If you want a practice run on your level of patience, I advise you to make a quick dash from Midway Airport in Chicago to Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania. I did so this weekend, thinking my 647-mile trip would provide an enjoyable 10 hours of bringing back the memories of my adventurous sales days while roaming the Midwest, searching for clients.
It took me two hours just to get my car rental. Five miles out from the airport, while turning onto Interstate 55, a sedan plowed into a huge semi. I was the 33rd car behind the wreck. I could not move an inch for three hours. Later, quite to my disappointment, I discovered 12 construction zones on the toll roads in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania as I inched toward my destination.
Thank goodness I knew the Serenity Prayer. I said it over and over again while listening to sad country western songs on the radio.
In my younger days, I would have pulled over at county bars and checked out the nine varieties of local beers. I would inform the buzzed patrons of my misfortune. They would listen to my woes – as long as I purchased another round of brew. In my 20s, I’d get back into my rental car and follow the blurred taillights of the pickup in front of me.
Now, in my 70s, I checked into a Super 8 motel and looked forward to a better tomorrow.
It came.
I’m a lucky man.