Latchkey Kids and Time to Shower

When I was in undergrad and it got to be crunch time for exams and papers, or retreats and SFL events, I used to turn to Wendy and say, "I can do without sleep.  But you know it's bad when you don't have time to eat, pee, or shower."  (That might be the crassest language my mother has heard me use.  Sorry, Mom; be assured it's just about as crass as I get.)

At the College, being busy was a badge of pride.  I don't remember ever comparing GPAs  (I only looked at mine when I update my resume), but we compared how much or how little we slept, the tiny amount of free time we had in a week, the number of overlapping and conflicting events each day.  It was a strange, twisted form of competition:  whoever is the least healthy wins.  I still, unfortunately, take a twisted bit of pride in often winning.

Busted Halo had an article that referenced a Times blog about the cult of busyness in our society.  Tim Kreider, who wrote the Times piece, refers himself as part of the latchkey generation, who grew up roaming wild after school, rather than jumping from activity to activity.

I'm not sure if I count as a latchkey kid, since my mother's work schedule changed throughout my school career and I was rarely home alone for hours.  However, I related to Kreider's description of his childhood activities: "everything from surfing the World Book Encyclopedia to making animated films to getting together with friends in the woods to chuck dirt clods directly into one another’s eyes, all of which provided me with important skills and insights that remain valuable to this day."

Our Encyclopedias were not World Book, we wrote stories instead of animating films, and we  tended to make homes under bushes rather than through dirt (the females were dominant in that group).  I too learned valuable life-lessons that I am rediscovering now that I have stepped back from the life Kreider describes.  (Not as dramatically as he has, but still back.)

I am discovering silence.  The Busted Halo writer, Phil Fox Rose, mentions this aspect that Kreider doesn't cover.  I could go on about silence, but as others already have, I will stop chattering at you and let you get to reading these two pieces and clicking the links in the Busted Halo post.