When you've been sick in bed for six weeks, you can get pretty desperate for things to do. That's probably why my wife spent so long just watching a frustrated lady bug one day during an illness. Well, my wife had been sick long enough to be at that point of desperation.
I had been scheduled to speak at a winter retreat in Pennsylvania, and I lived in New Jersey. It was the kind of thing where I could drive to it. Well, that day, winter decided that it was time to do some serious wintering. We had heavy snow all day long and I knew this was going to be a very exciting drive along Interstate 80 on out to Pennsylvania.
Our daughter was in a big hurry to get home that night in February, but her aunt wasn't. Her aunt had taken her shopping, and her aunt was taking her time. One more thing to buy; one more store to go to; oh, yeah, one more stop to make. Oh, we need to fill up with gas. Okay, I only need two gallons, but we need to fill up with gas. By the time our daughter finally got home, man, she was frustrated. She sort of sputtered as she walked in the front door only to be greeted by 25 of her best friends jumping out of the darkness shouting, "Surprise!"
I had a friend who was a veteran sailor, and occasionally he would take us out on his sailboat. And I learned that when my sailing friend said it was time to go in, I'd better listen. There were times when we were out and the weather was beautiful, and I thought it was going to stay beautiful. But, man, his instincts knew better. He'd say, "I think we'd better go in." I'd say, "On a beautiful day like this? This is a ten." He'd say, "It isn't going to stay that way."
Wallenda. That's a name that is synonymous with tightrope artistry, high wire drama. The Great Wallendas! The patriarch of the Wallenda clan was Karl Wallenda, and at the age of 73 he was still doing tightrope work. He went to South America several years ago and strung a tight rope between two 20-story buildings. For him that was not an unusual feat, but tragically that day Karl Wallenda fell to his death.
I'll bet you remember these familiar words: "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." Oh, sure you do. Well, I hope you do, or else you had a deprived childhood. Because most of us grew up on those words. It's that little book, The Little Engine That Could. I think Fred Flintstone must have read it to his kids it's that old. Remember, the little engine tries to make it up to the top of the mountain, with this train load of toys. It's a mountain that no other train was able to navigate. And as he gets near the top, he says, "I think I can. I think I can (puff, puff, chug, chug)." Oh, I've read it so many times to my kids and now my grandkids. Well, as you remember, of course, he makes it to the top of the mountain. It's a great book. It's got a great philosophy of life. It's a great confidence builder. But maybe right now you've hit a mountain that you really can't climb. Maybe you need to read that book again - or, how about a much better book.
I remember my son's first football game in high school. He was all decked out in his football armor and looking appropriately intimidating like you're supposed to look. And he came on the field with the rest of the team, but as macho as he was (or was trying to be), as soon as he came out he just glanced up at the stands, and I knew why. He wanted to be sure his Father was there watching him.
Our family, and probably yours, can be divided into two functional groups: the morning people and the night people. Which, by the way, are dysfunctional the other part of the day. You have those at your house? Well, often they marry each other. I don't know why that happens. And then they drive each other nuts at the beginning and at the end of the day. Now, my daughter, for example, oh, she was the slow freight train in the morning. She was almost a no freight train in the morning. It was hard to get her up; it took a long time to get her going, not much spark there, not too many smiles. She was not really like that the rest of the day. But morning was just not her time.
Okay, we're going to do a little experiment right now. If you're near something printed (and you're not driving), let's say a book, a newspaper, magazine, would you just like hold it in front of your eyes? Okay, now wait, wait, if you're driving, remember you're excused from this. But otherwise...you got that in front of your eyes alright? Now, hold it a foot or so from your eyes.
We have five members of the Hutchcraft family. Actually at one time, there was a sixth unofficial member of the family - our parrot, Pierre. Now, my 14-year-old son took care of him, and he had a problem. See, Pierre needed a bath. He really needed a bath. And our method of giving him a bath is to put him in the tub. Now, I don't know if this is conventional or not, but we put him in the tub and he would really love the shower...sort of like the Amazon jungle where his roots are - a rain forest I guess.
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