Count down counters

Such an interesting thing, count down counters. What's the point of them? I used to think about the relief I'd feel when a certain phase of my life would be over. In high school, that relief was real, relevant, and guaranteed -- each count down to Christmas break, summer break, end of semester and my time with a disliked teacher, and later on the countdown to graduation.

The thing is, as I've moved through life I've found that few count downs tell the truth. A count down to a due date for pregnancy is a joke, sometimes even if you're getting a c-section. I've managed to fudge every single due date I've had, even the planned ones. Then we had count downs to when Man would graduate college. None of them came to fruition. We've had countdowns to when we'd be moving only to have the date moved, sometimes at the last minute. We've had situations we didn't want to end or perpetuate but with no hope (or dread) of a real count down to let us know when to expect the change. We had a count down for how long we'd spend in our current location but (surprise!) it's been set back anywhere from 3 to 9 months, or maybe even longer.

I've looked with fascination upon countdowns for one friend who expected to come home from Iraq on a given day. The final minutes of his online counter came and went, and he was still there. My brother has a counter until his graduation (congrats, Romeo!!) but then he goes on to graduate school this fall (congrats, again, for getting in with flying colors!!) Someone else I know was engaged and there was a tentative countdown until marriage but that date was pushed back a couple of times until those plans simply evaporated.

I'm so impressed by people who have the raw determination to establish a count down and then make sure that it's honored. Of course there are some that are inexorable: New Year's Eve , the count down until Christmas morning, the time that ticks by when you're completing a test; or, in other words, the passage of time itself. (good luck trying to stall that one, unless you're Hiro Nakamura or maybe you'd give it a try if you were Tesla)

I have faith in the fact that those countdowns will eventually be realized. That passage of time, with a beginning and and end, will be fulfilled and time will still flow along afterward, to our relief and occasionally our chagrin. However, whatever has been accomplished during that scheduled allotment usually makes me smile. Did we do it this time? What stopped us or helped us along? Movies like to drag it out a bit, you know the ticking bomb that has one or two seconds left before detonating before Our Hero stops it. In truth, a perfect schedule we create for ourselves whether measured by days or years isn't terribly realistic. After all, depending on a perfect schedule means that you have to depend on the consistency and dependability of our fellow man. And I have yet to meet any mortal upon whom I'd depend to that degree.

Maybe what I'm learning is patience. Maybe what I'm learning is that a goal is not an end. Maybe I'm learning that relief is not all it's cracked up to be since it is inevitably followed by one thing or another that soils it after too short a time.

Anne Marie made a really good point in a recent blog entry. I'm sure I've heard a wise saying that ended up meaning "the journey is more important than the goal". Not that the goal or its accomplishment is insignificant. But it's all too easy to let the journey render the accomplishment of the goal a mere Pyrrhic victory.

And no one wants that.

So huzzah for today and what it may bring, and where it may lead us in the future.

(why do I type this post? because I need the reminding, too. Things 1 and 2 are still sick, I'm sleep deprived, and I need to get off my rear end and enjoy my day. it's gorgeous outside)