VIII. Another Visit to the Ice Cream Stand

VIII. Another visit to the Ice Cream Stand

 A few months later the family was once again at the Ice Cream Stand and once again they were out of Hobblestone’s favorite flavor. Once again, the family gasped. Hobblestone, however, had learned his lesson from The Cat much to everyone’s delight and surprise.

What happened? I’ll tell you what happened a little later. But first, I want to point out that Aunt Millificent didn’t know just how much the episode with The Cat had meant to Hobblestone, and what it had taught him.  

Isn’t that true so often? We set something in motion and the process continues without us even being involved in it. It’s like a gardener planting seeds which grow up to be flowers while her back is turned. Jesus once said something about a farmer sowing seeds which then grew while he was off doing something else—sleeping, probably, because sowing seed is hard work. And by the way, weeds grow the same way so we have to be careful.That brings us to a couple of Rules: 

Rule # 12: Sometimes you’re sowing seeds and you’re not even aware of it. 

Rule # 18: Be careful when you’re sowing seeds; you never know what they’ll grow up to become. 

                You might be wondering why the rule numbers are skipping around all of a sudden.  Well, there’s a reason for it. It’s happening to demonstrate that most of the time, life isn’t linear. Things skip around, whirl around, double back on themselves, reappear, get lost on other bridges and some times veer off into the blogosphere . 

 We’d like to think that everything moves along one step at a time (like Euclidean geometry), but let’s face it: you can’t study English literature that way, you can’t learn to play basketball that way, and you certainly can’t go about learning more about yourself in such an organized fashion.

  Rule # 11: Life isn’t linear.

                 Now you might dispute this, and you’re certainly entitled to. But remember Rule # 6 (back when the rules were in order). Look back at it if you need to, and then think about it for a while before we go back to the Ice Cream Stand to find out how Hobblestone had crossed his No More Tantrums Bridge. (By the way, have you crossed yours yet? If not, maybe you can learn from The Cat as well. 

                Here are a few things you don’t need to be thinking about, by the way: 1. Math anxiety.  2. Farm subsidies.  3. The difference between sine and cosine.