Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.

Rip Van Winkle and procrastination

While I was making coffee this morning I browsed through a book my daughter had left on the counter (~The Legend of Sleepy Hollow--Rip Van Winkle--The Spectre Bridegroom~ by Washington Irving, condensed and adapted by W.T. Robinson and K.R. Knight, illustrated by Alastair Graham. Dalmation Press, Franklin, Tennessee, 2002). It was a children's version of "Rip Van Winkle" and in it I found the following paragraph:
"Rip did have one weakness. He didn't like to work at the things he was ~supposed~ to do. But, he didn't mind staying busy doing other things. For instance, he would sit on a wet rock with a long heavy pole and fish all day, even when he got not one single bite. He would carry a gun on his shoulder for hours and tramp through woods and swamps to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would help his neighbors with their work and run errands for the women of the village. In other words, he was ready to take care of anyone's work but his own. When it came to his own family matters and keeping his farm in good shape, he just could not do it." (p.96)

There you have it--demand resistance, time-binging, codependency, people-pleasing, putting own needs last (or out of the picture entirely), poor boundaries (his kids ran wild and all he did was play with them) and probably a huge dose of passive resistance (his wife was a horrible nag): how could the poor man NOT procrastinate! And his falling asleep for a hundred years--the ultimate procrastination. He procrastinated away his life (though getting drunk with ghosts is the putative reason for his sleeping spell). He must be our poster child! ;) A humorously cautionary tale--I hope I don't wind up procrastinating away my own life! :?

Over this past weekend I was reminded of this post!

Well I was very productive this weekend putting together furniture and cleaning an apartment. The only trouble was that it wasn't my apartment, it was a friend's. Of course, all of the stuff I had to do for myself this weekend I didn't do.

Me, too

I am ~so~ much more likely to help someone else with their own work than do my own! Heck, if I do stuff for everybody else, why can't I find someone to do for me? If only!

very interesting!

Now I'm curious to read "The Legend of Sleep Hollow" again (if I ever read it in the first place).

Maybe Rip Van Winkle should be the PA mascot.