Things Mama Taught Me: "Work First, Then Play"

I have my parents to thank for a sturdy work ethic: "Work first, and then play." On the farm, I learned valuable lessons about the importance of fulfilling obligations in a timely and thorough manner. If you don't bottle-feed an orphan lamb, it will die. If you don't gather the eggs, the hens are apt to break them. If you don't pick the beans, they will become tough and inedible.

What I didn't learn so well was how to play. Life was not easy for my depression-era, wartime parents. There was little leisure time and discretionary income while they reared a large family. My mother enjoyed reading and my dad listened to (no, not watched!) pro boxing, but those were the only diversions I remember their having. It was late in their lives before they began to enjoy television, a little travel, and some entertainment purely for entertainment's sake. They were good examples of the lifestyle Richard Bolles wrote about in The Three Boxes of Life and How to Get Out of Them: An Introduction to Life/Work Planning. Although this book was published in the '70s, readers find its principles still workable and valuable in this generation. Many people, he said, have a linear progression for life: get your education, work forty or fifty years, then retire. That is what I learned from my parents. A better plan is to do all three all throughout life. Never stop learning, never stop working, never stop playing.

Some people discover this in kindergarten—at least one person did. Robert Fulghum wrote: "Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday some." (All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten) Some people take a little longer to gain understanding. I was mid-life before I realized how important this balance is. Now, barring actual disability in body or brain, I intend to keep my priorities ordered so as to continue for the rest of my life to "learn some and think some . . . and play and work everyday some."


MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

You may be interested in a related article, Three Little Lambs.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com