07.27.09
Wisdom Of The Waves
Comedy Around The World today goes to Virginia Beach on a family vacation.
After many hours driving in our tan station wagon from Pennsylvania to Virginia Beach, my family was enlightened. We had listened to hundreds of repetitions of Billy Joel’s two albums on 8 track (it was a double album). We could recite verbatim “My Life,” “Italian Restaurant,” and “Only The Good Die Young.” But what we really wanted to do was see the beach. Oh sure, we love Erie, but we wanted a change of scenery.
We took our rafts and mats and flotation devices and frolicked in the waves. Suddenly, a huge wave started rolling towards us. My parents and brothers and sister were all scared for me, “Hold your breath, because you’re going to go under water when this wave hits!” They knew I was the fragile and sickly one. (In fact my brother’s nickname for me was “skinny-on-the-beach.” I wouldn’t mind having that nickname now, but back then it meant I was defenseless. Weak. Unable to conquer the forces of nature that lay in the ocean.)
I knew I was a gonner. Just as I knew I probably spelled gonner wrong when I typed it. The only strategy I had available to me was to surrender to the wisdom of the waves. In essence, I gave up; I knew there was no fighting the ocean. If I drowned, at least I would drown knowing all the lyrics to Billy Joel’s two newest albums.
As the wave hit, a strange thing happened. I wasn’t under water. The wave hadn’t done anything to me. But everyone else went under. And they were surprised!
Their strong will, fear and determination to fight or at least avoid the wave hadn’t worked. Their tack operated just like perfectionism does in our daily lives. Our strong will sometimes tries to force solutions where the better course would be to surrender to the wave of the moment.
