Just One Cigarette Butt....just one...

Simplicity.....ah, simplicity. Life is only complicated if you choose to make it that way. I tell everyone who asks that I live a simple life because I choose to.....little does anyone know it's also because that's all I can do. My life has always been like a stream running down from the hills. There is no map for where the water should go. It just follows the path of least resistance. I'm not necessarily proud of that fact but then, I have relatively few regrets.

I do regret hating math so much. I regret hating math so much that while sitting with my college adviser I told him I would take any degree that didn't require college algebra. He told me there were no degree plans that didn't include college algebra. At this point I should have given it all up but that was before I learned the art of following the path of least resistance. I went to college for three years, avoiding college algebra the whole time, until there were no other classes I could take without the requisite college algebra. My education kind of stalled out at this point and after searching for other degree plans I dropped out for a while....a long while. I wasn't too upset about this because every full time job I had required a college degree and I HAHA, did not have one, snigger snigger. 

When I watched Jamie, my oldest son, walk the stage at Texas A&M to receive his degree in accounting, I became embarrassed with myself. I resolved then to get back in school and graduate before Cody, my youngest, walked across that same stage. I achieved that goal exactly one semester before Cody graduated. Had I not approached that stinking algebra requirement with a determined vengeance I wouldn't have made it. I started back to school with the first algebra required course in my old degree plan. I aced it with an A in the class. I did this because the first night of class (which was a night class made up of old losers like me) the prof asked how many were in the class at this point of life because of algebra. Every student raised his hand. (It is proper to say 'his' because the class was all men. According to an expert, my older sister, women just naturally understood algebra.) I'm sorry for wandering so much. I didn't get enough sleep last night. Anyway, on the first night of that class, the prof told us we wouldn't go any further until all of us understood....and appreciated algebra. It worked! I walked away from that first class wondering why it took so long to get it, especially since I used algebra every day in my work.

Well, that was a bit of a detour but wasn't it fun? I thought it was. The story is supposed to be about simplicity. I am a bit of an expert on simplicity. I've never tried to keep up with the Joneses...or the Smiths or anyone else. If my needs were met and my family safe, I was content. Years ago Debbie commented that she wished I wasn't so cotton-picking content. After a train wreck of a year in 1993, I decided Debbie was right. I needed to be more aggressive about our future so I got busy and advanced up the corporate ladder until I was one step above my ability to perform. There I stayed until I retired....at which time I resumed my quest for simplicity.

Examples of simplicity for me include sweeping the driveway and curb after mowing because it makes me feel good. My Dad was a stickler for neatness and his home and yard always resembled a military base. I liked that look and have tried to keep it up in my own home and yard. I don't like the noise of a leaf blower and the simple act of sweeping allows me to pursue my favorite pastime, day dreaming.

Another example of simplicity is choosing where to go on vacation. After year's of hit and miss vacation ideas I decided that sitting on my patio in a rocking chair and admiring Debbie's Texas garden was better than packing up to go anywhere. I have no travel in my bucket list....in fact, I really don't have a bucket list. Why fill up a bucket with things that will cause stress until they're achieved?

Oh, and here's the thought that caused me to begin this story. When we first moved into our house here in north Hurst, I was out sweeping my curb after mowing. I swept up a cigarette butt right at the start of my driveway. It irritated me at first but then there was another one the next week...just one little cigarette butt. This has continued for as long as I've been sweeping here at Highland Crest Drive. One little cigarette butt every time I sweep. My boys, in an attempt to keep me alive longer now forbid me from working in my yard. I wondered one day if the lawn crew had ever noticed that cigarette butt. I walked out to the end of my driveway the day the crew was supposed to arrive and there it was....one simple little cigarette butt. The scenarios in my daydream movies conjure up all kinds of ideas about who puts it there, why my driveway...and on and on. You see, if I didn't live a simple life I wouldn't have time to think about it. I probably would have never noticed it after the first time I saw it but now, every time I go to the mailbox or walk down the street to see my old friends Charley and Don, I check on that cigarette butt. It's always there. I should write a book.....