I was a big fan of the West Wing. Not the actual West Wing. More the fake, TV, Martin Sheen version. It was "must see" TV for me. As in I must see it sometime because I was usually working when it was actually broadcast. And sometimes I did.
And sometimes I didn't.
In fact, for a long time it was my favorite TV show that I never watched. I missed the last episode.
One thing I do remember about that show was that President Martin Sheen was always saying "What's next?" It was his go-to line. Once he completed negotiating a treaty with the Chinese, or stopping a nuclear attack, or arguing with Toby about whether or not he should disclose that something was gravely wrong with him, he used to always say "What's next?" As in, what do I need to attend to now.
It's been my mantra for weeks now.
"How's it going?" my family would ask as I whisked in and out the door multiple times during the day.
"On to the next thing," I'd tell them. "Dinner's in the crock pot."
"How are you?" my concerned friends asked me the other night as we sat down to our annual 'girls night out Christmas dinner' that I was 20 minutes late for.
"Just doing the next thing." I told them, pushing down the overwhelm mixed with guilt and annoyance that sometimes accompanies the 'poor me' thoughts that work their way into my consciousness. Poor me.
I walked into the faculty offices at the college last night. We have this exceptional support person who works there. She's always cheerful and happy and willing to do whatever she can do to make my life just a little bit easier. She was up to her ears in work, but she stopped and smiled when I walked in the door. She'd brought homemade pumpkin bread and had hot coffee waiting.
"How's it going?" she asked me.
And you know what I said by now.
"You too?" she replied, sounding like she had found her long lost twin sister for the very first time. "I'm doing the same thing. I have 30 people coming to my house next week and I don't have a tree. I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet and I haven't decorated anything. I've just been doing the next thing that's in front of me. For weeks.
See what I mean?
Earlier this week I was giving an exam. One of my students came in, her big brown eyes misty with emotion. "Can I talk to you?" she asked timidly, her voice cracking, the breath caught in her throat. She was behind in her assignments and wanted to know if there was still time to get them in.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I lost my job," she said, the words barely coming out of her mouth. "I lost my job and then my house... I don't have a place to stay..."
And here she was, coming to class. Doing the next thing.
Another student, struggling with addiction, grabbed me after class. Holding up 5 fingers, he mouthed the words "five days". It's been five days that he's been clean. Five days clean. One day at a time.
Doing the next thing.
Sometimes, we look up from our lives. Step out of the trance and look around and we notice. There are others out there. Others, it turns out, just like us, living each day the best they can.
Doing the next thing.
