The ledger

I have often been challenged to track things in my life, but I don't do it all that often. "What?" you ask? You have been tracked? NO. I have been challenged to keep track of things - what I eat, how much I spend, where my time went, boring, unfunny things like those. The stuff of life, plus tax.

I am amazed at the ability of humans, myself most definitely included, to judge themselves by their intentions but judge others by their behavior. What I actually do is softened by the fact that even though it was the most awful thing any human has done in the past ten minutes, I really meant well.

OK - I know you want an example, and I could offer thousands. Some would be funny, but most would be so revealing of my true humanity that I think I may just leave it at this - I am a normal person. Well, mostly. There was that one time with the rubber chicken and the guacamole, but the neighbors dropped the charges so just let it go.

But what I'm saying is this - we so often give ourselves a pass on our own behavior when we really should be measuring it against some standard of excellence. Who wouldn't rather measure themselves against a standard of mediocrity? I look real good compared to some. Just not so good compared to others.

So back to the tracking - I have asked groups of people many times to jot down how many hours they spend in front of a TV on average. They make their guesses, then I passed out a listing of the shows which aired the previous week. After checking off the ones they watched and adding it up, it was fun to watch their expressions as they came to grips with the fact that they had watched two or even three times as much as they realized. That time was lost forever, gone into the vast black hole along with all of my good intentions and the credibility of the Nobel judges.

So what should we track? Well - I am in Weight Watchers. One week so far - but this is the second time I have joined, and the third time in my life I have been part of WW in some fashion. Once, a very long time ago, everyone else in the house joined and I lost a bunch of weight just because I was surrounded by good food choices and motivated people. But I am a full, paying member this time, and I have to write down every stupid morsel of food which goes into my mouth. And what's worse is that I have to find the 'point value' of every item I consume. That would be a good way to track our lives, don't you think?

Put a point value on every minute of every day. And don't just sit and dream about the wonderful intentions I have for tomorrow, actually sit and record what I do today, and then measure it all by a set point value. Serving humanity gets high points, serving myself gets low or no points. Sitting in front of the Monitor watching a DVD should be negative points. I would assign the middle-upper points to such things as walking five miles then eating a healthy breakfast before the sun comes up and then going to feed the homeless after dropping off my extra clothes to the charity du jour on the way to help my friend move after helping my daughter study and writing off some unemployed persons debt. And doing my own dishes. With soap this time.

Wow - this is taking on life. Notice I didn't say a 'life of it's own,' no, this is taking my life. I am amazed at how many types of food I eat, and how various are the points values in question. I can't even imagine trying to actually give a point value to the other areas of my life. So - since we are so good at judging others by their behavior, I'll leave it to you. Oh, and thanks.