OFF THE PAGE WITH RIVER JORDAN

OFF THE PAGE WITH RIVER JORDAN

Signs

On a book tour for Praying for Strangers: An Adventure of the Human Spirit I encountered a few unexpected turns in the road. I had flown into Portland and had a lovely event at Powell's Books and then traveled by rental car the next day to the beautiful city of Bend. What I hadn't expected to see en route was Mt. Hood looming ahead of me covered in snow. What I had not expected was the flashing red signs from the Department of Transportation that said, "Warning! Winter Driving Conditions Ahead!" followed by a really, sweet suggestion that now would be a good time to pull over and put on snow chains.

I didn't have snow chains in the rental car. Besides the fact that I'm a flatlander from the Gulf Coast of Florida who can drive blindfolded through a gator swamp at midnight (which might explain why I just loved the novel Swamplandia - follow the NY Times review link here. ) but driving in snow - forgetaboutit! But here I was with a reading and signing at my own book event at a bookstore on the schedule. I had to get to Bend and going over Mt. Hood seemed to be the only way to get there. As the snowplow cleared the road of last nights ‘dumping' as the ski lift girl called it, I ordered a double espresso to steady my nerves. "Flip-flops" I told her. "I left my boots and packed flip-flops."

A much caffeinated and rock-n-rolled writer via Sirius satellite later, I rose to a crest in the Oregon outback where a road sign declared Warning! Abrupt Edge Ahead! I wanted to pull over and snap a shot of that sign but everything really was an abrupt edge and there wasn't room. What there was room for in those following hours was time and space for me to ponder and consider the moments in life where the unexpected assails us. It happens to most of us at some time. A real life attack that is usually right out of the blue. It can be as mundane as a health check-up where concerns arise, or as public and heart-wrenching as Sandra Bullock's love-life in past years. These surprises don't seem to come with warnings. There isn't an alarm tone on our calendars that says, "Slow down and stand strong as just ahead there is . . . " - and from there we can fill in the blank to read: challenging medical report, betrayal by a loved one, job loss or the unexpected death of a friend. I've experienced every single one of those and each of them caught me by surprise. People tell me that sometimes even a surprise success can trip us up; find us on edges we never imagined possible. (That one I'll have to take their word for.)

Once upon a time and many moons ago my youngest son was skiing on Taos Mountain. Unknown to his mother he had taken a ride up to one of the larger slopes. He was only in Kindergarten and although an agile athlete and promising skier he had no business being as far up on as he was. He discovered a very literal abrupt edge and skied right over the side of the mountain. Thankfully, he also managed to grab a tree limb on his way over the mountain and he hung on. For a long time. For what most likely seemed to those little hands like an eternity but eventually a couple of expert skiers caught sight of his jacket in the tree limb and managed to rescue him and get him down the mountain. Driving through those open skies and looking off into the high desert of Oregon I thought about what our options are when we hit those unexpected places in life. Man for eons has desired a crystal ball of sorts, for something, someone to light the way into the future. To please at least warn us of what is to come so that we can manage at best to avoid or steel ourselves to heartbreak and pain. But life is as bittersweet as it gets. It's always going to have corners for us to turn and places where holding on to the thing we find closest at hand is what we've got to do. Be it our faith, the hand of a friend, or the words that we write to keep us sane. We continue.

I love the scene with Harrison Ford's character Rick Deckard in Blade Runner when he falls over the edge of the rooftop and finds himself hanging on for dear life by only a few fingers. That's exactly where I've felt I've been in life. Like my son hanging on in that tree, like Rick Deckard hanging on by a thread, and nothing ever seemed to be leading up to those moments. They were just upon me with a startling quickness.

What I have realized in the course of the past few years as I've offered silent prayers for strangers who crossed my path was that we all have moments, days, years that we need to be rescued. And we all have those moments where we have this incredible opportunity in the midst of our ordinary daily routine to effectively be someone's hero. It's the everyday person who speaks a soft word of encouragement just in time that lifts us to a place where we may - well, survive. Because some days, just continuing to breathe, to get out of the bed, to put one foot in front of the other is a major victory.

I've had those moments, the ones where everyday heroes delivered me. One was where a nurse silently brushed my hair away from my face while I lay exhausted, alone, miles from home, and shivering after giving birth. That spirit of kindness and compassion was never forgotten. That same compassion comes to mind when I remember a friend's mother opening her door to me at midnight where she found me in tears and wordlessly held open her arms. Those moments of tender connection helped me step away from the ledge, so to speak. And while life didn't exactly get easier, it became possible to navigate the circumstances that had knocked the wind out of me. There are High Holy Weeks, and day's such as Christmas and the National Day of Prayer that tend to turn our thoughts a little more outward towards our fellow man and the state of the world. All wonderful when Peace abounds I say. But much more comforting, lasting, and real, when the rubber meets the road of our human condition and we meet each other in the process.

Abrupt Edges? They happen but thankfully so does survival from our darkest days. And while we may honestly never look back and laugh at what we experienced, we can look into the future certain that life continues in spite of us and because of us. Together, we shall move forward if not fearlessly then at least with a little less trepidation and a whole lot more humanity.