For some time, my husband and I would get angry with ourselves if we forgot something or made a mistake. We had to learn that growing old doesn’t have to be a sad affair when you can laugh at yourself. Last Thursday I woke up with the idea it was Wednesday. All day long I assumed I was right and everyone and everything else was wrong. I went to the North Austin Library where the Austin Weekly News was stacked on the front counter.
Back home, I told my husband the newspaper was delivered a day early. The statement convinced him that it was Wednesday too. Later in the evening he told me the televised 5-day weather forecasts didn’t include Wednesday. Neither of us could explain why the forecast didn’t include Wednesday. So we forgot it.
Friday morning, which we thought was Thursday, my husband’s TV program, Message of Grace, instructed by Rev. Richard Jordan was on TV. My husband said that was strange because the program was televised on Thursday evening and Friday morning. “Is today Friday and not Thursday?” he asked. It was. The Comcast TV guide menu showed the day and time of the program had not changed. “Well,” my husband said, “today is Friday, and yesterday was Thursday, so what happened to Wednesday”? We had to laugh at ourselves.
My husband was headed out the back door to move the car. He noticed one of the light bulbs in the kitchen was out. He went into the pantry and took down the cardboard box with the light bulbs and batteries in it. He didn’t find a bulb that fit the ceiling fixture, but took a AA battery from the cardboard box and replaced the battery in the TV remote control. He placed the box back on the shelf and asked me if there was something else he was supposed to do. I said he was going to move the car to the garage. He checked all his pockets for the car key, but it wasn’t in any of his pockets. He was absolutely positive he had the car key when he came into the kitchen. I said maybe he left the car key in the box with the light bulbs. He took the box down from the pantry shelf and scattered things around, but the car key wasn’t there. He decided to look upstairs in the bedroom where he knew the car key couldn’t be because he had it when he came into the kitchen. A few minutes later, he was back with the car key in his hand.
A week later, I went to my doctor’s appointment on the wrong day. The receptionist told me the doctor wasn’t in. “What!” I screamed. “The doctor doesn’t keep his appointments anymore?” “No”, the receptionist answered softly, “your appointment was yesterday.” I couldn’t find anyone to be angry with, so I got angry with myself. I called myself stupid, crazy and irresponsible. On the way home, my husband said, “You shouldn’t get angry with yourself. These things happen.”
We laughed.
