For Wilshire Baptist Church
I was vacuuming the upstairs study where I work, and I almost wrecked my shoulder again trying to vacuum with one hand while moving my desk chair with the other. It’s a heavy, oak, library-style chair that LeAnn brought into our marriage and I’ve adopted as my own. A chiropractor might advise me to quit using it, but I love it because it keeps me uncomfortable.
The chair was probably the pinnacle of ergonomics at the time it was built, with a firm, straight back and a seat carved out to accommodate the shape of a mid-20th-century rear end. I’ve added a thin seat cushion to keep my legs from going to sleep, and the cushion slides off if I need to stand on the chair to reach an upper shelf on the bookcase nearby. The chair weighs a ton so there’s no danger of it tipping over.
I tend to lean forward in the chair when I work, so the hard back doesn’t bother me at all. But I’m also a restless, fidgety writer who gets up and down frequently. I go downstairs to get a cup of coffee, or I do chores like changing bed sheets, emptying the dishwasher, or as previously stated, vacuuming. I don’t know if the chair contributes to that, but I’m grateful if it does, because that fidgeting means I never get too comfortable with my words or what I’m writing. For me, a lot of the writing process is thinking about what I’m writing, and getting up and moving around helps me do that.
I think it may be good to not get too comfortable with a lot of things we do. Comfort can lead to status quo, lack of curiosity, sleepwalking, just going along. And all of that can lead to not noticing changes around you, not anticipating changes, missing opportunities to do better, not seeing chances to help others, and just plain not taking chances.
It’s good to get up and move around, ask questions, seek answers, challenge what we’ve heard and especially what we’ve been told is the truth. It’s also good to challenge our response to what we’ve been told is the truth. There’s a lot of information flying around these days – often more than we can absorb, study and respond to in a responsible way. It’s easy to just read or hear something, accept it as gospel and act on it without really thinking it through. That can be costly in lots of different ways.
Speaking of costly, have you priced desk chairs lately – the adjustable, ergonomic marvels that keep you cool, comfortable and relaxed? Big box stores have them going up to $300, and then there are X-Chairs that start at $299 and go all the way up to $1,899. That’s a high price for comfort.
I only know the prices because I was researching for this post; I wasn’t shopping. I don’t want one of those chairs. The old straight-back chair suits me fine.