I suppose I should get serious here and write about something high-minded and theological. The kind of stuff that might edify and spur one on to think about the noble... the other-than-earth. But alas... I still have so much to do with earth! And more so since I seem to be on the fast-paced plan to relearning everything about decision-making with health as an actual factor (not merely a ideal).
So here’s earth for you.
Tonight I bought a cell phone.
Not just any cell phone. A “Boost” something or other. It apparently has free and unlimited everything for $50.00/mo. It’s a long story but I live in the desert (as you know) where one could fry and egg on the Wal-Mart parking lot any afternoon of any week from May to October.
I, in my older model car, leave home, alone. Drive 23 minutes to Bakersfield. If the air conditioning were to suddenly quit- I’d run out of oxygen! We've lived out here for one year. So much risk! So much senseless phoneless risk. One shudders!
Before I left the house this afternoon to buy said cell phone, my husband informed me that the state of California has messed up our car information even further and I am now driving with ‘expired’ tags.
“But Officer, here is the letter for the new tags, a duplicate of the check I wrote for payment, the meter receipt from the post office from the day I mailed the check... and hhhhere--- the bank statement that proves the state had cashed the check well in advance of sending this notice, which I received on this date, and informs me that I am no longer able to drive legally.” (California doesn’t seem to admit it has messed up, but just invents new exceptions. Like the dry cleaning guy on Seinfeld.)
Cops in Cali ride on very small motorcycles. They appear out of nowhere and scare the daylights out of people. When I see one, I start mentally rehearsing my speech. One of these times I’ll let my guard down and start actually talking... the window will just happen to be open (a cold front will have moved in)... and it’ll be all down the toilet from there! (Do you get more than one phone call from jail if you have your own cell phone?)
Because there was so much time and unplanned money spent on the lifesaving cell phone, I determined that we should spend around $60 in Albertson’s. Just some produce, breakfast things and plastic bags. 10 minutes. “Let’s race!” I tell the girls.
45 minutes later Liz can hardly push the cart through the parking lot. “This would be like a funny movie if we were dressed better!” she says. Curls falling our of their places all around her head.“
“I saved $25.60!” I tell myself.
It was in the paper plate isle that I realized how much stress we can buy off... like in a game.. where you reach ‘happy’ at the end. (I feel the tension begin to melt as I place the cheapest package of plates and cups into the cart. 8 family members coming tomorrow and the last thing I need is music practice, unorganized dinner for 8 extra people and early church responsibilities the next morning!) I remember how I used to buy stress away all the time. (A temporary fix at best) Now that money is tight... object of the game is to manage with less while making a simpler ‘happy.’
So I bought extra chocolate chips to mix my own 6 recipe batch. Sausages for Monday morning and ...oh yes! The sale on Oreos. That’s for tonight!
Life is more complicated with less resources. You have to think harder, ask what your family would smile with the most... and be thankful you can get chocolate chips and cell phone minutes at all. I am!
Someday I may get back to the lofty stuff. Right now, it’s enough for me to know that God is. And that He is good. And that he is good everyday. He is good when I am seemingly condemned by a faceless system... and he is good when our loved ones come from far away to see us. My stress can’t really be bought off. Where one thing settles, another will come up...without fail!
It’s the fact that He is good that buys my stress away. I am one small person... who drives an old car to a desert town and is honestly sometimes afraid. But God is with me. That is fact.
4 comments:
I find life actually less complicated with diminished resources. There is an acute awareness of the value of my purchase that is not often present when "flush" with "disposable" income. I remember and relearn the virtues of thrift and prudence while NOT necessarily experiencing a diminished quality of life.
This morning I purchased 10 dollars worth of heirloom quality tomatoes from three farmers at the saturday market. Dharma Ridge, Red Dog, and Old Tarboo Farms' whom I know, see, and give feedback to. Often a few laughs. I bought a perfectly ripe nectarine for one dollar, he gave me two, and stood there and ate one while the juices ran down my arm. An old lady smiled and commented to me how juicy they must be.
In a little while I will slice a tomatoe or three, some sweet onions,romaine lettuce, hummus I made two days ago with a little feta, a nice big guzzle of 10 dollar a bottle of olive oil. And a warmed pita. myabe a hard boiled egg. I will then sit down and feast.
I am unemployed with no income.
God is so good to me!!
Hmmm. Maybe we should all be unemployed! Maybe we should grow our own food and trade for things... it's getting to that anyway.
Love the picture of the ripe nectarine! The feasting and knowing that it all comes form God. Every taste! The simple life is good but sometimes there's a trade-off.
Like cell phones...are they overrated?? Maybe until the car quits in 105 degrees.
Thanks for writing Dear Gregory! You make life richer!
I want to advocate the simple life in the midst of seeming chaos. We are all caught up in the tyranny of the urgent. While at Safeway and choosing between many checkstands, I sometimes choose one that is longer. Wondering how my life will be altered because of my choice. Will I be prevented from, or propelled into something as a result? Sometimes it is simply to practice patience. Sometimes it is simply to speak with Ms. Earhardt, my favorite clerk. Over the course of a year or so we have learned something of each other. Bit by bit. I have purposed to stand in line so I can speak with her. And she knows it.
Often, I just want out of there.
The art of living life is not so much as trading off as purposing. Purposing to see something other.
Other than self.
The night before I took Alexander to the airport my new radiator sprung a huge leak while we are out carousing. We are staying at the hostel in Seattle, it is Sunday night nothing open to speak of. We barely nurse it back without blowing the motor. My son is observing my actions and words the whole time. It was disconcerting to be sure. Frankly, a pain in the ass. But really no big deal in the big scheme of things. But... what if this disruption prevented us from something we will never know?something to our benefit?
What if it simply gave me a few extra moments that evening with my son? Or better yet, teaching time for a young man who needed to learn how to nurse a badly leaking radiator at night, in unusual surroundings, through a pretty rough 'hood, to relative safety. I will rebel, and trade the tyranny of the urgent for that any day.
Being underemployed sucks. Make no mistake.
But will I choose to let it steal my joy?
There's a war on you know...
Well said Gregory! Thanks!
Post a Comment