You are perhaps wondering why you are reading a blog with a picture of a parking lot. There are two reasons tonight. The first is because I believe in seeing beauty in everything – even the light cast in the darkness of a parking lot, catching the glint of a stream of still puddles. The second is because parking has been a significant issue in the life of my darling daughter throughout her last two years of high school, since she’s been driving. Her school offers rather elitist parking alternatives. Either pay to park in the senior lot (but only if you’re a senior) or park along the 1.5 mile stretch of road alongside the school grounds, which are situated in the middle of a nice neighborhood. She’s a bit of a socialist (like me) and believes it’s wrong to have to pay to park in the lot of a school that you’re attending, and particularly unfair since not everyone has the financial means to do so. Which leaves her with free on-street parking. Needless to say, this free parking is only parallel parking (which even at my age is a nearly impossible challenge) and spots anywhere near the school fill up incredibly early. So for the past two years, I have received texts in the morning that say things like “I had to park in Nebraska and it will take me three hours to walk to class. Do I have to go to school today?” or “Everyone is stupid.” or “I. Can’t. Even.”
This image is not of that parking area. This image is of a spacious parking area that represents freedom and possibilities and how light can shine from the darkness, and that there are places where parking is not a struggle. In other words, today was my darling daughter’s last day of high school, and she will never again have to endure the frustration of parking along Greenbriar Boulevard. And she is to me a shining light that will brighten the future for more people than she will ever know.
Quote of the day: “My turn shall also come:
I sense the spreading of a wing.” — Osip Mandelstam
Daily gratitudes:
Dinner with Kelsea
That no one was hurt when a car hit my bus this morning
How much Mary Roach’s books make me laugh
Chats with Christine
That my Texas friends in Runaway Bay survived the tornado with minimal damage
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6 comments
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May 20, 2015 at 10:10 pm
slpmartin
You may have to warn her that “parking” is rarely free in this society…those who have the most money still get the best parking…even after high school…wait till she sees where freshmen have to park on campus.
May 20, 2015 at 10:14 pm
Seasweetie
Parking is such a big issue at the college she’s attending that she’s not taking her truck. Her truck (formerly my truck) has never liked the rain anyway, so I think it would be rather ornery in Washington State.
May 20, 2015 at 10:43 pm
slpmartin
Ah…then make sure she’s got good rain gear to walk in the cold rain and snow there…cheers!
May 20, 2015 at 10:47 pm
Seasweetie
We were just discussing umbrellas and Wellingtons over dinner….
May 21, 2015 at 12:09 pm
Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina
I hear that Washington is an Equal Opportunity Sogger state.
May 21, 2015 at 2:37 pm
Seasweetie
🙂