Over the years, if I try I can remember instances where it seems a situation is impossible or insurmountable. The solution promises only frustration and so you give up, move onto a problem that is solvable, and of course, of far less complication. If it’s too hard to deal with, you find something you can. The result is an accomplished challenge—even if it’s loading the dishwasher. The resulting sense of having done something puts you in a more positive frame of mind so you can face that first problem that you gave up on.
There are any number of ways to give up. Don’t answer the phone, turn off the damn computer, or drown the problem in some form of alcohol or narcotic of your choice. The latter seems very extreme, and a visit with your shrink or priest has its advantages.
Once upon a time apparently I had a secret desire that initially I didn’t even recognize. Just a fleeting half wish thought.
My little girl was on school holiday and I asked her if she would like to go on an errand with daddy. Yes! We were going on a ride to the city to deliver a package to the mother of one of my clients. When we arrived at the lady’s apartment it was a fine old pile dating back to the first part of the last century.
Upon answering our knock on her door we were greeted by a gracious and charming seventy-five year old that could remind one of the Queen Mother. After we delivered the package to her, our hostess invited Carolyn and me to visit and see the apartment. Finally at the conclusion of the tour Mrs. Anderson presented my daughter with a little gift. A small needlepoint canvas with the legend “Be a friend to have a friend.” We thanked Mrs. A. for her thoughtful and unexpected gift and went down the long hallway, down in the elevator to the lobby and out the big font door.
We both thought at the same time, “What would it be like to live in such another world as this?” The thought was so very wishful we dismissed it—not even considering it something to give up on.
A mere matter of some forty years or so has passed, and the now widowed daddy with both Caroline and her brother married with families of their own, found he needed a new address, something with no garden to till, no grass to mow, no snow to shovel. The apartment hunt was on.
Out of the blue my computer-wise daughter called me with a question. “Dad, do you remember when you and I went to that lady’s building to deliver a package and she gave me a gift?” She went on to say, “Well, guess what showed up on Craig’s List, a rental in that old building you took me to when I was six or seven.”
The rest of the story you have already guessed. The last place in my world that I will ever reside in is where I am now quite by chance and Craig’s List plus a wish-thought so very vague that at the time didn’t ever merit giving up on.
Be careful what you don’t wish for you may have to give up—or something!
© 19 October 2015
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