Dog Days of Summer

These are the dog days of summer. It's 7 A.M. and the air is perfectly still, muggy and too warm already.

It's a holiday today so it's very quiet outside with little traffic noise from the main street a block away. An occasional tweet pierces the silence as a lone bird announces it's presence.

I've got to get some housework done this morning because company is coming this afternoon. Isn't it funny how we can tolerate a little mess in our homes as long as no-one else sees it but, knowing the eyes of others will spot any imperfection, we suddenly see all the dust and carelessly placed items? I have 2 major areas of accumulated paraphernalia...one is my computer desk and the other is the diningroom table where I tend to drop mail and other things that don't have an immediate destination. Things have been piling up in these 2 areas for some time now and it hasn't bothered me till today. Other eyes would look at this mess quite differently than mine have.

This got me thinking about how we practice our everyday lives. Sometimes we don't behave as well as we should until we stop to think about how others might perceive us. Is that conscience or social conditioning?

A young man wrote a letter to the editor of my local newspaper recently telling the public at large that he had every right to blast his car stereo and we should all just get used to it. He cited that we live in a large, noisy city and if someone wants peace and quiet they should move out to the country. That man has no concept of regarding the rights of others and obviously never adapted to the social conditioning of his youth.

Does this mean he's just immature or does it mean he's incapable of following any of the rules of society? Criminals are terribly self centered, becoming indignant when someone violates their rights but feeling no shame when they violate others. Most of us can't understand this but, when you really think about it, we all sort of pick and choose the societal rules we wish to follow. I guess the difference between being a rebel and a criminal is how badly your actions affect everyone else.

Today my rebellion against the performance of housework has to come to an end. My social conditioning has kicked in and I can't believe how I've been working all week at a desk cluttered with so much crap!