Jim Kershner: Here’s hoping your workweek will be relaxing
Everybody knows that the purpose of a weekend is to recover from the workweek.
My wish for you, however, is that you discover the higher purpose of the weekend. I wish you such a wild, wonderful weekend that you’ll need the entire workweek to recover from it.
I had one of those weekends recently, and let me tell you, it was far more satisfying than those boring weekends where you “kick back,” or “chill out,” or, how do you say, “sit around on your big, fat …”
The components of such a weekend vary from individual to individual, but here are a few of the most popular ones:
“ Going to a friend’s wedding and dancing like you’re 18 again, as opposed to 80.
“ Getting out in the woods and looking for elk.
“ Allowing your dog to take you for a walk and not stopping until the dog gets tired.
“ Heading over to Seattle, Portland or Vancouver and spending Friday and Saturday night roaming from tapas bar to dim sum house to sushi bar.
“ Heading to downtown Spokane and roaming from jazz club to gallery opening to Argentine café (yes, this is entirely possible).
“ Going out on Saturday night and getting yourself some real culture – and not just the same old dinner-and-a-movie rut. Try a string quartet, or a poetry slam, or cowboy yodeling.
“ Building a garden wall.
“ Helping your neighbor build a garden wall.
“ Starting that patio remodeling project you’ve been putting off.
“ Logging another stretch on your year-long quest to walk the entire Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.
“ Learning to make tortellini from scratch.
“ Rebuilding a Model T.
“ Composing a sonnet for your sweetie’s birthday.
“ Riding your motorcycle to Leavenworth for Oktoberfest.
“ Catching a fish, stalking a moose, counting some birds.
“ Volunteering to clean up a river, or make dinner for a shelter.
“ Going out and cheering for the Cougars.
“ Going out and playing a sport, any sport. Even miniature golf will do.
“ Going on a camping trip. (This is guaranteed to require a week’s recovery time, if only because you will get no sleep at all.)
Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there is also another form of big weekend – the big bad unpleasant weekend – that also requires recovery time.
Some components of the big bad weekend include:
“ Entertaining your second-cousin’s family, who just showed up from Omaha, for 60 hours straight.
“ Writing your entire master’s thesis, after putting it off for two years.
“ Shopping for furniture you can’t afford.
“ Going to a warehouse store and fighting other shoppers for underwear bargains.
“ Getting a call from your boss on your day off about some “crisis.”
“ Attending a formal awards banquet at which you are not receiving an award.
“ Mowing your stupid lawn, one more time.
So, the key is to avoid the big bad weekend, and try to make every weekend a wild, wonderful one. If you combine three of the components from the first list (or other components of your choice), you’re well on your way to a recovery-worthy weekend.
The key is: You can’t waste a weekend sitting around “relaxing.” You can do that at your desk, Monday through Friday.