If you hear a mysterious and unusual sound at sunset today, it could be yet another of 2020's many unexpected COVID twists ...
As I was driving Park to cardiac rehab this past week, he laughed and said. "So this is what a Sunrise looks like?" We leave the house pretty early to ensure he is at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ by 7:55 AM to get in to the rehab area right when the doors open for his hour appointment.
There are 2 reasons for leaving so early: 1.) so he is the first person in when all equipment is sparkling clean (COVID, you know) and 2.) so that we can get home before his first conference call at 10 AM every morning and be fresh and ready to go. Not stressed by commuting.
Evidence that the COVID lock-down is lessening is the increased rush hour traffic. Most schools in the Valley are not in 'live' sessions but are remote and virtual and the snow birds are not even here yet, but we are reminded that Phoenix, AZ IS the 5th most populous city in the United States every Tuesday and Thursday when we are on the road at 7:15 AM.
I drive in the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane so that we can get there in half the amount of time if he were driving alone and not using HOV ... and so that he can drink his first cup of coffee and actually wake up before rehab! He has never been the early - or easy - riser. Again, keeping in line with the meaning behind our company logo: Duality. I AM the Sun and he IS the Moon.
I started singing "Sunrise, Sunset ... Sunrise, Sunset" Sunrise, Sunset. Sunrise, Sunset. Swiftly fly the years ... one season following another ... laden with happiness and tears. The song still tugs at every one of my heartstrings ... and Park's rebuilt ones too.
I got Park two tickets for Arizona Broadway Theatre's production of Fiddler On The Roof as a Valentine's gift, six months after we were married. From none other than Truly, Yours, Mrs. Shawn E. Anderson. (He just loves the traditional Mr. and Mrs., Husband and Wife terms).
Park and I got married when he was 53. Every card for every occasion I get for him, I ensure that it says To My HUSBAND. He just loves it. I have to search "low to high" for the right card. I cannot buy a card that says to The Man of of my Dreams...not if it doesn't have the word HUSBAND too, it could be the perfect card otherwise, but I have to move along in my search, if there's no 'HUSBAND'.
The Broadway curtain for Fiddler On The Roof, was raised in 1964. I was not even born yet. Park was 3. At the opening of the first song "Tradition" Tevye states: “Without tradition, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof." The key, underlying, theme is that it is crucial to be reliant on tradition and faith in times of change and turbulence.
This is also the theme that Park and I chose to adapt to our own lives. We enacted our "tradition" plan two years before the turbulence and change of the COVID global pandemic. We went 1950's style. We made the decision for me to quit the corporate recruiting roles that sucked up so much of my time, and not to mention my soul. We were 2 rats on our separate wheels not moving forward at all...certainly not winning any race.
As a TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) Park and I decided that he would work FT for pay and benefits and I would do all the rest to take care of the Home and Family. Putting this traditional 'Simple is Good' plan into place allowed for he and I to focus our evenings and weekends on our calling, A432 Life! We Simply paved the way for the 'Complex' to get accomplished.
Park and I are in the "Afternoon" years of our lives, Not the Sunrise or Sunset years, and we needed to plan accordingly to make hay while that sun is shining during the Afternoon. Which is fortunately a lot here in sunny Phoenix, AZ. It is almost like we were in training for a pandemic and lock down instinctively. Eating all meals in, turning down social invitations to work on A432 initiatives on the evenings and weekends. As Carl Jung stated: "you are what you do, not what you say you will do".
This is yet another one of my favorite quotes by Carl Jung:
But we cannot live the Afternoon of life according to the programme of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie. ~Carl Jung,
Park was first chair violin back in his school days. This is how he rolls ... prepared, practiced, ready ... We feel truly blessed that we enacted and executed the plan that we did two years ago.
Our 1950's Simple lifestyle is what propelled us forward to the future. It's not Park's style to be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof "trying to scratch out a pleasant simple tune without breaking his neck."
Until next week ...
Shawn