Say your work day ends at 5 p.m., well, then you know that you should be home between 5:30 and 6:00, so you start to plan dinner, then maybe get ready to get some projects done before your favorite show(s) come one. After that you figure out what needs to be done before going to bed at a certain time.
There's always a schedule.
This is true in almost ever hour of my life. Even vacations are scheduled out to a T.
Saturday was no different. My plan was to meet someone for lunch at 1:00, then go to my alma mater's baseball game around 2:30, then stay for the game, hang out with my college employer, then meet another friend for dinner, then go home to be with family and update baseball results.
However, as I got going Saturday afternoon to meet for lunch, I decided the heck with schedules.
I pulled up to Cracker Barrell to meet my friend from college, Scott. We both were feeling rushed and on a schedule when we arrived. We went in, found a table, debated over what to order, then ordered.
As conversation struck up for the first time (extended conversation) in person in almost a year, I began to relax and mentally crumple my schedule for the day and toss it to the side.
Freely catching up with Scott was much more important than making it to a ball game and trying to see every person I could possibly see in a visit. Scott is one of these friends that I neglect from time to time - well, we probably both neglect each other.
We'd see each other every day in a class while in college. We'd say our common courtesies, briefly find out how things were going, but always seem to be on a schedule. I can truly recall only a few occasions where we have paused to sit and just talk about whatever we needed to get off our chest with no time frame at hand. Although, those times have been limited, I think that is what has built a friendship. We can go months without hardly talking and probably pick right up - something I value with all my friends.
Scott and I had both scheduled about an hour for lunch in our mental planner, but the hour, without realizing it, turned into an hour and a half. It would have been more, but we figured we better give up our table just in case it was needed. But we still had a lot to catch up on, so lunch was paid for, then we made our way to the front porch.
Checkers? Might as well.
We sat down to play a "quick" game of checkers with the intention of continuing our conversation, however the game quickly became highly strategized and competitive, so not many words were said, until we decided we better set up some rules to speed up the game, other wise we'd be there all night.
We did, and I let him beat me.
That was another hour and a half, if not two hours. So, then we made our way to our cars and wrapped up conversations, talking about our jobs, his upcoming wedding, politics, and just life values.
We parted ways soon thereafter, but instead of feeling rushed to live out a schedule, I was relaxed having spent much needed time with a friend. I returned home to spend time with family, while Scott went to the office to help put together the Sunday paper for the Clanton Advertiser.
We issued each other a challenge while eating lunch - to write a column, separate from our normal weekly writings, to e-mail to each other for advice, criticisms and just to get their creative juices flowing. Hopefully that challenge will uphold.
When it does, we may establish a website or blog to share our little project with everyone else, so you can read what we've been writing - that is if Scott doesn't cheat and use his weekly column as his Friday column for the paper.
So, if you're taking the time to read this, keep in mind, just as I must, that it is always more valuable to pause for what matters and throw away your schedule for a few hours or a day.
To read Scott Mims' columns and articles, search the Clanton Advertiser archives for his name.
