In the scheme of things

I'm not always on what they call an "even keel" (whatever that means) myself, but now and then I like to introduce a note of perspective to the proceedings.

Yesterday morning I woke up just a tad early - 0458 - and going back to sleep for fifteen minutes seemed crazy, so I got up, made myself a cup of tea and watched the post-Christmas edition of the early morning news.

I learned that citizens from Palm Beach to
Puyallup were vexed and miffed because the nut log that Cousin Mel from Houston had sent has not arrived yet, and there was frustration for those awaiting the combination printer-scanner-food dehydrator they were getting from Aunt Lottie in Twitty, Arkansas.  So many presents were late for Christmas because so many people sent their gifts via UPS or FedEx, and like any other system, if it's overloaded, the American delivery networks will not operate efficiently.

Those packages will arrive soon enough!  The note of perspective I wanted to introduce is this story from Massachusetts, where a volunteer firefighter did what volunteers all over do.  He responded to a car crash and was extricating the driver from a mangled SUV when he realized that the patient was his own daughter, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Now that is a Christmas tragedy, to lose a loved one.  A lost package, a delayed delivery, not quite the same.

And this brings back to me the story of a guy I knew in my radio days.  He took a job at a station on the Eastern Shore, and went to do the news one day, violating the cardinal rule of rip-and-read newscasting, which is to at least read the copy over first before going on live with it.  He didn't do that, and soon found himself reading a story about two elderly people being killed in a crash that afternoon in Lutherville.

His grandparents.

Somehow he held it together and went on.  But things can always be worse, so let's give thanks for things as they are!