Making an Impression

When my children were toddlers, their main goal in life was to travel from point A to point Z fast. So they'd run from room to room, as if time were running out. It was a sweet brand of impatience as curiosity led the way. Like a garden brimming with promise, each day presented new changes. Life was carefree and silly, filled with adventure.

Eventually, though, they learned when to accelerate those little legs, and when to wait; when to shift into a higher gear and when to stay put. Life involves a lot of hurry-ups and wait-your-turns, and those lessons are best learned early.

Some of us never quite get the waiting part, though, like the obnoxious forty-something guy we met on the interstate yesterday. We were approaching a mountainous stretch, and when we rounded a corner we found a long line of big rigs blocking the right lane. Naturally, we pulled into the left lane to pass them.

A minute or so later, a white sportscar sped into view from behind. He must have been doing 75 mph, and apparently didn't want to have to brake. So he used his horn instead. It was obvious that we had no options--nowhere to pull over, with that solid wall of 18-wheelers inching uphill--but he was a man in a hurry. He had important places to be and a passenger to impress, so every few seconds, this moron would blast his horn and offer us the international peace sign.

When we'd finally made it around the trucks and could pull back into the right lane, he passed us...but not before he leaned across his passenger, stuck his hand close to the window, and offered that peace sign once again.

We ignored him, which made him madder. Just so we could appreciate his IQ in all its glory, he continued that peace sign in his rearview mirror until he crested the hill.

Yep, he made quite an impression.

"A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed." - Henrik Ibsen

Seedplanter

Life's a Revolving Door

Picture a classic scene at a busy airport. Travelers being dumped off curbside, hurrying inside with their bags so they could stand in line and wait. I was heading to Florida for a conference, where my publisher had scheduled a booksigning.

Where's everybody going? I wondered. I imagined them traveling to reunions, business conferences, or home to visit a sick parent, as I'd done countless times. I spotted a few who were dressed for fun. But one traveler was late--a grouchy-looking guy with permanent frown lines whose wife and young son were trying their best to keep up with his long stride.

Suddenly, a giggle broke loose midway up the line. Then another. And another. Heads turned right to take in a hilarious scene, one that most parents had probably experienced themselves at one time or another. That little boy had fallen in love with the revolving door and would not leave it. His dad had marched on in total oblivion. Mom was trying her best tricks to get Kid out of the door.

Finally, she waves a big red notepad at him. "We will NOT draw pictures on the plane if you don't come out of that door THIS INSTANT!"

As far as I know, that kid is still stuck in the door, deliriously lost in childhood while the world marches on. Life sometimes feels like a revolving door, but how sweet it is to stop everything now and then, to simply live in the moment.

Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.
- Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)

Seedplanter



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