Didn't Clean My Room Today

I didn’t clean my room today. Despite days of request and a threatening note that my mother strung across my door with masking tape, I guess I chose to do other things. It’s funny how that happens; we choose things without really choosing. I didn’t make a conscious decision NOT to clean my room. Yet, I clearly failed to do so.
We do this every day: prioritize. I heard that our generation, the baby boomers, makes on average 1000-2000 decisions before leaving the house in the morning. If I think about the options my mother decided between, there is an enormous difference. She asked herself which of her 7 or 8 outfits she wanted to wear that day. Sure, she had summer clothes and winter clothes, but I decided what “look” I wanted. I had clothes that could be preppy, sporty, punk-rock, or gothic (that was a short phase in 8th grade). She merely elected one of a few dresses her mother made or a pair of pants.
Upon failure to heed the days of request to clean my room, my mother left what seemed to be a threatening note. She wrote, “clean up your room and put away your clothes or you’ll LOSE them.” To her, this probably seemed fairly extreme. The note was by no means nice, but for me it didn’t provide the incentive she hoped. I could clean my room and lose an hour of my day, or, I could rent a movie with my boyfriend and potentially lose a hamper of clothes that I would only miss every other week.
I took the second option. I guess the note proved unsuccessful in two ways: I had enough clothes to get by without a basket of recently cleaned ones, and I didn’t actually end up losing my clothes.
She cuts me slack a lot, my mom that is. I take on many activities while attempting a social life so I can definitely use the breaks. I still wonder, however, whether it’s worth it. Is it worth it for her to request I clean my room if it almost never happens? Or, is it worth fighting with someone about their priorities when decisions come down to pure incentives and logic? Every day we make decisions for this or that, and we automatically weigh the benefits and costs of each choice. Today I started thinking about choices with my room and my laundry, but what about bigger choices. When is something no longer “worth it?’ And, how much do we account for other people’s needs when we make decisions. If we disregard others, there will be no volunteers, community service, or unexpected kind deeds unless the person can receive some tangible benefit. On the flip side, if we only think about those around us we can create so much stress in the absence of self-care that we leave our bodies in tatters. So, yet again, we must find a balance. We must try each, the selfish and selfless deeds. We can weigh the results and then choose “what’s best” for ourselves. In the end, that is how we end up with people who only work for money and some who dedicate life times to volunteer. For each of them, they chose what they thought was the best fit.
Today I watched a movie. I left my clothes and my untidy room to escape for a few hours in a romantic comedy. Today, that was the right choice. But, tomorrow I think I’ll clean my room.