Impossible Things

The theme for right now is "Doing Things You Don't Think You Can Do."

Say, for instance, that New York has a crazy huge snowstorm on the very same weekend you have booked a visit. You get a call at 4 a.m. from a machine that heartlessly tells you your flight is canceled. Do you take it as a sign from the universe that you are not to visit the Big Apple at this time?

No, you get online and rebook! Connection through Boston? Sure, why not? And when you get to Boston, and they tell you that there are no planes flying into New York, do you just forgo the money you've already paid for that New York hotel room and find a room in Boston? Hell no! You magically find a "shuttle" flight that somehow can fly to New York.

And when they tell you the brakes are malfunctioning, so you have to get off that shuttle plane and get on a different plane, do you finally give in and say, "Ok, clearly I am not meant to get to New York today"? No, you file off that plane and onto the next one and don't even bat an eyelash when you are delayed another hour by the news that your flight is too heavy and someone must get off - no wait, they can get back on - no wait, we're too heavy - no, I guess we're okay. Nope, you are determined to get to that blizzard-stricken city even if every single business is closed when you arrive. (Turns out it had completely stopped snowing by the time we got there. Go us!)

Or, how about your spouse had a child with someone back when he was a teenager and, despite the passage of nearly two decades, they cannot hold a phone conversation without one of them becoming violent.

Say the ex calls in tears over the latest reckless decision said child has made (it took a few weeks to get back to her). After years of seeing the ex's selfishness and neglect erode said child's psyche, do you tell her what she can do with those tears, or do you just...listen. Because you're a mother too. Because she obviously has no one else to tell. Because you might have a slight morbid curiosity about how her mind works. Because, for once, you know how she feels.

Sometimes the thing you don't think you can do turns out to be the only thing you really could have done.