I'll cross that ditch when I get to it....

Hinds County Gazette February 14 2008

You all I have had an epiphany…. I know you have seen perfectly sane, intelligent people do things that you know, they know better then to try… but they still go against all common sense and do stupid things anyway….and they are as bewilder as anybody when it is over…wondering, “what was I thinking!”
Well, I am fixing to tell you….It may take a while.
Mirrors…I try to avoid them as much as possible. This full length mirror, here in my office lets me know I am too fat…., and morning after morning, as I am brushing my hair, the mirror over the sink shouts “Gloria, you are old” …..quite annoying. But I do not stay annoyed because, soon as I get away from those truth telling mirrors, I get on with my life and I don’t know I am old and fat….
That is,…after I get the kinks worked out of my knees …I am a little old and slow until I get the knees to cooperate….then I can get on with my day just like when I was 50.
Well… that is until it is time to go down a flight of stairs, I can’t go down stairs two at a time any more… I need a rail to hang on to now… but when I get to the bottom, I can get on with life just like when I was 40.
Well… That is…Until it is time to come back up the stairs …. And the knees give me cause to pause…I do not climb steps two at a time any more ether…I climb them very deliberately these days...one cranky knee at a time….But when I get to the top I am good to go just like I was 30.
That is…. Until I need to back out of a parking place at the store…and I try to turn my head to see what’s coming and my neck won’t let my head go over my shoulder like it once did…now I have to turn my whole body s too to get my head to turn…but soon as I am safely out of the parking place and back on the road, and get the windows rolled down and the wind blowing through my hair…..I am 20 again.
This is… until I try to cross my legs and they won’t do it with out assistance from me, I have to grab my leg and man handle it in to the crossed position…..Then they don’t want to stay crossed because, I have a big wad of fat behind knees and my top leg keeps slipping….but when I give up and just cross my ankles like when I was 10 sitting on front pew at church, I am Just fine.
Saturday Sheryl, Jacqueline and I were out walking around Edwards…We came to this crossing, there was a rather wide gap in the terrain, and it was rocky and uneven. They had concerns that crossing that ditch might not be such a good idea for me…. I insisted we go that way…
I am getting to the epiphany….I’m almost there….Ok then… I shall try and make a long story some what shorter.. I attempted to jump the ditch…. I fell and they had to pull me up…. just like when I was a year old and learning to walk…
I have been thinking about my fall… And how did they know it was going to end in calamity and I didn’t?
Because, Jacqueline and Sheryl could see my grey hair and wrinkles…they could see my plump, unbalanced body….I had forgotten… because soon after I walk away from the mirror…I forget I am old…because I do not feel old….As far as my brain was concerned, I was 16 and could jump that ditch with ease.
So when you see folks attempt something you know they can’t do….Bless their hearts, it could be, that, they like me…Just do not know they can’t.
Call if you need me