If you are under the age of 40 you probably don't know who this is. He was a cartoon character who was constantly bumbling into situations because he could not see very well. In fact the character always looked like his eyes were closed . As life swirled around him he seemed to make his way while all sorts of chaos erupted around him. But he plodded on with a charming and cheerful salute to all around him.
This past week while in transit from Dallas to Grand Rapids MI via Charlotte. I came to panic stricken realization while on the last leg of this journey I had lost my glasses. These are not reading glasses. I take them off to read. I have 20/20 within a 10' radius, but get out beyond that the world loses its sharp edges, and the further out you go it gets worse and worse. Oh I can see cars..or at least I think they are cars; and buildings; and mountains apparently do not have tops, they just stretch to the galaxy. Usually there is a rep to cart me around, but this entire trip I was driving. To complicate matters I was only going to be in Grand Rapids for a day then shift over to Boston, where again I would be driving.
So how do you fix this? Hmmm. The grocery store glasses are all reading glasses. Optometrists work in terms of weeks, not hours. I was stuck.
The next 4 days of driving was maddening. Street signs were the worst. If I squinted really hard I could just make out the sign from about 20' away...at 8 mph. Thankfully the chick on the IPhone GPS was more accurate than normal and I was able to creep my way around and not cause any pileups..that I know of. The lady who was to join me to attend the meeting with the customer was quite funny. She is Korean and very polite. When she landed in Boston we gathered our things, took the shuttle to the car rental building, loaded everything and struck out for Braintree MA, about 30 miles away.
As we rode along, this was the conversation:
Me: "Want to hear something really exciting?"
Her: "Yes, Of course!"
Me: "I lost my glasses on Monday and really can't see very well."
Her (very hesitantly and after a very long pause): "Would you like me to drive?"
Me: "Of course not! Just keep a close eye out that side of the car. You're seat belted, right?"
It seemed very funny to me. Koreans are not known for their sense of humor.
She went back to Dallas the next day and seemed really relieved to be going home. I had another day, then a 6AM flight back out.
3:30 AM, dark, raining, no glasses. And the GPS chick is not a cheerful early riser. Drove like a 90 year old in a Studebaker all the way to the airport. Exit to airport was blocked, so had to circle. I believe I achieved an almost 100% success rate of getting my fellow motorists to honk at me. They are so friendly in Boston. I just waved like royalty in a parade!
Wearing my old glasses until new ones can be purchased. Prescription had expired which meant I had to get an exam. My dad was an optometrist, so I know all the reasons for all the tests which did not prevent the good doctor from explaining them anyway. Taking a certain amount of abuse from the ladies in the office due to the look of the old glasses. I just keep waving!
This is probably a preview of my later years. Driving slow, can't see. If things keep going this way, though, I probably won't be able to hear them honk either. Anyway, the investment in some really cool and hip glasses is probably money well spent.
Godspeed, the old scripture came to mind, "Without vision the people perish" Well not this time.
Don
Friday, April 17, 2015
Monday, April 6, 2015
Weightless
There are times in our lives when the world turns so completely from the axis we are used to that it casts us into another dimension. We are running along in our lives thinking that we know the answers, we know the journey we have chosen, we know what to expect. Then, in a blinding awful moment we are jettisoned into another orbit, another reality.
What makes this so disconcerting is that most, if not all, that we think we know is spun in a different direction and is of no use to us. So we find ourselves naked and alone, scared and unsure, and without the tools with which we had become so familiar. This does not keep us from trying to find a use for those tools, to find something of value from our past. Do you remember Navin (played by Steve Martin) in The Jerk? As he is leaving his home for good, being expelled from his family, he rambles on as he wanders through the house:
"And that's the only thing I need is *this*. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray... And this paddle game. - The ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need... And this remote control. - The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need... And these matches. - The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control, and the paddle ball... And this lamp. - The ashtray, this paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp, and that's all *I* need. And that's *all* I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one... I need this. - The paddle game and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches for sure. Well what are you looking at? What do you think I'm some kind of a jerk or something! - And this. That's all I need. "
When we are suddenly catapulted from the life we clung to into this new dimension, we grasp for the things that helped define the old life. And none of those things are helpful or even meaningful in the new life.
Some of you about now are saying, "What in the world is he talking about?" But if you have been jettisoned, with or without your permission from the life you thought you were building you don't have to ask. And it could be anything. You could have been shot from the cannon of your career soaring over the three rings and screaming at the knowledge that someone didn't stretch the net. It could be that far too soon the body has begun to wear down, to stop functioning as it should, instead of parts not working so well, entire systems are shutting down. Maybe she/he came home and piled all your stuff in the front yard, changed the locks, and moved the money and you never even had a moment to state your case. It could be any number of events, but the fact is that you are now alone and scared and without emotional or physical or spiritual tools to handle this sudden and cataclysmic moment. Perhaps this was self-inflicted, where all you could think of was that you had to get out, you had to step into the abyss without a parachute of any sort.
Fear breeds anger. It is easy to think that the universe and the One who made it have decided to turn your existence into some sort of sorry, cosmic joke. The brunt of divine laughter and derision. So it is natural to be angry, to be willing to blame, to assume abandonment.
But I read an interesting quote the other day that has been swimming around in the grey matter for over a week:
"The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken from you, by the grace of God." The emphasis is mine. The attributed author is Walter Brueggemann, a Hebrew Bible Scholar.
I will let your grey matter struggle with this a little. I could apply faith, restoration ideas, hope, etc. But this quote comes with so much personal baggage that it probably means something completely different to you than it does to me. It just depends on where the exit burns are inflicted.
But the essence is that the One you follow has other plans than the ones you built. And try as we might to grasp the lamp or the matches or whatever, they will be useless in the new dimension. Grace and pain can never be separated. I feel an entirely different writing for that statement.
Godspeed, so carefully prepared, so completely lost, so redeemed by the grace. Still trying to fully grasp the idea.
Don
What makes this so disconcerting is that most, if not all, that we think we know is spun in a different direction and is of no use to us. So we find ourselves naked and alone, scared and unsure, and without the tools with which we had become so familiar. This does not keep us from trying to find a use for those tools, to find something of value from our past. Do you remember Navin (played by Steve Martin) in The Jerk? As he is leaving his home for good, being expelled from his family, he rambles on as he wanders through the house:
"And that's the only thing I need is *this*. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray... And this paddle game. - The ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need... And this remote control. - The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need... And these matches. - The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control, and the paddle ball... And this lamp. - The ashtray, this paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp, and that's all *I* need. And that's *all* I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one... I need this. - The paddle game and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches for sure. Well what are you looking at? What do you think I'm some kind of a jerk or something! - And this. That's all I need. "
When we are suddenly catapulted from the life we clung to into this new dimension, we grasp for the things that helped define the old life. And none of those things are helpful or even meaningful in the new life.
Some of you about now are saying, "What in the world is he talking about?" But if you have been jettisoned, with or without your permission from the life you thought you were building you don't have to ask. And it could be anything. You could have been shot from the cannon of your career soaring over the three rings and screaming at the knowledge that someone didn't stretch the net. It could be that far too soon the body has begun to wear down, to stop functioning as it should, instead of parts not working so well, entire systems are shutting down. Maybe she/he came home and piled all your stuff in the front yard, changed the locks, and moved the money and you never even had a moment to state your case. It could be any number of events, but the fact is that you are now alone and scared and without emotional or physical or spiritual tools to handle this sudden and cataclysmic moment. Perhaps this was self-inflicted, where all you could think of was that you had to get out, you had to step into the abyss without a parachute of any sort.
Fear breeds anger. It is easy to think that the universe and the One who made it have decided to turn your existence into some sort of sorry, cosmic joke. The brunt of divine laughter and derision. So it is natural to be angry, to be willing to blame, to assume abandonment.
But I read an interesting quote the other day that has been swimming around in the grey matter for over a week:
"The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken from you, by the grace of God." The emphasis is mine. The attributed author is Walter Brueggemann, a Hebrew Bible Scholar.
I will let your grey matter struggle with this a little. I could apply faith, restoration ideas, hope, etc. But this quote comes with so much personal baggage that it probably means something completely different to you than it does to me. It just depends on where the exit burns are inflicted.
But the essence is that the One you follow has other plans than the ones you built. And try as we might to grasp the lamp or the matches or whatever, they will be useless in the new dimension. Grace and pain can never be separated. I feel an entirely different writing for that statement.
Godspeed, so carefully prepared, so completely lost, so redeemed by the grace. Still trying to fully grasp the idea.
Don
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