OK, so I was going to have the title of this post be “Ice, Ice, Baby,” so that those of us who are of a certain age would have the song by that same title be stuck in our heads for a while. But, since the titles of my posts are only one word, there it is.
Anyway. I was driving on Interstate 94 Wednesday, and the road conditions were less than great. We have had a lot of winter precipitation lately, in the forms of freezing rain and snow. The Minnesota Department of Transportation is actually really efficient about clearing the roads, especially the major ones. Of course, it’s not perfect, and apparently there are more snowflakes than snowplows, so the battle is long and arduous.
AND, many drivers are cautious. Which is good. My commute that morning was about 20 miles, and I didn’t see any vehicles in the ditches. Which is somewhat unusual. The Interstate wasn’t terribly full of ice and snow, so I was a bit frustrated that the top speed most of the way was 35 MPH.
My frustration certainly is more of a reflection of my impatience than it is of the other drivers. Mostly. Again, no vehicles in the ditches. And, it gave me time to think. About ice and about life. Because that’s how my brain works.
Have you ever walked across ice in “dress” shoes? The kind of shoes that have little to no traction on the soles? It’s more like a cautious shuffle than a walk. One misplaced step, and you’re off your feet and on your backside. Funny on You Tube, not so much when a tailbone gets cracked.
My initial reaction to all of this was that I need to write a post about how people are often too cautious in life. That we often act as though we are walking across ice, waiting to slip and fall at any moment. I think this is accurate a lot of the time, for a lot of us. That we are overly cautious, like those drivers were. Like we are afraid to fall on the ice.
There is more to it than that, of course, and different angles to view. One of those is that if we run all heater-skelter into situations, we likely will fall. We will do so because we didn’t consider the costs, and we ran into something we didn’t fully understand. There are times to be cautious, to test and take little steps. To drive slowly.
Yes, I see what I did. I was going to post this two days ago, just about the being overly cautious, and that we need to get over ourselves. And, I didn’t. I walked slowly across the ice, taking my time, not ending up in the ditch.
Husband. Father. Son. Broken, Mended.
Fully Kicking 
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