Sounds Like Life to Me

Sounds Like Life To Me (Darryl Worley)

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Today I was running errands. One of my stops was to fill up my van with gas. When I was young I swore I would never drive a minivan. It seemed like the ultimate in giving into suburban, Mommy life and I didn't want to ever admit that about myself. However, when I was pregnant with my third child and about to outgrow our current vehicle, I found myself at the Honda dealership with my husband coercing me into test driving an Odyssey van. I went kicking and screaming, but found as I drove it I liked the way it handled, I loved the flexibility of the functions and I absolutely LOVED that I could push a button from my keychain or the driver's seat and either of the side doors would open. With all of that and the fact that a nice used van was considerably less than an SUV, we purchased the van.

I've driven that van for the past five years as my babies have grown into children and young adults. I was so thrilled with its reliability, despite some dents and scratches, stained carpet and a few flat tires. I was ecstatic when we paid it off in full last month and we wouldn't have a car payment. Hondas can last forever!

So today as I was driving away from the gas pump and heard a huge crunching sound, my heart and my stomach met somewhere in the middle. I slammed on my brakes, wondering what in the world I could have possibly hit. I opened my door and saw a stationary 3 foot tall cement post placed just after the gas pump. What purpose it could possibly serve is beyond me, but it succeeded in scraping the entire driver's side of my van, smashing in one of the precious sliding doors so that it no longer functions.

I met my husband for lunch in tears. I felt so stupid for what I had done and I now had a huge symbol of stupidity wherever I drove. He was kind and caring, reassuring me that it was just an accident, no one was hurt and our insurance would take care of it.

On the drive home, I remembered the new song (link posted above) I had heard the day before - "Sounds Like Life to Me" by Darryl Worley. My favorite line is "the only thing for certain is uncertainty." It helped me realize that accidents, trials and disappointments are just a part of life. There is no such things as a perfect life without problems. Perfection in progression comes by granting ourselves the grace to make mistakes and move forward.

I also remembered a portion of the book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. I first saw him on an Oprah show giving his last lecture that he had presented at Carnegie Mellon where he was a professor. He had been invited to give a hypothetical last lecture of his life to his students and colleagues in a few months as part of a lecture series there. In the meantime, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He decided to give, literally, his last lecture in honor of his three young children. Following this lecture, he worked with an editor, Jeffrey Zaslow, to write words of wisdom and perspective to his children, words that have reached out and given perspective to many others.

In his book he tells the story of a day his wife backed their van out of the garage right into his car, which she didn't realize had been parked there. She was so worried about his reaction and spent the day preparing the perfect evening to soften the news. Randy reacted without anger or frustration. He had been taught that vehicles were utilitarian devices designed to get people from point A to point B, not expressions of social status. He told her that since the damage was simply cosmetic, there was no need to get them repaired. Thy still functioned properly and did what they were designed to do. So they drove dented cars. He said they became a statement in their marriage that not everything needs to be fixed. (The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch, 2008, p.85-87)

Prof. Randy Pausch passed away early in the morning on July 25, 2008, at his home in Virginia.

I'll bet his wife still drives that car.