gandhi smiles

Today was a "if-it-isn't-one-thing-it's-another" day.

I started the day in the pool by combining my morning exercise routine with my Spanish lesson. All was going swimmingly until Antonio the Indispensable Pool Guy showed up to clean the pool. He suggested that I continue my eccentric high-stepping routine and he would return tomorrow for another battle in the Summer Algae wars.

Because I had not seen him in close to a month as a result of my travels and odd-hour bedtimes when I am in residence, I invited him in and hopped out of the pool. If "hop" is the appropriate word for an overweight old man. It turned out to be good that I did.

I had barely pulled on some clothes when Antonio called to me from the pump room. One of the pipes to the pump had decided to rehearse its Old Faithful impression for the Great Pump Show. Without a quick fix, either the pump room would be flooded or the algae would have its way with the pool. Antonio was having nothing to do with either option.

So, off he went to one of our many local hardware stores and returned with various PVC pipes and joints. He obviously was re-engineering that entire section of plumbing.

With a lot of sawing, cramming, and gluing, I was the proud owner of a new and more-effective intake for the pool filter. And it looked far more aesthetic than its cracked predecessor.

While I was writing this, I realized I had partially fallen into the trap of home-owner lamentation. You know how it goes. "How the house has lost its luster/ How the fine house has changed." That sort of thing.

Since August I have been flying north to assist my mother with a new chapter in her life. Last week, Mom, Darrel, and I attended two memorial services: one for the husband of my father's cousin, the other for a friend I have known for almost 40 years (dancing in the beat of god's heart).

During times like this, people have a tendency to fall back on such hoary chestnuts as:"we need to appreciate each moment of our lives" or "we need to constantly focus on the relationships that surround us." The problem is that we never do. At least, for very long.

Even though those thoughts are larded with good intentions, they always crash on the reality of our self-created reefs of life. We want to do the right thing, but there be dragons here, and their wages are not paid in sentiment.

After Antonio's ministrations in the pump room, I returned to my exercise and Spanish in the pool. And it made me content.

There might be a lesson there. Rather than attempting to completely remake who we are after the death of loved ones, perhaps we could simply change our focus from the annoying broken pipe to the small grace notes that come our way every day. 

For you it may not be exercise and Spanish. Gandhi had a great suggestion that just might apply to our current situation. He advised discontented people to seek out people who held different views from theirs (religion, politics, how to properly fix sewer leaks on Melaque streets -- OK, he did not include that last one).

Then listen to what they have to say. Learn why they believe as they do. And then share with them in a similar manner. We all might learn something new.

You just may make Gandhi smile.