Back in the Day Road Rules

 This weekend, we loaded up our car to drive to a memorial service a few hours away. As two of my upper-teenage children sat in the back seat complaining about poor radio reception and our need to use their Spotify for better music. At that moment, my husband and I both muttered, "This generation is totally missing out on what makes a real road trip." I know. I'm starting to sound like a white-haired granny, but there truly is something to be said about an old-fashioned road trip. The first thing the road trip taught me was the art of negotiation. I'm sure you remember the key word that had to be uttered for primo seats- shotgun! This worked for short trips, but when everyone came along, rules changed. Parents got the front, so the power struggle for the best seats shifted to the back seat. A tussel unfolded as you ran for the best seating in the back. This is where size worked against you. My older brother would hip-check me out of the way leaving me with the lesser leg-room behind my dad. If we had friends along, then I was relegated to the dreaded middle seat with the hump by my feet. You would try to move your feet to one side or the other until a sibling would yell, "She's touching me!" The negotiation continued over the radio station. Now, young ones, this may be hard to imagine, but there were no cell phones and no Spotify, so you were at the mercy of the driver. However, in order to maintain the peace, there was the alternating method of every 30 minutes someone in the car could choose a new radio station. Or, this is where negotiating and strategy filters in, you could exchange your better seating for radio privileges. If the struggle became too spirited, then my dad would pop in his favorite cassette tape of Jerry Clower, a Southern comedian. It certainly was a different time when you had to deal with whatever was given to you, and things were not tailored to your specific wants. I think it helped build conflict resolution, resilience, and communication- things we definitely see in limited supply in this day and age. So maybe what our world and powers-that-be need is simply an old-fashioned road trip. Maybe it would help everyone get along a little better. 

Have a great week high-heeled warriors.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Love? Loving When It's Hard.

Image
  I want to start by saying this has been one of the most straining weeks my husband and I have experienced in a while. As many know, my husband's father nearly passed away this week. He has been sick for a few weeks. My husband had a feeling, prompted by the Holy Spirit, that he needed to get his dad to the hospital on Sunday evening. His dad had a doctor's appointment for Tuesday, but he felt like it needed to be right away. He was admitted into the hospital, and by Wednesday, his dad had sepsis. The doctors gave his dad eight hours to live. We watched his pulse and blood pressure plummet and waited for the inevitable. Meanwhile, we prayed that God would move. A miracle occurred, and he began to improve. He has been taken off the ventilator and is breathing on his own with a steady blood pressure. During all of this, my husband and I celebrated our 27th anniversary. Neither of us had hardly any sleep the first 24 hours. My husband only had 3 hours of sleep for 72 hours, so ...
Read more

Update: My Daughter's Latest EEG Six Years This Week After Brain Surgery

Image
  A couple of weeks ago, I went with my daughter to her yearly neurologist appointment. They have slowly been lowering her seizure medication. It's easy to worry after all that we've been through, but as we visited the bathroom in the waiting room, we had a little reminder to trust God. There on the paper towel dispenser was a little Jesus. It reminded us He's always with us, even in hard times. The neurologist wanted to do a new EEG. The last one was a couple of years ago and was inconclusive. We scheduled the new EEG for last week. After prayer and remembering Jesus is with us, we went. She received the results the next day. No seizure or abnormal activity! Every year that passes is good news. We are so thankful that God is faithful, and Jesus is always with us! Have a great week high-heeled warriors!
Read more

Ready to Die?

Image
  We celebrated the home coming of one of the longest-attending members of our church. I've been to funerals that were extremely sad, and I've found that I'm an empathetic cryer. I attended a funeral with a friend. I didn't know the deceased, but as we walked by the casket at the end of the funeral, I messy cried. As I heard and saw the family crying, I couldn't help it. I've been asked to sing in a lot of funerals. This empathetic crying has made it difficult to sing. A few years ago, I mentioned to a couple of friends about my messy crying and worried about losing my composure during the song. The husband had shoulder surgery the day before and was on some really strong pain killers. As I sat behind the piano and looked out at the crowd, he smiled extremely big in his painkiller-induced state and gave me a very visible thumbs up sign. At that point, I struggled not to laugh. Crying was forgotten. I say all of this because this weekend, I was preparing for cry...
Read more