Trina Machacek: Caught up yet?

To admit I will ever be caught up with anything would be a fudge at the truth. Big ole fudge at the truth. It’s a fallacy to even think that at any time we can be completely caught up with a project or task. Get the dishes done? Great! Oops, here comes another cup, glass, plate — or meal! Get all caught up with your reading? Magically out of nowhere another magazine, newspaper or letter is dropped into your lap. Go ahead, just try to finish your sewing, truck repair, baking, yardwork and, in my neck of the woods — farming! Never going to happen. Oh, and learning! We will never ever be caught up learning new things. That is a good thing, I think.

If you think you are caught up on a task, chances are you are not finished; you just think you’ve reached the end. There is a difference between being finished with something and being caught up with that same something. I have a friend who has discovered during these long winter months he likes the library. Not just because of the fact that during the cold winter days he can soak up the free heat at the library instead of turning up the heat in his house, which, to me, is very smart! No, he tells me about a book he has read after he finishes it. I am interested, of course. But then, even though he’s finished with that book and takes a second or two to enjoy turning the last page and closing the back cover with a satisfying whoosh? Well, he is nowhere near being caught up with his reading. There are tons of books in the 900 section he is trying to get through. By the time he gets to the end and thinks he is finished, he will just turn around to see the librarian will have added more books for him to get caught up with.

That is just one “caught up,” regarding the caught up worlds around us. That was getting “caught up with it.” But what of “caught up in” something? You can get caught up in a whirlwind, a discussion, a lover’s triangle. I don’t recommend that last one at all! If you do, you could find yourself caught up in an awkward and messy situation or even get all caught up in a messy divorce. Yikes!

I have found that getting caught up in something can be a rewarding experience, too. I have no children but I am certainly caught up in the lives of a few young people around me who have children that I selfishly call my own. And I am caught up in the lives of a couple who don’t have kids yet, but when they do, I will be all caught up in those little lives, too. I am also caught up in the story line of a television show I am watching weekly and I often wish the television station would get caught up with all the advertising and get on with the show I am caught up in!

Then, there is getting “caught up about” and “caught up on” something. There is a slippery slope between being caught up about and caught up on a subject. I don’t want to be caught up on all the things happening at the local watering hole and who is doing what with who, e.g. gossip.

But, yes I am catching up with and inserting a “but” here. But I want to be caught up about how a friend is doing after surgery and how the recovery is progressing. Might want to stop by with cookies and catch up with her!

Oh, and don’t think for a second that dying will end this catching up phenomenon. I believe that the one who has passed on will always be around, watching to catch up with the ones left here on Mother Earth. Yep, floating there on a nice, soft, fluffy, white cloud watching those who now are caught up in getting caught up with catching up about all the things in life that still need to be caught up on. Ain’t life a hoot and a half!

Trina lives in Eureka, Nev. Share with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com. Really!