THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503170214
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Ronald L. Speer
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Have I got a deal for you today!
I'm going to give you three or four extra hours a day, and if you spend the time right you could be the woman or the man of the year in North Carolina, or maybe even the nation.
Actually, I think you ought to spend a couple of those hours on yourself, since in this hectic world most of us find it hard to stake out any unencumbered time.
So figure out what you would most like to do for a couple of hours a day - and do it, after I share with you the secret of coming up with time you didn't know you had.
Your dream might be nine holes of golf. A quick fishing trip. Music lessons. A chance to read undisturbed. Hikes along the beach. An evening sail. Painting classes.
I think all of us could quickly come up with some satisfying ``self'' time, and I think most of us need it.
And that would still leave you at least an hour a day to devote to others.
Think what could be done in our communities in North Carolina if each and every adult spent 60 minutes a day, seven days a week, contributing to the well-being of someone else.
And trust me, I'll soon tell you how to get the time.
Think about doing something special for the family three times a week, something for the neighborhood a couple of times a week, and something for the community the other two days.
For instance, how about reading to your toddlers for an hour in the evening? Helping your kids plant a garden and learning the joys of watching things grow? Perhaps you could start writing every relative you have in far-off places. Think of the joy you get when personal mail pops up in the mailbox. Maybe you could drop in on Grandma and play a game of Scrabble or a game of her choice. Perhaps you could drive Grandpa down to the pier and let him fish for an hour. Perhaps you could hide a treasure and draw a map for the grandkids, or take them to the museum or the aquarium or the waterfront when they bring in the big fish.
And that would still leave us with a couple of hours a week - under my proposal - to do good needs for our neighborhood.
Call on a sick neighbor. Plow a garden for a single mother whose time is taken with work and kids. Welcome a newcomer into the block. Tidy up the yard and the street so the green grass of spring won't have blotches. Be a big brother or big sister to somebody who needs a role model.
And during the other couple of hours a week, find a way to contribute something special to the community. Volunteers are needed for scores of programs that help make this a great place to live. Check with agencies, ministers, teachers, crises centers, nursing homes and tell them you'd like to share your time.
And trust me, we can find the time each day quite easily, most of us.
Across the nation, billions of people-hours are spent in front of television sets, morning, noon and night, watching a real-life soap opera that panders to the worst in all of us. Billions more are spent reading about the courtroom circus, in traditional papers gone berserk or the supermarket tabloids that scream out the latest dirt.
And still more billions of hours are squandered talking about the trial.
So there's a simple solution to finding time for ourselves and our families and our neighbors and our communities:
Quit watching or reading or talking about about the O.J. Simpson trial.
Many of us may be so hooked we can't quit cold turkey. But we could start by not watching or reading or talking about the trial at all today, when nothing new is happening. Maybe by Wednesday or Thursday we would be free.
Try it. You'll find there is life without O.J. - a better life. by CNB