Tuesday, March 18, 2003
GROUNDED FOR LIFE
When I was a kid, I really got in trouble one time. My parents decided to try a new method and let me choose how long I would be grounded. I knew I had made a big mistake and felt the need to punish myself for it so I said, "27 days!" For a kid, that's a life sentence, an eternity. Even 10 days into it, my mom felt bad for me and said I didn't have to serve my entire self-imposed sentence. But I did it. All 27 days. Why? Because I did the crime and now I had to serve the time.
And now that I am older, I still have a little bit of that thought process in me, no matter how stupid people think that is. Since my car is going to be in the shop for at least two weeks and I will be carless next week, I'm forced to bum rides off my co-workers or take the bus. Yes, the bus ride is going to take about twice as long. And yes, going with my co-workers will force me to get up much earlier so that I don't make them late. But this inconvenience is minor to the punishment I almost feel like I deserve for not driving more carefully last Thursday night.
Dumb? Stupid? Maybe. But this is the only way I know how to live my life so that I can look at myself in the mirror.
I guess you could say I'm "grounded for life."
When I was a kid, I really got in trouble one time. My parents decided to try a new method and let me choose how long I would be grounded. I knew I had made a big mistake and felt the need to punish myself for it so I said, "27 days!" For a kid, that's a life sentence, an eternity. Even 10 days into it, my mom felt bad for me and said I didn't have to serve my entire self-imposed sentence. But I did it. All 27 days. Why? Because I did the crime and now I had to serve the time.
And now that I am older, I still have a little bit of that thought process in me, no matter how stupid people think that is. Since my car is going to be in the shop for at least two weeks and I will be carless next week, I'm forced to bum rides off my co-workers or take the bus. Yes, the bus ride is going to take about twice as long. And yes, going with my co-workers will force me to get up much earlier so that I don't make them late. But this inconvenience is minor to the punishment I almost feel like I deserve for not driving more carefully last Thursday night.
Dumb? Stupid? Maybe. But this is the only way I know how to live my life so that I can look at myself in the mirror.
I guess you could say I'm "grounded for life."
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