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Columns Cyndee Peters You Can’t Get There
Columns Cyndee Peters You Can’t Get There
| You Can’t Get There |
| Skrivet av Cyndee Peters |
| 2009-07-16 22:25 |
 I stood with map in hand across from the smiling owner of the gas station somewhere in Washington, D.C. Before I could get the words of out my mouth, he said: “Lady, you can’t get there from here!” The look on my face made him only laugh louder and soon I joined in as he reached for the map and said, “Okay, where do you wanna go?”Typical! You know exactly where you want to go, in my case it was to Dulles International Airport for a flight back to Stockholm, but you’re lost. I HATE being lost. I am an admitted control freak and lost is a control freak's worst nightmare. I had mapped out a route for myself days before I was to leave and thought I ‘d found the best route from my sister’s place to the airport. For those not familiar with the Washington Beltway, it makes E4 looked like a footpath in Rålambhovsparken. It’s a 10-lane highway plastered with signs saying: New York, Maryland, Virginia, South, East, North, West, Pentagon, Downtown D.C. etc. My eyes and brain were busy trying to read the signs, disregarding the ones that had nothing to do with my destination, while at the same time desperately looking for the one that did. This was not working, I was getting more and more LOST and the clock was ticking. So I exited the Beltway, turned into the first gas station I saw, and met the stand-up comedian. Life does not come with a map; it is constantly changing. Nature, our bodies, the rate of the dollar versus the Swedish crown, not to mention our minds are never static. And even maps change; ask anyone who drives. Well, since we know this to be true, why then the surprise when other people change their minds, behavior, partner, job, even hairstyle, and catapult us into situations or circumstances where we are neither here nor there? The author Henry Miller defined chaos this way: “Chaos is a word we use to define an order we do not understand.” Very clever, don’t you think? Granted, sometimes I have found myself staring into situations that were totally beyond my understanding. But there were times, although Mr. Miller’s definition does have merit, I was witnessing chaos! The situation was totally beyond comprehension even for the person who created it. Sometimes we just don’t grasp what is going on. That doesn’t mean we can’t or never will. How many “ah hahs!” haven’t we all uttered hours, weeks, even years later, when something in the past finally made sense to us. But at that particular moment in time, perhaps we don’t have enough information; we lack the experience or haven’t yet acquired the know-how to understand what is occurring. We are lost. But one of the true miracles of being a human being is that----we have the ability to learn---for as long as we live. On that day I had a map that contained all the information needed to get to there. But since I did not know where I was, the map was useless to me. Well, with the aid of the comedian, I did make my flight and in time learned to travel to and from the airport with the ease of a Washington native. But I always had a map with me, just in case. Movin’ on, Cyndee  This article is the property of Cyndee Peters AB, Stockholm, Sweden and may not be used
or duplicated without the expressed permission of the author. www.cyndeepeters.com March. 2009
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