One Hundred Percent

Again it happened, as I was listening to CNN I received one of those open my heart messages. I have no idea who said it or what the program was about but this one line shouted to me that this was to be my next blog; “You cannot play every roll one hundred percent!”
Many times I’ve had people say to me “Give it your one hundred percent”. I’m sorry but one hundred percent just doesn’t live in this body!
As I look back on my growing up years and think about my Mother (who did not have an “outside job”) I can remember how fixed our lives were at that time. If I would do things “out of reason” my mother always had my Grand Ma to fall back on and she had my Great Grand Ma as her back up until she passed away.
Life was very routine at that time. I always knew it was Monday because behind every house stood several clothes lines and on Monday (wash day) all the clothes would be hung out to dry. Our underwear was always hung on the inside line because it was never hung for others to see!
Tuesday was always ironing day. That day I could always find piles of freshly ironed clothes neatly stacked on the living room furniture. She even ironed my underwear! Every piece was “put away” before supper.
Each day had that day’s chores as if they had been written in stone! I believe they were followed more closely than the Ten Commandments.
Every day, after school, it was always homework first and no play until it has finished. My spelling was always checked again before school. If I misspelled a word that meant I would have to get up fifteen minutes early to practice my spelling!
Thinking back I’m sure that if you would have listed the occupation of every lady, within two blocks of my home, it would have been “house wife”. Most would have had a hard time reaching that hundred percent goal but I think most tried.
Then along came World War Two and when it was over we suddenly found both Moms and Dads had to work to make “ends meet”. Look at all that great new stuff there was in the stores. And Mom really needs her own car because she doesn’t work the same hours as Dad.
When I returned from service I made up my mind that, if I had kids, they would never have as rough of a life as I had. What a mistake! If I could have just given my kids the love and supervision I had when I was growing up. To give them what I thought they needed and while trying to keep them from having it as rough as I had it had forced both my wife and me to work, sometimes two or three jobs for me.
All of a sudden Mom, who was still expected to be a house wife, was also expected to hold down a full time job. Now, she was expected to play two rolls that meant that at the best she only had fifty percent for each! Think what has happened to those kids with both Mom and Dad working full time, who is going to help them with their spelling?
If each of us is expected to put out that hundred percent on each roll we are playing what does that leave for us, you and me? Maybe I’m selfish, but I would like a few crumbs of that hundred percent just for me. No role playing, just a small amount of love and joy for me. It isn’t important to me if I live up to the expectations of others. It’s important to me to live up to my expectations of me. You can bet I’m not very worried about percentage points, either!