In the movie “Field of Dreams,” a voice whispers to Ray Kinsella “Go the distance.”
I thought about that phrase when wrapping Christmas gifts this week. After a full day, the last thing I wanted to do was fiddle with wrapping paper and bows.
I’ve always been a fan of curling ribbon, and I usually love creating colorful swirls of curling ribbon on top of the wrapped boxes.
This year, I was tired. I wanted to slap some wrapping paper on the box, write the person’s name on the front with a magic marker – forget a gift tag – and be done with the whole enterprise.
But after wrapping the first gift and looking at the plain box, I could hear my mom whispering – go the distance.
Take the Extra Step
Years ago, I volunteered to make sandwiches for a family baby shower. A few days before the event, my mom called and asked what kind of sandwiches I was going to make.
“Chicken salad,” I said. “I’ll just pick up a container of pre-made stuff from the store.”
“You’re going to cut the crusts off those sandwiches, right?” my mom asked.
“No way,” I told her. “That takes too much time.”
She didn’t say anything for a minute, and then came the zinger.
“You need to go the extra step and cut the crusts off,” Mom replied. “That extra step shows the guests you think they’re special.”
Frankly, I didn’t think anybody would pay much attention to whether or not there were crusts on the sandwiches.
But my mom’s words stuck with me, and I ended up cutting the crusts off.
They did look a bit fancier that way, and I learned going the extra distance is worth the trouble and not only for crust-less fancy sandwiches.
The extra step is what people do when guests are coming over and you sit at the table with real forks instead of passing around a bag of chips and a jar of salsa.
The extra step is when we ask someone about their day, wait for an answer and truthfully ask an interested follow-up question.
We don’t always have to add the extra step for others – taking that extra step for ourselves makes life easier and more enjoyable.
When taking off our dirty clothes, the extra step is turning them right-side out and then putting them in a clothes basket instead of dropping them on the floor.
We don’t have to look all over the place for our dirty clothes – they’re in one place, making life easier.
Plus when we take the clothes out of the dryer, we don’t have to turn them right-side out. That step is already done because we took time at the front end.
The extra step is what I need to do to these presents before I put them under the tree. The people I love, the ones I spent time shopping for, deserve that extra step of my curling the ribbons on their Christmas gifts.
There are days when the bag and the jar are going the extra distance, when we drop our dirty clothes on the floor because we’re dog tired, and we don’t have the energy to hear someone whine about their day.
And that’s okay.
There’s a secret about the extra step – if we always took that step, it would no longer be special.
At the end of the night, I looked at the gifts, ribbons dangling over the edges and pretty name tags on the front.
Mom was right. Going the extra step is definitely worth it, especially for the people who are extra special and that includes you.
May your travels and loved ones be safe this holy season. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you!
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.