The Parking Thief

Three people approached their car with all of their hiking gear in tow. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel in anticipation. Finally! We had found a spot on our 18th lap of the parking lot.

Something was wrong. One of the three people was empty-handed and standing off to the side. I rolled down the window to ask if they were about to leave.

“Yes”, the driver said before hesitating, “but this guy’s taking the spot.” He pointed to the empty-handed person.I looked around and didn’t see any other cars waiting. The car pulled out and the man stood in the spot with a smug grin.

There is no justice in this world. My injured childish sense of fairness threatened to boil over into a temper tantrum.

 Am I bad at parking? Should we just give up and go home? Should I too employ this morally gray tactic of reserving parking spots with my body?

Then, a spot opened up behind me. As I pulled in, a wave of relief hit me followed by the shame of getting so pessimistic.

Looking back now, I see that my emotional response was as useful as getting worked up over slot machines at a casino. Near misses are just an illusion and we shouldn’t expect a win based on the effort we’re putting in.

Sometimes the hardest thing of all is accepting that the only we can do is to stay the course and believe that good luck will eventually come our way.

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Quote of the Week

From The Rock Warrior’s Way by Arno Ilgner:

“If you find yourself becoming frustrated, take it as a symptom that you are out of alignment with your goals. If you want an easy success, find an easier climb. If you want a real challenge, you’ve found it.”

Emotions can be fuzzy indications of some aspect of a situation that we can’t quite put into words. Take discomfort as a sign that there’s something off between your expectations of a situation and your experience of it.