Good Then Bad Then Good

If there's one thing I've said to my children that I hope they always remember it's that, sure, life can suck sometimes, but it always gets better. It might suck again, but it will also get better again. I may not have phrased it to them in exactly that way, especially when they were young. Today I had a nutshell of the good and the bad. It isn't always so immediate.

This morning we were under a severe thunderstorm and tornado watch; it hit pretty hard about an hour away, but we dodged the bullet. I had to go to the Navy base to get my pass for teaching there, and I wanted to leave early in the morning. Despite the warnings, I decided to go for it. I didn't see a drop of rain the entire way over, and by the time I got home the sun was shining. Next up on my list was to make a trip across town to sign some paperwork for my class. (Classes on the military bases are handled through the campus a half-hour away, where I taught several classes last year.) That all went fine, but it was stormy again and so windy! Anyway, that's not really the good and bad and good; I'll get to that now.

After I finished my other running around, I went to the salon to get my hair highlighted. There is something so magical about having someone wash your hair! At this salon in particular, the stylists take great pride in their head massages, asking what level of pressure you want. I told my stylist afterwards that had been the best part of my day. As I headed back home, on the same road I come home on every time I have business in the Beaches area, I noticed a phalanx of police cars on the opposite side of the median (eastbound). I'm not kidding; there must have been thirty of them. Then I saw the police tape; then I saw the body bag. I involuntarily made the sign of the cross. All of the joy and relaxation I had just experienced in my salon adventure was sucked out of my body as I thought about the poor soul who, just an hour or less before, had been out enjoying the beautiful day and would never enjoy another beautiful day, or crappy day, or any day. It was just heartbreaking.

This was what I was thinking about as I continued my drive home. When I entered my neighborhood, a huge flock of herons or egrets (I'm not entirely sure of the difference) gathered next to the pond. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight. I smiled and drove slowly as I passed, marveling in the wonders nature blesses us with. Sadness, beauty, death, joy -- all are constantly around us. I suppose we can choose which to dwell on. Tonight, even though I can't get rid of the mental image of that body bag, I'm going to try for beauty and joy. Obviously, those human conditions are easier to focus on some days than others, but they're always there.