Day 7: 127 pounds

I am really addicted to 43things. It's so inspiring to see all of these things that people want to do, as banal as "make my bed" or "learn Microsoft Access" and as profound as "list three things every day that made me happy" or "figure out what the hell I want to do with the rest of my life". I found this one woman who, from her photo, looks to be in her sixties or seventies, and she has all sorts of completed and in-progress goals. This is so incredibly different from my own parents, who have no goals at this point other than "find a new house." My parents have to total blue collar "this is our lot in life and why try to change it" mentality. My dad is a bit of a lost cause, but my mom has always been someone who I thought could be so much better than she is. She's very smart and is very curious about things, but never acts on any of it. Every night she comes home from work, cooks dinner and flops on the couch in front of the tv. Part of it is laziness, but sometimes I think it's almost as if she feels like she's not worth putting any work into. I think she spent many years living paycheck to paycheck, and now that we're all out of the house and she has a little more wiggle room, she doesn't know what to do with herself, so she just keeps to the status quo. I think in her mind, taking a class or going on a trip is something you do when you're rich and have the luxury of time and money.

Here's the problem though. She's about to retire at the end of the month, so although she doesn't have a ton of money, time is not an issue anymore. I would love to think that she's going to take this opportunity to enroll in an art class or join a book club or volunteer somewhere. But in reality I think she's more likely to live out the remainder of her years in front of the tv. Maybe I can talk her into starting a 43things account to identify the things she wants to do.