People, get ready!*

by chuckofish

Another busy week full of dentistry (I’ll spare you that) and driving. Yesterday I took my car in for service, which is quite a production, since the dealer is about two hours away. On the way there, I drove through a weird white world of snow and fog.

I managed to take a couple of photos without stopping (that’s not like texting and driving, is it?).

Notice the arty rear view mirror shot. By the time I drove home, the weather had cleared, although that brought out the police, who lay in wait for unwary old ladies like me.  I got caught in a speed trap. I had begun — about 30 feet early — to accelerate in anticipation of leaving a village speed zone (30 mph) and entering the highway (55 mph).

Actually, the nice young policeman, who pulled me over, was quite apologetic, saying that his sergeant insisted that everyone get ticketed so he had no choice. He then told me how to get the fine reduced. I did not slap him.

Well, I am philosophical and take that lapse in judgment as a warning to be careful as I drive across country to Louisville, KY next week! I don’t feel particularly ready for this trip, but take solace in these wise words from a wonderful memoir I just finished reading about Merrill’s Marauders in Burma during WWII:

For nothing could have been better calculated than that experience to bring home to me a lesson that has to be learned…It is this. Being unready and ill-equipped is what you have to expect in life. It is the universal predicament. It is your lot as a human being to lack what it takes. Circumstances are seldom right. You never have the capacities, the strength, the wisdom, the virtue you ought to have. You must always make do with less than you need in a situation vastly different from what you would have chosen as appropriate for your special endowments.

Charlton Ogburn, Jr. The Marauders, Fawcett, 1956: 18.

In the meantime, I am preparing for Easter. Son #2 arrives today, so there will be four of us to celebrate. Easter is early this year and it seems to have caught me by surprise. The stores have been full of candy and bunnies for weeks, and I’ve overindulged in pastel colored M&Ms, but it has not put me in an Easter frame of mind.  I was surprised last night to realize that there have been no Easter movies on TV at all, at least not that I’ve noticed, and I flip channels every night, looking in vain for something to watch. There’s nothing on Netflix or Amazon video either. What’s the idea?

I guess we’re on our own, so remember Psalm 62: “Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be moved.”

*Curtis Mayfield, “People, Get Ready!”