90 Seconds and 20 Points

Ok so today I go to church for the first time in a long time. When I get there I notice my regular place in the back center aisle is now a reserved section for people with small children. So I move 1 row up and take the aisle seat. As people start filling up the church (which is quite full now that we only have one service not two) I notice something. I have picked quite a good seat for myself.

Not only do I have a view of the cute little "rescue" dog that one lady is allowed to bring to services (by "rescue" dog I think she meant he was rescued himself from abuse - he is a little skittish) that is directly across from me, but I also have a view of a even cuter baby in the row just ahead of the dog.

So I decide to mention my good fortune during the candles ceremony. Now let me tell you there were a lot of candles lit - both silent and commemmorated. Anyway, on the way out of the service two different people comment on my observation. One in the foyer was a man I knew, Horst, and one on the street after leaving the church who I had never met. So I guess 10+ years of Toastmasters paid off. LOL.

That was the good news (that and a pretty decent service that talked about the choices we make and the randomness of outcomes along with the need to nevertheless make the best, most authentic choices possible). The not so good news of the day (relatively speaking!) was that if life is a "numbers game" then today I lost.

First, walking to the bus stop I ended up missing my bus that runs every half hour by 90 seconds! How do I know this with such accuracy? Well, in my geeky desire to distract myself from the annoyance of watching my bus leave with me about 1/2 block away, I timed from when the doors closed and it pulled out of the stop to when I got to the bus shelter. 90 seconds! Arrgh.

Next up, when I got to my mom's place where I had stayed over the night before after visiting a friend as I usually do most Saturdays I played a game of rummy with her as I had suggested we do after we got back from our respective churches (mine the Unitarian Universalist, hers the United and ours from the past being Lutheran!). Well, just my luck I start out really bad, come back quite well but lose by only 20 points. 20 points! Arrgh again. And we were both over 500.

I guess though, my Sunday could have been worse as I did make the bus beautifully on the way there, was able to find an in-order bank machine at the second stop during my relatively short wait for the bus so I could get money for both offering and a magazine which I had bought in case I might miss the bus! LOL. But like I said if life were a numbers game I would have lost - and not by much! Which oddly enough, mirrored the ministers sermon point using the Olympics among other examples to show how even in spite of our best efforts we can lose by this much &/or our best efforts and intentions.

So I guess I got my money's worth out of the sermon. LOL. Although, I would have rather been like the example of the person who drinks and smokes and gambles and lives to be rich and to a ripe old age rather than like the examples of the responsible savers who lost much of their retirement income to the markets or the Olympian who lost by 0.98 secs to come in 15th!

I guess I should remember the dog and the baby though. That was nice. And my bad examples really do pale next to the ministers examples.

Carmen