How NOT to lose your mind

Yeah, right.

If you knew me, you would already know that title is an obvious joke. Those who do know me.....Breathe! Lack of oxygen causes dain bramage. See, truth is, I think I lost my mind long ago. So long ago, in fact, that I wouldn't know where to start looking if there were even the remotest chance of actually finding it. Besides, I wouldn't really know what to do with it anymore anyway.

My best friend of *muffled number* years and I have had this discussion before. I call it the "Edith Bunker" syndrome. For those who don't know, Edith was married to Archie Bunker- HINT: google "All in the family." Archie was chubby, grouchy, opinionated and bigoted. "Oh, how horrible!" you exclaim! No, the strange thing was, he wasn't horrible. You couldn't help but like him in that "bless his chubby, grouchy, opinionated, bigoted little heart" kind of way. He wasn't malicious, just a product of his times. Still, I would have had to kill him if he were my husband.

Edith, however, was the opposite of Archie. The "Anti-Archie," if you will. She always had a smile. She waited on Archie hand and foot. She loved everyone. When Archie called her a dingbat (which was often) she would giggle in her dingbat way, smile and say "Oooooh Arrrrchiiiiie," then do whatever he wanted, with that same old smile on her face. Nothing seemed to phase her, ever.

Edith's life was Archie and her family. She lived to serve. She lived to cook and clean and do laundry and bring beer to Archie. That's what she did, that's what she was, and she was perfectly content in her tiny little house with her chubby, grouchy, opinionated, bigoted husband who called her a dingbat.

I am not content. I have too many important decisions to make every day. I have too many people who turn to me for assistance, for guidance, or to just plain do things for them that they could or should do for themselves, or worse, they can't do themselves. If it's broken, I'm supposed to fix it. If it's lost, I'm supposed to find it. If it's not done, I should have done it days ago. If theres a question, I should have or find the answer.

And, unlike Edith, I actually have interests of my own. I like to write, to paint, to read books, to build things. I like to be creative. There is little time for creativity between the routine duties of Mother and house-wife, and all those extra things that come at me from every direction. I haven't read a book in seven years, and it bothers me immensley.

I sometimes catch myself longing for "dingbat-itis." To be able to smile no matter what, to have my most dificult choice of the day be "chicken fried steak" or "fried chicken" for dinner. (Sorry, back to the fried stuff....But I'm from Texas! We fry everything!) To have no one ever ask me anything except "do I have any clean socks?" If I could be "mindless" like Edith, then I would have no mind to lose.

But....

I wouldn't have that cool five foot painting done on a scrap piece of wood hanging over my desk, or that "uber awesome" entertainment center I built for my kids (who adore me) to put their video consoles in, or that cute paper mache elf that everyone exclaims "you MADE that?!!!" or a nephew that says I'm the coolest Aunt ever, or parents that proudly brag "I must have done something right," or a best friend of *muffled number* years who is so much like me we know we were separated at birth.

Perhaps I have the answer after all. How do you not lose your mind?

Perspective.