8/6/08
Break Your Gauges
Fifteen minutes into this year’s vacation, the speedometer died on our 2004 Hyundai Sonata. Although chagrined, we kind of wished it had happened one week previous, when Mike got pulled over doing 43mph in a 25 zone- then we would have had a legitimate excuse!
We researched the issue online, but found no other similar issues, no help, no diagrams. The Web is not quite as useful as people make it out to be.
But it hasn’t really affected our vacation negatively, not that much, yet. Determined to learn from every event that has touched my life, I gleaned a few tidbits from this as well:
Learn Math
Between Niles and Grand Rapids we were on a bit of a deadline, having an appointment at the GR Apple store for the Genius Bar to look at the failing battery in my MacBook Pro. Twenty minutes of battery life means less blog posts for you people, so we all know that must be amended!
So just how do you figure mph when not only your speedometer is dead, but your odometer as well? You use those handy dandy little roadside mile markers and the extremely awesome iPhone stopwatch. But the math… uh, hang on. Michigan’s freeways have a 70mph speed limit, and we usually travel at a comfortable 80mph (no one can ticket us for saying this, right?) keeping up with traffic. Eighty miles per hour works out to 0.75 seconds per mile, which is exactly 0:45 on the stopwatch. Since we are pseudo-scientific and prefer a larger core sample, we clocked two miles at a time, which worked out to 1:30 minutes.
My husband, the Ruby developer and basic genius, could not figure out the simple math equation to come up with those times. I wonder how many high school and college graduates are wandering around in this world, lacking the basic math skills to cope when their machines fail them. Math is almost a lost art amongst many people that I’ve talked to. Why?
Pick your Pacecar
Using a stopwatch gets lame after a few minutes, and once we realized that we weren’t going to make our appointment anyhow, we were able to relax and just follow people. First we followed a Scion, which, by our calculations, kept a nice steady 80mph for half an hour. When the driver got distracted by his cell phone and coffee, we picked a Chrysler driven by (I swear) one of the Hardy Boys. He popped off at South Haven, so we were forced to watch our tachymeter (which works just fine for now) for rpms. Every now and then we’d find another ‘pacecar’, only to be disappointed when it sped up or slowed down drastically, or just left the road.
When we pick a culture to identify with- a religion, a way of life, a political party, a certain set of friends, a cause- we often think that it will be paired with us for eternity. This rarely is true. People change. You change, I change. Politics shift, situations arise that necessitate a deeper search for meaning and identity. Religions suddenly mean more or less. Leaders fail, leaders rise, new leaders are continually found. Saving whales seems to be less important today than saving the environment, and this will possibly fall by the wayside in the future when a new crisis is ushered in. Your friends will up and move away, or have babies or get married or find Jesus or lose their sanity.
If you absolutely must align yourself with something bigger than you, pick something steadfast. One good friend instead of a party crowd. One true, abiding faith instead of a series of empty religions. A realistic set of principles and morals rather than a trendy philosophy.
The things that are your personal pacecars should not lead you to the edge of the road and into a ditch.
Break Your Gauges
Once the rush was over, we just sat back and enjoyed the drive. The sun was low over the hills and trees, slanting out across the sky and filling the car with gold. Summer’s glory was spread richly throughout my homestate, and it was enjoyable. Our eyes did not have to flicker back and forth between the road and the instrument panel. Sure, we didn’t have the luxury of cruise control, but who really needs it? We were finally in true vacation mode- no worries, no time limits. We figured that if we were going too fast and got pulled over, that we would just explain to the police our mechanical problem, and if we were going too slow- who would care?
How often in life do we judge ourselves by a gauge of some sort? I remember being 18 and single, with absolutely no boyfriend possibilities on the horizon. Just about everyone that I knew was either paired up or heading for it. I wasn’t particularly anxious for a relationship per se, but I did feel awfully awkward being one of the only single people. I began to cast around for a potential mate, and decided on a perfectly dreadful young man in my Bible study class- arrogant, aloof, and not particularly attractive. Nothing ever happened between us, fortunately, and I soon learned to set my gauges to being happy single. I think that I had to be perfectly happy in my singlehood in order to fall in love with Michael when I met him.
I try very hard (but often fail) not to compare myself to those with better cars, jobs, homes, or bank accounts than myself. I also try not to be guilty when I have something better than someone else! I used to look at the other moms who had it all together- savings account for each kid, tidy and well-decorated home, the trim little figure. Now I just try to make sure my kids are fed and clean and happy, that my home is welcoming and comfortable to us and others, and that art and literature are a part of every aspect of our lives, because that is what makes us happy.
Once my social and economic gauges are completely broken, I know that I will be not only a happier person, but a more effective one. What gauges do you need to break in your life in order to be happier?
We researched the issue online, but found no other similar issues, no help, no diagrams. The Web is not quite as useful as people make it out to be.
But it hasn’t really affected our vacation negatively, not that much, yet. Determined to learn from every event that has touched my life, I gleaned a few tidbits from this as well:
Learn Math
Between Niles and Grand Rapids we were on a bit of a deadline, having an appointment at the GR Apple store for the Genius Bar to look at the failing battery in my MacBook Pro. Twenty minutes of battery life means less blog posts for you people, so we all know that must be amended!
So just how do you figure mph when not only your speedometer is dead, but your odometer as well? You use those handy dandy little roadside mile markers and the extremely awesome iPhone stopwatch. But the math… uh, hang on. Michigan’s freeways have a 70mph speed limit, and we usually travel at a comfortable 80mph (no one can ticket us for saying this, right?) keeping up with traffic. Eighty miles per hour works out to 0.75 seconds per mile, which is exactly 0:45 on the stopwatch. Since we are pseudo-scientific and prefer a larger core sample, we clocked two miles at a time, which worked out to 1:30 minutes.
My husband, the Ruby developer and basic genius, could not figure out the simple math equation to come up with those times. I wonder how many high school and college graduates are wandering around in this world, lacking the basic math skills to cope when their machines fail them. Math is almost a lost art amongst many people that I’ve talked to. Why?
Pick your Pacecar
Using a stopwatch gets lame after a few minutes, and once we realized that we weren’t going to make our appointment anyhow, we were able to relax and just follow people. First we followed a Scion, which, by our calculations, kept a nice steady 80mph for half an hour. When the driver got distracted by his cell phone and coffee, we picked a Chrysler driven by (I swear) one of the Hardy Boys. He popped off at South Haven, so we were forced to watch our tachymeter (which works just fine for now) for rpms. Every now and then we’d find another ‘pacecar’, only to be disappointed when it sped up or slowed down drastically, or just left the road.
When we pick a culture to identify with- a religion, a way of life, a political party, a certain set of friends, a cause- we often think that it will be paired with us for eternity. This rarely is true. People change. You change, I change. Politics shift, situations arise that necessitate a deeper search for meaning and identity. Religions suddenly mean more or less. Leaders fail, leaders rise, new leaders are continually found. Saving whales seems to be less important today than saving the environment, and this will possibly fall by the wayside in the future when a new crisis is ushered in. Your friends will up and move away, or have babies or get married or find Jesus or lose their sanity.
If you absolutely must align yourself with something bigger than you, pick something steadfast. One good friend instead of a party crowd. One true, abiding faith instead of a series of empty religions. A realistic set of principles and morals rather than a trendy philosophy.
The things that are your personal pacecars should not lead you to the edge of the road and into a ditch.
Break Your Gauges
Once the rush was over, we just sat back and enjoyed the drive. The sun was low over the hills and trees, slanting out across the sky and filling the car with gold. Summer’s glory was spread richly throughout my homestate, and it was enjoyable. Our eyes did not have to flicker back and forth between the road and the instrument panel. Sure, we didn’t have the luxury of cruise control, but who really needs it? We were finally in true vacation mode- no worries, no time limits. We figured that if we were going too fast and got pulled over, that we would just explain to the police our mechanical problem, and if we were going too slow- who would care?
How often in life do we judge ourselves by a gauge of some sort? I remember being 18 and single, with absolutely no boyfriend possibilities on the horizon. Just about everyone that I knew was either paired up or heading for it. I wasn’t particularly anxious for a relationship per se, but I did feel awfully awkward being one of the only single people. I began to cast around for a potential mate, and decided on a perfectly dreadful young man in my Bible study class- arrogant, aloof, and not particularly attractive. Nothing ever happened between us, fortunately, and I soon learned to set my gauges to being happy single. I think that I had to be perfectly happy in my singlehood in order to fall in love with Michael when I met him.
I try very hard (but often fail) not to compare myself to those with better cars, jobs, homes, or bank accounts than myself. I also try not to be guilty when I have something better than someone else! I used to look at the other moms who had it all together- savings account for each kid, tidy and well-decorated home, the trim little figure. Now I just try to make sure my kids are fed and clean and happy, that my home is welcoming and comfortable to us and others, and that art and literature are a part of every aspect of our lives, because that is what makes us happy.
Once my social and economic gauges are completely broken, I know that I will be not only a happier person, but a more effective one. What gauges do you need to break in your life in order to be happier?
Labels: comparison, learning, life, life lesson, perspective, relaxing, speedometer, travel
