Blog 213 – 01.21.2016

The above phrase I had not heard directed at me personally in well over sixty years. So needless to say I was taken a back a bit and then laughed and have for several days since every time I think of it.

I was visiting with a dear friend of mine in the home of her daughter. We had driven some ways to her daughter’s house to celebrate her grand daughter’s fifteenth birthday. I remarked as we exited the freeway that I had to pee and inquired how much longer it would be before we got there. After being told less than twenty minutes I said I could wait but that I did not like to just arrive and have to run to the bathroom. When we got there my friend’s daughter was working a jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table and asked us to help. I love to work puzzles and my urgency for the bathroom had subsided. I had no sooner started to help with the puzzle when my friend who was evidently in mom or grandma mode said, “David go potty.” So I did but as I was doing my business the humor of the situation hit me. It was not lost on my friend’s daughter either for she said, “Mother, I think he knows when he needs to go.”

My ego would have reared up in times past and pitched a fit over the indignity of such a remark but my friend meant no slight. She was only concerned that I might be delaying my bathroom break out of a silly need to observe some sense of etiquette, manners. That was not the case but how could she know I no longer felt the urgency to go.

I have to admit that on occasion I still allow my ego too much rope and a dust up still happens. Rather than fight ego I keep my reverse gear well lubricated and in  working order by using it often. Likewise I used to get so upset with myself for missing a turn or losing my way. I do not any longer for I figured out my truck turns around just fine and often the detours can turn out to be the most fun legs of our journey if we allow them to be. If nothing else they slow us down so we can smell the roses better. Life is meant to be more than just a dash between to dates on a grave stone. And although the shortest distance between two points may be a straight line it is rarely if ever the most fun or interesting way to get from point A to point B.

So next time you need a potty break try to imagine different people saying your name followed by, “…use the potty.” and enjoy a good laugh or two but please use the potty first or you might have an accident in your pants. Even that would be just another funny story.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White