Bring Guilt to the Laundromat

My daughter Kourtney is getting ready to go back to college. Her room is torn up, clothes are piled in front of the washer and dryer and reminder notes sit, ruffed on counter tops and tables throughout our home.

I sat down at the kitchen table to do some work this morning and out of the corner of my eye, on a sticky note next to my computer, I read the words “take guilt to the laundromat” As I refocused my fifty year old eyes I realized that it actually was a note from Kourtney asking me to take her quilt to the laundromat.

The thought of taking guilt to the laundromat intrigues me. What if we could simply wash away the guilt that builds up over a lifetime with a quick visit to the “guilt free” laundromat?

As I write this I am focusing on guilt as “self-reproach for supposed inadequacy or wrongdoing”. I believe we would all become happier and more productive if we could clean this type of guilt from our lives.

I know my own forgetfulness and lack of organizational skills can make me feel guilty at work and in my personal life. What I have found is that if I concentrate on that guilt I actually become less effective and certainly less satisfied in life. Sometimes I have to stop, address the mistake and do my best to prevent the same thing from happening again.

Great athletes know exactly how to do this. If Josh Beckett gives up a key hit you’ll certainly see him express anger and disappointment in himself for a moment. He then quickly settles down and focuses on the task at hand and the future. The base hit does not exist in his mind because it would simply pull energy away from what he needs to accomplish from that point forward.

This simple lesson is something I try to reinforce with me kids everyday. So I’ll take Kourt’s quilt to the laudromat and hopefully she can sleep under it through many “guilt free” nights at school this year.