6 – Sliding into Home – A Well-Lit Path

The image of an 1800s ballplayer from the NAABP rounding the bags came to the “mind’s eye” last night. The throw is coming to the plate, horribly accurate, from way out in right field – that guy’s got an arm! – so the runner, well advanced down the third base line, hits the dirt to avoid the throw. There is a cloud of dust near home plate. It’s as close as it gets: did the catcher make the play? Did the runner score?

At six days before travel, the question with the dust hangs in the air, and it’s not entirely clear how the play will turn out. I am awaiting quotes on shipping our belongings overseas, selection of a carrier, and the subsequent paperwork; the sale of a car, the repair of another, the delivery a previously misdirected set of maps for my GPS (so I might rent a car and visit my daughter while she is in France), two bike boxes and a set of fenders from the local bike shop (to bring our principal mode of transportation with us), and … a ride to the airport.

If that seems a lot to you, then congratulations, you have arranged your life humanely. I, at the moment, have arranged life so that I can simultaneously impress myself with my Persistence (or: What I Can Get Done) and shake my head at how I get myself into these exciting situations. “You go, boy! (When will he just settle down, eh, Martha?)”

I have become expert at navigating delayed gratification, taking pleasure along the way as Objects of Esteem leave my possession and end up in the hands of folks that can really use them. Some household items traveled west, some south, some sold cheap in this area, nearly all of them heart-warming transactions:

Here’s the 7-yr-old soccer player, decked out in his indoor gear, helping load up a twin futon he’ll tuck like a new nest into his room.
Here’s the keyboard sold for a song to a woman beginning her elementary music education program, who will teach grade school kids.
The snowshoes a present for her fiancée, living north in the New Hampshire snow belt.
A dabbler’s tools and equipment into the hands of friends who will repair and create wood-art on a daily basis.
The most comfortable (and least portable) sleeper couch as first furniture in a young family’s attic renovation…

And so on. That process has been going on for months, a material diet, and the weight of me has gone down and down, the burden of lugging all this stuff around reduced, my feet feeling ever lighter and more dance-worthy.

The plate umpire is heading over to the cameras for an instant replay. The suspense is palpable! Will the fans in the stands cheer? Will they sigh?