Make Yourself Useful!

It's Wednesday, which means it's my day off.

Saying that is actually a bit of a misnomer since my wife and I are both self-employed and that means there are never "days off;" so what I am actually saying is that our small art gallery is closes on Wednesdays during the winter, meaning that I get to spend the day at home.

So I am at home, and trying to "get things done," here. 

While going about this business of being "useful," I got to thinking about my dad... he would be close to 100 years old, were he still alive today. I remember clearly how one of the things he was always saying to me-- from a very early age-- was "Make yourself USEFUL!"

We might be outside somewhere, and he'd be working on something (he was always doing "projects") and if he noticed that I was just standing there, he'd immediately say something like "if you have time to stand there and do nothing, you have time to make yourself useful!" And I'd be set to work, doing some task.

What reminded me of my dad was standing in the kitchen earlier this my wife. My wife was making us some waffles for breakfast and I noticed that the recycling bins were starting to get pretty full. As I was just "standing there," I could hear my father's voice in my head... calling from decades back... "make yourself useful! If you have time to stand there and watch her cook, you have time to take those bins to the garage and empty them!"

And so, I did.

As an adult, I have never been a very "active" sort of person and I realize that-- absent my father's energetic nature-- I might have turned into a permanently stationary object. I say this, in case I was giving the impression of being "one of those people" who can't stand it when every moment isn't filled with some kind of activity. Quite the contrary!

Anyway, it was interesting to consider how much "old programming" still hangs with me, even after some 30+ years of self-actualization work.

What about you? Do you have lessons from your upbringing-- distant or recent-- that still ring in your head, even if you have rejected them, or tried to let go of their influence? Were there particular lessons you learned that remain strongly imprinted on your life? Have you-- or are you-- inadvertently passed them on to your own children, even if you didn't mean to?

This article contains 100% original and unique content created exclusively for Steemit. All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. The photos are my own-- those two curious masked bandits come right up to our back door, from time to time.