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Ah, the middle of February. By now most of us have given up on our New Year’s resolutions, lost the excitement of changing our future, and it’s back to our normal, mundane lives where come December we’ll be like, “Where did the year go, and why didn’t I learn guitar like I said I would?”
But why? Why do we stop? Why can’t we keep the focus throughout the year?
I’m blaming it on the death of the paper calendar.
Okay, I suppose that’s a huge generalization, and really it’s probably tied to just being content with the familiarity of our life and, and at the end of it all, being afraid to take the risk or find the time, but near the end of 2015, there it came, in the mail, the promotional, paper calendar, complete with “telephone index under calendar.” I instantly thought, “Oh, how quaint. Who uses these any more?”, and as much as I like our insurance agent, I also questioned his not giving up on the mailing of the “Hey, don’t forget about me! Here’s my promotional calendar.” I was going to write about receiving it, even took a picture, and then kind of forgot about it after I threw the calendar away. Scrolling through my photos the other day there it was, the picture of the promotional calendar, and I began wondering again if people actually use the promotional calendar any longer.
I will admit that I am, at times, calendar obsessed. Back in the day of the paper calendar I would look forward to the cardboard roll in the mail that signaled the free, giant monthly calendar for me to put on the wall. The bottom of the calendar would have a yearly calendar, and I would save the one from the prior year and build a wall of yearly calendars so that, I suppose, if someone were to ask what day of the week a certain day was three years ago, I could easily glance and say, “Tuesday.” Then there was always the fall-back, Christmas gift of a calendar, where, if you couldn’t think of anything else to get someone, you could stroll through the temporary calendar store in the mall, find a calendar of pictures of a favorite band, beautiful golf courses, funny pets, or the daily calendar of jokes, and there you had it, instant, thoughtful Christmas gift.
As my world transitioned to the digital age my obsession shifted to calendar apps. I started as a huge fan of Pocket Informant, then tried apps like MyCalendar, Calendar 5, Google Calendar, BusyCal, and have since settled into the Fantasical world on my iPhone and computers. I’m not sure if it’s because I really like it more, or the fact that I just got tired of trying different calendars, but so far it hasn’t let me down, which is the important part of a calendar.
I still, technically, use a paper calendar, mostly because it’s built into the desk pad I have, but I have it as a giant note pad to quickly jot down a number or name, though I will occasionally look a the yearly calendar on it. Gone, however, is the calendar on my wall, like the old days in my computer bunker. Do I miss it? Not really. Is there something else in place of a calendar on my wall? Nope. And although a calendar might help keep track of my time, it’s up to me to actually find the time to keep that resolution of learning guitar. So far I suck at finding time, maybe it’s because I threw away that promotional calendar, but I do wonder: Do you have a calendar on your wall?
That’s it for this one! L8R!!