A Ding in the Universe

Ever remember the first time you put a ding in your new or thoroughly-used car, and specifically, your over-the-top reaction to that? I do. I recall thinking something absurd like, “I’m going to die a thousand deaths” or that I’d faint, my car would roll backwards over me and in an act of vehicular retribution I’d come back as a Used Car salesperson.

VPL

VPL is short for Very Penneylane. They’re my take on everyday lessons from life. Lessons learnt and others where I missed the boat completely. Life’s long or short, depending on which end of the paddle you draw. Either way, being stuck up a creek without one makes for some interesting observations.

About that Lesson

Seriously tho’, I live in Central Hawke’s Bay which is small by geospatial metadata standards. Roughly speaking, it just means we’re really small.

But where I live, on an ink-black night, there isn’t anywhere else in the world I’d rather be. I can see the stars all the way to eternity, I could watch them for that long too.

And it’s on nights like that when I get to wondering, if all I am, is a ding in the universe. A bit of an accident, fixed by cleaning then sanding where future rust might get in, mixing together some hardener-up truisms and filler good looks. Then waiting.

Waiting, until everything is bone dry, then more sandpaper treatment and when it’s smooth and even again, using primer as a last layer to fill in any remaining holes or irregularities. Finally, a dash of red lipstick, I mean paint and I’m good to go again.

When I look into the night sky here in Central Hawke’s Bay I stare into the great wonder that is the world around me: the skies above and the sea around, the hills between. And being a ding, somehow feels okay in the scheme of things. Small sure, insignificant no. A ding by no other name.

In the world of gaming, a ‘ding’ means you’ve ‘levelled up’, not the same as being levelled out by a backward moving runaway car. And of all the possibilities of being a ding in today’s world, ‘levelling up’ through how we think coupled with what we do, seems to me to be the surest way to becoming a ding of substance. In fact, a Big Bang possibility.

So come on, level up. I’m waiting for the next-big YOU!

© Gail Penney 2011 :: PREVIOUS BLOG POST: Real Transformers