We like to believe that we can manage our own lives and make choices that bring order to random events. For the most part this is true. We learn that doing this is a bad idea, doing that is a better idea and so on. But at some level there are circumstances simply beyond our control, events that happen outside our sphere of influence or problems that we inflict upon ourselves, flawed creatures that we are.
When we are in the throes of such episodes we ride the riptide of causality and place our fate in the hands of chaos. The other day I did a pretty stupid thing and within the fabric of its telling you will sense a cautionary tale about Fate or Karma or Destiny interceding in one small way.
Leaving the office in Raleigh on the way back to Chapel Hill is something I have done hundreds of times. On a day last week my hands were full of briefcase, water bottle, jacket, phone so I temporary put some things on the hood of the car, got out my keys, threw the briefcase, jacket and water bottle in the backseat and headed out.
Darn, almost out of gas so I head over to the trusty Exxon station before tackling the freeway. Roads are busy in Raleigh and I am driving along a crowded street, when I hear a loud THUMP from the back of the car. I have several thoughts at once; what was that sound? Did someone hit me? and WHERE IS MY PHONE?? I begin frantically searching my pockets and then I distinctly remember putting the phone on the roof of the car. OMG I left the phone on the roof of the car and drove off! The sound I heard was the phone sliding down the rear window, bouncing off the trunk and onto the pavement where it was crushed into millions of tiny phone-like particles. This is a very busy 4-lane highway, so no way can I circle back, race out into traffic and retrieve what is left of the phone — unless I want MY pieces scattered with the phone’s. This was a brand spanking new iPhone X and very expensive. It is to weep.
I am literally cursing myself in the car. People next to me probably wonder what is wrong with that old dude? Who is he talking too? How could I be so stupid? And I still need gas so I pull into the nearest station. As I open the gas cap I spot, impossibly, lodged in a space between the rear window and the trunk, MY PHONE. It had somehow slide off the roof, down the window and gotten stuck in this unlikely crevice. I quickly grab it to make sure it is not a mirage, not broken, still works. I actually consider dancing a little jig next to the gas pump, but still have enough animal cunning to realize that such behavior is not within the acceptable guidelines of gasoline station etiquette.
A random bounce converted a total disaster into this story. You might have heard the phrase, “Luck favors the bold”. To that quote you may also add , “Luck sometimes favors the Bozo”.
Signed,
“Bozo”
whoisfenton 