Yesterday I read a story about a hitchhiker in California who was standing beside the road with a cardboard sign which read “Anywhere but here.” As I went about my day, all I could think about was that phrase. All night long I said it over and over in my mind and thought of the many times I had been in places where I wanted to be “anywhere but here.” I knew I had a story here. This is too good to pass up.
I’m pretty sure that we have all been in places that fit that pitiful sign. We have thought that things couldn’t be any worse anywhere else. The grass is greener on the other side of this fence! I know I’d be happy, if only…. Lord, just get me out of this jam and I promise…. How could this happen to me? How about those times that because of my own stupidity or hard head, I messed up big time and had to face up to consequences I had caused. A dentist chair? Hospital bed or emergency room? The pokey? (NO, I haven’t been in the pokey, but I have bailed some out a few times. It happens.) Stranded on the road because I was in too big a hurry to stop to get gas? You get my drift?
I remember a few times that I wanted to be anywhere but there. Once, when I had just graduated from high school and was engaged to be married, I needed a job to pay for a refrigerator that I had bought but really couldn’t afford. My aunt worked at a factory that made doorbells and helped me get a job in the factory. I was so excited to have my first full time job! It only took about four hours for me to realize that I wanted to be anywhere but there! The little stool, screws, hammer, nuts and bolts, etc. was just too much for this genius brain to handle. I tried. I really tried. Anywhere but here! I made it until lunch time.
Getting called to the principal’s office was just about the worst thing I had even known in my tender years in high school. I wanted to be somewhere else, really bad. All I had done was hold hands with my sweetheart at lunch on campus. But still…I’ve even been in places that I should have been happy or proud and was bored to tears or miserable where others were having a good time. Anywhere but here!
If you’ve ever had to disconnect a loved one from life support, you’d rather die. After 60 years of marriage, I was left in a new town, in a new villa, with no immediate family within miles. This sounds so self-centered and naïve, but I had nobody to take garbage to the street, nobody to check the oil in my car or fix it when it wouldn’t start, nobody to share a meal with, nobody to tell a joke to or cry to when I needed to. I had always had him by my side when things got really rough. Anywhere but here!
I’ll end on a happy note of really wanting to be somewhere else. I’m a junker! I admit it and those who have picked up junk beside the road or in a Salvation bin (where I once lost a $500 pair of Silhouette glasses) can identify with me. Others, not so much.
I was cruising the thrift stores in Richmond, Virginia once and found this beautiful goose neck rocker. I couldn’t pull the tag off that one soon enough. I had the guys put it in the back of my truck but did not have them secure it with bungie cords or ropes that were always there. I sailed out of there and headed home to Blackstone to show my husband helper my treasure. If you know anything at all about Richmond, the James River runs right through it and you have to cross that big boy to get from north to south. We lived south.
There was a pretty decent curve once you got on the bridge just before the river, but before the toll booths. At that point you were on that bridge. Stick stack no take back. I’m zipping along humming to myself and looked in the rear-view mirror and saw the rocker start to rock. It rocked and moved a little closer to the back. It rocked some more, and some more until it got all the way to the tailgate and as I looked in awe, it rocked right over the tailgate. OMG! Here I am on the bridge, on a curve, traffic everywhere but right behind me, thank the Lord, and no way to get out of my situation. You want to talk about being anywhere else but here? I had to go through the toll booth, go on to the next exit which of course was on the other side of the river and had no earthly idea where I was. The good Lord managed to guide me over and back around on the northbound side, passing my beautiful, splintered gooseneck rocker across the four lanes, and then loop around again to go south to get to the scene of my catastrophe where a VA State Trooper stood with his foot hiked up on his front bumper waiting for me. Need I say more? Stuff happens.
Just because things don’t pan out the way we thought they would in our lives doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to be where we are. I believe we all have a purpose in life. I hope someday I’ll figure out what mine is.
