Surviving An Eclipse

I remember my mother’s matter of fact voice as she quoted Robert Burns to me:

“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

For promis’d joy!”

My usual words to myself are “When Life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” But, these words usually come to me later, after my initial anger at the thwarting of my well laid plans. I am still learning how to muddle my way through disappointment. Recently, my significant other and I embarked on a long anticipated vacation. Well, Life events eclipsed my plans…or in this case it was Death (more about that later). I thought I would share some things I learned during the recent thwarting.

When the normal 20 minute drive to the airport takes more than 3 hours through unusual routes and gridlocked traffic:

• Enjoy learning how to take the toll road the long, long, way around town to the airport. And be glad that you are driving and that your cell phone savvy spouse is navigating.
• Be happy you are not alone. You have someone to talk to in your car. You have a radio to tell you that you are in a traffic jam and what caused the jam. Everyone else on the road is with you, a bonding experience with your sister and fellow travelers.
• Be grateful for drivers that let you merge when your lane ends. Don’t curse too much at the ones cutting you off. And pat yourself on the back for pushing your way in front of other cars when needed, and for letting others move in front of you. No one is getting anywhere fast anyway.
• Enjoy learning about the neighborhoods that you usually speed past without seeing. There are taquerias, tire repair shops, and convenience stores with bathrooms for a needed pee break during this long commute. And again, be thankful for the car that lets you back onto the road after the pee break.
• Take advantage of the slow, slog to bird watch as you move only 6 feet every 2 minutes past an undeveloped field. There is time to dig out the binoculars and watch hawks hunting, little sparrows foraging in the grass, and a shrike at the top of a tree. You can focus on Nature and calm your “I am going to miss my flight!” agitation. Pretend you are one of the Monarch butterflies fluttering over the freeway towards the airport.
• Admire the gumption of the young travelers wheeling their suitcases the last mile and a half to the terminal after ditching their ride shares.

When you finally get to your car park and are on the shuttle to the terminal:

• Enjoy competing with the other riders in one-upping each other in how long the commute took.
• Enjoy your shuttle driver telling you that this hours long road shutdown is not as bad as the 8 hour road shutdown that happened a few months ago.

Once you get to the airport terminal:

• Once again, enjoy bonding with the thousands of other people who missed their flights and with whom you will be in line with for at least the next hour.
• Be proud you asserted yourself when a woman with an angry face cuts in line in front of you. She will back off and yell at you, “Well, move it then!” She will not apologize. A sister passenger in line supports you in your assertiveness and points out that the angry face attempted line cutter is wearing an airline uniform. “They are supposed to be courteous!” she says in a British accent. Be thankful you didn’t miss an international flight like the sister passenger did. Don’t report the angry face lady to the airline she represents. After all, she missed her flight too. You have that bond.
• Enjoy people watching. There are people from all walks of life and nationalities and most of them are being civil to each other. Smile at the antics of the bored little kids in line and be glad that you are not trying to get out of town with a family of 6.
• When you get a flight that leaves 7 hours later and will get you to your destination after midnight, enjoy more people watching and maybe a really good sandwich (airport prices be damned!). And be thankful that you and your traveling companion find a place to sit down. At your age, sitting on the floor like the younger travelers might be an option, but getting up off the floor will be much harder.
• Accept that not all plans work out. Let go of trying to continue on despite your exhaustion.
• Be thankful that it is just your trip that has been snuffed out and not your life. The roads had been closed and traffic rerouted because a person on a motorcycle died in a collision that morning, before sunrise.

(Eclipse photo was a screen shot from an online live stream of the October 14, 2023 solar eclipse over Albuquerque, New Mexico from NASA)

(Poem excerpt from To a Mouse by Robert Burns; from wwwlpoetryfoundation.org)