Day #6: When it rains, it pours (but not that kind of rain)

Today’s post will be a short one (maybe). I don’t feel much like writing, but I made the commitment to myself … and writers write. So here goes.

Maybe you can relate to my day. It started with an unexpected discovery: that I had a flat tire, just as I was leaving for work. I panicked, because that’s what I do when faced with what I consider a crisis (especially spelled $$$). That kicked off anxiety and set the mood for the day.

I managed to get to the auto mechanic, who told me first that I had been driving on 3 pounds of pressure and that he hoped I hadn’t driven very far. Then he filled the offending tire to 40, and sent me on my way.

Like too many working people, whether I decided on a patch or a new tire, both would have to wait 24 hours for payday.

By the end of the workday, my mechanic once again checked the tire pressure, which was now 23 pounds after sitting in the parking lot all day. He filled it back up; I drove home.

I hope to the Universe that I’ll still have tire pressure in the morning to go back again, with my bank account replenished, and figure out a solution to the leaking tire.

I meet people every day who have worse problems than mine, life and death problems. But when whatever “crisis” is staring you in the face, that can feel like life and death too, no matter how inconsequential by comparison.

And worse, too many of us across the country, never mind the world, are living too close to the edge. Doing everything right, but who are one price increase, one medical emergency, one unexpected bill — one flat tire — away from the abyss.

Chances are good that you know someone, or are someone, who is circling the edge right now.

It shouldn’t be this way. This can’t go on.