Column: A simpler world for only 39 cents

By John Hendel
Feb. 8, 2008

Is it just me, or has it been a busy couple of weeks?

I’ve loved 2008 so far, but more and more the responsibilities are piling up, half of them the result of living in a more “grown-up” world. Aside from school, there are also politics and plans for the summer and graduate school. Who would have imagined Super Tuesday could have evolved into such awesomely big significance? The Guardian even made a documentary about the active youth vote here.

Last week at Brady Commons, I bought a small notebook to make lists, thinking that might help me. I’ve never considered writing to-do lists before. I don’t even take notes in my classes because that’s just not my style. I guess the pressure never got to me, for better or worse.

Still, lists have their place. They simplify the world and reduce it to a few quickly scrawled lines. You get more productive when the thrill of crossing items off a list is what fuels you. It also creates the illusion that life is a manageable, pleasant box of duties and scheduled-out time. While that tripe suits a self-help book, I really took this concept of lists to heart, and prepared myself to embark on a frenzy of productivity unimaginable to my former lazy self. It’s a great, fulfilling narrative.

So I’ve got this book of lists now, right? Writing this very column was an item on the list and Christ, it’ll feel good to cross it off. This helped at first. The list got me to finish a couple of lessons for an online class I’m taking. It got me to accomplish easy tasks: e-mails to send, meetings to attend, budgets to mend and so on.

I finished a few tasks, which was nice, though I still felt detached from this tiny, 39-cent notebook. Today marked a subtle change.

At the start of Super Tuesday, a writing professor of mine went all Dead Poets Society and took our whole class to the Devil’s Icebox, the cave in the middle of Rock Bridge State Park. I know it’s been a few days, but do you remember Tuesday morning? It was pouring, folks. Rain crashed down everywhere.

The class, baffled but ready, trembling and holding umbrellas, followed our wiry professor into the dark woods.

“Sight! Smell! Taste!” he shouted different senses to each student as we entered.

One foot after another, full of care, fear and cold, our class moved deeper into the park and eventually down into the cave, which was deeper than I had ever ventured. I recall leaning against the cave’s wall, just glad to be out of the rain.

“Remember this cave,” the professor stressed in the flashlight pale of the Devil’s Ice Box. “Remember today.”

It was one of the more unusual classroom experiences I’ve had at MU so far, no doubt. Halfway through the walk in the woods, I felt the book of lists in my pockets and internally freaked a second. The book was soaked, perhaps destroyed by the downpour.

Taking it out later, I examined it carefully. Sure enough, soaked. The text was blurred, half the pages bluish. I considered just pitching it, but a closer look made me realize the worn book just had more character. I crossed off a few more items and decided it was a keeper.

I’ll suggest this column means more than any trivial sentiments about a notebook or lists. Every person needs to get some priorities every now and then, and while a list is only a shadow of substance, it’s probably a good first step.

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Column: A simpler world for only 39 cents

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