Getting back on track

We got a great card from my sister-in-law today.  (Warning!  Punnery ahead!) On the outside it says “Seasons Eatings!” and has a picture of a bird on top of a can of Bartlett pears.  Inside, it says, ‘Two turtle doves… and a partridge on a pear can.” My husband looked at the front of the card again, and said, “There’s a partridge sitting on a pan of cares.”  (That’s what the Capitol Steps call ‘whipping your flurds’.)

For the past few days, I’ve felt like I am carrying around a pan of cares. I am glum just because there’s too much to do, too many expectations to meet, too many papers to look at.  When I try to tackle one thing on my list I get distracted by something else on my list, and I go off track.

My husband has more reason to be glum, because he has had disappointing news about his grant application and his leg still hurts (although Doc has said he can stop using the crutches!  Yay!).  Someone told him that his leg will probably hurt for a year.  To his great credit, he is not one to mope around.  I’ve got the moping covered for him.

At the end of dinner, we had this conversation.

Husband: Today was the last day of my journal class.

(This is a class he teaches to the grad students. It consists of reading and learning from scientific journal articles.) 

Me:  What did you discuss today?  (I cross my fingers, and my legs, hoping that the topic wasn’t incontinence.)

Husband: One of the papers that a student selected was about fruit flies.  About how fruit fly larvae find… other fruit fly larvae!  And how do they do it?  They SEE the other larvae!

Me:  (doing an enraged dance around the kitchen) How did THAT topic get scientific funding, but yours doesn’t? 

Husband:  Well, then we discussed another paper which showed how proteins generated by the AIDS virus affect the brain.

Me:  Well, at least that seems pertinent to people’s lives.

Son:  Why isn’t ‘impertinent’ the opposite of ‘pertinent’?

See what I mean about getting off track?  Next thing you know, we’re off and running, that is to say, running off at the mouth, about the meaning of words. 

Tomorrow I am meeting with my Bible study pals.  This should get me back on track.  Because It’s Not About the Lists, is it?  It’s about kindness, and generosity, and God with us, and us with God.