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The secret to better families--comfy chairs!By Larry Dreiling A few years ago, I attended the board meeting of a farm group. The meeting dragged on for hours, as the members of the board sat on folding chairs used with card tables. After a little over three hours the board chairman mercifully recessed the session for 10 minutes. It was then I heard one farmer say to the other: "What I wouldn't give for the seat in my tractor right now." The remark came back to me recently, as the carpet in my basement office suffered some water damage due to hurricane force winds that swept into the foundation of my house. The solution was to pull up the carpet and dry the pad underneath. All the work in the basement to recover from the water damage has caused me to move to where many home-based businesses function-- the kitchen table. In the meantime, the disaster cleaning crew took my nice plush office chair and put it in a corner of my basement recreation room where I couldn't easily get to it. The kitchen furniture isn't fancy. It is a simple oak dinette set, with fairly high straight backs and simple seats with no cushions. As I've sat on one of these solid wooden seats at my house for the last few weeks cranking out stories, I've noticed that this seat really isn't meant for sitting a long period of time. I went over to my folks' place a couple of Sundays ago and sat in one of the old chairs and remembered things like my sister using holiday dinners to throw snide comments at her little brother, my dad deciding that carving a turkey at the table with an electric knife (remember those?) was too messy and my mom, as always, making sure things were just so before being the last one to sit down. It's dawned on me that many of these dinette sets like I have are in kitchens all over the country, maybe all over the world. These seats are hard. Peoples' backsides are sore if they sit too long in them. Because of this need for substance over comfort, it's no wonder people eat so hurriedly. That leads to them feeling full quickly, needing to eat more to be fully satisfied later; thus causing all sorts of health problems like obesity, heart problems and diabetes. No wonder so many parents and kids, husbands and wives and so many good friends have communication problems. A few days ago, I found an old stadium cushion in an upstairs closet. I'm using it on one of the dinette set chairs while writing this. Since then I've come to the conclusion that all of us need a little cushion, not just for our backsides, but for our minds and hearts as well. We need to let go of those hard seats inside us that make us miserable. However you find it, through faith or family or friends, a walk in the park, a workout, whatever, let go of that hard seat. We need to find ways within each of us to be a "comfy seat" for each other, too, like sending a card to a sick friend far away, bringing a meal to an elderly neighbor or taking time for community, school or church activities. Somehow, being a comfort to others may bring comfort to you. Oh, and as for these chairs at my dining room table, I'm going to ask Santa to bring me some thick chair pads for Christmas. Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com. B 4 8/20/07 6 Star Midwest Ag Date: 8/15/07
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