Anywhere But Here

Legally Rambling (10/7/2009). I sat on the chaise lounge chair, watching through some toy plastic binoculars, the whales traverse Manele Bay, their misty spouts, the only thing breaking the reflection of the coming evening on the bay. The wind was slightly blowing the palms against the exposed metal rail of my lanai, the condensation trailing down the neck of my Long Board beer, the temperature perfect - I was at peace. I was in heaven.

Then the crack of reality broke my day dream – 7:45 a.m. – Dallas, stuck at the intersection of Northwest Highway and Abrams Road, again. I have hated this intersection ever since I could remember to hate this intersection. It has to be one of the longest lights in the City of Dallas and has become one of the major road blocks in my life. You see it stands at not quite the midpoint of the daily commute between my house and my son’s school. It has become for me a great impediment, one of life’s obstructions – I thought “anywhere but here.”

I then thought what a great example this intersection provides. You see - each of us suffers from some great impediment in this life whether in a relationship, job, family problem, addiction, lawsuit … the list goes on and on. I see it in practice all the time. Yet, most of us stop at that red light and wait … and wait … and wait. We fail to change. Sure, we are all imperfect beings. However, this situation is also very interesting, very personal, because if you think about it, every experience in your life has prepared you for this very second in time and space and has brought you to this place. You are right where God wants you to be. Think about that for a minute … just think …. So what do you do? In Confessions of a Winning Poker Player, Jack King states that “few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.” So do we just focus on our losses in life?

Now, composer, musician and film director, Frank Zappa, once stated “without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” I was taught growing up that you should never ever quit. Yet, the older I get the more I realize that deviation from the norm, or quitting in some situations, is acceptable. In fact, Sir Winston Churchill once stated that “there is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.”

So tomorrow I’m taking a different route and discovering the fruit of the other possibilities in life that that decision bears.

Ramble On!