This week I decided to be unguided. I imagine that all of y’all who laugh when I say I have no filters post-floor-impact, claiming I never had ANY filters, will question the concept that I am ever guided by anything other than whimsy. You have no idea.
I am frequently caught in a “triage loop” in life. The best action in the best moment drives me. It can be stultifying. It can be efficient but soul-less. Living by The Golden Rule, the actual one, not the glib one is a tough row to hoe, but it gives me immense pleasure. When the best option for the best folk in the best, most efficient way for me and them it becomes a win win win Win WIN! Like yesterday?
Picture an overwhelmed car rental agency. 4 staffers plus 3 working computers plus 75 travellers in one small building with a wait line that definitely wasn’t designed by Disney for our pleasure and you start to grind your teeth just reading this. This is the exact opposite of a forest bathe or snow-bathe or cloud-bathe, a restful sunrise session with a friend: some folks handle this by getting surly and incensed, but oddly today, not I. I go the opposite direction, and start Guiding.
Some guy saved cash by flying to DTW to drive back to Toronto now is googling the president of the rental company’s contact information to get some justice! A new friend who also believes, like me, in a cup being half full is starting to sweat dinner plans with a friend. One third of the working computers is currently embroiled with a couple who’ve just been told that while their company rented a 7 passenger van for a trip to a friend’s wedding in Grand Rapids, they being under 25 cannot drive it. Mayhem and dismay all around me, it is clear what’s next.
“I can drive you. I have 3 extra seats if you get a smaller ride, and I have no schedule at all”
Complete and utter silence. I pull out my business card and hand it to the younglings. Grumpy Frugal Guy says summat unhelpful. His glass is always half-empty it seems, so I offer him a card and a hike when he’s in the ADKs next time. Worried Woman asks for one for comfort. Her friend asks what I do, and I tell her. “Star Party?” comes from further back in the line so I use that guidance to lance a touch of the boil of inchoate fury building in the line. Maps Marked, Stars Gazed, Tales Told. It’s right on my card. This is a busman’s holiday, a tiny triage in a situation where it’s easy to act how I would want to be treated, and the vibe changes.
As it will. Don’t be afraid or angry or snide when things don’t happen efficiently. Take Usies, not selfies. On the other side of it your glass fills up. The agent who handles Jovial Ed the Guide (Aggressive Cheerfulness, but honest!) murmurs “thank you” and offers me a gig doing stand-up for the week, just hanging out and defusing the lines. But it appears that I have other work, now…
Meet Kaden (his family lived right down the road from Natty Bs) and Anna (from an hour south of Trondheim) at the Portland MI taco joint where Anna wanted to eat American food and they were having friends from Rockford meet us. We had monologues (me) and dialogue mostly about why things happen as they do. I had no idea what my holiday would give me, other than a hand to folk who deserved it. They were within an hour of their friends celebratory weekend after 22 hours after departing Oslo. We eat Taco Bell.
Gotta dash now. I have to tighten up my 20 minutes for a rental hub audience. I go on at two😎
Get out there and Look Up! Clear Sky, everyone