I have to say that that particular phrase has always seemed a bit silly to me. How on earth can you possibly expect something that you didn't know to expect in the first place? If you were able to (by some unknown superpower) predict every twist and turn in life, I would imagine you could be a very wealthy person. Instead, you could go with the classic Boy Scouting phrase, "be prepared" (or was the Scar in "The Lion King"...) regardless, I'm fairly certain these phrases exist to remdind us that life changes quickly and good or bad, we have to deal.
It is guaranteed that life will throw us curve balls. Some people deal with issues by just completely shutting down... they ignore the issue and inevitably someone will swoop in and just take care of it. Others may react initially with a burst of emotion but will eventually calm down and deal with the issue. Finally, there are people out there who will not really react in an emotional or even noticeable way. These people seem to take everything that life throws at them and carefully, almost methodically, navigate their way through almost never asking for outside help. While those descriptions are VERY basic generalizations I feel like it's not totally out of line to guess that each one of us could identify with at least a piece.
Today I was not expecting the unexpected and I definately was NOT prepared. A little while back a friend of mine had purchased a new laptop and I had offered to buy his old one. Well, today was the day... he'd finally wiped the hard drive and restored it back to factory and I could come and pick it up. I drove over and parked in the driveway expecting to be there for only a few minutes (you know, write the customary check, chat for a few, catch up). Well, all was good until I went to leave... my car refused to start... my car refused to TRY starting... In that moment I had a decision to make.
Initially I do have to say I fealt a bit numb... the thoughts started flooding my head of how I was going to pay for repairs, if it was even worth repairing (it's an 11 year old car), if it wasn't worth repairing how I would afford a new car (as I am currently unemployed), how to get it to a shop to even have it assessed... all this and more ran through my mind in about .327 seconds. I knew it couldn't be my battery because I had power, the radio worked, my door dinged and the lights were coming on but to my dismay, nobody seemed to be home... We tried jumping it just to be sure it wasn't the battery but it yielded nothing. We even tried push starting (still not 100% sure how that's supposed to work but we tried it). And after every failed attempt to revive my lifeless car, the same thoughts started running through my mind again and again for a brief moment I was numb.
We ended up pushing it to a very near-by local shop (that was closed for the day) and walked back to their house. I got a lift home and left my wounded car sitting there, unlocked with the key in the visor (something my compulsive door locking self typically would NOT do)...
I have it on good authority that at one point in my life I would have been a complete wreck... It's likely I would have cried and someone would have had to come rescue me... Today was different. While I have absolutely no idea what is wrong with my car, or how I'm going to fix it, I am very thankful for the guys who helped me out. Looking back at it, I can't think of a better way for that to have happened. The weather was beautiful, I was with people I knew, I was safe, I wasn't stranded and above all I know with every fiber of my being that it will be all ok. I may not know how it will work out but I know that it will.
So realistically can we actually live life expecting the unexpected? I'd imagine we could try but honestly there is no way of knowing what is really around the corner and living life just waiting for the next shoe to drop will only leave us worrysome, nervous and miserable. I suppose being prepared for things that aren't uncommon in this life would be prudent (i.e. carrying jumper cables, a few spare blankets in the winter, sun screen and bug spray, some actual cash just in case, a taser... you know, basic common-sense stuff.)
All in all, today has been a good day and tomorrow will be too... really hoping the car isn't too far gone but if it is we'll figure something out.
Blog-out
No comments:
Post a Comment