Did You Ever Wonder

Did you ever wonder...

• why the sun lightens our hair but darkens our skin?
• why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
• why you don't ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
• why "abbreviated" is such a long word?
• why doctors call what they do "practice"?
• why it is that to stop Windows XP, you have to click on "Start"?
• why lemon juice is made with artificial flavor and dishwashing liquid is made with real lemons?
• why the man who invests all your money is called a broker?
• why the time of day with the slowest traffic is called rush hour?
• why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
• when dog food has a new and improved taste who tests it?
• why Noah didn't swat those two mosquitoes?
• why they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
• why don't they make the whole plane out of that indestructible black box material that is used on airplanes?!
• why sheep don't shrink when it rains?
• why they are called apartments when they are all stuck together?
• why if con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
• why if flying is so safe, they call the airport the terminal?

Only in Canada

Only in Canada...

• can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance
• are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink
• do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front
• do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke
• do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters
• do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage
• do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place
• do we buy hot dogs in packages of twelve and buns in packages of eight
• do we use the word politics to describe the process so well—Poli (Latin) meaning many; and tics meaning bloodsucking creatures
• do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering

Sitting on the Fence

Is an unexpected difficulty, or a set of circumstances that force an issue, a test of someone's determination to accomplish a goal or a sign that they should change direction? How DO we tell when it is time to quit? When SHOULD we leap a hurdle and when should we back away gracefully from it? Who knows the answer to this question?

I've asked myself that question many, many times over the years. Do I give up or don't I? What happens if I give up today and tomorrow I regret it because a solution presents itself so that I could attain it and I've now lost it forever? I think of this in the case of someone committing suicide because they can't bear to suffer a disease any longer. What if they waited just one more day and the cure was found that day? They could have lived many more years.

How long is too long to wait for something? How long can one sit on a fence post before they have a permanent dent in their arse and question their sanity?

When the goal I am aiming for is a worthwhile goal, it would take something pretty drastic for me to give up. I'm not a quitter. Sometimes the goal is well worth waiting for, even if it takes a long time and the trek is difficult and painful. That being said, there is reasonableness to all things. Determining how long is too long, is the other issue. Sometimes it feels like brick walls won't fall, like some things will never come to fruition. It makes it that much harder to hold on, but still scary to stop trying and give up.

For me, the answer is to follow my heart and my intuition, not my head. The head can mess things up and distort them. The heart can see what the eyes cannot. I've always been very intuitive, too, so I will continue to trust in that.

How long is too long for you? When do you throw in the towel and take your arse off the fence?