It’s somewhat fascinating (he says, in a detached kind of way) how the human mind sometimes hide from consciousness the fact that you have no free cycles left to take on any new activities in your life. It could be linked, I suppose, to ISNS (Inability to Say No Syndrome) which compels the afflicted to take on any new duty or responsibility that someone may wish to foist on him. Or it could be a selfish desire to participate in something for which you clearly have no time to do. Notwithstanding the source, here I am – clearly busy – yet I run for public office. Granted, it’s not a federal position or a particularly large port-folio thing…but city councillor in a small town can still be frought with all sorts of time-sucking activities.
I didn’t actually believe the incumbent when he suggested it would only involve one meeting per month. Nor did the constituents who began calling my home number shortly after the ballots were counted. Suddenly I lept from the depths of obscurity (and anonymity) and became the go-to guy for many of my neighbours…almost all of whom could not pick me out from a police lineup. Mea culpa…I suspected the time commitment might be significant. I chose to take it on because I thought I would make a better councillor than the others on the ballot. I stick by that assessment.
On the time front, I’ll manage and my family will adjust, as it has in the past, by learning a new vernacular, (Papa! Do you have another council meeting tonight!?) and by maintaining a tighter supervision of the joint calendar. Some have said, in public, that because of my busy schedule and young family, I can’t devote enough time to the job. Others (well, me mostly) have said that if you want something done, give it to the busiest guy in the room. There’s some truth to that…we shall see though. Obviously we can’t change the number of waking hours there are in a day…but some activities can be trimmed with little impact. Sleeping in on Sunday is probably the first casualty.