Fi is slow.

The grocery store remodeled and now I can’t find anything.

My phone needs charging. Again.

There’s nothing to eat, by which I mean there’s plenty to eat but none of it happens to be the thing I suddenly decided I want.

The coffee is all the way over there.

And don’t even get me started on folding fitted sheets.

First-world problems.

I don’t mean that as a slap on the wrist.

I’m not particularly interested in scolding myself—or anybody else—into gratitude because someone somewhere has it harder. Someone somewhere will always have it harder.

Besides, an annoying thing can still be annoying.

But I wonder what happens when I look underneath the annoyance.

Look What’s Hiding Underneath

I have too much laundry because I have clothes.

The refrigerator is crammed because I have food.

The studio is a mess because I have a studio—and enough art supplies to survive a prolonged creative emergency.

The dogs tracked mud across the floor because I have dogs.

And a floor.

And live where they have the freedom to get into mud.

I’m realizing how much of the stuff that annoys me is connected to something I’m pretty damn lucky to have.

Which brings me back to the towels.

I folded them. Stacked them neatly in the drawer because that’s their happy place .

And for approximately forty-five seconds, I appreciated the astonishing luxury of having too many towels.

Then I noticed one was folded the wrong way.

Gratitude has its limits.

Your Turn:

This week’s creative prompt: What annoyed you today?

Pick one small irritation and look underneath it.

What good thing is hiding in there?

Notice it.

Then go ahead and be annoyed anyway. Because if I can get inspired by a dryer full of dishtowels, there’s hope for just about anything.

P.S. Another first-world problem…
I keep making things for the Etsy shop. Because, y’know, I’ve gotta make that three hundred million.

 

 

 

This week the mid-term elections have been on my mind. I keep politics off the blog, but over at Wee Obsessions, I’ve been letting my opinions out to play along with my love of typography and design. Democracy now comes scented. And wearable.

Back next week–