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Ramblin' Roses and Flyin' Bricks December 5, 1956 Atalk I had with a man in Birmingham just a few weeks ago has started me to thinking, which is most unusual for me. This fellow was a successful business man and extremely popular with his employees and acquaintances. I was told that he had a charming family and that he had contributed much to the religious, social and economic life of his city. Yet the fellow was unhappy and he proceeded to narrate his many troubles. It's difficult to believe, I know, but there's something about my eyes that causes people to attempt to unload their troubles on me. I have eyes that look like two eggs fried on one side. What that's got to do with it I don't know, but it's the only thing I can figure out. Although I didn't take notes, here, in a nutshell, is about what he said: "In a few years I'll be an old man and I haven't had the fun in life I feel like I was entitled to have. I'm tired of the business I'm in but I'm too old and have too many obligations to try anything different. "My schedule is the same every day. I get up at the same time every morning and have the same thing for breakfast. I drive to work along the same route and see the same people doing the same thing. My employees greet me with the same set smile and the same cheery remark. At lunch downtown I'm served by the same waitress at the same table. She brings me coffee without consulting me and actually writes down my order before I give it to her. During my business hours I dictate practically the same kind of letters on the same subjects to the same people and when I get home in the evening my wife asks me how things went at the office. I'm sick and tired of it." Well sir, that man was, and he sure had a right to be. Since then I've been trying to figure out some way to help the poor fellow. What he's in is a rut. If you've ever driven over a country road in wet weather you know what a rut is. As long as you stay in it you'll make it, but it's generally mighty rough and monotonous driving. If you try to get out of the rut you might find the going easier but there is always the dangerous possibility that you might slide off in a ditch. Rather than take that gamble lots of people stay in the rut. Offers to Help It's probably too late for me to help my Birmingham friend, because I reckon he's blown his brains out by now but I might help somebody else whose brains have not been blown out. What that fellow should have done was to get out of the rut years ago. He might have slid into a ditch but somebody would have come along to push him out. They always have. Nobody has ever been permanently stuck in an automobile. With 'em maybe, but not in 'em. Suppose, for instance that man had slept late some mornings and then gone in to breakfast and his wife had served him the usual bacon, eggs, toast and coffee. Suppose he had pushed it back and said he wanted instead a moon pit and a tall orange drink. Even if he hadn't enjoyed his breakfast he would have enjoyed watching his wife's face. Then, taking a new route to the office, suppose he had stopped at a tavern and got likkered up and entered his office two hours late singing the Main Stein Song. I'll bet his employees would have been impressed, one way or another. At lunch he could have confused his waitress by ordering collard greens, frog legs and sassafras tea now. And, in the evening when he got home he could have told his wife what happened at the office. Every now and then I catch myself doing the same things, day after day, and I try to change up. I don't want people setting their clocks when I pass their house. I don't want my employees greeting me too cheerful like. I might be paying 'em too much.
The Bible doesn't exactly tell us, in so many words, to stay out of a rut, but over on page 673 it says that where there is no vision the people perish. That means we should look forward each day to something new or we'll wind up blowing our brains out.
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