Veterans of Experience

          Experience is the best teacher. You learn this when you get old and, well, we’re there.

          Do you remember the musical Fiddler on the Roof? There is a bit that does like this:

Our great men have left us words of wisdom to be used when hardship must be faced,

Life obliges us with hardship so the words of wisdom do not go to waste.

          Experience teaches us that no matter how completely you think you have everything under control, you don’t. It is human nature to have a few good weeks and arrive at the conclusion that through personal brilliance, a little luck and good, old-fashioned determination, you have finally gained full control of your life.

          That’s usually about the time a brick falls out of the sky and hits you square in the head. You then arrive at the conclusion that you probably should have planned for that contingency. After all, this could happen to anyone. Bricks are everywhere. Experience teaches us that, if we would only listen.

It doesn’t have to be a brick, of course. It could be lots and lots of hail stones, the kind that look like golf balls or baseballs. The kind of hail stones that fall out of the sky and hit the earth at an estimated 100 mph. If you haven’t seen it in person, you’ve probably seen this kind of stuff on TV.

          It’s the kind of hail that hammered the condo we are planning to buy in Ohio. Destroyed the siding on the outside of the condo and ruined the roof.

          And left all of our extraordinary planning flapping in the breeze like a white flag of surrender. Knocked us from HEEro to ZEEro.

          Will the HOA insurance company replace the roof or try to tell us the roof is fine? Will the roof be replaced before our scheduled move? Will the repairs be made before the next rain storm rolls in? Will a tarp be placed on the roof to protect the inside of the condo from leaks? Will we be hit with an assessment by the Home Owners Association for damages incurred before we bought the place? Will the bank allow us to close the deal before the repairs are completed?

          The simple answer is that we don’t know. We don’t know the answers to any of those questions. None of them. We are like Sergeant Shultz of the old Hogan’s Heroes TV show: We know nothing.

          So, Experience has re-taught a valuable lesson about life. It’s a lesson our parents tried to teach us and we tried to teach our kids.

          “Shut up,” Experience teaches us. “I’ll tell you when you do something right.”

          Thanks for reading.