Never Say Never
Copyright 2006 by Suzy Wurtz
A columnist buddy of mine in New
Hampshire recently wrote a piece about the high cost of bottled water. It
reminded me of a scene from my past. In the 1970’s, I took a Greyhound bus on
spring break to visit my friend in Las Vegas. In her kitchen, she had a 5-gallon
water dispenser. When I attempted to get a drink of water from the tap, she
directed me to the bottled water because, she explained, the local water was
nearly undrinkable. When in Rome, do as the Romans. When in Vegas, I drank from
the preferred spigot. But I declared in that kitchen, “I will NEVER pay for
water!”
Around this same time, at a college party in Lincoln,
Nebraska, the host showed us a television station from Atlanta, called WTBS.
We were amazed! Though we could get local UHF stations, there were only three
national networks. Getting a station from that far away was a technological
miracle. Then someone explained about the new-fangled product called “cable TV”
which is how this set was hooked up to the Georgia station. I was surprised to
find that cable TV wasn’t free. “Not me,” I exclaimed. “I will NEVER pay for
television!”
Always a keen observer of humanity, I remember seeing many
plump, “middle aged” women when I was young. From my size 7 jeans and twenty-ish
sensibilities, I declaimed, “I will NEVER gain weight like that!” and “I will
NEVER wear elastic waist pants!”
For the first twenty-four years of life, I endured harsh
Nebraska winters. After college, I moved south to Arkansas for a few years, then
spent ten years in New York City. Weather life was much easier in these other
regions. From the tar beach (the roof on my NYC apartment building) I
proclaimed, “I will NEVER again live in a place with severe winters.”
At one point in my life, I thought I would stay in the Big
Apple forever. However, when my husband asked me to marry him, I agreed to move
because he lived Minneapolis, a large metropolitan area. “But I would NEVER
move if you lived in a small town,” I said emphatically in my acceptance speech.
Oh wait.
I just shoveled heavy snow from the front steps of our house
in a town of 800 people in rural Minnesota. I needed the exercise because the
elastic waistband of my pants is stretching. Afterwards, I got a bottle of
water from the refrigerator and watched CNN Headline News.
The life lesson I’ve learned, of course, is never say
“never.” I’ve found terrific substitute words like: rarely, seldom, and
infrequently. Unlike “never,” these are words that I’ve never had to eat. Or
rather, these words I’ve seldom had to eat. I’ve also learned that in dealing
with other people, it’s a good plan to stay away from “never,” as in, “You never
do the dishes,” or “You never listen to me.” Never is a long time, and is
frequently an inaccurate description.
This is a lesson that took me years to learn. I share it with
you because I believe it has value. You should heed it. Why? Because I said
so.
Oh, wait, that was something I was NEVER going to say…..
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