“The wisest men follow their own direction.” –
Euripides
As I get older, I have a harder time following directions received from others.
And it’s not working out for me.
If I buy something in a box that claims it can be assembled in five easy steps,
I think, “How can I go wrong?” I throw away the enclosed directions and
get busy with my construction work. Hours later, I am totally baffled and
frustrated. I convince myself I didn’t really want this stupid device anyway,
and I hide my mess from Sherry before she gets home.
Speaking of Sherry, my wife is an expert at giving me directions to clean
things up around our property. She has never approved of shortcuts when it
comes to completing menial tasks. I excel at such strategies. The end result is,
while I finish watching a Saturday football game on TV, Sherry retraces my
completed jobs and actually picks up the tiny pinecones and twigs no one will
notice anyway.
The directions I am least likely to follow come in the mail from insurance
companies. There is always another series of questions they want me to
answer. I attempt to respond in clever, cryptic ways that may entertain whoever
opens all those questionnaires. The companies’ stern follow-up letters let me
know I have lost my coverage and I’m not as funny as I had imagined.
Whoever Euripides was, he may not have been too wise.