REFLECTIONS ON A LICENSE PLATE.

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"Sometimes life does not give us what we want.

It gives us what we are supposed to notice."

One afternoon in April, as I was sitting right here, at my computer, and while trying to put some deep reflections -or something like that- on the blank screen, I looked out the window to our driveway where our cars were parked. It was raining hard, one of those quasi-storms that every so often grace the days of late winter into early spring, and as I looked, my eyes witnessed the very moment when a big branch fell off our front lawn tree …

Right on top of my unsuspecting and trusting car.

As my eyes took in the full picture, and since there was really nothing I could do at that very moment, my brain -a bit slow to react to that totally unexpected situation- simply forced my face to look down, stare at what I had been writing, and continue it to its bitter (how’s that for an effect word!) end.

I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that the bureaucratic processes, and the minds that usually go well with these, tend to run on fixed tracks. A simple, straightforward insurance process dragged on and on for over a month. In the meantime, I had to buy a replacement car from a friendly small dealer to survive in this motorized world in which we live and function. Or, at least, try to. 

Administration is not the forte of this small, dedicated family business. Just good service, products, and good southern friendship. When the time came to put a license in my car, I told them that I would transfer my own, a Veteran’s License Plate. They were doing several things at the same time, and, in the end, my plate was erased from the system, as the car received a brand-new registration and its attached aluminum ID. 

Now … how’s all that for an intro to the license plate story? 

Fabulous, I know! 

I got home and, after much mental rejection had taken place, eventually took the time to put the new plate on, and my eyes caught the small legend just under the numbers, above the state name.   

It simply said: “IT IS BETTER TO BE THAN TO SEEM.” 

Short, insightful, clean, and to the point.

As years go by, I have become increasingly convinced that much of the world is dedicated to seeming. Seeming successful. Seeming intelligent. Seeming important. Seeming happy. Entire industries have been built around appearances, while substance often receives far less attention.

Yet, in the end, it is not appearances that carry us through difficult times. It is character. It is resilience. It is integrity. It is the quiet confidence that comes from knowing who we are when nobody is looking and when there is no audience to impress.

A fallen tree branch, an insurance claim, a replacement car, and a mistaken license plate are hardly the ingredients from which one expects to draw a life lesson. Yet there it was, sitting in plain sight, attached to the back of my newly acquired chariot.

A simple reminder that perhaps the most worthwhile goal is not to seem wiser, stronger, richer, or more accomplished than we are.

So, on reading that little message, I decided to shut up, accept my new plates, and get on with life.

To be.

And, of course, write about it.

Be well!

                          




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