There was a class I took in college that offered redemption. I am not talking about spiritual sanctity, either. I mean if anyone failed a test the prof would allow you to take it again. There would be a few sacrificial points but if you were digging yourself out of a D it gave you a place to shimmy up. While I never needed the option, I liked that it existed.
I am no longer enrolled in higher, lower or medium education. Twenty years was my limit and I am left to the school of hard knocks. Yet I notice the not so subtle repetition reminiscent of elementary days. Many of the interactions I find myself in happen with annoying regularity.
Last year we were invited to an event an hour away and since John was providing special music he wanted to be early. That meant a one o'clock departure. I was finishing up laundry and writing a card to accompany the gift, wondering why he did not walk in the door. Fifteen minutes before one he came smiling from a brunch with friends.
"Where have you been??? You told me you wanted to leave at one, " I barked. His smile evaporated.
"I decided it would be ok to leave at 1:15." He looked like a kid sent to the principal.
"Did you have fun at the breakfast?" I said more as a band aid to my rudeness than actual interest. I had after all skipped the yummy croissants to get ready.
He changed and we arrived in plenty of time, though the drive was less chatty than it might have been had I edited my welcome.
If there had been an instructor leaning over that interchange I think my grade would have rhymed with Jeff. But I feel certain there will be another opportunity to get it right in the very near future.
