What a bizarre concept, I don’t ever recall putting my heating on in September.
‘Mmm… feeling a bit nippy in here… let’s put some extra layers on’, are my thoughts as I prepare myself for a series on online evening meetings. It has been a chilly day, where the temperature has dropped several degrees from earlier in the week. The northerly wind cuts right through you if you are outside. I conduct my meetings, alert and attentive, but also slightly chilled.
My bedtime reading brings up a story of a man who is washing his car at 10 o’clock at night. He has the lights on from his garage to see what he is doing. Apparently, he set himself a list of jobs that he simply had to do that day, and this was the last job. ‘How bizarre’… is my thought?
Reaching to turn the light out, I am struck by the warmth of my electric blanket, it dawns on me how cold I have been all evening. I begin to ponder… ‘why I didn’t put the heating on, simply because it was September… who on earth made this rule… more importantly – why am I following it?’
My musings take me back through past people who I have lived with, partners, colleagues and friends, many of whom seem to have also adopted this unwritten rule. I can only guess we may have picked it up from an earlier generation of parents or grandparents, perhaps reflecting the times they lived in.
Until now I have never questioned the truth of this thought, but now I see myself as bizarre as the man cleaning his car at 10 o’clock at night.
Interesting how old habits run deep, creating thoughts that seem like unchallengeable truths. I wonder how many more I have been suckered into.