Hula-Hooping to save the world

My five-year-old granddaughter approaches the Hula-Hoop systematically: first she measures her space and clears out obstacles, and then she takes up the hoop and makes it spin and spin and spin and then spin and spin some more, all the time clenching her fists and maintaining the firm, focused expression of a professional completing a difficult but necessary task that gives her intense satisfaction. She can keep that thing going for three or four minutes at a time and often doesn't stop until someone stumbles into her path, which annoys her.

I watch her spin and wonder: when was the last time I focused so intently on a task that no one was paying me to do? I admire the way the small folk single-mindedly pursue each new obsession, whether it's Legos or rock-collecting or fart jokes. When a tree-stump in the yard needed to be dismantled, my seven-year-old grandson put on a hard hat and work gloves and took his hatchet out there to hack away at the stump as if he thought he was saving the world. 

And maybe he was. Maybe the ability to focus on a thankless task until it's done is a trait essential for human survival. It's one thing to tackle a tough job with an eye on the prize, the paycheck or the blue ribbon or the promise of advancement, but it's another thing entirely to devote long hours to a difficult task for the sheer joy of doing it.

I need more of that kind of passion in my life, but instead I spend a lot of time doing things I don't want to do because no one else will do them. I love a clean house, but I'll never get any sense of satisfaction out of dusting or cleaning toilets or scrubbing the algae off the siding. The things I do that bring me joy (outside of teaching, I mean) have been hampered lately by lack of time, lousy weather, and failing equipment. One of these days I'll get a new camera, but meanwhile, photography has become more frustrating than fulfilling.

So at the moment I'll settle for getting my joy out of watching my grandkids pursue their passions. It's almost hypnotic the way that Hula-Hoop spins, its colors glinting and sparkling in the changing light, and my granddaughter's dogged determination to keep it spinning inspires wonder and awe. I want some of that passion! If I can't find it in a Hula-Hoop, then where?