So listen, sometimes you know you have a job interview in 20 minutes, so you prep as best you can, you try to find a “Play This Right Before Your Interview To Get Hype” playlist on Spotify, then remember you’re old and don’t know any of these songs (which doesn’t mean they’re bad, just that they don’t mean anything to you1), and eventually you just boot up One Night In Bangkok as you had originally planned. Do some power-poses, strut around the place: a show with everything but Yul Brynner. Maybe do that big-lion-stretch thing Rebecca showed us in Ted Lasso. Then it’s time to head into your office, where the cats can’t get in and make a damned fool out of you in front of a potential employer.
BUT LITTLE DID HE KNOW:
BAMBOOZLED BY A MISU’S GUILE.
(The interview went fine; I’d be lying if I said I can pretend to be especially passionate about solar panel sales and installation, but I am passionate about not being all out of money like a bunny that’s broke all the friggin’ time.)
Alright, let’s see what our lucky number is today:
#17: Everyone has specific rituals that
they follow, tell us about one of yours.
Listen, Senator: I made ritual theory and practice a special area of study in college2, and I still can’t tell you exactly what differentiates a ritual from a practice from a custom from a habit. The textbook answer would refer to questions of when, why, and with how much intentionality and awareness and purpose, but those are all big, wobbly circles that shade out and disappear instead of just cutting off.3 There are a handful of times throughout the day where She Who Is My Wife and I text each other “Happy [time]!” (following patterns like 11:11, 2:34, 3:21, or goofier ones4) and that has elements of both habit and ritual: it’s done intentionally only at specific times, but it isn’t automatic, we sometimes forget or don’t have time, and there’s no penalty for forgetting or being too busy; we do it just for love, and so the other knows we’re thinking of them, and we certainly feel its absence if we miss more than like three in a row. SOMETIMES, we’ll adapt it to the circumstances, like Hungry 1:23 or Sleepy 2:22, so it’s not so sacred that it can’t be altered; or maybe the sacredness just isn’t in the shape, but in the substance, in the movement of memory, heart and hand5.
To go on about it much longer would be to risk POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS LEVELS of Lovey and/or Dovey, with the added risk of a Smoochenheimer Reaction, but if you have a specialmost person, I cannot over-recommend taking a few moments during the day to intentionally, mindfully connect with them; there is power in such a thing, and also if you use our way you have to pay us four bucks now or look at the camera and say “Copyright The Bageler” when you do it.
THAT IS ALL. GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
–The Bageler
Time flies
Doesn’t seem a minute
- Florence and The Machine? In THIS economy? ↩︎
- He said, surprising no-one ↩︎
- Like my credit score! Har! ↩︎
- Sometimes when I miss one by just a couple of minutes, I’ll wait the necessary number of minutes later and say ‘Happy 2:34…5 minutes ago!’ Typically, this is booed and batted away from the basket, as is only correct. ↩︎
- Ooh~, bits and pieces ↩︎