My dad used to sing in the shower – I don’t mean humming lighthearted melodies as he washed his hair, he belted out big, boisterous marching songs – ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’, ‘Seventy-six Trombones’, ‘Oh What a Beautiful Morning’. I’d bury my head under my covers listening to his medley and try to grab a few more peaceful minutes before the old boy would rattle everyone out of bed. He started every day happy and we all thought he was nuts.
My husband was much the same, although he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. He greeted every day with a smile – his theory being nobody’d had the chance to ‘ef’ it up yet. I thought he was as crazy as my dad – both of them early morning optimists bent on acknowledging the glowing potential of the new day, every day
I have no clue where this unwarranted optimism comes from, why some people greet a sunrise with a smile on their face and others don’t, but based on my experience I can hazard a guess. As noted above my research has been unquestionably thorough and the evidence is decidedly sound – I have concluded this penchant for being ridiculously happy first thing in the morning is a boy thing. Where women toss and turn all night pulling the worries of yesterday into a brand new morning men seem to wipe their slates clean while they sleep. This is a very admirable quality (unlike the man-cold) but one that poses even more questions.
How do they do it? Is this happy in the morning thing a sign of ‘don’t give a damn-ness’? How do worries evaporate in the middle of the night? Are men just good pretenders? Is this pretending the reason for the gender discrepancy in longevity? So many questions (I woke up with them). Are there any answers? Am I the only one who wonders? Should I even worry about this (and if so how many mornings should I pull this particular worry into)?
I think I’d love to sing in the shower, I’m just afraid someone might hear me. I also think I’d like to not give an ‘ef’ first thing in the morning but I’d worry about the ‘ef’ – if I didn’t give it who would?
I’m not someone who wakes up looking for trouble or waiting for the first disappointment of the day (I’ve met those who do, they usually don’t have to wait too long for a problem to appear) – I’m more of a ponderer first thing in the morning.
I’m quiet – if I listen closely to the dawning of the day I can sometimes hear a story. I think I wake up to write it. In this morning’s story I heard my Dad singing in the shower….