Snow Ho, Snow Ho...
๐ค a boring life for thee
Before Monday,
the last time I had lost control while driving was a decade ago, in 2011.
It was a snowy day in New England, an icy day, a day that squished beneath my steel-toe Timberland boots. October, the first snow of the year, and I'd only had my license for, hell, less than three months.
We werenโt going far. I promised to drive slow, straight to and from the movies: 30 Minutes or Less.
Iโve never seen it.
It was a full car, and I was in the driverโs seat of a black 2001 Nissan Maxima with two-wheel drive, a spoiler, and a thin white pin-stripe running along the side. Down Suburbia Boulevard, we cruised.
Wheeling around a bend, Maximaโs brakes stalled. The steering wheel became loose and useless. Two tons of metal, gas, and teenage flesh hummed through the night, through the sleet, through the rear end of an asian familyโs Gold Lexus RX-350.
โ๏ธ โ๏ธ โ๏ธ
In the midst of the chaos in Texas this past week, I've been thinking about Camusโ comment from the last post.
As far as I can tell, Camus and I were both partly wrong.
I once heard the Obamaโs
bantering about Barackโs first days in the Senate:
โEvery Monday and Wednesday,โ Michelle explained, โBarack would leave the offices after a day of work and go straight to the gym, or to play basketball, leaving me alone with the girls.โ
I could hear the grin in Barackโs words. He didnโt deny it, and recollected her calling him up more than once, on the commute home.
"I want the gym too," she said, "when is my turn? When do I get to go?"
To my surprise, all the former president had said was:
"Whenever you wantโฆ"
He wanted her to go to the gym too but, between work and the kids, she had an assumed an outsized burden. She couldnโt go to the gym because Barack wasnโt home, and because the girls โneededโ her.
I know what youโre thinking.
โYou donโt have kids, so you just canโt understand.โ
I find it hard to believe that having children means surrendering your health, your well-being, and every facet in between.
The Buddhists have a saying:
"To first fill your own cup
Is not selfish.
Fill your own
And pour your kindness into others."
Though Barack may have left Michelle with an extra helping of responsibility, he was taking care of himself, in order to be better for others.
Last Monday
was the most snow, and coldest weather, Austin, TX has seen in decades. Between the weather and pandemic restrictions, it may have been the most shut-down day the city has ever seen.
And, after driving through those icy streets, I see that it may also have been the cityโs most selfless.
Over two million people lost power, including me and my (at the time of writing) frozen toes. A friend opened his power, his shower, and his home to me. Without electricity and water, I accepted. After a few minutes of golf clubbing the ice from my windshield, I took to the road.
It was both a terrible and a great move.
What they say about Deja Vu
is true โ but only partway.
In the movies, we see Deja Vu as a moment of pure helplessness. The person is too shocked to take the shot, to step aside, to avoid the avoidable.
Approaching a four-way intersection not far from home, my gray Chevy Traverse decided to ignore the foot pressing its brake pedal.
For five seconds, I slid through the snow, trying and failing to wrestle back control of the car.
It was the exact same sensation as ten years ago:
the weightlessness
the timelessness
but, this time, not the helplessness.
Fortunately, Deja Vu is not like the movies.
This time, I regripped the wheel and turned into the skid. I didnโt relax, I didnโt regain control, but I didnโt crash into an RX-350 either.
Not thirty seconds after Chevy had landed in a gas-station snowbank, two young guys were already out of their black pickup, digging their feet in the snow, and heaving on Chevyโs front bumper.
โHit the gas,โ said the guy with a red trapperโs cap, โweโll give her a push.โ
But Chevy refused to budge. It took less than a minute for two more volunteers, one of them an older man, to join in and ultimately set Chevy free.
Off we crawled, down Igloo Boulevard
And everywhere you looked, it was happening.
A young woman towing a strangerโs vehicle with her truck
A middle-aged man shoveling ice from a stuck carโs tires
An entire family giving the old fashioned push
Unlike the headlines, this was a goose-bump-worthy sight that gave me hope for people everywhere.
Then, the silver Toyota Corolla in front of me stalled, wheels spinning, burning ice without moving an inch.
I turned on my hazards, put Chevy in park and jogged up the snowy hill. They didnโt notice me, so I banged my thin black gloves on the rear windshield. The driver gunned the throttle, while I rocked Corolla, back and forth, up and down, side to side, andโฆ
Nothing happened.
Actually, something happened.
The car rolled backward, straight toward me, in the opposite direction that we had wanted.
Scrambling out of the way, I slipped on the ice and my thin gloves were soaked through. The older man rolled down his window and gave a wave of thanks, before they disappeared down the hill like a dog with a tail between its legs.
On the surface I had โfailed.โ
But how did I feel?
Like Iโd done my part. Paid it forward. Been concerned.
Thereโs a proverbial Chinese Curse:
ๆฟไฝ ็ๆดปๅจๆ่ถฃ็ๆถไปฃ
Reflect on the history books from middle school. What are the most interesting times to learn about?
Wars
Pandemics
Economic Crises
Political Unrest
Climate Crises
Whatโs โinterestingโ from the futureโs perspective is hell to the present.
Herein lies the solution to our dilemma with Mr. Camus:
In the history books, what is boring? What is glossed over?
Peace
Good health
Economic stability
Political stabililty
Envrionmental stability
The chaos in Texas last week, and the last twelve months of pandemic were most certainly โinteresting times.โ
And how did we get through them? Together, with concern for others.
Now back to that book, inside that package, beneath that high kitchen table, upstairs in that bright-pink two-story on Santa Rita Avenue, with the turf-green side yard and no hot water, during undoubtedly interesting times.
What would Camus say? โConcern for self, or concern with others?
Donโt care.
It was both.
That book was finished during the heat of the pandemic, to soothe its authorโs sores, to entertain you, and, on some future occasion, to be enjoyed by millions more.
So I leave you with two wishes:
โMay you live in boring times
Some housekeeping
Next time,
unless my friend is thoroughly convincing that my Enneagram is wrong, and his diagnosis is better, weโll discuss my Enneagram resultโplus what it had to do with the book.
Oh, by the way,
At the urgings of my editor, currently contacting agents to get the book a โmore mainstream release.โ ๐
And finally,
Have also been encouraged to publish some of the short stories Iโve written over the last few years. If you like this idea and would want to read them, let me know.
๐๐ผโโ๏ธ Grateful for your reading.
Please share thisย Substackย with anyone who might enjoy what comes from the brainpickings of this meandering pen-hand.
Take care and have a sunny rest of the week
โJeremy