‘Tis a Gift to be Simple

For as long as I can remember, I have frequently thought in song titles. One memorable year (for me, anyway), every email I sent to faculty bore a song title in the Subject line. Given that I never repeated a heading, it certainly made finding old email topics easier.

For nearly two months now, my husband and I have been on our family ranch in Jackson Hole, where life is decidedly simpler in many ways. This retirement thing means no more arising at 5:00 am every morning, unless I want to. Haven’t wanted to so far. I sit at the front window of our cabin (built in the 1930s) each morning, lingering over coffee and journal, glancing up periodically to check if there are horses, deer, elk, or bald eagles in sight. We usually don’t bother having breakfast until we’ve been up for a few hours, and then I frequently get experimental and crafty (egg cups with vegetables nested in Canadian bacon; baked portabello mushrooms stuffed with sausage and veggies, topped with fried eggs, for example). I hike and wander up the dike along the Snake River, which borders our ranch. I saddle soaped my tack (as well as Mom’s and Dad’s) and am thoroughly enjoying riding again. I used to be really good… For those who know me, it should come as no surprise that I toy with the idea of competing in rodeos again. Farfetched, I know, but I believe the quotation is something to the effect that “(wo)men don’t stop playing games because they grow old; they grow old because they stop playing games.” Truth to tell, there seems to be a bit of both at work here.

We have hosted a family wedding and several overnight and dinner guests. I am, it appears, becoming my mother. Dad had a habit of making friends wherever he went, and inviting them to a meal was normal. One memorable summer the averageheadcount at all meals was twelve. We were a family of five. In fact, my parents purchased the very first ranch dishwasher the day I left for college. Literally. It’s possible I could wash them more quickly and effectively than the automation, but the point was made.

In August, I got a library card, my first in probably twenty years. With it comes the luxury of time and the opportunity to check out five or so books at once, read them at my considerable leisure, and return them all well within the three-week time limit. What fun it is to read for pure pleasure and a wide range of genres. In that sense, I am transported back to my childhood, when we were all subject to an enforced quiet time for two hours every afternoon, courtesy of my grandmother’s need to take a nap. The simple gift she gave us in that two hours was the joy of extended reading. My brothers still tease me about reading The Five Little Peppersseries again and again, but that is an exaggeration: It couldn’t have been more than thrice…

For the 70 years that I have been coming to the ranch, we have never had a television. We did add internet a couple of decades ago and, until yesterday, that very same internet connection sufficed. Sort of. Actually, it has driven us all crazy. Confronting that little, rotating “circle of death” on screen after screen, with only emails and Facebook posts from twenty-four hours earlier finally got to me. We went from 1.5bps (I kid you not) to 20bps in the space of a couple of hours. What a miracle! I should admit that we also hooked up a TV, what with long, cold nights approaching. I love this simpler life and appreciate the extraordinary gift of each day. I also love a good movie and the ability to communicate quickly with distant family and friends.

Author: Glass

I retired in July after forty-six years in independent school education. I taught students in classes from PreK-12, was a middle school head for many years, and a head of school for 17. View all posts by Glass