ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

‘Walk a Mile in My Shoes’, a Joe South song title, a parable, an offhand remark we sometimes make when others see you in a different way than you think they should.

I hope I am not bursting anyone’s bubble when I tell you I am not writing today’s drivel from my verandah in the middle of winter. I have thought about this expression ‘Walk a Mile in My Shoes’ while I contemplate life as it passes by my front door.

The expression, as it is written in the song has more to do with what goes on around us and how fortunate we are to be ourselves and to be careful before we start throwing stones. Essentially, it is saying we are in this world as brothers and sisters and the next stone you throw likely
will hit you. Oh my, I am almost sounding like a socialist when I say that.

Isn’t that the way. We all tend to wish we were in someone else’s place, even for just a moment. Just take all the glory and not have to deal with all the lead up work. But in life, we can’t all be Wayne Gretzkys or Cate Blancetts.

And anyway, who would want to score 894 goals or star in three pictures at once? Do you know what kind of exercise hockey players go through each day? Do you know what time movie stars get up in the morning and how many times they repeat those lines? It is not that much glamour and it is not that much fun to have players twice as big trying to take you down. On the other hand, the pay cheque would be welcomed. Then again, just how much tax did I want to pay anyway?

So if it is not that wonderful to be the Great One or if it is not that splendid to be Cate, then why do we wish for these things?

I think we have to look at ourselves to answer that question. If you are not happy with what you are doing, whether it be farming, parenting, engineering or whatever, then perhaps it is time to move on and do what you really want to do. Not that I am totally happy in what I do in life but I will share this. Sitting down to write what comes to mind makes me almost as happy as if I won the big lottery. Preparing a breakfast for guests at our B&B gives me almost the same feeling. As I say out loud most days, “Life is good!”

But getting here was not easy and that is why I can safely say, walking a mile in my shoes is not easy. One would first of all have to attend enough farm meetings and do reports on them until you could write the story before you got there. Next, you would write daily editorials, attend council meetings until midnight and do news casts starting at 5:30 the next morning. It also helps to be fired at least once. It builds character, don’t you know? And for that chance to make breakfasts for demanding guests, you have to spend a wad of cash to fix up an old house so you can restore its character and so the guests will come.

Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy what I do. I am just laying out some of the ingredients that it took to get me here.

You have your story, too. It probably is filled with sacrifice, hardship and tragedy as well.

Have you read, for example, how many useless inventions Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell came up with? Almost as many as the wastebaskets I have filled with trashed stories. And then there is this classic I am just finishing and you are reading. It came so close to
the waste pail (delete button today), I am surprised I finished it.

So there! My thought on this frosty day on the verandah is obvious. Enjoy what you are doing and be careful what you wish for. And, being Canadian, one must learn to be correct in our metric lexicon. Who ever heard of Walking a Kilometer in my Shoes? Just doesn’t have the ring, does it?