End of the Line

 

                                                                The never-ending line.

The cartoon strips above can be enlarged.

There are many versions of our struggle to continue. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Narrator: Throughout the millenia of human history, religions have arisen from the divine to the diabolical. Their tenets have offered hope, meaning, and guidance to the faithful.


Luna Pedestrian 2: But, what if waiting in this line has no meaning? What if it's all for naught?


Queue Church Priest: Lift up your head and be of good cheer, neighbor. For I say unto you that we are all in this line together, and even as we speak, souls at the head of the queue are being blessed by attendance at the Great Bar of Judgement and License Renewal!


Sign: Stay the Course


Luna Pedestrian 2: But the line is so long! How much longer do we have to wait?


Narrator: Not many license agencies can boast lines long enough to spawn religions. Count your blessings, fair reader.


Sign: Queue-Jumping is a SIN


Queue Church Priest: Some wait longer than others, and some do not stay the course.


Luna Pedestrian 2: You mean they get out of LINE?


Queue Church Priest: They do. And their places are lost forever. They may repent, however, and return to the end of the line.


Queue Church Priest: From such we learn the importance of staying on the straight and narrow queue. Those who go astray may still be saved, but their path back is longer and more arduous than that of the righteous!


Sign: No butts No cuts No coconuts


Queue Church Priest: And now, my child, I think you should learn of the prophecy of the chosen ones. We have been taught that someday there will be a great battle, and that afterward gleaming saviors will bring us all to the Bar of Judgement and License Renewal at once.


Sign: Placard courtesy of "Signs of the Times"


Luna Pedestrian 2: But when will this happen? How long must we wait for these saviors?


Queue Church Priest: I doubt they will come in my lifetime, but still I keep the faith.


Sign: The end is near.


Shep: Awright, people, listen up! The line is being shunted that way. We'll get you all cleared out in a few hours, but you've gotta move.


Queue Church Priest: Oh, rapture! I can see people receiving licenses even now!


Luna Pedestrian 2: Well, thanks for the nice lecture. I'll be moving along now, old man.


Sign: This space for rent


Narrator: Some religions last longer than others.

I heard this story long ago but was reminded of it when watching the lines and lines of people going to the San Diego Comic Festival.  Want to talk about lines? Standing in line with anime characters Luna, Artemis or Himawari, movie characters Groot, and Thor is always interesting, but I feel underdressed. Thor was nice, though. Let me hold his hammer.

Time with End

BikeHikeSafari

Boxes still surround us.  Books from boxes topple from bookcases.  This all seems unending, moving and unpacking.  Then, how about finding space in which to place our treasures? This is all unending, a chore that we did not see at the beginning of escrow.

This brings up the subject of “unending”.  Thinking over the years, ghosts of “unending” appear to nag and torment. In the theme of “unending” lies a list, an “unending” list about those ghosts:

Replacing an engine, discovering missing parts and tools, with more auto parts littering the floor.  Oh, sure, friendly veteran sang a story about an old war injury prevented him from using manual shift, so that's why there are only 75,000 miles on the speedometer.  You drive classic car home, finding smoke and clanks following you. Not such a good deal, and when online sites send replacement parts, there is always a screw short.

Being in labor for hour after hour definitely makes the list. (45 hours? Followed by C-Section.) After ten hours, just when you beg for an epidural, An army nurse briskly tells you that it is too late to give one.  

Flights to the other side of the world.  Australia?  South Africa? Switzerland?  You find yourself in cheap seats, middle seat packed in, next to someone who hasn't taken a bath in the last year.

oh so true

Playground duty. You are the only teacher with 300 children racing around an one acre playground.  You clutch a clipboard under one arm and grip the teacher whistle in  a tightly clenched fist.  

Waiting for Santa. You are 6 years old and this night is one wished for all year. Tick, Tick, Tick...eyes want to shut but you won't let them...tick, tick, tick...

Picking strawberries day after day after day. No joy after the fifth day. Mid-May arrives with garden full of red berries peeking from green leaves.  First day is like discovering rubies, sweet rubies. Leads onto the second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day....Enough already.  This won't ever end.

Waiting in an emergency room, filled with sneezing and coughing. You have a brain-splitting migraine and your blood pressure is 177/85.  With your head dropping to your knees and a throw-up bowl beneath, you watch as a child with sinusitis(#45) is called in.  You are #62.  You won't live to see the end of this day. 

Driving through Death Valley in summer. (Been there, done that) Long straight road over flat desolate land, you see in distance, heat waves fooling you to think it is water.  It is 121 degrees and you watch your car's gas light like a hawk.

Standing in the line at DMV, until legs are shaking, growing light-headed. Husband is home, too sick to go into the line from hell to transfer registration.  You are three months pregnant, and hours pass.  At the third hour, you tell the kind lady behind you that you are pregnant and wonder if...then you open your eyes as you lie on the floor.  Registration was expedited. 

Shopping on the day after Christmas and you find there are no bargains worth this amount of physical abuse.

YouTube has numerous of Curling videos

Being forced to watch “curling” during the Winter Olympics. Your family is Nordic, and cheer for some team.  Crushed between Olaf and Sven, you decide to develop a tummy-bug, staying in the bathroom.

Re-modeling a bathroom and/or kitchen the week before company arrives--this is your spouse's idea.  Tearing out the sink and cabinet reveal rot and mold.  Company will be staying in the hotel with you, as your entire house is being examined and treated.

Sitting in rush hour traffic on the Friday of a four-day weekend. A black juiced up muscle car is shaking with the bass turned up high.  You have windows rolled up, and yet you are vibrating as well.

Most or all of this involve unending waiting…and more waiting…including walls of boxes lined up like heavy soldiers.

 What about you?  Can you add to this list your own unending events?