I was talking with Dereck the other day and for some reason I remembered this little story from last summer:
I decided to head out for a power walk walk around my neighborhood at around 9:00p.m. in late June or July. I lived in a complex that was right next to this newer subdivision that was well-lighted, so I felt safe. I also felt safe to leave my door unlocked because I was only going to be gone for a half hour. (And by unlocked, I mean light on and the door wide open - anyone could have walked in my screen door. )
Anyway, I went out strong, getting my heart rate up, you know. So I walked all the way to the end of the main drag in the subdivision, but had only been gone 15 minutes. Instead of coming back the way I came, I thought "I'll just take one of these side streets, I'm sure it will loop back around to this one." WRONG! Hello, Kelli, it's housing development, individualized, white pavement, sod-lawned, designed for looks - not for practicality - America! I ended up just getting looped and twisted around for the next 45 minutes. I was still too stubborn to go back, so I kept trying to find new ways to get back to the main drag, each time thinking "this one's gotta go there eventually."
I was tromping along and walked by this house one of Missy's kids showed me when I dropped him off last summer. I realized that I had looped and twisted myself all the way around this marsh that I lived by and I was probably about 2 miles from my house, as the crow flies, but there were no roads that would take me there quickly. What had I done?! I eventually had to stop for 10 minutes and rest because I was exhausted. I had also been fasting that day, so it made the situation even worse. I was so hungry and sooo tired! I kept thinking, "if someone kills me and doesn't take my ring, that's how they'll identify my body." :p
Alas, I stood up and started back tracking - what I should have done a long time ago. After a long time, I ended up back that the road that I knew and that I needed to be on to get home! Whew! I guess I got home at about 11:00-11:15, maybe. Heidi had been working at Wal-Mart, so she wasn't quite home yet, either. I was able to thoroughly (and nervously) look through the house for any predators. Trust me, it looked like I had never left and I found no such villain lurking. Whew! (again) Boy, did I get lucky.
Anyway, that was a crazy experience and rather humorous at the time. I sure miss my homemade tie-dyed shirt I was wearing. :-( I felt at the time like it was just culminating the feeling of living in a new city - always thinking you've finally got an area figured out, only to realize that your knowledge was limited to one road. I tried to find some spiritual significance in the experience, as well. All I really ever came up with was that when we're stubborn and ignore wisdom, we're prone to walk and walk in circles, never getting where we need to be, only tiring ourselves in the process. If we find ourselves tangled, tired, and hungry sitting on a curb in the middle of white suburbia, all we have to do is humble ourselves, and go back whence we came. Wow, that makes too much sense right now...
Here I am, Lord.
1 comment:
me and matt did this once! we were visiting some of his family in california, and we took a walk... at some point we hopped this little fence and ended up getting trapped inside this gated community where all the streets looped -- we walked and walked but could never get out! (the fence, when we ran into it, was now like 9 feet high instead of 3!) it was so hot too, like 105, and so we stopped in someone's yard and drank out of their sprinkler... finally i was ready to lay down and die, right there in suburbia, when this very old lady pulled up in a van. we waved her down and she very nervously stopped. she let us use her phone and someone came and got us. (very embarrassing!)
anyway. i like your story, and it's a nice allegory you came up with too. :)
Post a Comment