Have you ever heard the same phrase so often that it loses all connection to reality? Something uttered so many times that you tune it out and give it no serious thought, whatsoever? This happened to me a few days ago and it almost went unnoticed until I actually stopped and gave pause regarding what was said to me: "Enjoy the rest of your day."
The circumstances were unremarkable and mundane. My wife and I were exiting a movie and the theater attendant cheerily spouted this harmless-but-overused catchall phrase; six little words we utter to each other with about as much involuntary regularity as breathing. And we rarely pay attention as we meander about our lives. But what if we took this salutary snippet seriously and really did try to enjoy our day? Would we behave differently than if we merely went about our day with no emphasis on enjoyment? I mean, how does one enjoy a day, anyways?
I wasn't sure this endeavor was even possible, so I decided to take note of my surroundings for the rest of the day. I wanted to see of this if this pseudo-hippie attitude was even possible.
Driving away from the shopping complex, I shot a subtle glance sideways at my wife as she scrolled and tapped her phone. She held a device that could literally answer any question she desired, stream any movie or song she fancied, or connect her with any person on the planted she might want to converse with. But I don't know if she was enjoying it.
The guy next to me in the huge SUV at the stoplight looked agitated. His automobile was doing all the heavy lifting. I'm sure he hadn't walked from Calgary to Kalispell. I bet he never considered manually transporting all the packages he had in his trunk. Maybe he couldn't find a decent XM Radio station to listen to.
The couple across the aisle at the restaurant were complaining about the rareness of the gentleman's steak.
At the grocery store, there was a lady robotically chatting on her Bluetooth (I know... they still exist) but she didn't seem overly enjoyed regarding the 6,000 items in her cart.
Later that evening, I sat stone-faced on the couch when the football team I was rooting for gave up a game winning touchdown to the other team with 42 seconds left. There was no enjoyment to be found in my living room, for sure.
My kids argued and fought more than they played while on their XBox. This was not enjoyable for anyone within earshot.
So, as I finally crawled into bed and let my head sink into my overly soft pillow (again, sans any really enjoyment), I thought back to kid at the theater and his impossible request. How dare he have the audacity to taunt me with such a cruel and unattainable mantra!
Enjoy our days... How can we possibly do that with so many things lined up against at every single turn?
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