Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Freedom







I have almost a week off of work coming up as I write this. It's not much more than a long long weekend, but it's been a while since I've had this much time off. I'm looking forward to it and to all the days I'll finally have in the sweet company of my wife. But even though it is a mere six days, for some reason I have been extremely busy preparing for it. Just a couple days ago we cleaned the house until it squeaked! Over the past day or two I've had to write eight magnificent blog posts while still remaining humble, which I just failed to do anyway by calling them magnificent. Also my Women's World Cup betting pool at work was hitting its organizing peak over this early week, so I was feeling pretty stretched out.

But on this last day of work things were coming under control. I opened up a little. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I had a get well card and a soccer team pool entry I needed to mail out to a sick co-worker. I asked someone to watch the check-in machine for me while I walked across the street to a reliable mailbox. It was a longer walk than I was thinking. It was the start of the workday for me, but it was lunchtime for many of my co-workers. As I walked through distant parking lots I found many of those co-workers hiding in their cars. They waved cheerfully at me.

I put my envelope in the mailbox and I started back to the library. It was a lovely Spring day and I was skirting a series of richly green suburban backyards. Suddenly, unaccountably, I was hit with a wild feeling: freedom. I felt free! The world was mine. I was untethered! Everything was there for the taking! Nowhere to go, nothing to do, the days spread out before me, an enchanted wilderness.

I had to dash back across a busy street of traffic and work at my library for another seven hours. So nothing about that feeling was true beyond a few precious seconds. And soon the day swallowed it.

But I still taste the echo of it now, and I know it waits...











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