Hello, Welcome. I’m Renée Valentina and this is Musing Interruptus. Listen to Musing Interruptus if you like stories and learning idiomatic phrases in different contexts. You can read along; just click on continue reading in the description to open a Google Doc with the transcription of this episode. The idiomatic expressions are in italics. Try to get the meaning from the context and then look them up to see if you were right. If you like it, subscribe, follow, and share, but more importantly, continue the conversation. Drop a comment with your answers to today’s questions! Inquiring minds want to know!

Why Do It?

That’s a decent question. It begs to be asked and sometimes gets ignored.

How many things do we do on autopilot?

Thankfully, there are many. That means you don’t have to remember.

Breathing, swallowing saliva (I forget how to do this sometimes, and cough up a storm). It still embarrasses me. There are many biological processes that happen on their own. They are called autonomic or homeostatic processes. I’m glad, because recently I’ve realized that I get more distracted than I used to. I leave little unfinished surprises around the house, a laundry basket with folded clothing that is half put away. Last Sunday, I uploaded an episode of Musing Interruptus to YouTube and then left the it in Spotify as a draft. How odd. That little surprise woke me at 4 am on Monday. One click later, I was back in bed and asleep. Odd. That must be an autonomic process, my body waking up if I don’t finish something, closing the process. I’m glad I don’t have to remember to breathe or tell my heart to pump.

Then there are the things one does because that is the way they have been done for a while. Breakfast time, how you butter your toast (if you still do that), the way you lace up your shoes, the place you part your hair and how many times you brush each tooth in the morning, after lunch, and before bed. Ok, sometimes I forget to brush after lunch. Have you noticed the way you towel yourself off after you take a shower? Do you ever wonder if you follow the same patterns as your parents when they wrapped the towel around you as a child? Being gentle is a tribute to their care.

Things become a bit less automatic when it comes to our jobs. If you have a say in it, then you might work in something you like, that interests you, or maybe something you are passionate about. That isn’t always the case. Sometimes we do jobs that pay the bills, nothing more, nothing less. When asked, What is your dream job? Some people quite honestly say: I don’t dream about working.

Truth be told, it is difficult to find remunerated activities that cause high levels of emotional rewards. Difficult, but not impossible. Continue Reading