Someday

I’ll keep this short, I promise.

For the most part, I avoid drawing. Or, I should say, I avoid sharing what I draw. Very rarely do I find what I create worth sharing. And if I am proud of it, I will share it with the people I was thinking of when I drew it.

However, during the quarantine I picked up my sketchbook and a mechanical pencil (both have interesting stories behind them, but I’ll save that for another day), and began to draw.

The isolation period had just started, and one of my friends and I kept saying we would do things, “Someday.” So much, in fact, they banned me from saying it.

I wasn’t completely sure where I was going with the picture, but as I drew, it came to me. I could see our family’s mantle in my minds eye – the wood butting up against the bricks of the chimney, objects scattered across it – and my imagination filled in the rest.

If you know me, you know that I am an in-depth thinker. If you’ve ever had a discussion with me about philosophy or theology, you know that, unless I’m just sick of all of it, I like to be thorough and layered in analysis. You may have experienced my propensity to take an object or situation and make it into a sermon illustration, using whatever vague connection I can. You also may know that the later it gets, the more philosophical I get.

In the same way, I try to layer philosophy and theology into my writing. I want people to read my works and come away with a fresh perspective. And so it was a subconscious effect that the same thing happened with this drawing.

On the surface, it’s a picture of a clock with the hands off the face, with the word “Someday.” The natural conclusion, I think, is that in our current state of affairs, we have taken the hands off the clock, so to speak. Life is paused. But “someday” we will put the hand back on the face, and things will return to normal.

It could also reference not touching your face, but that was not the original intent.

But that’s only the first layer. If we were to look deeper, we would see that clock’s mechanism is still ticking. Time continues to flow, whether or not you know what day of the week it is. “Someday” will come, whether you are ready for it or not.

Someday is a promise and an excuse. Yes, you may plan to do something someday, but that promise is also an excuse to avoid doing it today.

I’m just as guilty of this as the next person. Each month, I would say, “I’ll write a blog post. Someday.” I even started one – and told myself I would finish it soon. Two months later, it still sits in my drafts, waiting to be revisited.

So.

Don’t be me.

Hopefully, the time that we can put the hand on the face of the clock (and on our own faces!) will be soon. If it is, I encourage you to take your someday and make it into a somehow. And if it is not, remember that time has not stopped. Even if you personally are okay, friends are struggling with depression, grief, addiction and financial instability. So don’t put them off until someday. Check in on them today.

I hope to see you again.

Someday.

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist)