Simplicity and Perspective

Chances are that, if you know me, you've long known or have henceforth ascertained that I am not the simplest, nor the most low-maintenance of people.

I don't mean to say that I'm some reality television monster worthy of ridicule, but I have far more things than I need (regardless of category...).  But sometimes life gets thrown into perspective.

At home, our next door neighbor's one daughter in law is in the process of recovering from an addiction to painkillers.  It's not been the easiest of processes - are these things ever easy? - but my mother has spent some time talking with her and being something of an amateur support structure.

Today, in a simple way, I took to heart one of those sort of lessons we only call to mind on Thanksgiving:  that no matter where we are in our lives, some people have it so, so much harder.

There was a knock at the door and the young woman was asking if my mom was around to talk to.  Mom was, at that moment, in the midst of washing her hair.  All this woman needed was a ride to her Narcotics Anonymous meeting at a local counseling center.  Since all I was doing was organizing dishes to wash, I offered myself as driver and threw on my coat.

On the less than three mile ride, she recounted to me how two of her siblings and her mother abuse drugs.  The impetus that pushed her to seek help and get clean was not wanting someone to have to tell her two nieces, ones she'd had a hand in raising, that she was dead of an overdose.

You see, she's now 88 days clean, no small feat even to me, someone with no experience of crippling addiction.   

All it took was ten minutes out of my day (damned stop lights and slow drivers...) to help someone whose goal is making sure she can live her life.  This isn't a matter of education, of buying the fanciest car, the newest clothes... no, this is a fight for survival against the odds.  

Suddenly, finding the dream career seemed a little less pressing.  Wondering about the move and all that goes with it faded, if just for a short time.  What mattered was what I could do - giving someone a ride - and that was enough.