A Firestorm of Dropping Hats

I took a call from a good friend of mine from The Program the other day.  He was mildly agitated.  I can relate - I'm mildly agitated at the drop of a hat and most days it's a veritable shitstorm of dropping hats, pork pies, fedoras, and berets in the Seaweed household.

My friend is going to be returning from a tour to Cuba in a couple of months.  Unfortunately, the plane arrives at the huge Vacation City airport close to midnight - but luckily for him the package also includes a limo ride home, the only caveat being that the receiving address must be within 50 miles of the airport.  His home, unfortunately, is 55 miles from the airport.  And there you have it - the Unfortunatelys have it over the Luckilys,  two to one.

Normally what I try to do is to help agitated people go over options - usually when I'm agitated I'm not thinking clearly and I overlook obvious solutions to my problems.  My friend is smart and wise, two qualities with which I have only a passing knowledge, and I was not able to uncover a solution that he hadn't already considered.

I flashed back to Shorty picking me up at The Old City airport at 2 AM, on short notice, in a driving rainstorm, providing me with a bag of healthy snacks, before delivering me to my sister's house, far, far out of his way.  He offered to do this, graciously, under no obligation and no duress, and I thankfully accepted.  I didn't beg and he didn't offer anything that he wasn't comfortable offering.  I would have bore him no ill will if he hadn't picked up the phone.  It was ridiculously kind, but kind in a way I've come to expect from my Program friends.

"I'll pick you up if you can't figure out a solution," I said to my Cuba friend.

He laughed.  "I didn't call to ask for a ride," he protested.

"You didn't ask for a ride," I pointed out.  "I offered one.  Look - keep trying to find a simpler solution but if nothing works out I've got your back."

I hope what this does is take the stress and the pressure off of the problem.  Maybe this is one of those cases where a solution to the problem is going to present itself eventually, with a little time and patience, and I hope it does, frankly, because I don't want to drive somewhere in the middle of the night to pick this SOB up.  But if not, he's got a solution.

Seek god - serve others.