Just after 10:00
am this morning I received a phone call inquiring my presence for a presidency
meeting with the Relief Society. I figured I’d get there by 10:15. The biggest slow down is the speed limit into
town. Well, normally that’s the biggest
slow.
This morning
there were obstacles.
First
obstacle – not so much my obstacle as for others moving headed west – or even
north. There was a dog in the road –
either a Husky or German Sheppard – something along that line. He was wearing a collar and standing in the
road. He wasn’t a threat. His presence actually reminded me of Odie form the comic strip Garfield. I thought that he (or she) could get hurt
and needed to move out of the way.
I suppose I
could have pulled over and crossed over to it to guide it where? What would I have done with the dog? I could have checked the tag in search for a
phone number. I had seen the dog before
but I don’t know where.
I was
relieved to see another had pulled over to assist.
For a brief
moment I had different thoughts go through my head – both of which I think I
have posted before. One was about a test
given at the University of Utah Institute students – only they hadn’t been
given the details of the test. All of
those who arrived to class on time had failed the test.
I wasn’t a
student there and so this is only hearsay – but the instructor (who’s class I
had taken) said that there had been several scenarios set up throughout the
campus eg. a child with a broken bicycle, a student dropping a stack of books,
a man falling . . . and if one had stopped to assist that person of course
would be late for class. The lesson was seeing an individual as more
important than a grade. So I felt I had
failed not only the dog but passing life’s test.
Next obstacle:
There was a utility vehicle ahead on the road I meant to take but turned on the
street to see a man putting up a sign. I
did not see what it said – but when I saw two or three police cars ahead I
decided to turn around and take the road I had initially thought to take.
The utility
truck was gone. Hooray! I took an unfamiliar road toward my
destination – only to find the same utility truck blocking my path at the end
of the road.
I looked over
toward the middle school and could see a fire truck and several more police
cars. That was definitely cause for
concern. I waited for the man to put up
yet another sign before he returned to his truck and moved out of the way. I didn’t know what was happening at the
middle school. The sign the man had put up indicated that the road was closed.
When I
arrived at the final street where the church is, I saw a truck had backed into
a driveway, but not all the way. The cab
was in the middle of the road. There was
enough room to go around it. Two guys were coming towards it and I looked to
seek approval to move around and hoped that both would know I was there.
I finally
made it to the church! I had prepared a
different thought than the one I had given.
I shared my experience and another that came to mind. Only it was not my personal experience. Hearsay again. But I had no reason to doubt.
I had been
giving a lesson in primary several years ago (probably 1996 or 1997) when one
of my students (a boy who had recently moved to our ward from Oklahoma) related
the following:
He said he had a primary teacher
who worked for the federal building who was already running late for work when
she encountered car problems – weather a flat tire or stalled engine, I do not
know. She was still stranded on the
freeway when the bomb went off here.
Often we are faced with obstacles
that may seem inconvenient at the time but in the end may work for our good and
turn out to be a blessing in the long run - and maybe that’s the thought I was
supposed to give as opposed to the one I had prepared.
When I returned home I think I saw that
same dog – but in a different area. I
also saw some students from the junior high.
They had missed whatever it was and might not even be aware. It turns out that the kids were not even in
school today as there is a student teacher conference later this afternoon and
the instructors were preparing for that.
According to facebook there had
been a report of someone burning weeds and somehow it made its way to the
school. Apparently the conference is cancelled
but school will start tomorrow as planned.
So glad it was not a shooting.
Still makes me wonder why there were so many police cars at the
scene. I didn’t think Myrtle Creek had
that many and wondered if some were from neighboring towns.
