…. that all is going great something misfires.

Different events in my own life cause me to remember stories from the Bible sometimes. The Bible is full of stories. This story from the new testament, Matthew, I think, talks about two sons reaction to something that their father has asked then to do. The first kid says, Yep. I will be there. And then he does not go. I suppose he goes off to hang with his bros. The story teller does not tell us. The second kid says, not today, Pops, I am hanging with my bros. But after his father leaves he goes and does what his dad asked him to do. The elephant in the room is, which kid did the right thing? The first kid outright lied to his father. What an asshat he is. The second kid did the right thing but was grumpy with his father initially.

It always strikes me that there is not a lot of lead in to this story and the following paragraph does not seem to segue into the story about the tenant farmers killing the owner’s son. But I have digressed.

Cheryl slept poorly overnight. When we saw her neurologist he made some adjustments to the meds that are supposed to help with her dementia and memory issues. This was the second night that she had taken the new dosage. She told me at one point her mind was racing. She eventually fell asleep somewhere between 2:30 and 3 am. I did anyway and she did not disturb me awake.

In the morning I let her sleep late by turning off the 7 am alarm. I started to tease her awake at a few minutes before 10 am. She eventually got up at 11 am. While I was waiting for her to get moving, I did a few things that had to happen:

• stuffed envelopes with the ninety or so Christmas cards we send out each year and added a little newsy note like the rest of us that only communicate once in awhile.
• wrapped some of the presents we purchased for the grand children and for some unknown child whose request was hanging on the giving tree at church last week.
• balanced the check book because I forgot to do it on Friday
• paid the property taxes because the escrow account said this was the day
• helped her get out of bed and into the bathroom for meds and the the toilet
• got her breakfast going and helped her out of the kitchen to get freshened up for the day
• helped getting the shower going and made sure she was okay to take a shower by herself
• rubbed the magic stuff in her hair after her shower and hair shampoo
• made the bed

And on and on – making this about me in my head. It is easy to forget and add up this huge column of pluses and equate that with one unsought request. (sad face) Cheryl in the midst of all of this activity as she was combing her hair said the garbage needed to be removed from the small receptacle next to the toilet the receives last night’s protection and the occasional Kleenex tissue. It did not I insisted in a volume and timbre that was unnecessary.

So what does all that have to do with the Matthew mystery story. The first kid could have said, yes, I will be right there. I have this other thing to get rid of first. Is that okay, Dad? (Any reasonable father would have accepted this first step to rid oneself of the prior commitment.) The second son could have taken a deep breath and gone to do what his father asked. (He was apparently intending to do it anyway.)

I for my part could chosen either one of these two reactions to Cheryl’s need to have the garbage removed. I could have said I will do that in a minute but I need to finish this thing first without the snippy response or I could have merely removed the trash right then. I did remove it a little later. There was no reason for me to feel put upon.

Before that silly reaction by me all was well. Then suddenly something misfired.

Oh well. Carpe Diem.