Simple

No doubt we are all meant for greater things. Each of us should be glorfied by angels; we ought to stand on mountaintops and proclaim our greatness to the gods.

At the very least, it would be cool to win the lottery, or just do things that occasionally get written up on the local neighborhood blog.

And yet, when it comes down to it, the most mundane of behaviors take up most of our time, and thankfully, for me, anyway, it’s those little things that provide me with whatever modicum of satisfaction I find with existence.

Take today, for instance. (Please!)

Here are some of the little tasks I accomplished that, in spite of myself, have made me feel like I have some right to take up space and breath air on the planet:

• Doing almost two hours of yoga first thing this morning, including a second short practice with Jen.

• Editing a couple dozen pages of my forthcoming book, Plato Was Wrong! Classroom Exercises for Philosophizing with Young People.

• Cleaning the glass in our glassed-in shower.

• Fixing a loose screw in the faucet of that same shower, a task I put off for almost two years before today.

• Making a grilled cheese sandwich for my daughter’s brunch.

• Doing a load of wash, and replacing the clean duvet cover on the kid’s comforter.

• Repairing a flat tire on one of my bikes, even though it was only a very slow leak.

• Taking a bicycle ride around town on the single-speed, including climbing all the way from the downtown to the top of Capitol Hill.

• Re-shellacking the handlebar tape on four of my bikes.

• Riding to the Columbia City Farmer’s Market and back to buy salad fixings for dinner.

• Sort of fixing the annoying latch on the back gate.

• Making croutons, cleaning and drying romaine lettuce.

• Cooking a cheeseburger for my daughter’s dinner.

• Reading three chapters of Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

• Writing this 327-word essay.