JOY ALONG THE WAY: DO YOU EVER HAVE IRRESISTIBLE IMPULSES TO ACT?

"Where and when do you get your ideas for writing?" is a question often asked of columnists who have no particular subject matter. Quite often I try to make some semblance of sense when I answer. I've tried to get by with saying, "Oh, just seeing, hearing and feeling things." But I sense the questioner wants more specifics.

So, I got my idea for writing this column while ironing napkins. More specifics? It wasn't the heat from the iron, nor the wonderment if anyone else in town was ironing napkins and, if so, what was she thinking about, or how I could best mend that place in the frayed lace without causing it to ravel. It was the more mysterious subject of compulsions I wanted to speak of.

Maybe you studied about compulsions in psychology. It is an irresistible impulse to act, regardless of the rationality of the motivation, such as stepping on every crack in the sidewalk or not stepping on every crack, always laying the bar of soap, design or printed side up, in the soap dish as long as the design or print lasts.

Who knows when or why these compulsions start? Maybe you had good luck with something and continued the habit.

Back to the napkins. Many years ago I ordered them, a set of 12, from the now defunct American Home Magazine. They were 18-inch squares of natural colored linen, with a different spray of flowers to be embroidered in a corner of each. Colored floss was included with instructions for every imaginable embroidery stitch. This posed no problem for me for I was "brought up" on embroidery.

The compulsion problem arose when they were all finished, washed and ironed. The first compulsion was that when ironing, and foldings, all four corners must meet exactly. Marion O'Brien, former food editor for the St. Louis Globe Democrat caused this. She spoke of how she loved to iron, especially napkins, making sure all the four corners met precisely, one right on top of the other. Marion had a way of making any homemaking event sound so cozy, comfortable and right. That's when I started this compulsion, and it has never, ever stopped. I've sometimes had to wet the napkin and iron it again and again and again. That's compulsion. Bothersome, isn't it? I'm sure no one ever notices.

The second compulsion is that I must use the napkins when setting a formal table. After all I went to the time-consuming handiwork of embroidering them, hemming them, attaching the edging. "Now don't put them away in some box of precious things," Mama said. "Use them."

Many times I have set the table with "lesser" napkins only to jerk them off at the last minute and put on the beautiful embroidered ones, corners meeting exactly, even if the dishes are only ironstone, pottery or possibly mismatched.

Got any compulsions?

REJOICE!

~Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime columnist for the Southeast Missourian.