Handling Adversity

Yesterday I had a brief adventure of sorts. It only lasted a couple of hours but I learned a new lesson in handling adversity. The lesson began the day before. On Christmas Eve an epic snowstorm hit Oklahoma City. Carole and I had finished our annual Christmas Eve breakfast with some good friends and were at home relaxing and watching the storm roll in. We had two tasks to perform that day and were in no hurry. We were anticipating our Whitlow Christmas Eve get-together at my brother's home, and we had to go to our daughter and son-in-law's home to pick up their dog. They were at Mark's parents place out of state and the young man who was house-sitting for them was leaving to meet his family for their Christmas celebration. That left their dog, Ozzie with no way to get outside to answer nature's call, so the plan was for us to bring him to our house. No problem. We've done it several times before. Due to travel difficulties I had experienced earlier in the day, we decided that we would go to Ozzie's house, spend the night and return home Christmas morning. After all, we didn't have any other plans. The trip to their house was surreal due to the number of cars scattered along the roadway, but we made it without serious incident.

We got up Christmas morning, loaded Ozzie in the truck and headed for home. Things were going well until we enountered a jack-knifed semi blocking the road. We decided to cut through a parking lot to go around and ended up high centered in a snowbank. I sprang into action and began yelling, kicking snow and blaming others. I made my feeble attempts at trying things, but I knew that unless spring came early, we wouldn't be driving away from this without help. I had identified the situation clearly and loudly and stomped around, mad that I was in this mess.

Carole, meanwhile, was on the phone calling people. Very quickly she reached one of her cousins whose husband has a large 4 wheel drive truck and a strong chain. He said he would come, and about an hour later I was driving home.

While I focused on the problem, Carole focused on the solution. I think there is a lesson to be learned there. I give myself a D- and Carole an A+.