Bumper Bowling

If only there were bumpers in life

We took the kids bumper bowling today with the homeschool group. They give us this great rate and we can bowl two strings of bumper bowling for $5 a kid. It’s great. I bowl everytime. I love bowling.

This bumper bowling got me thinking. If only life had bumpers. If life had bumpers, John would get diagnosed with a terminal illness and then bounce back with some super treatment, some miracle and we would all sigh from relief like we did when Nora threw that wild ball down the lane and it bounced back to be a strike. Big win for John, he lives, gets to go back to the post office and live out his days.

If life had bumpers Colleen would get diagnosed with autism and then suddenly bounce back, regain all language skills, move out, go to college, get married, have children.

If life had bumpers Gary would fall on his face through several years of gigs and the suddenly bounce back, get discovered, play in front of huge audiences and be recognized for his talent.

If life had bumpers I would stumble through life aimlessly falling all over myself from confusion and then suddenly know what it is I am supposed to be doing and do it. That would be cool, like the wild ball that Jonah threw that took about twenty minutes to get down the lane and then knocked nine balls down!

Nine balls!

Jonah didn’t care because he had of course moved on to the arcade part of the bowling alley and Nora was busy looking for food. Sadie bowled on like a champ and I watched on like this wild observer.

I wish I was more of a doer.

I wish I couldn’t relate to my teen clients, always dreaming of the next big thing, the bumper that will bounce me back to reality, to fun, to cool.

Tonight Gary is playing locally and I am here. I didn’t even try to get out to see him.

That concerns me.