MON
Something happened today.
I realized that a setback does not become the destination just because it is currently blocking the road.
Sometimes you have to pull off the side of the road and fix a flat tire on the way to Disney World.
I liked that one too.
The image is almost childish, which may be why it works. You are going somewhere you care about. Something goes wrong. Now you are kneeling beside the road with a jack and a dirty spare tire while traffic goes past.
If you look only at the current scene, the trip appears to be about a flat tire.
It is not.
The flat tire is real. You cannot motivational-speech your way down the highway on the rim. You have to stop. You have to deal with it. Maybe it takes an hour. Maybe it costs money. Maybe the kids are whining and somebody has to pee.
Still not the destination.
This became useful when projects hit snags. A plugin bug. A money problem. A policy issue. A bad day. There is a tendency, especially when you are tired, to let the problem swallow the larger journey.
Everything is ruined.
No. The tire is flat.
Those are different statements.
The dream about the ledge had taught me that important is not urgent. This added another layer. Temporary does not mean trivial, but temporary also does not mean total.
Fix the tire.
Then continue if continuing still makes sense.
And if the destination changes, let it change because you learned something real, not because the sight of a jack beside the road convinced you the amusement park never existed.
I have had enough flat tires, literal and otherwise, to appreciate the distinction.
