Derailed

Well, well, welllllll - looks like my day just went awry. I was planning on going to Des Moines for another round of heckling legislators and keeping the world safe for democracy, but find myself at home instead with a sick kiddo. Sheesh... I hate it when that happens. I had plans. I had a schedule. I had a meeting! Instead, I'm forced to stay in my jammies, snuggle down, and watch movies with three of my all-time favorite people. Don't you just hate it when your day gets derailed?

I mean, think about it - there is order in the rails. They're safe. They always stay the same distance apart. Always go in the same direction. Always have a smooth path and plenty of room on each side. They are the original superhighway - blazing fast and capable of getting you where you say you want to go. Just be careful - purchasing a ticket on the railroad of life does have its price.

Oh, sure - the rails are an easy, reliable way to get from point A to point B, but what if you want to get to point C? Or, worse yet, what if you think you want to get to point B, but really need to get to point X? You know - point X. The place where the grass grows tall and tangled and the hum of the cicadas is deafening. The kind of place where you lose your sense of past priorities and gain your sense of self. Point X is usually messy and fragrant and muddy and giggly and all sorts of other un-rail-like things. I'm pretty sure the only the way to get to those vibrant, life-changing Point Xes is by plunging headlong off the smooth and graveled path and into the unplanned, unchartered, unrailed goodness of life.

Sure, lobbying is important, and I'm grateful for the chance to do it. Eventually, I will wander through the deep grass, skip across the meandering crick, scramble up the steep bank, and hop aboard the next train leading me back to plans and schedules and meetings, and the safe clickety-clack, clickety-clack of my life on the rails. However, today I'm going to revel in these de-railed moments and make the most of my time in Point X.