Enjoy your good fortune

We had a lovely, late autumn this year, but the pre-Thanksgiving storm followed this week by another one, mark the onslaught of winter. The glorious three day sunny spells have gone on a trip down under. I usually refrain from predicting the weather, as there is nothing anyone can do about it to influence it one way or another.

The water level at my house is measured, not in depth, but at the lake edge as it approaches my north boat hoist post. The slope is quite gentle, so that a two or three inch change in the lake level can translate into a twelve to eighteen inch linear change which extends the lake across the shore toward the boat hoist. It is a simple concept that requires lots of words, but it is easily described with a few simple hand gestures.

There are many pieces of information that are clearly expressed with the placement of a hand or gesture, but can be quite complex and not too clear in a written description.

If someone is offended by a gesture, you can apologize and say that was not what you intended to convey. It is very hard to talk your way out of some offense laid out in black and white.

This is the reason that written pronouncements by wily old politicians usually have several escape paths built in, in case something was quite damning as originally written.

If you are making verbal pronouncements and find yourself eating a bowl full of crow because of careless conversation, it will soon make you more careful.

There are some who store up good sayings for such emergencies. Falling back on malapropisms can help deal with these circumstances.

Conversations can be very enjoyable and accomplish lots of things efficiently. However, there are some discussions that take a bad curve and leave you fetched up on the shore a long way from home port.

In 60 years of dealing with a lot of verbal communication, I have ended at the bottom of some pits with no escape or ability to smooth over something that came out really wrong.

As an old salesman, when you find yourself in the pit, just strike your tent, throw all your stuff in the wagon, hitch up the mule team, and slip out of town on the back road.

Someday, by some happenstance, you may end up with a bucket of good luck and you’ll come back into town on a triumphant rig, being greeted by one and all.

Just enjoy the good fortune and tell everyone how happy you are to be back in business in their neighborhood. The important thing is not to shoot off your mouth about misfortune.

Be sure to leave an opening to slip back into town on a sunny day with a good story. A salesman always tries to keep a key to the gate for future explorations.