Getting Around

Around what? Byways and highways, mostly, but also routines and chores. Strange how we have much to do and with all the conveniences we still struggle to get everything done. Guess that is more an issue of time than actual ‘work’ struggle.


We have taken on so many things, duties, chores, responsibilities. We load up our calendars with stuff to do. Why? What is it that drives us to do that? Especially when retired? We don’t have to do anything, but we still do.


Filling time is one objective I think we willingly take on. Why? So, we are not sitting idly by wondering what we should do with our free time. Another way of saying this might be: ‘of what purpose is my life? What ought I be doing with my talents and time?’


I wonder if it is that simple. Probably is, but not for everyone or all the time.


In my case I have always had a burning desire to be of use. The ‘use’ is purpose. Purpose is value. If I’m to be of value, I must be accomplishing something of use to someone. So, I volunteer. I write this blog. I mentor with SCORE. I keep informed on public issues and news in my community and region. I observe human nature. I ponder all of those things. I share those conclusions in the blog, in my conversation, in my ‘getting around’ on a daily basis. It is a form of building wisdom. Using it properly is another matter! But building it is a first step if one is to have any at all.


What one does with the wisdom really becomes a puzzle. Often it is shared when it is not welcome. Other times it doesn’t quite fit the ready context. Malapropisms result. Strange ones. Embarrassing. And then a blog topic emerges, and the wisdom finds a home.


I started this post thinking about the chore of actually getting around from place to place. This is spring and the beginning of the construction season for area roadways. Yesterday I took my sister to the airport for her return trip to Arizona. The roads we traveled I have used for over 50 years. I haven’t used many of them for some time, but they are still the same ones I used last time I came this way. Only now there are more lanes, more construction, more boggles of stopped vehicles. But still the same routes. Still the same human behaviors that do not lessen the traffic jams. Almost the same motorist reactions as yesteryear. And that gave way to this blog piece today.


It is not the traffic. It is not the roadways. It is human behavior. Our system of living with today remains oddly the same regardless of all the changes and advancements. Nothing has changed our behavior.


Fifty years plus finds people still being people.


Try getting around that.


May 30, 2019