Waiting for Balloons

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I’ve had something amazing happen at work lately. I mean, it’s one of those things that’s probably only amazing to me because it’s a battle I’ve been fighting since I started working at this school two years ago. But last week there was a definite shift in the battle front – the forces of mediocrity and apathy were dealt a blow in a way that I never saw coming and I am amazed – plus it’s the reason that I missed my posting day last week so sorry about that.

There’s a poster in one of the classrooms at work that says “Everything works out in the end, if it hasn’t worked out – it isn’t the end.” That’s a little simplistic I know, but I’m coming to realize, after all my years that it’s also kind of true. It can be so difficult to see through to the other side of a problem or situation – and so frustrating when you want to move, to change, to push, or to fix it, but all you can do is just put your head down and work...and wait.

It’s kind of like that scene in the movie Minority Report. You know that Tom Cruise movie about the pre-crime unit – the police use kind of strange psychics to arrest people who are going to murder someone, but haven’t yet. At one point in the movie the psychics see that Tom Cruise’s character is going to kill someone. So Tom kidnaps one of the psychics to try and get the “minority report” out of her to disprove the accusation. Anyway, after Tom kidnaps the psychic chic, they are, of course, being chased by his former police teammates through a shopping mall.

The psychic, being psychic, can tell what’s going to happen and she kind of directs their chase through the mall. She makes Tom drop some money for a homeless guy which makes the homeless guy bend over to pick it up and he trips up the chasers as they burst through the door.

She makes Tom stop in what looks like the middle of the open plaza where there sure to be seen by the police but just as the police line up on the balcony to get a view of the plaza the balloon man stops to make a sale and his bunch of balloons block their view of Tom and the Psychic Chic.

Then as they finally make it to the exit of the mall, Psychic Chic screams at Tom to take an umbrella out of a basket of umbrella’s for sale. As they step out side it starts to rain and their umbrella becomes just one in a sea of umbrellas just as the police arrive on the roof trying to mark their exit.

Most of us are Tom Cruise in this analogy. We are running through life and don’t have any idea why we’ll need that umbrella or why we have to just stand there like a sitting duck and wait for the balloon man?

I would love to have a psychic to help me see through the frustrating times when I have to stop and wait when all I want to do is run away. It would certainly save me a lot of worry . But I suppose that’s where faith comes in - which has never been my best thing. It's taken me a long time, but I believe I'm beginning to recognize what feels like divine intervention - at least to me. Not a psychic perhaps, but maybe something better.

So drop the money, wait for the balloons, pick up the umbrella and who knows – maybe freedom is just around the corner.